• Many a Seahawks fan clamored for Seattle to draft Josh Beekman. Beekmen, a decorated lineman out of Boston College, fell to the fourth because of concerns about his size. Just 6'105, and without compensating tools, those concerns were not without merit. On the very first play of the game, combo blocking with Olin Kreutz, Beekman toppled Brandon Mebane with a vicious blindside block.
• Next play, 2^nd and 6 on the Chicago 24. Bears break in a 3 WR, TE, Rb formation. Seahawks in a base 4-3. The Seahawks rush 5 on a zone blitz. Lofa Tatupu, showing exciting improvement as a blitzer - the logical next step after last season's gains shedding blockers - explodes down the right "A" gap and forces a panic throw by Rex Grossman. As far as panic throws by Grossman go, this one was surprisingly accurate, and doubly-surprisingly to an undermatched target. Earl Bennett against a defensive end is an exploitable misma - no. Lawrence Jackson blocks out Bennett and records his first of two good coverages.
• Seattle cashed-in on the next play, as the Troika, LeRoy Hill, Julian Peterson and Tatupu, convened for a sack. Hill, somehow, received sole credit, but by the time he arrived for the wipeout hit, Tatupu and Peterson had already corralled Grossman and Sex Cannon was in a standing fetal position. In that sense, Hill deserves the least credit.
• For those scoring at home, Steve Vallos blew the block that led to Charlie Frye's first sack.
• A little field leadership by Deon Grant: On Chicago's third play of their first drive, Grant adjusted Atkins, hitting him on the left hip and directing him to slide out wider right. It didn't have a direct result on the play, but Atkins did achieve better edge rush and that rush opened a pass rush lane at the right "B" gap.
• Two plays later, 2^nd and 3 on the Chicago 34. Bears break in a 2 WR, TE, Hb, Rb formation. Seattle in a base 4-3. Jackson dominates Chicago's left side offensive line, ultimately drawing a triple team. Darryl Tapp exploits the attention, abusing John Tait, flying around the edge and forcing an incomplete.
• Next play, now third down. Bears 3 WR, TE, Rb. Seattle in nickel. Grossman gets time, targets a single covered Bennett streaking down the middle on a skinny post and delivers a catchable pass to Bennett's inside shoulder. Josh Wilson, playing man under coverage, reads the pass, breaks in and swats the ball away.
• Leonard Weaver, Mike Wahle and Sean Locklear each displayed good pull blocking. Locklear was then rolled up on from behind. It's some wonder he wasn't hurt worse.
• Preseason fumbles have become a bit of a tradition for Seattle. Weaver, recently T.J. Duckett and now Julius Jones has joined the party. Like Duckett last week, there're fumbles and there're fluke fumbles. On Seattle's seventh play of its second drive, Jones had broken containment, converted a long third down and seemingly put his team just outside the red zone. Sensing contact, Jones secured the ball, lowered his shoulder and put a clean, squared shot on Kevin Payne. And then the ball popped out. I really don't know how, as it didn't even look like Payne buried his helmet into the ball. Maybe Jones was just sweaty. Either way, I'm not concerned.

• Even with the fumble, Jones had a very productive first quarter: Excellent blocking as always, two first downs, a 50% success rate and no rush for less than two yards, 35 yards on six carries and one reception of nine yards. Another reception targeting him was tipped away; certainly no fault of Jones.

• On Frye's first interception, the ugly one into coverage that looked better targeted towards Charles Tillman than Jordan Kent, it was Vallos who was beat back and allowed an open lane for Adewale Ogunleye to stunt through. Frye does not keep his head under pressure.
• Jackson at it again, pressing Kellen Davis and taking away Grossman's safety valve. Second play of Chicago's third drive. 2^nd and 8 on the Chicago 22. Got to love the excellent field position courtesy of Olindo Mare. Bears in a 2 WR, 2 TE, Rb formation. Seattle in a base 4-3. John Marshall calls another zone blitz. Hill obliterates lead blocker Matt Forte. Tatupu, trailing Hill, shoots the exposed gap and pressures Grossman. Grossman heaves the ball towards Davis, who, pressed out of his route and bewildered, looks slightly more open than Jackson himself. Slightly. Jackson is exceptional on zone blitzes. His addition has and will change Marshall's play calling.

