Relaxed 11th Seahawks practice at the VMAC on Tuesday

It felt like a nice summer day after a family barbecue at the VMAC today. The music blaring over the speakers as DJ Supa Sam mixing the one’s and two’s as a favor for a friend. Players wearing bucket hats, caps and dri-fit sweats. Family and friends look out to see who has bragging rights to this year’s annual BBQ football game. This is a day in the life of the Seahawks and fans.

No, this wasn’t the second-to-last player practice in front of the 12s, it couldn’t be.

A championship team would be in pads, doing ‘up-downs’ until the coach makes the players vomit in their body print on the turf.

This relaxed feeling after a tremendous win on Sunday is exactly coach Pete Carroll’s style of leadership. Although the ticket stub to get into the open practice read 11 AM, warm-ups began at about 10:25 AM.

Players playing loose, having fun and making plays. Today’s practice was like a Joe Dirt mullet, business in the front and party in the back. This is a new term I call “business party practice.” Yes, this was not only enjoyable for the guys, but for us 12s too.

Sure, there was at the occasional bloops that the players made. Such as WR Kenny Lawler dropping the ball on a punt return drill. Or the two fumbles – one on a Wilson/Britt exchange as well as RB Mike Davis getting the ball poked out in the backfield. The offensive line couldn’t get a hole open to save their lives against the stout defense for most of practice.

Unfortunately for one player, the poor (or at least inconsistent play) is still very glaring. Most people have OL Germain Ifedi locked into the starting RT position. Today, and at times on Sunday versus the Chargers, he just looked out of place. He wasn’t keeping his head on a swivel and was getting beat by Cliff Avril consistently today. Granted most OT are going to get beat by a Pro Bowl caliber player like Avril. Ifedi just doesn’t seem to get his feet and hips in the right spot on a consistent manner.

Overall, however, the practice was like a bbq party

Wilson extending his streak of great practices with precise passes to the sidelines. Only a few bombs left short for some of the more speedy wide receivers who had a step on the defensive backs.

The talk of the business party practice, however, was the stout and consistent play of OL Ethan Pocic. He played very well against the 1’s on defense at right guard and at right tackle. I tweeted out today that I think Pocic is this year’s version of a rookie Russell Wilson. Wilson was a high draft pick who was turning heads at training camp and giving the high priced or high draft pick players a run for their money.

Pocic squares his body really very well to take on the massive explosions put on by his All-Pro defensive end brethren. He keeps his head on a swivel and just looks like the ‘dirt bag’ player the Seahawks have been searching for since the dawn of the John Schneider/Carroll/Cable era. I predict he will be our starting RT or RG by the third game of the season.

Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor were running drills and moving sharply around VMAC field #2. Their health means the world to the Seahawks chances to getting to the Super Bowl. Their rookie counterparts of the LOB, Tedric Thompson (recovered using his speed to break up a play on the sideline) and Delano Hill (interception of Boykin today) also showed off their skills.

Tyler Lockett did not play on Sunday did practice. He was moving well in space.

Other Notes

If there is any concern going into this season about the leg of ‘old man’ Jon Ryan, be rest assured his kicking leg is just fine. On the last punt drills, the 12th-year-veteran boomed a punt from his own 10. An assistant special teams coach caught it at his own 10. Uh yeah, the old man can still boom it.

Rookie WR Amara Darboh used his speed and his 6’2″ frame to make a nice back shoulder catch in the corner of the end zone during one drill.

It was a great day at the business party bbq as about 20-plus of the guys stayed after and signed autographs for the 12s afterwards.

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Jimmy Graham did not practice as he was given his normal day off. Same could be said about Thomas Rawls, Frank Clark and Michael Wilhoite. All were present but did not practice.

Also, according to Brady Henderson, LB KJ Wright was out of town today to have a procedure on his knee “that’s been bothering him.”