D.J. Hackett's wife gave birth to a seven-pound baby boy on Tuesday evening. No name was told to us, though that does not mean that none was given to the wee tyke. Hackett is expected to be back for Thursday's practices.

The afternoon practice was about an hour of special teams work under new special teams coach Bruce DeHaven. I am doing a story on him tomorrow, and the biggest difference it seems is that DeHaven is a low-key coach who teaches, whereas Bob Casullo was a screamer. The euphemism from a few players was that Casullo was "intense," but clearly the players seem pleased that DeHaven is in camp. He comes from Dallas but has spent 20 years in the league, 13 in Buffalo.

It seemed clear to me from this practice that Ryan Plackemeier's job is not in jeopardy. He was booming punts while his main competition, Kyle Stringer, a rookie from Boise State, was hitting far smaller balls. Plackemeier's consistency stood out, while Stringer mis-hit a few that went only 25 or 30 yards.

The practice started out with DeHaven implementing new blocking and coverage schemes, while Nolan Cromwell worked with the outside guys at the other end of the field. Then the sides came together and worked as one unit. Plackemeier said he thinks the Hawks can be the best special teams unit in the league this year.

Still waiting for word on the vital statistics of D.J. Hackett's baby.

A quick injury update: Second-year fullback David Kirtman suffered a broken hand in the morning practice. Doctors are still considering their treatment options so they have constructed no time table for his return.

Also, the injury to rookie safety Patrick Ghee is a hamstring problem and his return is considered a "day-to-day" situation.

I am officially done with vacation and on the beat, so Mssr. Boling and I are double-teaming the blog and practices for now. I wanted to throw out a few additional items that occurred in the morning session.

Fullback David Kirtman left the field early with his glove off and his right hand apparently injured. There has not been official word on his injury, but we will let you know when that comes around.

In the drills where running backs were blocking linebackers during a pass rush, I thought Lofa Tatupu looked virtually unblockable. He had a series of nice moves that allowed him to get past almost every back that tried to keep him from the QB.

Rookie WR Logan Payne had a nice practice, leading one educated observer to note: "That guy has great hands. Not good hands, great hands."

D.J. Hackett was excused from this practice as well, his wife having gone into labor yesterday. No word yet on exactly when he will be back. Also no word yet on the specifics of the baby.

Mike Holmgren despises fundamental mistakes. Hates them. Has no patience for them. Want proof? One of the main sessions in Wednesday morning’s practice was to have offense against defense in a two-minute drill under live conditions. On the first play by the No. 1 offense, center Chris Spencer blew the snap count … and Holmgren blew a gasket. He informed the team that the play just lost them a game. So, he sent the whole first unit to the sidelines and brought on the second team. Seneca Wallace led that group down the field and scored with a pass to Courtney Taylor. Shortly into the No. 3 offense’s drill, another center-quarterback exchange was fumbled. Holmgren stepped in, called off the session and told both units to separate and go talk to their coordinators. It was if he had sent two wayward school kids to put their noses in the corners at the back of the class room.

Other quick observations from the morning. During the RB/LB blocking drill, the linebackers once again dominated … as expected. I will say this … Shaun Alexander, never noted for his pass blocking, made several pretty good efforts. He wasn’t notably successful, but there was an obvious effort.

This team has a ton of good young receivers … where they’ll play is anybody’s guess. Taylor, Jordan Kent, Logan Payne, Joe Fernandez, Chris Jones and Robert Ortiz all made nice plays again Wednesday morning. They’ll probably be battling for practice squad spots, but the net benefit is they keep the pressure on the top four or five guys.

Tight end Leonard Stephens had a tough day, dropping two passes in a row. In contrast, Will Heller is doing a nice job catching the ball.

During a blitz session, safety Deon Grant came through untouched. Both Grant and Russell look like they could be good “finishers” on safety blitzes.

In pass blocking with O-line against D-line, Sean Locklear looked to do a better job against Patrick Kerney. And I’d say that rookie guard Mansfield Wrotto had his best session, earning a couple draws with Russell Davis.

After practice, the offensive line retreated to one side of the field and ran gassers … back and forth across the field three times. I asked guard Rob Sims why they were doing the extra work. “Walt said to,” he answered. Walt, of course, is tackle Walter Jones. And what Walt says, they do.