• Do you like exotic blitz packages? I don't. Too many Three Stooges blitzes involving players running around, picking each other out of the pocket and wasting motion and time. Then again, maybe I'm all turned around on the idea.

  Next play, Bears break 3WR, Hb, Rb, Shotgun. Seattle in a 3-3 nickel. God I missed the 3-3 Nickel.

  Here's what happens:

  

  And here's how it happens:

  At the snap, ends Jackson and Tapp deke in and then fade into short hook zones. Rocky Bernard teams with Tatupu to splinter the middle offensive line left. Offensive linemen, like pawns, are strongest when contiguous. Hill and Wilson, in symmetrical positions left and right respectively, edge rush. Wilson destroys Greg Olsen, forcing an uncalled hold before easily slipping past him. Hill draws left tackle John St. Clair and running back Forte, eventually circumventing both. Tait, previously assigned Tapp, is shuffling alone, isolated between the Bernard and Tats havoc and Wilson's edge rush. That's when the keystone of this blitz arrives: Peterson shoots between Tait and Kreutz, providing inside pressure and cuing Grossman's retreat. Grossman, now nearly backed into his own end zone, facilitates Hill and Wilson's edge rush. Remember aspiring quarterbacks, 15 yard drops allow edge rushers to run straight past their blockers. In a beautiful culmination, Seattle's three blitzers simultaneously arrive, terrifying Grossman into a grounding penalty.

• Let's end with Jordan Kent, who benefited from some blown coverage, but, at least on one play, put it all together.

  Seattle ball, third play of Seattle's third drive of the quarter. Hawks break in a trips left, TE, Rb. Kent is the "headpin". Chicago is in a Nickel. Before the snap, Seattle motions Ben Obomanu out of the bunch, wide right. At the snap, Ricky Manning Jr. attempts a press on Kent but gets tossed aside. Kent then zips horizontally on a drag route, receives without breaking stride, hops over all-world tackler Lance Briggs, turns upfield and puts a pretty good pop on Tillman before being wrestled down after 8.

  Heck of a play and great to see the drag executed to perfection.

