Notes from the Nest: Seahawks mock game and some rookies are flashing

Week two of training camp brought out the best in some of the Seahawks rookies, especially at the cornerback position. Plus, quarterback Drew Lock impressed in the team’s mock game.

Seattle still has a lot to work out before Week 1 to find out several starting spots, however. Who will play right tackle? Who will be WR3? And, of course, who will play quarterback?

Or as the great coach John Madden said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.”

Notes from the Nest: Seahawks training camp week 2

• Glad to see Pete back at practice. COVID sucks, and I’m happy that Pete is ok and back to camp. This is as important of a training camp as any since Carroll took the job. These are important days and moments in assessing and developing the Seahawks young talent.
• Speaking of young talent, we continue to hear more and more positives about this rookie class. Senior NFL reporter Albert Breer recently visited Seahawks Training Camp and had some exciting takeaways from his visit. He gave glowing reviews to almost every player the Seahawks drafted.
  • Breer said Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen are pushing Artie Burns and Sidney Jones for starting cornerback spots.
  • Abe Lucas began taking first-team reps at the right tackle job, and doesn’t appear to be giving it up.
  • Boye Mafe and Kenneth Walker look special
  • To hear that Seattle may have potentially found five or more starters in this year’s rookie class can be looked at two ways. The glass half full view is that Seattle simply nailed a draft they needed to do well on. The glass-half-empty view is that the roster is in such bad shape, these rookies are looking good only in relation to what is currently on the roster.
  • I believe that there is a little bit of truth in both views, but I think Seattle absolutely nailed this draft on paper, and we still have to see them in real games, but the Seahawks may have found multiple blue chip stars in this draft. It can’t be understated how massive that could be for a quick return to contention.
• Secondary the strength of the team?
  • Through two weeks, it has become clear that the strength of this team will be the Seahawks secondary. Since the fall of the LOB, the safety play has been decent while the corners have been dreadful. This has made the financial commitment put into safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams questionable…until now.
  • Heading into the preseason, Seattle looks like they may have six starting quality DBs that are all plus players. Veterans Artie Burns, Sidney Jones, and Justin Coleman should help Seattle’s defense be improved for the first half of the season. By the end of the year, Seattle may have three young star corners ready to take over with Coby Bryant, Tariq Woolen, and Tre Brown.
  • Bryant has been the star of the camp, looking like the best player in practice almost every day. Tariq Woolen is giving “spooky” vibes to the offense as he’s physically imposing himself on the defense. Brown looked aggressive and fantastic before his injury.  If two of these hit, Seattle could have a dominant corner tandem on the cheap for half a decade.
  • This depth at the corner position should absolutely help Diggs and Adams excel at what they do best, and not have to help make up for the mistakes in front of them.
    I feel pretty confident we won’t see the worst defense in NFL history type of play from this new-look squad.
• Dee Eskrisdge
  • Where is he? Have you seen him?
  • Seattle sure looks like they wasted a valuable pick on an old wide receiver with a very limited set of skills and he can’t stay healthy.
  • Never forget the Seahawks passed on day one starter and top tier center Creed Humphrey for Eskridge. I sure hope Eskridge can’t get right by week one, Seattle needs him. I just can’t help but think of what could have been.
• Notes from the team scrimmage 
  • Albert Breer talked about the young offensive line looking good in pass protection, but fresh in the ground game. This was apparent as the ground game was nowhere to be seen in the scrimmage. This will improve as it is the foundation of the Seahawks offensive philosophy, but it needs to be great this year if Seattle wants to be a playoff contender.
  • The defense won the day. We’ve already talked about the defense a ton already, but it is so refreshing to hear good things about the defense.
  • Geno Smith was boring and conservative, not showing much flash.
  • Drew Lock showed some strong play, but continues to look up to Smith on the depth chart. It sounds like Lock was running a ton of RPO’s, and play-action plays with quick reads before scrambling. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does give off the vibe that Lock is playing in the Missouri offense rather than a sustainable NFL offense. If Lock does win the job, I’d like to see Seattle cater to his strengths.
  • Either way, the quarterback play looks more than likely to be terrible this season. That’s a bummer for the non-tanking crowd.
• A Jimmy G trade is unlikely 
  • The 49ers are going to hold on to him for as long as possible, and will likely end up cutting him at the last second if they can’t get anything in return. I expect Seattle to be in the discussions for signing Garappolo when the time comes, but they appear set for a 2011 type of season where they build a roster and complete it with their QB the following year.
  • This isn’t the worst idea, but if Seattle ends up being competitive in a weak NFC, you never know and I’d love to have Jimmy G as my QB over Smith and Lock.
• Looking ahead to the preseason opener 
  • How much time does each QB get? This will be interesting to see, especially since there’s only three preseason games. I expect Geno to win this job in the next two weeks, but this is a major chance for Lock if he gets the minutes.
  • What do the Seahawks have with Noah Fant? A huge part of the Russell Wilson trade, we’ve heard very little from the talented tight end. Hopefully that changes for the better shortly.
  • How does Jason Myers perform? This may mean very little in the big picture of the Seahawks future sucess, but it’d be great to have a competent kicker this season. If Seattle is in the playoff hunt this season, Myers being a good kicker again would sure help.

• We got football this week!
• Go Hawks!