Seahawks Training Camp Notes for Monday August 15th

On the eve of breaking training camp for the year, the Seattle Seahawks offense looked explosive with many big plays in practice.

The Seattle Seahawks took the field for training camp for the second-to-last time today. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the fans packed the berm like they always do.

Kam Chancellor sat out again, as did Kevin Smith. Mike Morgan wasn’t even in the state (more on that tomorrow). Cameron Marshall was nowhere to be seen. Stanley Jean-Baptiste had his arm in a sling. Everyone else appeared to be practicing.

The standout players today were Christine Michael, Tyler Lockett and Paul Richardson. If you want to know why, read the next two sections.

The theme of the day was big plays by the offense. Paul Richardson had a pair of very long TD catches in 7-on-7 drills (like over 60 yards). Tyler Lockett added another when Brandon Boykin threw deep on a post pattern to a double-covered Lockett. Lockett made a fabulous catch between the defenders for the score.

Anton Goodley caught a 30-ish yard TD from Jake Heaps. Kasen Willians had a couple of big catches as well. Throw in a few long runs from Christine Michael, and the big plays were more frequent than in past days.

Christine Michael’s speed was on display all day. They guy can fly in a way that no other back on the team can. Every time he took the ball it looked like he was going to take it too the house.

CJ Procise and Zac Brooks were back in action today. Procise looks like he needs a lot of work still before he’s ready to take ahold of the third-down back role. That is to be expected though, since today was his first real practice of training camp.

Thomas Rawls and Jimmy Graham continue to be worked back slowly. Both were out there in the early stages of practice, but had their helmets off by the time the team moved into 11-on-11 drills.

The short week this week means there’s only two practices and a walkthrough before Thursday’s game. That presents the Seahawks with an excuse to let the pair mostly sit for another week, and not push their recovery.

At this point, I don’t expect either to play a down during the preseason.

Jon Ryan is ridiculous. And by that, I mean ridiculously good at what he does. He was kicking from passed the 50 yard line at the start of camp, and dropping punts inside the five over and over again.

At one point, he hit three straight that bounced inside the three yard line, and not one of them bounced into the end zone. That is some amazing precision.

A bit of comic relief happened during Ryan’s punting session. Blitz, the Seahawks’ mascot, was out there trying to catch the punts. A few bounced off his hands (wings?), and one even bounced off his beak.

After 4-5 misses, Blitz finally caught one. He instantly broke up field and sprinted down the sideline to return the punt, even though Ryan and the long snapper were the only other players on the field.

When he hit the 50, Blitz pulled up as if he had pulled a hamstring. The entire sequence was hilarious, and provided some entertainment while the rest of the team was going through their stretching.

The backup QBs both played well today. The completely dreadful accuracy that Heaps showed at times in training camp didn’t make an appearance, so the receivers actually got some work in when he was throwing.

Next: Kenny Easley finally nominated for the Hall of Fame

Boykin was still the superior backup though. He’s got the superior arm and athleticism. After his experience in the game on Saturday, he looked really confident and in control out there this morning.