• Baby step Baraka Atkins, baby steps. Crucial baby steps. Here's how the preseason allows a blown play to be exciting: Second Minnesota drive of the second quarter, sixth play, 1^st and 10 on the Seattle 24. Atkins explodes off the snap! Badly overpursuing and thereby vacating right containment! Maurice Hicks rides the seam for an easy eight! Um...well the movement off the snap is promising. It's not surprising that Atkins growth at anticipating snap counts comes with a corresponding hitch. In the regular season, this would be a straight up blown assignment, but in the preseason the growth as a pass rusher - even against a run - easily trumps the assignment lapse.
• In that vein: Jordan Kent had a track star moment. On the third play of Seattle's first drive of the second quarter, 3^rd and 7 on the Seattle 23, Kent turned a good route and great separation into an incompletion. Running free, Kent turned his shoulder back towards Wallace very early, breaking stride and allowing the pass to drop ineffectually past his outstretched hands. Competent receivers know to trust their quarterback and run to the spot, having the experience and knowledge to find the ball late in the route and convert the reception. Kent, still very raw, doesn't.
• Next non-special teams play. 1^st and 10, Minnesota on their own 34; 2 WR, 2 TE, Rb. Seattle in a base 4-3. At the snap, the Vikings left tackle passes Lawrence Jackson off, pull blocking out and into the second level. This is why I really like Jackson. Jackson, immediately understanding the tackle pass means run and explodes into pulling guard Mike Jones. Jackson is excellent at engaging a blocker without allowing him into his chest and thereby losing control. Instead, Jackson rides Jones like a sled to Maurice Hicks, tackling Hicks for a gain of one. Awareness, recognition, skills matched with good athleticism and great potential.
• And yes, on the next play Jackson sheds a blocker, cuts across the field, through trash, outpaces Hicks and tackles him midstride 29 yards downfield.
• David Hawthorne knifed through traffic to tackle Hicks for a loss of two. Speed in traffic defines a run stopping linebacker and Hawthorne has it in spades.
• Not a great quarter for Josh Wilson. He looked very much the bad employee. First, on the fifth play of Minnesota's second drive, taking his head out of the game after noticing Howard Green's penalty and subsequently blowing coverage. And later, on the sixth play of Minnesota's third drive, whiffing on a press against Aundrae Allison, using his speed to recover, but then getting turned around in coverage. Physically close to Allison, but nowhere near covering him. Embarrassingly careless play for a second year man.
• On his lone reception of the half, Carlson bounced off the first tackler, rolling for an additional three. Eight yards on 1 and 10 is boffo; five, a failed play.
• I liked what I saw from Julius Jones. His long rush, 12 yards, ran from an audibled into split backs (out of an "I"). It's always good to see success out of SBs. Jones made a couple quick cuts and displayed the kind of easy speed he needs to be effective. Lost man David Kirtman effectively sealed off the inside. First, putting the finishing touches on Erin Henderson, escorting the rook to the turf, and then moving out to lock up Charles Gordon.
• Jones' failed first down conversion was, well, unlikely to succeed. Seattle didn't do much wrong from an execution standpoint, getting good push, a very nice lead block by Kirtman, with only the two tight ends, Jeb Putzier and John Carlson, falling off their blocks and allowing each of their men to contribute to the tackle. No, it was mostly just conservative play calling and a numbers mismatch. To turn a cliché on its head, shouldn't we expect a defense to be able to protect one yard ? Minnesota stacked nine in the box and swarmed the center, having the fullback to guide and Jones five yard run up to arrive. It won't happen, but I'd love to see Mike Holmgren minimize all the telegraphed, circa 1932, one yard and a cloud of dust short yardage plays he so favors.
• I'm surprised to see Jamar Adams so tenacious in the box, but there he was ripping Naufahu Tahi from behind and forcing a turnover on 4^th and 1.
• Seventh play, final drive of the half, Minnesota ball, 1^st and 10 on Seattle's 12; Vikings employ a 3 WR, TE, Rb formation. Seattle's in a base 4-3. Generic play, Hicks rush right end, but interesting because I note Green shows good separation ability, coming off a block and making a good move to the ball carrier.
• Next play, now 2^nd and 8. Identical formations from both units. Pass play. Seattle runs an unorthodox stunt, looks like this:
  Green again separates from his blocker and again shows good closing ability to the ball carrier. This time it's a sack. Same skill, different result, but I wouldn't rate the flashier play as a better effort.
• Kevin Hobbs blew coverage on the next play - playing too soft and misreading the distance for a first down. Should Martin Nance have converted an easy reception and thus earned the first down, that would be more widely noted, but Nance's mistake let Hobbs off the hook.

Seahawks Insider

This was a very light, short practice because of an abundance of injuries. They highlight the day, so let's run through them first.

* Cornerback DeMichael Dizer has a torn ACL and needs surgery.
* Kyle Williams banged up his knee and is likely out for 3-4 days.
* Jordan Babineaux injured his knee, is getting an MRI today and his status will be re-evaluated.
* Pork Chop Womack hurt his knee and is having an MRI.
* Logan Payne cracked a rib and is out until it heals. The only thing to do is rest it.

* Nu'u Tafisi hurt his ankle and is likely out 3-4 days.
* Matt Castelo hurt his knee.
* Eric Wicks has a quad contusion.

Dizer was carried off the field Saturday. I said to my wife "There goes Dizer." She doesn't know who DeMichael Dizer is. Few people do. Unfortunately, few ever will because this might just end Dizer's career. Good luck guy.

Thanks for the cap room Porkchop. Can we cut you now?

The only injury that interests me is Payne's broken ribs. The injury itself isn't serious, but for a player that must be able to succeed over the middle, it's less than encouraging that he's already getting beat up. I just don't see how Payne can become a viable NFL receiver.

Courtney Taylor was back at practice but took part only in the drills. He said he will do drills this afternoon, then he wants to come back full-on tomorrow morning in preparation for Friday's game in Minnesota. He said he was ready to come back a few days ago but they are being cautious with him. But he sounded very jazzed to be back and playing.

I've assumed for a couple of days that Taylor is being protected. And if he is being protected, that means the second year receiver is getting special treatment. He certainly hasn't earned special treatment, so I would guess the team thinks they need him. I think the team needs him and all things considered, I would guess that Taylor has a darn good shot of entering the season as Seattle's starting flanker.

