In part 1 I talked about the offensive guys and for the most part I kind of hung out by where they were doing 7-on-7 drills and a little 11-on-11. A lot of it was receivers on corners in one-on-one matchups so that was what ended up in my notes for the most part. I talked about the receivers in the last piece but I also got to watch some of the corners do their thing as well.
As a lot of people are probably wondering, Brandon Browner looked pretty good. He was running with the first team yesterday, but it should be noted that Walter Thurmond was standing on the sideline, apparently recovering from a sprained ankle he suffered on Sunday. Regardless, Browner looks the part. He's big -- I think Big Mike Williams mentioned it last night on a radio interview and said something along the lines of "Dude's damn near my size." And that's saying something when you're talking about a corner.
He's 6'4, 220 but he's not the thick type. He looks long and lean but also powerful. He lined up on the side of the field I was on so I got a pretty decent look at him. The first thing you will notice is that he's physical. He got a flag or two thrown on him for being a little too handsy past five yards, but that's the kind of thing you can iron out. He's strong at the line of scrimmage -- he knocked a few guys off their routes and threw off their timing a few times as well.
He wasn't perfect - I distinctly remember Doug Baldwin running a deep drag where Browner was trailing but bit on the corner route headfake and was toast over the middle. In the real world that's why you've got the safety, but my point is more that I don't want to talk him up too much. He got beat now and again but overall I came away fairly impressed.
Marcus Trufant looked good as well. He just plays savvy. If he can stay healthy I still think he's got the skills and wiles to be a very good cornerback in this league so here's to hoping he'll get lucky this year, health-wise.
Byron Maxwell looks big. He wears #41 so when I see him I think he's a safety or something but then you see him running out onto the wing and playing the receivers. He's another guy that's physical at the line but raw in coverage. All these guys are a lot quicker in person than they seem on TV though, I'll say that much.
I didn't get a chance to see Richard Sherman too much. Kennard Cox was on my side but didn't do anything really that noteworthy. I do remember him breaking up a pass that got some hoots from the crowd but that's about as much detail as I can remember.
Linebackers:
Malcolm Smith looks the part of a weakside linebacker. As noted elsewhere, he was running with the first team yesterday and he looks bigger than the 225 he's listed at. He's got a little size and thickness to him that makes you think he could work there.
Blake Sorensen got a lot of snaps. It's kind of tough to really tell how the linebackers are playing when you're watching touch football, but he looked pretty natural out there. I didn't notice egregious mistakes or much hesitation from him, so that has to be a positive.
Defensive Ends:
This was where it got interesting. Jameson Konz made the switch to the white jerseys of the defense yesterday and was getting reps as a Leo end. Chris Clemons was shadowing him and chirping in his ear the entire time -- presumably helping out with alignments and formation reactions. He's got a lot of quickness to him but I don't think it's a position you'll pick up immediately. You can tell he's got the explosiveness to rush the edge but he'll need to take on blocks better to have success.
He didn't do anything super remarkable that I saw -- I'd note he did get tossed to the ground rather rag-dolly by an offensive tackle on one play (sorry - didn't note which tackle it was, I want to say Breno Giacomini was the victimizer). He was out of position badly on a reverse run by the offense on another but to be honest the play was run perfectly and it was very hard to tell who had the ball for a minute there.
It's fun to watch because I'm a Konz fan (for whatever reason), and would love to see him catch on somewhere. I'm with Thomas in that two-way players are intriguing so if he could prove himself useful on both sides of the ball he'd have a better chance of making the roster. If I had to guess I'd say a 6'3, 240 pound guy won't catch on at that position but I suppose weirder things have happened? Perhaps they have him in mind for very specific packages -- he does kind of fit the mold as a tweener linebacker/safety/defensive end type that could come onto the field in the Bandit. Konz played linebacker in college so it's not that far fetched.
Christian Caple of the PI caught up with the Seahawks' FB/DE/TE/Athlete after practice and Konz had this to say: "They didn't necessarily move me to D-end, but we have a few guys banged up and we wanted to have somebody take their spot, so I jumped over for a bit,"
"Like I said from the beginning, wherever the team has a need or they need somebody to take that spot, I'll do it. Doesn't matter what my role is, as long as I can contribute to winning."
Caple notes that Konz still believes that he'll be competing at tight end but he really doesn't know what the coaches plan to do with him. This is pretty much in line with what I noted earlier in the offseason-- a source indicated that Konz was still pretty unsure as to what position he'll be playing and though that seems to be a disadvantage in his ability to prepare, the mere fact that he can play multiple positions makes him more valuable.
Moving on -- I noticed Red Bryant shadowing Pierre Allen and AJ Schable, coaching them up, I would presume, at the 5tech spot. Allen took a few snaps at that position but I also noticed Allen and Schable on the field together for a few snaps so they could have been running some different alignments to see how players would react.
I didn't get a chance to watch the safeties a whole lot, but I did notice an interesting combination for a few early snaps where Cam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, and Mark LeGree were on the field together in a nickel package where Chancellor was deep middle, and Thomas and LeGree where manned up against the slot receivers on their respective sides. Not super notable or earth shattering, but that's a fun combination of playmakers to see on the field at the same time. I'll try and watch this position group more today.
Anyway, that's all I got for right now. I'll make sure to take a shitload of notes again today (check me out on Twitter for live updates from 1:30 to 3:30pm) and will try and have something for you in the morning tomorrow.
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