This is a guest post by Curtis Allen

The impressive nature of this rookie coaching staff holding effective and efficient practice sessions continues. Already in the team’s fourth camp practice session you can see them settling into a solid routine, comfortable with what is being asked of them and executing rather well through drills and scrimmages.

The team started drills working on the new kickoff rule. They are rotating several returners, giving Tre Brown, Laviska Shenault, Dee Eskridge and Dee Williams nearly equal amounts of reps. Also, Chris McIntosh, Nehemiah Pritchett, Marcus Simms and Easop Winston were first on the field and were getting some pre-practice work in taking kicks as well.

At one point Brown and Shenault were lined up to take the kick and it was right between them. Each thought the other would get it and ran to block and the ball rolled into the end zone. Now is the time to get these kinds of issues worked out.

The front lines on kickoffs got plenty of work. They practiced the blockers retreating and then lining up to block coverage men, with specific techniques to make sure they got a hat on a hat and opened holes.

Geno Smith Still the Unchallenged Starter at Quarterback

Sam Howell is still a distant second to Geno Smith on the depth chart. He looked very good in warmups, throwing with much more accuracy and determination, just like Smith. Scrimmage was a different picture though.

Howell had several nice throws – he appears to have developed nice chemistry with Easop Winston – but was not as consistently accurate as Smith and did not handle pressure well. In a Red Zone drill Howell overthrew a receiver on one play and on another threw an interception that did not stem from a particularly good choice of target.

Meanwhile, Smith has full control of this offense. He rarely had a misfire and in four Red Zone plays scored on all four, including a beauty to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that rainbowed over two defenders (one of them Devon Witherspoon) in the corner.

Today Smith particularly targeted D.K. Metcalf quite a bit. He looked for him often and did not hesitate to throw his direction, even if he was covered (which he often was — more on that in a minute).

At this phase of the preseason, Smith has no trouble executing the offense that Ryan Grubb has put in place. The picture is obviously incomplete, with the running game largely untested and the pass rush unable to sack the quarterback. Yet Smith has shown nothing to suggest he is struggling to grasp what the coaching staff is asking of him.

Tre Brown Having a Strong Camp

The Seahawks have run out Brown and Woolen as the starters at outside Cornerback thus far and Brown has been consistently delivering excellent play. The good qualities we have occasionally seen in Brown in past seasons have been on full display — toughness and physicality despite a smaller frame and a burst and change of direction in coverage that makes him a challenge for just about any wide receiver he will face.

Brown and Metcalf have had some great battles so far and Brown is holding his own. He again forced an incompletion by hand fighting for the ball. Smith threw a great, accurate pass and Metcalf got two hands on it — but Brown never gave up on the play and pried it loose.

Granted Metcalf has had some spectacular catches in camp (including a casual one-handed touchdown on a 40-yard corner throw by Smith today) but Brown has not made a single one of them easy. He has made Metcalf work for his success – a great way to prepare for the rigours of the upcoming season.

Mike Macdonald has his Kyle Hamilton in Devon Witherspoon. Is it possible he has found his Marlon Humphrey in Brown?

Young Offensive Line Makes the Early-Season Plan Clear

This line with a new coaching system is clearly going to take time to gel and solidify as a unit. An injury to Abe Lucas (who was on the sidelines today but not suited up), uncertainty at all three interior positions and the need for Charles Cross to take a big step forward this season all point to not expecting this unit to be effective right out of the gate being the wisest path.

It is not hard to see in scrimmages against the top defense. When Geno Smith has plays where he takes a shotgun snap and makes his throw within 2-2.5 seconds, it is a thing of beauty. The Seahawks have a plurality of weapons and on any given play a top weapon is going to be covered by the opposing team’s fourth-best coverage defender.

However, even in scrimmage, where defenders can rush and surround Smith but not lay a hand on him – let alone sack him – if Smith has to go to his third read and that 2.5 second window has expired, he is surrounded by defenders. In practice, he can spin out past standing defenders and run or make a throw on the run. In games, no such luck.

The obvious course of action the offense needs to take is to design their offense in the early going to be a rhythm offense. They need to instruct Smith that if his first and second reads are not there, to either scramble out of the pocket or run. He had a nice touchdown run today in a Red Zone drill, not liking any of his targets and decisively taking off through the opening in the middle of the field.

That is exactly what they need from Smith in the early going.
If there is one thing they need to take away from the Pete Carroll/Shane Waldron offense, it is to design plays to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible and do not push Smith to constantly have to overcome an offensive line that is lacking cohesiveness.

Camp Notes

– Today appeared to be a rest/lighter day for several players. Tyler Lockett, Jerome Baker, Boye Mafe, Leonard Williams and Tyrel Dodson were dressed but did not have all that many scrimmage reps. John Rhattigan and Tyrice Knight played with the top defense mostly.

– The top offense tried a trick play and it was disastrously ugly. It was a swing pass in the flat to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and he positioned the ball in his hands for a throw and hesitated twice, then threw back into the middle of the field, right into a defender’s waiting hands. No idea what anyone was thinking on that one.

– We are going to keep hearing ‘versatility’ as a watch-word under Mike Macdonald. The four main outside linebackers lined up on both sides of the line more than once. Except for Daryl Taylor. He lined up at his familiar LDE spot. However — Hall, Nwosu and Mafe freely rotated sides. Imagine the pass rushers able to line up on both sides, the interior players able to rotate into multiple different gaps and not knowing which safety is staying in the box and which is covering deep. This is a key feature of a Macdonald defense and it is being implemented in Seattle.