Talkin' Hawks

PLAYER OF THE DAY
Lawrence Jackson. The team's first-round draft choice must have sensed all those "How's Lo-Jack doing?" emails and blog queries I've been getting.

The performance by the defensive lineman from USC this morning underlined "just fine."

On one play, Jackson shot a gap and got to running back Maurice Morris just after he had taken the handoff. On another, Jackson beat rookie tight end John Carlson with an inside move so explosive that the team's second-round draft had to grab Jackson to prevent him from blowing up another play.

Jackson rarely does anything that qualifies as spectacular, but the steadiness of his solid game will fit nicely into the end rotation with Patrick Kerney and Darryl Tapp – and, Jackson also continues to slide inside to tackle in the No. 1 nickel line.

I'm pretty sure Jackson will be beloved by attentive fans and reviled by box score skimmers. Until his athleticism takes a leap, should it take a leap as he ages, he's going to be a steady, Bryce Fisher-type, well-rounded, heady, pass and rush defensive end. On the whole, he'll improve the defense. His size will help free Brandon Mebane to rush the passer. His strength will narrow rushing lanes to the outside. His intelligence will keep him in plays and provide contributions above his stats. But don't be surprised if he ends the season with 4-7 sacks. He's not Dwight Freeney, but, with a little growth, he can be Aaron Kampman.

Tomorrow I'll be talking about developing story lines from training camp on the Field Gulls podcast.

Seahawks Blog

LB D.D. Lewis made a great play in coverage, breaking up a pass intended for FB David Kirtman, who was coming out of the backfield. Lewis also was part of a big collision involving RB Julius Jones.

Lewis is attempting to fill the Kevin Bentely seen and not heard 4th string linebacker spot. Lewis is 29, a good age for a quick, rangy player. He's put on a little weight since last I saw him. Lewis is the best backup linebacker at coverage, especially with Will Herring indefinitely sidelined, and should be able to man the weakside ably should Leroy Hill miss time.

DT Larry Tripplett got penetration on a couple of plays, including the one that ended with Jones colliding with Lewis. The competition for the No. 5 defensive tackle is one of the hot spots on the roster with Tripplett, Howard Green and Marcus Tubbs part of that mix.

I always saw Triplett as redundant. His quick, disruptive skills are akin to Craig Terrill and both are feast or famine against the run. If you assume Triplett and Terrill are 3 techs, then should Triplett make the roster, he'd be slotted behind Rocky Bernard, Terrill, occasionally Lawrence Jackson and possibly Marcus Tubbs. Seems like a longshot.

Seahawks Insider

The offensive line had a few problems on successive plays, with Julian Peterson getting a sack of #8 if sacks were allowed, then Josh Wilson getting to the QB undeterred on a corner blitz. Wilson did the same thing on the next play and almost got there, slipping around Carlson.

Briefly on Josh Wilson blitzing: Wilson is not fast. Well he is, but he's not that fast. If anyone remember his touchdown return from last season, Wilson was very quickly to the sideline and around the first wave of the cover team, but to get into the endzone he had to dart around and cut back across the field. See, Wilson is incredibly quick, but his speed tops out pretty quick too. But incredibly quick is incredibly valuable, much more so than incredibly fast.

Wilson is not powerful, but he is strong. Against a lineman, he's toast. Against a back or tight end, he's got a shot.

Take those two skills together, fantastic quickness and good strength, and you have a very disruptive corner blitz that's more likely to disrupt than convert a sack. The nice thing, too, is that Wilson's quickness allows him to feign blitz and still recover into a sound short zone.

On a running play in the same sequence, Darryl Tapp completely stonewalled Mo Morris with a big hit. On the next play, Baraka Atkins ran down Morris in the backfield.

Not what you want to hear about Morris, who has a good first gear, good, but suspect vision. Great news to hear about Atkins. Any able defensive end in the NFL should be able to stonewall Morris, but for a guy like Atkins, who is toolsy, raw and played last season kind of lost, to chase down a rusher, a quick rusher, indicates increasing confidence (in his decision making) and better lines to the ball carrier.

