This morning's practice was held under cool, gray skies with occasional drizzle, but it didn't seem to have too much of an affect, though I wil say the offense was not very impressive, particularly in the latter stages. The practice ended with the offense -- both first and second teams -- making about seven consecutive bad plays, including Matt Hasselbeck eating one pass attempt and throwing to an empty spot on the field on another, and Seneca Wallace being tripped in the backfield by one of his linemen. It wasn't enough to make Mike Holmgren blow his stack, but it was pretty apparent that he was not pleased. It is certainly too early to draw any conclusions, and the defense is usually ahead of the offense at this point, but the receivers could be an issue, as everybody knows. One problem is that Courtney Taylor once again was not available for the end of practice, getting stretched out at one point because of a sore hamstring and then wearing an ice pack under his uniform for the duration of practice. Taylor has all the talent in the world but continues to get dinged up, the biggest concern about him.

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The play of the day was made by Julius Jones, who broke into the secondary on a sweep to the right and met Jordan Babineaux face to face. Jones lowered his shoulder and sent Babs flying backward, sprawled on the ground. Jones is not that big a guy but he certainly harnessed his power on that play.

Despite his limited practice time, Walter Jones remains in fine form. He locked up Nu'u Tafisi on one play, then completely laid him out on another, actually tripping over Tafisi as he tried to ease past him. The thing about watching Walter is that he always makes it all look so effortless.

There were a fair number of dropped passes today, as well. Jordan Kent let one get away early in practice, during passing drills, Taylor dropped one in seven-on-seven drills when he was wide open and took his eyes off the ball, and Joel Filani dropped two passes. Even Logan Payne let one go, though he had a bit more excuse. He had beat the defense deep, but Seneca Wallace underthrew the pass. When Payne got his hands on it, Josh Wilson leveled him, separating him from the ball. He should have caught it but Wilson put a pretty good lick on him. Mo Morris did make a nice one-handed catch on a swing pass.

There was one formation that I saw that I did not see at all last season. John Carlson lined up at the fullback spot, blocking I believe for T.J. Duckett. That's a new wrinkle that I did not see at all last year with Marcus Pollard, though Will Heller did it on occasion. There was one odd exchange between Carlson and Holmgren where Holmgren appeared to kick him off the field. I didn't see what upset Holmgren. Carlson stood behind several teammates while Jeb Putzier ran a few plays with the first team, but after Putzier caught a pass Carlson came back in with the first team. Carlson missed a few blocks early in practice, so maybe Holmgren is just being hard on him because he expects so much from him.

It appears as if Red Bryant has moved solidly in with the second unit. The past two days, he has been in there with Jason Babin, Craig Terrill and Baraka Atkins, doing a pretty good job clogging up the middle.

T.J. Duckett did fumble the ball on one occasion, which was recovered by the offense. I think that was the only fumble of the day, and there were not fumbled snaps by the centers as there were yesterday.

Ryan Plackemeier did some kicking on the side field, but he still is not in pads and it did not last long. He left practice soon thereafter and never returned.

I spoke a little with Jim Mora after practice and got him to bad mouth Holmgren a little bit. (Just making sure you're paying attention.) Actually, he just talked about the luxury of having all his starting defensive backs in place, and that while they are installing the basics in the same facet they are so far ahead of where they were last year that the players are offering their thoughts in film sessions and Mora doesn't have to do all the talking. He said they are using Babineaux more at safety than they did last year, when he was flopping back and forth, and the impression I got was because they want to see what Wilson and Kevin Hobbs are able to do at corner. He said Babs will still play corner and is the main nickel guy, but on a depth chart he would be listed as safety.