4 Seahawks to watch in preseason game 1 against the Raiders
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks play their first preseason game of 2021 on Saturday against those evil Raiders. The game doesn’t truly count, of course, but it’s always fun to beat Oakland or Los Angeles or Las Vegas or wherever they happen to call home now. And if Seattle loses, we can just chalk it up to the preseason.
One good thing about watching preseason games is that a fan can just relax and watch how the rosters of their favorite teams are going to unfold. Backups get most of the reps and these players are hungry to show what they can do.
So which players should 12s keep an eye on in Saturday’s game. Maybe the following four.
Four Seahawks to watch in 2021 preseason game one
Player to watch number four: Sean Mannion
Russell Wilson isn’t going to play much, if he does at all, against the Raiders. Probably he will start the first series because it would be helpful for Wilson to get some reps in against players who aren’t wearing a Seattle uniform before the real season starts.
This means backups Geno Smith and Sean Mannion will see most of the reps at quarterback. My assumption would be we see Mannion a lot more than Smith. Seattle basically knows what they get with Smith and that isn’t a bad thing. He’s a good NFL backup.
But Mannion, the former Oregon State quarterback who has bounced around the NFL a bit, could be fun to watch as well. Mannion might also be a good fit in Shane Waldron as his skills would seem to translate to Waldron’s up-tempo style and Mannion played with the Rams in 2017 and 2018 while Waldron was there.
There is a reason Mannion hasn’t stuck with an NFL team long, he hasn’t been good enough. But maybe Waldron’s system will be the right fit for him.