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In case you were wondering, the Seahawks have announced the official dates and times for their preseason games, and they are as follows:
Sat., August 11th - 7:00 PM PT - vs. Titans
Sat., August 18th - 6:00 PM PT - at Denver
Fri., August 24th - 5:00 PM PT - at Chiefs
Thurs., August 30th - 7:00 PM PT - vs. Raiders
Nice lil' preseason docket, with Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker making a homecoming to Seattle that should be a lot of fun, to start things out. I'm personally really looking forward to that.
In terms of the importance of the rest of those games, well, the outcomes are pretty meaningless, but that doesn't mean there aren't things to watch closely. I was doing a little nerding out this morning while putting together a spreadsheet of the Seahawks' current roster, and when you take a look at each positional group, there are going to be some very, very interesting training camp and preseason battles for roster spots. As the roster depth and talent has improved, so too has the margin between 'starters' and 'backups' and coming to decisions on some players is going to be very hard for this front office.
A good problem to have.
The groups I'm really looking forward to seeing duke it out are the defensive backs and the receivers, in particular. Right now, the Seahawks have 14 defensive backs on their payroll - Brandon Browner, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Walter Thurmond, Marcus Trufant, Roy Lewis, Jeron Johnson, Chris Maragos, Byron Maxwell, Ron Parker, Phillip Adams, Jesse Hoffman, and Coye Francies. Of those, probably five are pure 'locks' to make the team - Browner, Chancellor, Thomas, Sherman, and Thurmond. Past that, veterans Trufant and Lewis will have to battle with the long list of youngsters, notably Maxwell, Johnson, Maragos, and Parker and the team is likely to keep about 9 or 10 of that group.
Add in any draft picks or rookie free agents and you're complicating the puzzle even more - and this is something that seems likely, with the way the team has been looking at and working out defensive backs thus far in the run up to the Draft.
On the offensive side, there are currently ten WRs under contract - Sidney Rice, Mike Williams, Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin, Kris Durham, Ben Obomanu, Deon Butler, Richardo Lockette, Charly Martin, and Isaiah Williams. Add to the mix any draft picks or UDFA - again, something that seems likely considering the great depth at the position this year - and it should be another great positional battle in the preseason.