Sunday night’s preseason game between the Seahawks and Titans featured two quarterbacks who were drafted last year, with Cam Ward playing most of the first half and Jalen Milroe playing the entire second half. I can tell you which quarterback is more experienced and was drafted higher (first overall), but based on these early returns I can’t guarantee that Ward is going to have a much better career than Milroe.
Seattle lost the game 19-16, and Milroe is potentially facing a do-or-die with his final preseason start on Friday against the Chiefs, but the score and the result don’t tell you the story of the game: The Titans might be the worst team in the league again.
Or Seattle’s reserves are just that good. Which would be the fun answer, but many of these players are not going to survive final cuts next week anyway.
The Seahawks—playing backups on both sides of the ball to start the game against the Titans starters—could have had a 20-3 lead in the first half if Jason Myers hadn’t missed both a PAT and a short field goal, and Seattle could have won by 70 if they hadn’t pulled their third-string to put in their camp bodies.
My “hot take” to you last week was that the Titans would make the playoffs. After seeing their STARTERS get dominated by Seattle’s BACKUPS/PRACTICE SQUAD, I may have to slightly alter my win prediction for Tennessee. It was 10, but I’m going to reduce that number by 1.
So…now it’s just 0.
You don’t really want to hear about Ward, but I’m using him as a frame of reference because between his disastrous first start last week and his mediocre play on Sunday, Seattle got a pretty soft opponent to warm up against heading into their preseason finale. It also helps put Milroe’s somewhat disastrous night into perspective too.
Unfortunately, Milroe’s two picks pale in comparison to the horrifying sight of seeing rookie safety Bud Clark carted off the field with his leg in an air cast.
Without jumping to conclusions, the typical outcome of such a moment is a season-ending stint on injured reserve. In one week, the Seahawks have lost Robbie Ouzts, Jake Bobo, and Clark, in addition to Shemar Jean-Charles and an unknown timeline for Tory Horton.
So if I had to boil down Seattle’s night into two major takeaways, neither of them would be good:
1-Everyone’s going to remember Bud’s injury.
2-Everyone’s going to remember Milroe’s meltdown in the fourth quarter.
They won’t even remember that the Seahawks lost—because who cares, really?—but that doesn’t mean it was a bad night.
Jacardia Wright ripped off a 69-yard touchdown run, largely thanks to perfect blocking by Seattle’s backup offensive linemen going against Tennessee’s starting defense:
And nobody even covered Elijah Arroyo en route to the most wide open touchdown pass for Drew Lock that you’ll ever see.
Objectively, the takeaway for me had more to do with how BAD the Titans are, rather than how good the Seahawks are, but that’s also kind of unimportant because as I said, we won’t even see most of these players for most of the regular season.
However, it should make Seattle’s fans a little more comfortable that some of these reserves could actually be good enough for regular season action, including:
LB Chris Paul and LB Chazz Surratt made a number of good plays in the first half, including a fourth-and-1 TFL by Surratt
The starting OL of Josh Jones, Mason Richman, Olu Oluwatimi, Christian Haynes, and Bobby Hart was solid, Richman left the game early (didn’t seem serious) and was replaced by Bryce Cabeldue, who was also solid
RB Wright is making a case for the 53
WR Ricky White III was around the ball the most, although no WRs stood out entirely
OLB Connor O’Toole had 1.5 sacks, OLB Jamie Sheriff partook in a sack also
Great PBU for CB Michael Dansby—but I think he had some down moments also
Fast to the ball/amazing tackle for CB Nehemiah Pritchett
Arroyo had the touchdown, although the fact that the Seahawks are giving him this much playing time in the preseason could be an indication that they’re not going to use him much at the start of the season. There was a deep sideline pass to Arroyo that the defender was able to break up—I think if you’re a top-50 pick drafted for your size advantage…use it!
Surratt also forced this fumble on Ward, although it went out of bounds:
On the flipside…
I think QB Drew Lock’s stats look better than his actual performance was. He most definitely threw an interception by foolishly deciding to chuck the ball downfield on first down because he was under pressure, but it was waved off due to a defensive penalty. Lock didn’t throw it because of the penalty either: The penalty happened as the ball was getting to the players and the broadcast all agreed it was a ticky-tack foul.
It doesn’t even matter if there was a flag or not. The pass was bad.
Wiping off this interception, and giving Lock credit for a wide open TD pass to Arroyo (not a bad play by Lock by any means, but certainly the only thing notable he could have done was miss an uncovered player), changes the complexion of his stat line immensely.
I just think Lock is a backup quarterback, not a starter. Is that really a surprise?
In the wake of losing Bobo and not knowing when Horton will return, not a single receiver stood out that much. WR Montorie Foster caught one pass for 24 yards, but also couldn’t come down with a diving end zone catch from Lock. I’m not “knocking” Foster for it, the catch would have been amazing, but for someone trying to make the roster it would have really helped his case. So he ends the night with as many catches as pre-snap penalties (for the second game in a row, he had a pre-snap penalty).
WR Cody White muffed a punt because he couldn’t judge the ball. As Julian Edelman said during the broadcast, “You field a punt with your feet, not your hands.” It’s not that big of a deal necessarily for his case to make the roster, but White also failed to do anything special on offense. WR Emmanuel Henderson caught one pass for seven yards and returned two kickoffs.
FB Brock Lampke had a holding penalty. RB Velus Jones did nothing.
If you’re looking for a lot of standouts on defense, individually, I don’t think there are many aside from the ones mentioned. Edge rushers like Jared Ivey, Aidan Hubbard, and Jalan Gaines are hard to find. DB D’Anthony Bell’s missed tackle was the only time I noticed him. And S Maxen Hook had a relatively easy shot to intercept a pass, but doesn’t seem to be a good judge of tracking the ball in the air.
Not a Depth Concern, but Something to Watch
Overall, I think this game showcased how good the Seattle Seahawks’ second-string team could be…but the players in the mix for those last few roster spots and practice squad didn’t have as good of a night, which led to the team losing their lead and the game in the second half.
Instead, the Seahawks did have one player who stood out in the second half, but for all the wrong reasons.
After a solid start to his game, including what I think was arguably his best preseason drive yet, Jalen Milroe completely fell apart after that.
In a way, I’m actually kind of happy that he did:
This was the first time in his NFL career that it felt like Milroe was playing to win instead of playing to not get cut.
But that doesn’t mean we can just ignore how poorly he played. Now the Seahawks just have to decide how much they care when it comes to their 53-man roster in 2026 and their belief in his ability to develop those tools by 2027.
So I did something that I’ve never done before at Seaside Joe: I charted every Jalen Milroe pass for you and graded the play on a 1-to-5 scale.
Scoring System:
1—horrific
2—meh
3—neither good nor bad
4—nice play, bro
5—Great!
Milroe’s average play vs. Titans by my scoring system:
2.7/5
Somewhere between “meh” and neutral. Is that good enough?
Jalen Milroe’s 15-play dropback play chart
1st drive
Pass 1 - Appears to look off first read, check down to V. Jones for 6 (3/5)
Take it where you can get it. For your information, I think a “horrific” play has to be so bad that you can’t deny it’s bad, so a 2/5 would be obviously negative but not horrific, and a 3/5 play would be just moving the chains along like a replacement-level play.
Pass 2 - Under center play action, doesn’t see anything he likes, runs for 15 yards (5/5)
I gave this play such a great grade because it showcases why Milroe is even in the NFL as a third-round pick to begin with. Personally, I think to be a starting NFL quarterback you can’t only have these plays in your tool bag, you also have to be able to throw it for a long first down. However, give the guy credit because few players at the position can do this.