Winners and losers from the first week of Seahawks training camp

The Seattle Seahawks are a bit over a week into 2024 training camp and some things are already becoming clear. That's good as the team's first preseason game is a bit over a week away. Roster cuts occur on August 27.

There are some injury concerns, though. Defensive lineman (or new edge rusher) Dre'Mont Jones has missed several days with a hamstring injury. He should be fine eventually, but he is missing key practice reps in a new defensive system.

Right tackle Abe Lucas has not yet practiced and it just feels like he isn't going to be back soon. Even if he is, he has to work his way back into football shape. George Fant should be penciled into starting in Week 1.

Winners and losers from the first week of Seattle Seahawks training camp

Winner: Geno Smith

There will always be some fans who want a starter replaced, and this is especially true if the player happens to be the quarterback. QBs get a lot of glory - whether they deserve it or not - and they also get a lot of the blame (again, whether they deserve it or not). Smith has been a top-half-of-the-league quarterback in the last two seasons, and the statistics back that up as far as total QBR, but some will never be happy with him.

At least what is best for the team seems to have happened entering training camp. Smith clearly did his studying of new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb's playbook and Smith appeared to have a full grasp of it. He was directing other offensive players what to do and then he was extremely accurate with his throws.

Only after one week, there is obviously no quarterback controversy for the Seahawks as Smith is QB1 and Sam Howell is QB2. That is a good thing for the team based on how Smith has looked in camp so far.

Loser: Sam Howell

Speaking of Howell, if he was hoping to create a quarterback battle, he failed miserably in the opening days of camp. Sure, he was playing with the second-teamers, but many times even for open receivers his throws were well off the mark and were either intercepted or not close to being completions. The greater concern now is not whether Howell will beat out Smith but how good Howell would be if he needed to play real snaps.

There has been some improvement over the last couple of practices, but Howell still is nowhere near Smith's quality. The scary part was that for a few days early in training camp, QB3 PJ Walker appeared to be a better fit in the offense than Howell did.

Winner: Jake Bobo

Jake Bobo will likely never shake the 40-time he had prior to the 2023 NFL draft. That was enough to have him go undrafted out of UCLA even though he was quite productive in college. Thankfully, Seattle signed Bobo as an undrafted free agent and he was great in the dirty parts of the game in 2023. He was an elite blocker and he showed he had excellent hands when targeted with passes.

One problem Bobo might have had this training camp is that the Seahawks might have wanted to go with speedier receivers who can help with kickoff returns as well. This is one reason Seattle signed Laviska Shenault this offseason. Bobo is not going to help with kickoff returns.

For the second straight training camp, however, Bobo has proved to the coaching staff that he can run crisp routes, catch nearly any pass thrown his way, and he can make tough catches in traffic. He might even be a more important red-zone target this season.

Loser: Nick Harris

Harris was battling to be Olu Oluwatimi's backup at center this season, but he has been fairly awful in drills so far. He is also not helped by the fact that the Seahawks might sign Connor Williams at any point soon. Harris has a lack of positional flexibility so if he can't make it on the roster as a center, he probably won't make the team at all.

In one embarrassing drill, Harris was absolutely run over by first-round draft pick Byron Murphy. Murphy is good, of course, but Harris should be a smart enough veteran to hold his own against a young player. Instead, Harris looked like a high school player.

Winner: Byron Murphy II

Speaking of Murphy, he has been everything Seattle hoped he would be when he was chosen in the 2024 NFL draft. He is quick and strong and seems to react without thinking in his new defensive scheme. Is he going to get 10 sacks this year? Probably not, but as good as he has looked already, he could easily exceed his rookie-year expectations.

Murphy also looks Week 1 ready and should be more of an every-down player than Jarran Reed. At this point, in Seattle's base 3-4 front, the team will likely go with Leonard Williams, Murphy, and Jones (assuming he can come back from injury).

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