What I'll be watching for in Seahawks mock game on Friday

An opportunity to learn your flaws: Seaside Joe 1614

The Seattle Seahawks have a day off on Wednesday, return on Thursday for their third practice in pads, then play the annual mock game on Friday at Lumen Field. While the top priority of the scrimmage is to not let anyone get injured, fans and even the media that closely covers the team at practice almost always come away with knowledge and insights on the Seahawks that we didn’t know before.

It was at this time last year that we first learned just how close Tariq Woolen and Abe Lucas were to being Week 1 starters. Mike Jackson, Ken Walker, and yes, Drew Lock were standouts in Seattle’s scrimmage. The Seahawks enter Friday’s mock with questions.

In spite of how much information will be protected by Pete Carroll, I’m certain we will leave Friday’s scrimmage with some answers.

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Those of you who were subscribed last season know just how important these two Seasiders were to the newsletter. They provided content, guidance, and life lessons that have carried me through childhood, adulthood, and this very livelihood: Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The thousands of movie reviews by these poets are enough to keep you learning about art for eternity, but Siskel and Ebert also had quite a few segments that go beyond film criticism. Like this one about their advice to young movie critics, the messages of which I will use as guideposts for how I’ll cover what is going to be the fifth Seahawks season that I have covered for Seaside Joe and the 13th en total.

What Ebert says is, “Write from the first person. Don’t just say ‘This is what happened.’ Say, ‘This is what happened to me. This is how I feel.’”

I’ll remember that as I “review” every Seahawks game this season, including Friday’s mock scrimmage.

Then Siskel responds by sharing advice that he got from his first editor at the Chicago Tribune when he wasn’t sure how to start his articles: “He says, ‘Imagine what the headline would be and start with that. Write the headline.’”

So if I were to just write the headline for a mock game preview, and what I want to feel based on what happens this Friday, it would be something like this:

An opportunity to learn your flaws

It always feels good to win, but there’s no way to win an intra-team scrimmage. If the offense scores, it’s bad for the defense. If the offense punts, it’s good for the defense. Oh sure, I can be a contrarian and pick apart that argument to find exceptions to the rule…it’s probably more useful to agree that nobody wins a mock game except the players and coaches who come away better for their experiences.

The Seahawks have a lot of players who need to find out what they’re bad at, because they’ll only have five more weeks to prepare after Friday for the first real game.

I did this same article a year ago and what I was looking for was more insight into the quarterback competition between Geno Smith and Drew Lock, the mock game debut of Ken Walker, the battle at right tackle (Abe Lucas was in third place at the time, but I wrote that a strong month could earn him the job), and the debuts on defense of Cody Barton as a starter and Clint Hurtt as a playcaller. Additionally, I mentioned that competitions at wide receiver would be less interesting to me, as that position often gets overhyped in August. I think everything I said hit the mark:

I think it’s fair to narrow down your list of hopeful starting receivers to these names: DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Dee Eskridge, and for one season, Marquise Goodwin.

I would say that every other name has to earn a reputation for giving us optimism by proving it in game situations (not preseason) or be a relatively high draft pick. For now, Eskridge still has reason for optimism, but we won’t see him Saturday.

If there are two reasons that the Seahawks receivers will look different in 2023 than they did in 2022, it’s that Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a high draft pick and Eskridge, who also missed the 2021 game, is actually expected to play.

Another difference is that Geno isn’t in competition with Lock, but from reading my post-scrimmage article, almost everyone agreed at the time that it was Lock who won the round:

Gregg Bell: “Seahawks' offense is more dynamic, moves more, with Drew Lock. Play-action, option throws on the run, more outside play action when Lock is in compared to Geno Smith, who they have drop back more. Which style will they pick? Lock 10 for 10 passing to begin the mock game”

Broncos reporter Andrew Mason: “Lock won the day when the Broncos had their quasi-scrimmage last year, too. Goodness gracious, these reports from Seahawks camp are, as @DMacRadio and @Tyler_Polumbus said, like stepping into the "twilight zone." Replace "Geno Smith" with "Teddy Bridgewater" & it's a re-run.”

Smith went 11-20 to Lock’s 19-26, Pete said afterwards that Lock was “comfortable” but that he had no updates to give. From the outside, it seemed momentum was in Lock’s favor, but it does seem like he was more of John Schneider’s choice than Carroll’s and we can’t really fault the coaching staff given the eventual 2022 results.

It also turned out that Abe Lucas was with the starters in the mock game, giving us our first clue that Pete was serious about giving the third round pick a real opportunity to win the job. On that same note, it turned out that Tariq Woolen, and not the “more ready” Coby Bryant was first in line to replace an injured Sidney Jones IV on the outside.

“I would be surprised if this pushes Woolen into a starting role with the Seahawks anywhere near the beginning of the season. But maybe his chance isn’t as far off as we thought. Artie Burns, Justin Coleman, Jamal Adams, and Quandre Diggs made up the rest of the defense. Adams played quite a bit of linebacker with Josh Jones as a third safety, according to reports.”

Well, I guess I was surprised then!

Another standout from the game was Michael Jackson, who I tend to forget by now was arguably just as surprising as Woolen. A veteran who hadn’t started a game in his first three NFL seasons went on to start all 17 and did really well.

Walker scored a touchdown and played well; Darrell Taylor had multiple “sacks”; and if there was perhaps a signal that turned out to be a red herring, it was that Iggy Iyiegbuniwe, who didn’t make the team, seemed relatively high on the LB depth chart at the time.