This afternoon is a special teams practice.

For the morning, I'll have a column on coach Jim Mora. We've talked to him before a few times and done stories on it, but Wednesday I tried to follow him around, watch how he conducts his business, and I hope to paint a picture for you of how he operates.

A day without Seahawks camp is like a day without sunshine (which I got a little too much of yesterday). Anyway, I'm back in Tacoma working today, but still giving you the best info and news I can get if I have to go to the end of the Internet and back.

With posting links in the comment section, we decided to exercise a little discretion and delete a couple posts. We'll try to keep the links to football, first and foremost. As I said earlier, if it's a really good link, e-mail me personally, and I 'll peruse it and put in on the main "linkage" post because we can continually update it throughout the day.

Anyway, my story in today's papers discussed the open receiver spot left by the trade of D-Jack. One thing is for certain, this spot isn't assured to D.J. Hackett. Dave discussed the vast potential of fullback Leonard Weaver. Here's the link to Jason Cole's story that was mentioned yesterday if people still haven't read it.

Here's the transcript from Sando's live chat on ESPN.com, check out the last question. And also here's Mike Holmgren's interview on ESPN radio with Colin Cowherd.

On to the NFC West and Flagstaff, Arizona where the Arizona Cardinals are making progress in signing top pick Levi Brown. Like the Hawks, Arizona also has some questions at tight end. Head coach Ken Whisenhunt is going to run the ball and that may mean smaller numbers for stud receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. It seems like any news surrounding the Pat Tillman case isn't good.

Let's head to San Francisco where fans are still in shock about how Frank Gore can break his right hand in a non-contact drill. It seems he'll be out for at least the first three preseason games, at least. The Niners rookies are already making impressions. The team will wear Walsh decals on their helmets.

It'd be to tough to be a St. Louis Rams fan, because there just isn't much info out there to post on here. They certainly don't seem to be covered like Seahawks. Anyway, linebacker Chris Draft is battling a breathing situation. Here's camp notebook from yesterday's practice.

That's it for now, but I'm still searching for more stuff for you football fanatics.

And I've found a story on former Hawks safety Ken Hamlin, who's taking over the starting spot for the Cowboys.

Wedneday is the first day of the 2007 training camp in which the Seahawks will have an afternoon special teams practice. Generally on these days, the morning practice is long and in pads. Although, Tuesday morning's practice of almost two and a half hours was about as long as I can recall during a training camp in the Holmgren era.

During camp, Holmgren usually addresses the media after the morning session, but occasionally gets a day off from those responsibilities. Wednesday is expected to be one of those days ... barring any developments that demand comments from him.

I don't think it's unusual that the defense seems a little ahead of the offense early in camp. To oversimplify, defense tends to be about reaction and hustle, and offense is about timing and execution. A good hustle play by one defender can wreck an offensive play in which 10 guys may have executed properly.

Interceptions and ball-hawking type plays seem up (with nothing to support that other than just a feeling of how it's going). Since coach Holmgren works so closely with the offense, and always has been focused on that side of the ball, days in which the offense struggles seem to get him crankier than he might be on days when there are defensive breakdowns. A number of times on Tuesday he complimented the defensive unit during team drills, but it always sounds as if it's coming through clenched teeth.

I think that if anybody tries to tell you that the players are not as intense in this camp -- because it's at the Kirkland headquarters instead of at Cheney -- I think that's stretching it. There seems to be good focus on the work. That may be a product of the kind of players they have; I certainly have seen nothing to suggest that anybody is less intent on his job in the more comfortable venue. Matt Hasselbeck said the other day that he certainly enjoys practicing on better grass covering softer ground. We can only guess whether that might make it safer for the players.

Although all players and staffers are quick to profess their appreciation for the fans who came out to watch during the days in Cheney, it's also an obvious fact that they're able to head straight into the locker room after practice now rather than servicing what at times were long lines of fans seeking autographs. There certainly could be benefits from the heat in Cheney and the camaraderie that might grow from the isolation, but being in Kirkland doesn't seem to have caused anybody to be less motivated or intense in practice thus far.