- Justin Forsett was more involved in pass drills than last season. Greg Knapp likes to run play-action and then pass to his running backs and his running backs should all be able to catch. Forsett was especially active out of shotgun formations. That foreshadows his early role with the team this season: third-down back. Force has good hands, and his redirect is clean, but his routes are elementary if not unrefined. So it was nice to seem him run a play-action out of shotgun and then curl into the flat. Expect to see that play in the season, and given his skill-set, it could be a winner for Seattle.
- Devin Moore attacks the edges. Seattle was attacking the edges a great deal in Monday's training camp. Moore is destined to start on Seattle's practice squad and if and when he ever breaks the roster, he looks exclusively like an edge and outside rusher. He broke an arm tackle in practice.
- John Carlson motioned out of split backs and to tight end.
- Aaron Curry ruled pass rush drills. He has great acceleration, size and pass rush technique. He will be a factor on blitzes if Seattle blitzes him both off the edge and between the tackles. It's the latter he looks potentially excellent at. In one drill, he ran past Owen Schmitt. Minutes later, the two collided with a resounding "crack".
- Seattle executed a successful screen pass to the right side. Expect Julius Jones to be regularly targeted on screen passes.
- Jordan Kent is two steps from being good. He has good hands and tracks the ball well. His athleticism is a given. He loses focus in traffic and can be knocked off his route. I hate to drop a noun that has connotations of manliness or the lack thereof, but Kent needs toughness. Kent needs to accept football is a hitting sport and thrive in it.
- Curry slapped around Forsett in pass rush drills. It exhilarated a very ugly part of the soul like a good medieval stoning.
- Heater looks like he can blitz. See if Seattle blitzes David Hawthorne on Saturday. Hawthorne is designated a middle linebacker, but I think he has the best skill-set to replace Leroy Hill in a pinch. He burst through the backfield on a run play and closed on Duckett, but it was a bad angle and even a man who relishes contact like Hawthorne can't take down a larger man with a step, angling the other direction. It would have taken a legendary arm-tackler like Rey Lewis to sink Duckett for a loss.
- The player that broke Kent's concentration in traffic? Kelly Jennings. I expect Jennings to start for Marcus Trufant for as long as Trufant is out.
- Michael Bumpus is the antipode of Jordan Kent.
- On back to back plays, Brandon Mebane tore through Rob Sims. On the second he completed a pincers attack with Darryl Tapp. Matt Hasselbeck was the unlucky recipient of both.
- Ben Obomanu came back to a pass that was otherwise in traffic. That's not a skill I've seen much from Obomanu and so it was encouraging.
- Jordan Babineaux sacked Seneca Wallace on a safety blitz. Seattle was frequently blitzed its DBs.
- That revealed Ray Willis's continued weakness against the edge rush. If only we had a young, skilled, developing and cheap tight end that could help chip edge rushers and minimize Willis' one damning weakness. Then Willis would be a two-ton, pneumatic clobbering machine. If only.
- Michael Bennett suddenly appeared and played football. Consistency is a term rightfully lampooned, but if we can unpin our grammar rodeo ribbons for a second, I think we all know what coach's mean contextually when they say "consistency". And that's a player that fights every snap.
- I saw Aaron Curry play end.
- Not much info on Max Unger, but Mebane bent him like wheat in the wind and then dropped him entirely. Unger, so polished, so good at football, is learning so many positions that he might be a bit slow getting up to speed.
- Darryl Tapp had the sweetest move of training camp. In team drills, he exploded towards Kyle Williams, got Williams backpedaling, then dropped his shoulders, did this freaky bob-weave, lulled Williams into a trance and exploded again through and past Williams for a sack. Let it be known now that if Seattle fails to re-sign Tapp, I will summon a plague on Renton's first born.
- Mr. Raw is likely Seattle's starting right guard. Mansfield Wrotto is raw like unfinished, and raw like, nasty, hardcore and sanguinary. He defused Craig Terrill's spin move and then effortlessly slid Terrill wide. If this is a sign of development as a pass protector - Oh and it is - Wrotto could be fulfilling the talent that got him drafted. Somewhere Darrell Jackson picks his foot-long goatee.
- Sims contained Mebane. Mebane was auditioning a spin move.
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Red Bryant doubled-over Mansfield Wrotto the wrong way. Wrotto is hugely powerful and has great leverage. Bryant is another species.
- Nick Reed put an inside move on Williams and slid past him. He also showed a good swim move. Unger matched skill with Reed and won.
- After practice and across the field I saw Derek Walker head down, two helmets in each hand, slumping towards the VMAC. Walker has been so impressive to me, but I don't think he is getting recognition from the coaches. So I said to Walker "stick with it, you're doing good out there." He looked surprised.
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