Talkin' Hawks

PLAY OF THE DAY
Red Bryant. There were many candidates, but a strong endorsement from veteran guard Mike Wahle gave the honor to the rookie defensive tackle.

"Red made a bunch of plays today," Wahle said. "He really showed up in practice and was consistently making plays on us."

Among those plays was Bryant darting through a gap to get fullback Leonard Weaver in the backfield and using disruptive penetration into the assigned running lane that forced Duckett to bounce a run outside.

The coaches continue to take the "he's got a lot of work to do" tact with Bryant. But the fourth-round draft choice has been at his best in the full-contact drills.

"Red has some power to him, he's got some quicks," Wahle said. "He's somebody we definitely have to account for."

Bryant does have a lot of work to do. Predictably, the very talented Bryant makes a few head-turning plays a practice, but it's all those plays in between that separate his current ability from his potential. The best case scenario is inverted from the option control, weirdly old school tactics of Coach Fran and dedicated to a modern, single gap 4-3, Bryant evolves quickly, showing rapid improvement in skill and effort.
The chances of that are slim. The chances that Bryant succeeds in being a useful, sometimes spectacular player this season, and a very good to great player next season are damn good. Damn good.

Update:

I wanted to point out some really good work being done by Eric Williams over at Seahawks Insider. It's good to see that blog with a pulse again. I think a healthy Seahawks Insider is good for the entire Seahawks blogosphere.

I really like the Holmgren transcript. A couple quotes stood out to me.

(On Branch’s return date…) “You don’t [know]. It’s—when we get into the injury things—and I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it after game six, and I’ll say it after game twelve during the season—we’re hopeful that we will have him for the first regular season game. And we’ll see. We’ll see how that goes.”

You might notice that this quote doesn't make sense. Holmgren kind of hems and haws and then says "and I’ll say it now, and I’ll say it after game six, and I’ll say it after game twelve during the season—we’re hopeful that we will have him for the first regular season game."

Why would you say "after game six" that "we're hopeful we will have him for the first regular season game"? You wouldn't. Nor would you say it after game twelve. Game six, not coincidentally, is the game players can come off the PUP list. You can book it-- that's where Branch will be.

(On the kicking game…) “I’m always concerned about the kicking game. I believe we have a great snapper, a young guy who can really snap the ball. And last year, it was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, the wind blew us. You never knew what was going to happen. So, that’s an encouragement to me.

...And

(On Herring…) “Well, he’s got a little bit of a sickness that we have to kind of, we have to do some more work on. It’s causing some of the things that are plaguing him right now, the pulls and different things. It’s kind of a little different deal. So we have to play it that way with him, see if we can, he’s got to do some more testing and things like that.”

Don't know what that's about, if Holmgren is being colorful or if Herring is suffering something more serious, but it's not an encouraging quote.

. . .

Not much to report, really.

Here's the quick hits:

Dave Boling at Seahawks Insider is reporting that Kelly Jennings made a nice leaping interception. This matters for one reason: Kelly Jennings needs to develop something in the way of ball skills to take the next step as a corner. At the moment, he's very good in coverage, but without the threat of an interception, quarterbacks will eventually target Jennings man regardless whether he's covered. An incomplete just isn't so bad. A couple picks and Jennings will be not just sound, but fearsome.

Danny O'neal at Seahawks Blog is reporting that Seattle's goal for Marcus Tubbs is for him to be back by the regular season. That probably means he'll be held out of preseason. With a player as injury prone as Tubbs, it might be smart to save his snaps for when it counts.

Mike Sando of ESPN is reporting:

Rookie Lawrence Jackson blew up one play in the backfield. After practice, he said he thought getting into camp on time was important because it showed veterans he was serious about his job. It's always refreshing when the rookies know their place.

That's a good attitude. And if you read between the lines, it's not just about knowing his place, Jackson is after respect.

The overlap on these three training camp reports is...curious. As they're all reporting almost the exact same information.

First, let's all take a second to consider just how cheap that is. San Francisco signed Justin Smith to a 6 year $45 million dollar contract just this offseason. Smith is nearly 29 and had just two sacks last season.

Here's my scouting report. It's my best and most comprehensive expository of LoJack's skills entering the league. At the bottom I've provided an update about how I see Jackson's potential.

