Here's a link to a column on Red Bryant out of minicamp. Coach Quinn is working on his technique, and he's probably still pretty raw, but everybody can see how naturally physical he is in the middle of the defensive line. For somebody who is so tough, he's an extremely genial and gentlemanly guy. I thought the funny part were his thoughts on his friendship with fellow defensive tackle Brandon Mebane. I was surprised when he said that one of the things they do together is go out and eat sushi. I'd hate to see the bill when those guys are finished.

Here's the unedited column on Hawks' minicamp from Saturday -- Boling

RENTON _ The Seahawk veterans were dismissed to hit the showers and grab some lunch after Saturday morning’s rainy and cool minicamp practice.
But as the rookies and young players were kept afterward to get extra repetitions in unit drills, defensive linemen Darryl Tapp and Brandon Mebane stayed on the field to help with tips for their new teammates.
Tapp grabbed the jersey of free-agent rookie defensive end Michael Bennett and yanked it around, showing him a trick to employ against tackles.
“Hey, I’m a veteran on this team now, I’ve got to step up and be a leader,” Tapp said of his tutorial. “I was in their situation four years ago … I know what they’re going through.”

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OK, so here is the situation that Mike Holmgren finds himself in this week:

With only four days between now and the game against the Oakland Raiders, and his top three quarterbacks suffering some sort of injury, what does he do against the Raiders?

He certainly is not going to throw Matt Hasselbeck out there and risk having him injured just before the season opener in Buffalo. He does not yet know the severity of Charlie Frye's knee injury, though Frye said his knee was sore. And while Seneca Wallace played tonight, Holmgren said he did not even plan on allowing Wallace to throw a pass until they found themselves down by a point with 2 1/2 minutes left.

A lot of course will depend on what they say on Tuesday about Frye's injury and if that will restrict him. But it is an interesting question nonetheless: Who does Holmgren go with?

And before you say Dalton Bell, this was Holmgren's response when he was asked about playing Seneca late: "We didn't have any choice really. I wasn't going to put Dalton Bell in against them."

There was actually a spot of blue sky peering through the clouds at Thursday's practice, just enough to make everyone want to jet out of town and get someplace warm.

The early part of practice was instructional, while the final part was the team coming together and running plays. The practice ended with Matt Hasselbeck and then Seneca Wallace running the hurry-up offense, and you as a fan would not have been pleased were this a regular-season game.

Hasselbeck's stint -- which included a dropped pass by Nate Burleson -- ended with a miscommunication with one of his receivers, his errant throw intercepted by Kelly Jennings. Wallace never even got off a final pass; he tried to down the ball and failed. Hasselbeck said afterward the Holmgren got into them pretty good for it.

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Mike Holmgren did in fact attend the last day of this mini-camp and met with the media afterwards. Some of the things he said:

* He had a minor surgery on Monday, the reason he missed two days of this camp. He did not want to go into detail about what it was but said he took two days to recover and is all set.

* His biggest question marks are the running backs and the wide receivers. He said he has a better idea about the running backs, while he has absolutely no idea what to make of the wide receivers and which ones are going to be able to contribute.

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Yes, Mike Holmgren was indeed back and he brought some guests with him -- the Seattle SuperSonics' coaching staff. Apparently Holmgren and P.J. Carlesimo have formed some sort of relatonship, and Holmgren invited P.J. and the boys out to practice. P.J. got carried away and started yelling at Red Bryant, who went over and choked Carlesimo. But not before:

C.J. Wallace returned from Sacramento following his appendectomy, though he did not participate in the practice. Neither did Courtney Taylor, who has an undisclosed injury, which I will update later. Marcus Tubbs and Deion Branch were off to the side doing some agility drills together.

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Mike Holmgren's car is in the parking lot, which unless the PR staff had it towed here to throw off inquiring reporters would suggest that Holmgren is back running mini-camp practice after a two-day medical hiatus. He is not scheduled to meet with the media until after tomorrow's final day of practice.

Mike Holmgren once again was not at Tuesday's practice, though the Seahawks said on Monday he is expected back today following a minor medical procedure. The Seahawks refuse to say what it is that is ailing Holmgren, and are not giving a reason for his absence today. They say that Holmgren wants his privacy on the matter. No word on if he will be back tomorrow. Gil Haskell once again ran practice.

Just as an observation, I would say practice was not very crisp. There seemed to be a lot of dropped passes, though I'm sure that had something to do with the slick grass from -- yup, you guessed it -- more rain. I asked John Marshall if the rain limited the team in anything it was trying to accomplish, and he said they are trying to maintain the mindframe that regardless of what is going on, they need to prepare the same way and practice the same way.

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The Seahawks said yesterday that Mike Holmgren was going to be back today following a "minor medical procedure" yesterday. Well, his car is not in the parking lot. There is a chance, perhaps, that his wife drove him to work today, which we will find out in a half hour. But it is rare to see his parking space empty, as it is this morning.

First, Mike Holmgren was not at practice. According to the PR staff, he had a "minor medical procedure" and will be at tomorrow's practice. Though the procedure was minor, they still chose not to disclose what the "procedure" was.

With Big Show a No Show, no, it was not Jim Mora running the practice -- unless he was able to disguise it from the secondary, where he remained the entire practice. Gil Haskell ran practice, which once again was under cold, gray skies and in the rain. Hard to believe it is 90 degrees elsewhere in the country because these practices have been miserable. The result has been that there has been a lot of slipping and sliding, particularly by the wide receivers in drills with the defensive backs. Mora was imploring his players to keep playing through the entire play even if a receiver went down.

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Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren last week said he is certain Bobby Engram will be at training camp. On Sunday, my good friend Scott "Short Bus" Johnson caught up with Engram at a golf outing and Engram told him that he in fact may not show up for training camp. Posturing? Perhaps. But the fact that he is going against what Holmgren said is news in and of itself, given Holmgren's certainty when he made the statement. We don't speak with Holmgren until the last day of mini-camp on Thursday so his reaction will have to wait.

This post will admittedly be shorter than others because A) I can't feel my fingers to type a&^%$$&*())__nd B) my notebook got soaked every time I pulled it out of my pocket and it would not retain ink.

Having said that, newly acquired WR Chas Gessner made two really nice catches along the sideline, standing out for the first time.

Most of the practice looked slow, in part because players were very wary while trying to gain their footing. Patrick Kerney was on the side field pulling weights on a sled, and Rob Sims was off to the side doing some work on the blocking sled. I swear Sims' arms look twice as big as they did last year, which is to say 8 times as big as mine.

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