Seahawks Insider
where there is no offseason

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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Seahawks Insider
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Posted by Eric Williams @ 12:40:58 pm

This morning’s practice is finished and hard-to-please head coach Mike Holmgren seemed satisfied with the team’s effort, telling the guys good job as the team huddled at midfield on one of the practice fields at the completion of practice.

Holmgren should be happy. The offense looked crisp and several receivers made nice plays in both team and 7-on-7 drills.

Matt Hasselbeck also looked to be in midseason form throwing the ball, hitting receivers in stride on several square outs, skinny posts, fade patterns and inside routes.

The star performer of the day was the silent but deadly Ben Obomanu, who caught everything during practice, including a fade ball over Marcus Trufant for a score from Hasselbeck, and another great play on a deep post route from Hasselbeck with safety Kevin Hobbs on the coverage.

“Receiver seems to be the focal point now obviously,” veteran receiver Bobby Engram said. “And Ben is stepping up. He’s getting his opportunity, and he had a tremendous practice today.”

[More:]

Obomanu worked as the third receiver with Engram and Nate Burleson during team and 7-on-7.

Obomanu's college teammate, Courtney Taylor, also returned to full go after nursing a hamstring injury the last few days. Taylor looked good as well, making a nice catch on a sideline route and running with speed after a catch on a slant inside. He caught some balls on the jugs machine after practice.

However, Taylor did drop a ball in the end zone on an inside slant route against Kelly Jennings, letting the ball get into his pads.

Jordan Kent, the other receiver competing for a spot along with Logan Payne (still sitting out with a cracked rib), caught a 20-yard touchdown pass during red zone drill, getting cornerback Josh Wilson to bite as he geared down like he was going to run a square out, then running past Wilson on an inside seam route.

Kent’s footwork continues to improve, although he did allow linebacker Lance Laury to strip the ball from him on an inside route.

Bryan Gilmore also looked the best I’ve seen him this morning, doing a good job of taking some short routes and getting up field for more yardage.

Michael Bumpus and Will Heller both sat out with hamstring issues.

An issue for Seattle is depth at offensive line. The Seahawks only have 11 healthy offensive lineman in camp now, with Chris Spencer, Samuel Gutenkunst and Floyd Womack (knee) all nursing injuries and Chris Gray now retired.

That’s not a good position for the team to be in heading into its first preseason game, but they hope to get some of those guys back next week.

Walter Jones (left tackle), Mike Wahle (left guard), Steve Vallos (center), Rob Sims (right guard) and Sean Locklear (left tackle) ran with the first unit, which looked solid in both run and pass blocking during team drills.

Recent addition Ben Claxton wasted little time getting acclimated, playing center with the second unit while Mansfield Wrotto moved to right guard.

Engram, Burleson and Wallace caught punts during special teams period.

Others who did not practice include Wesley Mallard (hamstring), Patrick Kerney (calf), Larry Tripplett (knee), Red Bryant (knee), Jordan Babineaux (knee), Chris Cooper, Will Herring and Ryan Plackemeier.

Marcus Tubbs (knee) and Deion Branch (knee) also watched from the sidelines, but also got some agility work in.

Branch looked pretty good as he worked through some lateral movement drills, and Tubbs also seemed pretty agile going through stance and starts on the side.

The Seahawks will get their first opportunity to practice at their new facility in Renton, the VMAC, Wednesday morning. But the practice is invitation only, and not open to the public.

Categories: Training Camp