What I’m looking for this year will have some similarities, a few differences, and if we can just get through two more days without bad news…D’Wayne Eskridge.

Who is the “first team” center?

I suspect that it will be Evan Brown because he’s consistently gotten the first opportunity over Olu Oluwatimi, but as previously noted, I thought Lucas was the third option at right tackle going into the 2022 scrimmage. Given that the entire starting offense is basically set except for center, it would be a little strange if Pete Carroll doesn’t also “start” the player who he thinks has been the best fit in between Geno, Damien Lewis, and Phil Haynes.

It could be that they still get an even number of reps with the 1s, but judgments will be made based on who’s the 1-1.

The last I heard, the second team offensive line was “the other center” plus Stone Forsythe and Jake Curhan at tackle with Anthony Bradford and Greg Eiland at guard. Bradford sat out Tuesday practice. The team signed tackle Liam Ryan this week.

No running back is “Just Ken”

Ken Walker was one of the stars in the scrimmage last year and now his absence, along with the injured shoulder of Zach Charbonnet, clearly opens the door for Kenny McIntosh and DeeJay Dallas to get the bulk of the backfield snaps with the top two lines of offense. McIntosh has been one of the highlights of camp in the first week, but that’s at least somewhat expected because the Seahawks have unfortunately been shorthanded at the position.

We may/should get a glimpse of recent signees SaRodorick Thompson and Wayne Taulapapa, but maybe it’s not all that significant.

More proof on paper of a Boye Mafe breakout

Two of the best players in the first couple days of padded practice have been Uchenna Nwosu and Boye Mafe, with the first being more expected after a career-year. Mafe’s up-and-down rookie season shouldn’t be cause for concern—he went through more coaching/scheme changes during his college career at Minnesota than a player should have to go through—and there was still a lot to like in 2022.

Is defense really about “starters” now?

I’m not as interested in finding out who the defensive “starters” are going to be because by now we should know that the players who play on a given play will be the ones who fit that situation. There are only a few Seahawks who I expect to play 100% of the snaps if healthy (Riq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Quandre Diggs, Bobby Wagner), then those who I think will play a lot (Nwosu, Julian Love, Jamal Adams, Devon Witherspoon, Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed), and those who will have to earn more playing time.

On offense, teams essentially always have six guys who should play every snap, at least two receivers who play 80% (if the Seahawks run more 11 personnel with JSN, then it could be three), and sometimes just one tight end and a lead running back. Starters on offense, it’s mostly like, these are your starters! Yes, Seattle may have three tight ends and two main running backs, but by comparison it is going to be a lot less fluid than on defense.

Instead, it’s almost like what we’re trying to find out is: Who is on that second wave of defense and better yet…Who ISN’T?

For that, I’m looking at NT Cameron Young, CB Artie Burns, LB Vi Jones, DT Myles Adams, S Joey Blount, EDGE Tyreke Smith, EDGE Derick Hall, DB Jerrick Reed, CB Coby Bryant, DE Mike Morris…When are they playing? What situations are they playing in? Who are they playing next to? Who isn’t playing that much?

Tre Brown and Jackson should “start” at LCB and RCB, Witherspoon should get plenty of opportunities, and I’ll have to watch for whether or not Bryant is playing safety.

Returner Jobs

Haven’t heard much of anything about who returns kicks and punts. Sadly, it’s not much of a part of the game anymore.

Can Dee Eskridge force himself into a role?

I’ll say what I say every year, which is that I don’t get hyped up based on what receivers do in August. Practices and preseason games are basically tailor made to highlight receivers who can make circus catches, but that is only one minor aspect to playing the position and rendered meaningless if you can’t do other thing well. In Eskridge’s corner is the fact that he was good enough to be a second round pick and has attributes that should make people wonder “what could be?”

Ultimately, a WR4 is just rarely ever involved in a team’s gameplan and I don’t see a non-injury related way for Eskridge to get more than 250 snaps next season and that’s only if he’s healthy for 17 games. The situation reminds me of Denzel Mims.

The Jets drafted Mims in the second round of the 2020 draft, he missed the first half of his rookie season and it seemed like the team just moved on. New York signed Corey Davis and Keelan Cole and drafted Elijah Moore in 2021, then picked Garrett Wilson in 2022. Mims saw all the receivers now ahead of him and begged the Jets for a trade, but they didn’t want to give up their investment after two seasons and he was basically New York’s WR5 last year. Finally, the Jets traded him to the Lions two weeks ago for essentially nothing and neither side was better for forcing him to be there.

To be fair to New York, Mims hasn’t given us any reason to think he’s good. Maybe Eskridge is good. How the Seahawks plan to use him IF he’s good…now that’s a question I’d like to see answered.

Make your mistakes!

The results of this “game” do not matter nearly as much as what the players and coaches will talk about over the weekend when they’re reviewing the film. Last year, Geno Smith played poorly and we all though that meant he’d lose ground to Drew Lock. To Pete Carroll, it meant that after seven years on the bench he was finally get an opportunity to make some meaningful mistakes.

When I made my first attempt at a “headline” like Siskel suggested, my gut said to write something like, “Play perfect and be elite and win the Super Bowl, etc.” Save it for the regular season and the playoffs. This week…Make mistakes, learn your flaws, learn your opponent’s flaws and then tell them what they are, and by the power invested in Mims…

Let’s see some Dee.