FanPost

Practice? We're talking about practice?!? Training camp day 1

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

I went to Seahawks training camp today with a few friends, and these are my notes. As usual, practice started out with warm ups and stretching, moved on to position drills (where in contrast to last year, offense and defense mixed quite a bit), and then moved on to 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 plays.

QB

Russell Wilson - hair tight on the sides with just a bit of length on the top giving him a bit of a mid top half fade look. God it'd be sweet if he went full bore high top fade. Anyway, he looked like "The Man." Precise footwork, accurate throws, decisive...errrr... decisions.

Tarvaris Jackson - clearly rated as the #2 QB in camp. His indecision showed quite a bit. Was accurate when he did throw. He again confirms that he is a "see it throw it" QB.

Terrelle Pryor - obvious #3 on the depth chart. Bigger than Kam Chancellor (crazy, right?). Quicker decisions than Jackson, quicker on his feet than Jackson. Didn't pay enough attention to get an idea of footwork or accuracy.

RB

Marshawn Lynch was not seen.

Robert Turbin - ran with his hips lower than I remember, but nowhere as low as Michael. Made some great cuts. Had one play where penetration made him choose to get to the edge instead of take the ball up the middle - wrong decision. Take the yards.

Christine Michael - his athleticism was apparent. I like how he carries the ball, high and tight; he seems to have a good awareness of when someone is going to strip or punch out from behind and without looking back was turning his torso to protect the ball from the swipe. He runs with controlled speed, so he wasn't outrunning much of the defense, but you could tell if the opportunity was there, he could have trucked the defender, cut hard to open field, or accelerated to the sideline for a few extra yards.

Spencer Ware - had one impressive run, zone right, with a hard cutback behind the LT. It looked like a Lynch cutback, and his open field moves were pretty good. Didn't notice him otherwise.

Derrick Coleman - had a good catch in 7 on 7, a little flare, and his acceleration looked great.

Small - is not.

WR

Doug Baldwin - he is so frickin' good. There was a play in 11-on-11 where he lined up wide left against Byron Maxwell with Earl Thomas in deep coverage. At the snap of the ball, Baldwin easily eluded Maxwell and already had 2 yards of vertical separation when he was only 5 yards past the LOS. It was just amazingly quick. Wilson hit him perfectly about 25-30 yards downfield just outside the redline, and Baldwin OUTRAN Earl Thomas to the endzone. I am sure there will be a bit of trash talking for the next week. Baldwin is really on his way to being a superstar. Wilson's familiarity with Baldwin really shows with ball placement and accuracy.

Percy Harvin - was catching balls from the QBs while the rest of the WRs were doing special teams and a few position drills. What is there to say? He moves at a different speed than Seahawks fans are used to.

Jermaine Kearse - A couple nondescript catches in traffic during no contact drills.

Paul Richardson - Pretty fast, but didn't strike me as blazing. He was, however, the only WR that I saw Wilson underthrow, so maybe he's just deceptive. There was one play where he lined up on Sherman who was in press position. He avoided the chuck, and Sherman latched onto his hip with his left arm; almost instantly Richardson chopped it off with his forearm - nice. Anyone who has a Richardson fetish should check out these two articles by Matt Waldman (who is a phenomenal talent evaluator and probably watches as much film as any analyst or professional scout): Article 1. Article 2.

Kevin Norwood - it's really hard to tell it's not Tate wearing #81. Without much evidence, I think his route running is as polished as Tate's was last year. He attacks the ball in the air with his hands like Tate did. On one catch, he showed great sideline awareness for the two foot tap required in the pros, but not college. Obviously Tate had something special after the catch, I doubt Norwood does.

Phil Bates - Looked big, fast, smooth, and polished. Powerful. I was surprised. He's got more than a snowball's chance in hell, for sure.

Ricardo Lockette - Looked big, fast, smooth, and polished. Powerful. Not really surprised, because two years ago I really thought he could get here. His two long catches in 2011 showed the ability to run a deep route and catch a ball through excessive contact.

Chris Matthews - if he was only judged on how he performed today, he'd be cut. Dropped three passes that were right in his breadbox.

The rest - Clark, Gilbreath, Walters, Price, etc... Walters looks soooo polished, I just don't see how he beats out any of the first 6. I just don't see any of the rest ever breaking onto an NFL roster.

TE

No significant comments.

OL

Russell Okung - was present, mentoring a few of the really deep depth players (guy named Isles?). No walking boot. Cannot say I saw him blocking anywhere, but can't say he wasn't

James Carpenter - dude is big. Absolutely the biggest dude on the field. Braces on both knees. Significantly slower footspeed than the rest of the starting-5 and wasn't getting deep knee bend (likely in part from braces) during stretching. Didn't pay attention to his blocking.

Max Unger - nothing to say

J.R. Sweezy - clearly the most flexible/athletic of our OL. Didn't see him blocking. I am a huge Sweezy fan boy and think he has a chance to get 1st or 2nd team All Pro this season.

Justin Britt - he looks the part of an LT when he was warming up. Looks longer/more agile/less bulky than your typical RT. I wonder if he's an Okung replacement plan.

Alvin Bailey - strong, decent feet

Rest of OL - Isles was repeatedly beat in 1 on 1 rush drills. Can't really say much about the rest.

DL

Benson Mayowa - fast, great moves, he's almost certainly gonna stick

Brandon Mebane - had one amazing bull rush in 1 on 1s, just went straight into the 'QB' like the OG wasn't even there (couldn't see the OL jersey number, as I was laughing ginger beer through my nose).

Greg Scruggs - didn't look explosive

Williams - was active in 1 on 1 drills. yay!

Bruce Irvin - present, short hair, inactive, no limp

Rest of DL - didn't pay attention

LB

K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner were facing off in a positional quickness drill and KJ won. Wagner shoved him from behind (sore loser. or disappointed competitor?)

KPL - in the same drill (two players run outside around adjacent 8 yard circles and tackle a dummy), KPL came around the edge and he and his competition ran into each other. KPL was on his feet and 5 yards away tackling the dummy in a flash, while his competitor was still untangling his legs. One of the most impressive things about Willis and Bowman is how quickly they recover if they are knocked down - looks like KPL has that skill.

Rest of LB - didn't pay much attention.

DB

Earl Thomas - outrun by Doug Baldwin. Shame on you Earl.

Richard Sherman - tipped a TD pass away from Matthews.

Kam Chancellor - present, inactive, no limp, throwing the ball around a bit, catching the ball outside the bounds of the drills.

Rest of DBs - didn't pay attention

ST

Punt returner - saw Harvin, Thomas, Sherman, Adams, Bailey, and Walters catching (and dropping) punts.

Ryan - is as big as most of the LBs.

Steven Hauschka - didn't know this until today, but apparently lots of moderately hot middle aged Eastside wives crush on Hauschka.

Gresham - best job in the world.