Here's Frank's story on Walter Jones and his recent missed practices.

Arizona Cardinals
New coach Ken Whisenhunt didn't like his team's intensity during a workout and let them know. But he is willing to listen to a players' complaints. At one point, NT Alan Branch wanted to beat up Mel Kiper Jr., he probably isn't the only one to have such feellings. Even with Fitzgerald and Boldin, the running game is key for the Cardinals. Arizona has their own version of Mack Strong, his name is Terrelle Smith.

San Francisco 49ers
Quarterback Alex Smith is trying to become more mobile. Nice guy Kwame Harris hopes to make the 53-man roster. A little dust-up between teammates during the scrimmage. Rookie linebacker Patrick Willis is already making plays. Head coach Mike Nolan is banking on his four high-priced defensive free agent signees.

St. Louis Rams

Brock Berlin is playing well in camp, to bad he didn't do that at the University of Miami. Tempers ran a little hot at the Rams scrimmage. Free agent Drew Bennett brings an added asset to the receiving corp — his height. Will return specialist Dante Hall help the Rams?

This week's opponent the San Diego Chargers ...

A big story on lanky wide receiver Vincent Jackson, who torched the SEahawks last season... And another story on coach Norv Turner's third stint as an NFL coach.

The autograph session after Wednesday's open practice at Husky Stadium is not going to be as inclusive as the one at Memorial Stadium on Saturday. It is going to be about 10 or 15 players signing instead of the whole team.

It was a short, 47-minute affair (no, we are not talking about Paris Hilton) with the special teams. Nothing earth-shattering, but one thing of interest afterwards was that LB Will Herring was working on long snapping, which could possibly open up a roster spot if Herring could do the job that Derek Rackley currently is doing. However, Brother Boling, who knows a thing or two about long snapping, said Herring needs to be more consistent. Boling says he has good velocity but his location needs work.

Patrick Kerney visited with the Blue Angels contingent after practice and then said that was amazed by them because he is actually a pilot himself and appreciates what it is they are able to accomplish. Somebody brought up to Hasselbeck if he feels better having Kerney on the plane as a pilot just in case something goes wrong. Hasselbeck laughed.

Thanx to Boling for covering the blog while I waited to interview Chris Gray.

Marcus Trufant has an excellent first practice, with an interception, a strip of Deion Branch that resulted in a fumble, and two or three pass breakups. He was all over the place. The only time he got beat was on a deep ball to Deion Branch, and in fairness to Trufant he was actually in great position but Branch made an excellent play and took the ball away from him.

The Western Washington football staff was on hand to watch the practice.

Today is Seneca Wallace's 27th birthday.

Trufant on Deon Grant: "He has nice sweet feet. I always call him The Big Corner."

Josh Wilson stayed after practice to get some one-on-one instruction from assistant coach Larry Marmie. Wilson got beat for a TD by D.J. Hackett and then again in Sunday's practice by Branch, if memory serves me.

Hasselback spoke after practice and talked about sitting down with NFL Films in July for a feature on the careers of backups to Brett Favre. He said it was a really interesting experience and he loved hearing some of the stories that the other guys who also were once in his position had to tell.

As Boling mentioned, I'm doing a piece on Chris Gray and Ray Willis for tomorrow's paper, and everybody, including Hasselbeck, seems much more confident that the line is much stronger this year and that there is a sense of fluidity and continuity that was missing last year. The best thing that Hasselbeck had to say was that the line was a topic of conversation among the players last year and it has not been discussed this year at all.

Gray was good during the interview and says he realizes that Willis may earn the starting job. He said 10 years ago it would have bothered him, but at this point in his career he is not as concerned about it. If Willis gets the job it is because he has earned it.

Frankie's still waiting for an interview, so I'll jump in quickly and empty my notebook from the morning practice to give you something to chew on until he can offer his report.

As practice progressed ...

--offense and defense had a nice 9-on-9 session (no WRs or CBs) featuring the rushing game. With Walter out, Tom Ashworth was at RT, while Kevin Bentley stepped in for Leroy Hill (hammy) at linebacker.

This drill was another reason to support my theory that Rob Sims is the next rising star of this team. If a young guy makes it to his first Pro Bowl this year, I bet it will be Sims. On one of the early plays, Sims blocked down and collapsed the entire right side of the defensive line, clearing a nice hole for Shaun Alexander. Later, he absolutely snowplowed Lofa Tatupu. Sims' power, agility and foot speed are extraordinary. And after practice, on his own, he added some extra sprint work. Major, major, major stud who also happens to have a terrific attitude.

Tatupu made a couple nice stops thereafter, and the defensive front, especially the DTs, did a good job of stacking up the middle. You might be tired of reading this, but Brandon Mebane was a disruptive force in there again.

A rookie making more plays and showing more talent than might have been expected is linebacker Will Herring. I initiallly thought he looked like just an undersize, high-motor, "effort" guy, but he's looking like a real football player, too, getting to the ball and making plays. He has the look of a special teams big hitter, and he's also staying after a lot of the practices to work on deep snapping. If he could master that, it might clear up a roster spot.

In a later session, Nate Burleson pulled in a couple more impressive catches. I'm not so sure he isn't one of the very positive surprises of camp ... considering his 18-catch season in 2006. He's catching everything, going TO the ball to make the catch, playing with a lot of confidence.

Rookie Josh Wilson came on a corner blitz on one 11-on-11 situation and would have sacked Hasselbeck without being touched.

Of the battle at right guard, (which Frank will examine for the morning paper), Ray Willis had a nice run block on Russell Davis (a load to root out) on a carry by Mo Morris. Both Willis and Gray had some problems during the one-on-one pass-blocking drills.

Marcus Trufant had another strong practice, coming up with several pass deflections.

In the pass blocking session (remember, defenders enjoy a big advantage in this drill), Kerney beat Ashworth a couple times. Bernard beat Gray twice. Fisher raced past Locklear the first time and the two had a standoff on the next one (this was with Locklear at LT instead of Walter). Eric Taylor beat Willis twice.

Then, in one of the great moves of camp, Mebane shot off the line so quickly that fellow rookie Mansfield Wrotto missed him entirely. Wicked move. The defense screamed. "Bang-bang," they shouted. Bang-bang is the nickname that Mebane had claimed for his own, although Chuck Darby said they're holding off a little on that until they can come up with a better one.

Of note, this was the practice when NFL Films had Mike Holmgren miked. I can't testify for certain, but I think it's the one practice when everybody on the field is warned to watch their language.

This afternoon is a special teams practice.

Also, the TV guy this morning who said it would be in the high 70s in Kirkland was far off- base. It was 60 degrees at the morning session.

I forgot my press credential so I'm doing a quick blog while I come up to the media room to retrieve it.

Walter Jones sidelined for the fourth consecutive day with a sore shoulder. Also out, everybody from yesterday: Womack, Tubbs, Taylor, Kirtman, Heller, Terrill, Babineaux, Leroy Hill and Ghee and Joppru. No word on the extent of Joppru's injury.

Also, 27 members of the Blue Angels are in a tent watching the practice.

Keep in mind that you will have another opportunity to see the Seahawks if you didn't get to go to Saturday's scrimmage. The Hawks are having an open practice at Husky Stadium on Wednesday morning from 9:15 until approximately 11:50. The event is free, but the parking is not. Sorry about that, I originally posted it as free parking. Apparently it is $5 in the E1 parking lot, but parking is limited. It is only the morning practice that is at Husky Stadium. The afternoon special teams practice is back at the practice facility in Kirkland. For those planning to have the rare Wednesday morning tailgate, no alcohol is permitted in the stadium.