This is a guest article by Curtis Allen…
Today was Jadarian Price Day at Seahawks’ camp.
The rookie was all over the place. Yesterday, he mostly split starter reps with George Holani and had a sprinkling of reps with the twos and threes. Today? He took reps with all three units and got plenty of touches, whether in drills or scrimmages.
It feels like yesterday was a warmup, a precursor to opening things up even more. It was as if seeing how he handled a few key reps yesterday allowed Brian Fluery to expand Price’s use. Sometimes teams go from drips and drabs to turning the tap on full blast to see how a rookie handles it. In regular season games, things move quickly. On a play where you get a run for five yards, you get ten seconds to get up and celebrate, then it is back to the huddle and you need to focus on your assignment for the next play.
He handled them fantastically. He displayed good hands and an ability to quickly secure the ball and focus on juking the incoming defender. I can see a play like this regularly threatening a defense that is stretched too thin by trying to keep a lid on the receivers and tight ends while still defending the run.
Now, I am not saying Price is going to be the next Jahmyr Gibbs. However, he has that same ability to hit the brakes and stop on a dime and let defenders fly past and then accelerate back up to top speed in two or three steps.
On one play, Jalen Milroe threw to the ball to his feet and Price showed great hands to go down and keep the ball from hitting the turf. It was not a novice-level catch.
Today reminded me of AJ Barner and before him Will Dissly in this sense: Just because he did not catch the ball much in college, that does not mean he cannot do it and is starting from scratch with the skill.
Kenneth Walker often split out and ran routes in order to offer that skillset but also to discern what the defense was doing before the snap. Price is showing us in real time that he too has that club in his bag.
This Roster Is Very Deep
Today was a very interesting day in regards to how Mike Macdonald and the team deployed their players in drills and scrimmages. It was very “mix and match” between the ones, twos and threes rather than the more traditional units all working together. He also shook up the matchups. The ones on offense played the twos on defense, and vice versa. It was fascinating to watch and highlighted to me how deep this team is.
There were some basic constructs that featured the same crews (the starting OL, Darnold and Kupp and JSN) at times. But frequently the units got some players from other units to play alongside them. Jaxon Smith-Njigba playing with the twos and taking passes from Drew Lock with Julian Neal covering him. Rylie Mills playing with the ones as a big, physical edge-setter on the right side of the line. Eric Saubert lined up at times with the ones. That sort of thing.
You could see the depth the team has unfolding in real time. It is not hard to look at a roster on paper and see a team that is deep. Seeing it on the field is a real experience that embeds the point even deeper.
Julian Neal worked on Jaxon Smith-Njigba and timed up a pass breakup perfectly. JSN had turned his body and presented a target to the Quarterback and Neal was closing from behind, being shielded by JSN’s body. He arrived with terrific timing, got his arms around the receiver and batted the pass away.
Mills came in and set the edge on a run play, not allowing Charles Cross to win the engagement. The run was forced back inside and had very little gain.
If this keeps developing, it is not out of line to visualize a team so deep, they can spread snaps around to keep everyone fresh. Particularly on the Defensive Line.
For instance, if Mills can pick up that role as a big Defensive End who can set the edge, it is not hard to imagine a series with Derick Hall, Brandon Pili and Mills on the line, supplemented by Uchenna Nwosu in a free-standing role. Maybe Mike Morris coming in to line up inside too. Try running the ball on that lineup.
Just imagine that. While those guys are in, standing on the sideline getting game rest are DeMarcus Lawrence, Jarran Reed, Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy and Donte Fowler.
And then imagine the mad scientist Mike Macdonald having all of those guys as reliable pieces he can mix and match with game by game, even series by series.
The possibilities are tantalizing.
However, it also means something else: cutdown day is going to be rough. There are players we know could make the roster and contribute that will be caught in a numbers game. There will be ones who we hold our breath to see if another team claims them, or if the Seahawks can put them on the Practice Squad and can keep grooming them.
Camp Notes & Observations
— Nick Vannett did not waste any time getting into the groove of things. He looked good in drills and caught a bullet slant pass with ease.
— Play of the day, offense: Cooper Kupp with a beauty of a catch. He does not need to be the focal point of the offense. If he can keep making catches like this, it keeps the offense on the field and gives all the other weapons reps and chances to have impact.
— Play of the day, defense: Patrick O’Connell had a beauty of an interception of Sam Darnold. He had dropped in coverage and Darnold tried looping the ball over him and dropping it in to the receiver crossing behind him. O’Connell high-pointed the ball and snared it with his fingertips.
— The twos had Julian Neal and Noah Igbinoghene as the outside corners. Shemar Jean-Charles occasionally stepped in and lined up in a nickel-box safety look.
— I said yesterday that the chemistry between Darnold and Shaheed was apparent. Here is today’s example. Darnold lofted the ball perfectly over Josh Jobe right into Shaheed’s hand for the score. A moment of comedy after: the crowd cheered heartily and Julian Love, right nearby, tried to shush the crowd… sort of jokingly signing ‘it wasn’t that good’
— Jalen Milroe had an interesting day. He had several good throws, nicely on point. A couple quick slants that needed his arm and touch were delivered just right. He had a play or two where time was running out and he needed to get rid of the ball. He found an open receiver in the middle of the field and with a mere flick of his wrist delivered a bullet. He also had a ‘fake pitch left and circle back to the right’ option run where he turned on the jets and just glided through the defense for a big gain. And again, he had no catastrophically bad plays. He had a couple of plays where he waited too long to make a decision. Not great, but I do think he has broken the tendency to run if his first read is not there. Progress. I very much hope he builds on today’s work, because he might have started to turn a corner.
— Speaking of bad throws… you might remember my description of an infamous Drew Lock throw across the side of the field in 2022 camp, a throw I described as ‘the worst throw off the worst decision I’d ever seen a pro QB make.’ Brock Huard and Pete Carroll used similar language when they talked about it. Lock did it again today. He was drifting to his left and saw a receiver open near the right sideline. He lofted a pass all the way across the field. It was caught but for not much gain. I had a bit of a visceral, guttural reaction that was pure instinct. I shouted “no, no, no, no! You can’t make that throw!” Everyone around me reacted to the brute force of my tone. I was not embarrassed. I promise you Mike Macdonald and Brian Fleury talked to Lock after practice.
— Yesterday I observed that I thought Tory Horton was easing in a bit in practice. He seemed to take a baby step forward today. He has a full range of motion but is not quite cutting himself lose with this explosiveness and change of direction. He still was taking punts and running routes, a good sign.
