Eric D. Williams took over the Seahawks beat and Seahawks Insider blog in December. Williams has covered the Seahawks, Sonics and high school sports for The News Tribune since joining the paper in 2006. Eric lives in Tacoma with his wife and two children.
Tacoma News Tribune columnist Dave Boling also contributes to the Seahawks Insider blog.
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Just in time for the story I wrote today on Josh Wilson, the second-year player make the play of the day in Tuesday's wet afternoon practice. During 7-on-7 drills, Seneca Wallace takes a one-step drop looking to his right, fires back to his left to Bryan Gilmore. Wilson guessed perfectly on the play, broke on the ball, picked it off and returned it for a touchdown. He showed good anticipation, good closing speed and turned it on after making the pick, the reason Jim Mora said they want to use him more this year in the secondary if they get the chance.
The practice was in helmets and shoulder pads with shorts, so there was very little hitting. They did some special teams work, as well as some kicking in front of the team. The rookie was perfect, while Olindo Mare missed a kick. Those two then went on a side field and did some kicking in front of the special teams coaches, but I didn't get a chance to watch that workout.
Josh Wilson and Ben Obomanu were back returning kickoffs, and Jordan Kent joined them but dropped a kickoff, a problem he had last year as well. The guy has fantastic speed but it doesn't make a difference if he can't pick up the ball.
Obomanu had a dropped pass from Matt Hasselbeck early in practice, while Logan Payne had a few more nice catches. Just based on a few days, I would say Payne is ahead of Obomanu, but there may not be a big enough sample size just yet.
Marcus Trufant also made nice play on a pass from Hass to Joel Filani. Trufant was beat on the play, but closed nicely after the release and knocked down the ball. Trufant appears to be playing with a lot of confidence, but he isn't in too many plays because they don't throw to his side very often. Right now, most of the passes are being thrown underneath, perhaps because the defense, returning 11 starters, is so far ahead of the offense.
Matt Hasselbeck spoke with the media after the practice, and one of the things he said was that this was one of the biggest playbooks he can remember having. He said they have added some new wrinkles to existing plays, and since it is in the playbook they are responsible for learning it.
When I asked him which receivers besides Bobby Engram he is developing a rapport with, he said Nate Burleson has had a good camp. He said he notices that Trufant or Jennings are playing up on Burleson and trying to jam him, a sign of respect. About the young guys, he said Courtney Taylor was having a good camp before his hammy tightened, but predictably he then said they all are having good camps.
Like Holmgren earlier in the week, Hass dodged the question about the Brett Favre situation. The one thing he repeated on several occasions was that this camp is very quiet, there are not a lot of loud or boisterous players. He was not being critical, but it did seem like he was wistful for Robbie Tobeck or somebody like him to make the camp a bit more fun. He said Steve Vallos is getting the Tobeck treatment, perhaps because everybody made so much fun of Tobeck and Vallos is currently replacing him. And though Vallos does not fire back, Matt said he is handling the ribbing well.
COMMENTS:
I'm surprised at Matt's comment on the increased size of the offensive playbook ["one of the biggest playbooks he can remember having"]. I thought that perhaps Holmgren might possibly opt for a simplier, more basic, version of the WCO this season.
In my opinion, for what it's worth, Hass seems to play better when he's able to relax and be confident in the guys around him. If we have a bunch of new players in key positions throughout the offense [Wahle at LG, Carlson/Putzier at TE, Jones/Duckett at HB as well as the young guys at WR] is it a benefit to have such a sizeable playbook?
On defence, I'm hoping that Wilson can set up and become a solid no.3 corner but I'm concerned about his lack of size. Who is gonna pick up the big guys [e.g. Larry Fitzgerald] running post patterns inside the red zone? Ever since that heartbreaking defeat to the Ravens a couple of years ago [Anthony Wright to Marcus Robinson for 4 TDs], I feel that the team haven't adequately addressed the issue of defending against tall, physical receivers.
But overall, I'm more than happy with where the team are at this point in time.
Maybe next year Mora will put a stop to this nonsense about Wallace being an NFL QB. We can only hope.
and...why would anyone staple their balls to their legs???
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