Skills are broken down from ++ to --. ++ are complete skills, pro ready. -- are glaring weaknesses, the kind of faults that can fell an otherwise top talent.

++

Awareness: Smart player. Very rarely fooled by screens or misdirection. Plugs holes, improvises stunts, maintains assignment but able to adjust and adjust correctly. Improves those around him.

+

Motor: Relentless in pursuit. Willing to chase Dennis Dixon 10 yards though clearly beat. Joins gang tackles. High effort snap to whistle.

First Step: Very good first step, not lightning fast, but enough to consistently gain an advantage. Enough speed to edge rush, but will not consistently challenge the edge.

Frame: Near prototypical build. Good, wide frame, long arms (33 6/8”), good height, high ceiling.

Agility: Smooth fast, moves quickly without “hustling”. Good round and diagonal speed.

Strength: Very powerfully built. Strong legs, strong arms, good core, rarely looks outmatched, rarely washed out of a play.

Hand fighting/Pass Rush Skills: Separates from blockers, doesn’t get “eaten up”. Elusive, moves through and away from garbage. Stays in the play.

Burst: Exploits alleys. When he has a step, explodes to the ball carrier.

Versatility: Played tackle and end.

·         Two Gap: Rare pass rushing end that is strong at occupying blockers, holding rushing lanes.

·         One Gap: Splits double teams, sheds blockers, gets penetrations and redirects plays. Sometimes gets washed out.

0

Tackling: Adequate wrap tackler. Doesn’t force many fumbles, but will attempt the strip.

Health: Not that he suffered injuries, only that he seems only marginal at protecting himself in traffic. Takes some spills. Protect your legs, bro.

-

n/a

--

n/a

Summary: When I think about Jackson, the comparison, somewhat oddly, that keeps coming to mind is Victor Martinez. The catcher. Not because they are anything alike athletically, but because both possess a broad base of above average skills. Jackson isn’t terrifically exciting, somewhat workmanlike really, but he’s very well rounded. Given his athleticism and frame, Jackson could easily develop into a very good run/pass defensive end and situational tackle.

Update: I was pretty conservative when I wrote this. I would say now that Jackson's broad base of skills, including precocious awareness and trans-football intelligence, and frame hint at a higher upside than I originally implied. That upside is contingent on how Jackson grows into his body. In my wholly amateur opinion, he has the kind wide/long frame, with smooth/athletic muscle build that should age very well. Compare, for instance, someone like Owen Schmitt who is stocky, lean and cut. Schmitt simply doesn't have a lot of room to fill out, and his muscles are crafted in the weight room. To wit, Jackson looks more Ken Griffey, Jr. less late career Barry Bonds.

We'll see.

With the 36th overall pick in the first ever Seahawks All-Time Fantasy Draft, the Skid Row Sliders select...

  
via Seattle Times

Thus ending speculation he'd instead opt to work at a dry cleaner.

Since this is news, I'll just go ahead an preemptively report:

Red Bryant signs.

John Carlson signs.

Lawrence Jackson signs.

A source deep within my skull, somewhere between my amygdalae, confirms it as a near eventuality.

I refuse to post that god-forsaken video of Schmitt crying.

Loud

Flashy

And Explosive.

Defense/Offense

Free Safety	Strong Safety
Brian Russell MikeGreen Jordan Babineaux	Deon Grant CJWallace Jordan Babineaux

Right Cornerback	Dime Back	SLB	MLB	WLB	Nickelback	Left Cornerback
Kelly Jennings Josh Wilson Jordan Babineaux	Jordan Babineaux Kevin Hobbs Rich Gardner	Julian Peterson Leroy Hill	Lofa Tatupu DDLewis Julian Peterson	Leroy Hill Will Herring Lance Laury	Josh Wilson Jordan Babineaux Kevin Hobbs	Marcus Trufant Kelly Jennings Josh Wilson

Right DE	Right DT	Left DT	Left DE
Darryl Tapp LawrenceJackson JasonBabin	Brandon Mebane Red Bryant Howard Green ChrisCooper	Rocky Bernard Marcus Tubbs Craig Terrill Larry Tripplett	Patrick Kerney Baraka Atkins Nu'uTafisi