What we learned at Day 10 of Seahawks training camp

Here is what I learned at Seahawks practice today, the 10^th of training camp.’

— The big news was an injury to Doug Baldwin. But as detailed here indications are that Baldwin was not seriously injured, the incident instead proving to be a scare as much as anything.

— The Seahawks also made one transaction on Thursday waiving linebacker Ronald Powell as injured and signing Christian French to take his place on the 90-man roster. French, who played at Oregon, has been with the Seahawks before initially signing as a rookie free agent  following the draft in 2016 but then was waived as injured a few weeks later and spent some time on the Seahawks’ IR. French was then in Seattle’s rookie mini-camp in May 2017 as a tryout player but went unsigned. He had a workout with the Seahawks again this week and will now get another shot. He projects as a strongside linebacker/pass rush type. He is at 6-5, 249.

— With the first preseason game now roughly 72 hours away the offensive lines appearing to be settling in a little bit. The first team OL today was, left to right, George Fant, Luke Joeckel, Justin Britt, Mark Glowinski and Germain Ifedi. The second OL was, left to right, Rees Odhiambo, Jordan Roos, Joey Hunt, Oday Aboushi and Ethan Pocic. There’s probably a decent shot that’s how the Seahawks start out against the Chargers — today felt like the last real physical practice the team will have this week with the team usually tapering down after Thursday when they play on Sunday during the regular season which is also the scenario here. But it also wouldn’t be a surprise if we saw, say, Aboushi rotate in with Glowinski at right guard with the starting unit on Sunday. But for now, the other four spots on the line appear to be getting some consistency and the Seahawks will likely be looking for signs against the Chargers to try to start solidifying that alignment.

— Fant had a really good day in the one-on-one session of the pass rush drills, appearing by the consensus of those of us watching to win all four of his matchups — one against Cassius Marsh, two against David Bass and one against Quinton Jefferson.

— Marsh, though, also had a big win when he blew past Ifedi later in the drill. Marsh seems to be a somewhat underrated highlight player of camp. He got a lot of work today with the starting defense as a pass rusher and seems to be more consistently effective this season.

— The Seahawks had a pretty intense run drill about midway through — essentially going nine-on-nine with no receivers or corners on the field. The order of the tailbacks during that drill was: Thomas Rawls, Eddie Lacy, C.J. Prosise, Chris Carson, Alex Collins and Mike Davis. Tre Madden worked as a backup at fullback behind Marcel Reece.

— Madden had a nice catch over the middle of the field during a team goalline drill. He’d be a cheaper and younger option than Marcel Reece and the two are listed as the same weight — 235 — so he shouldn’t be discounted as having a chance to win that job.

— Amara Darboh had once nice catch early on but also had another instance that indicated rookie growing pains when he ran a go route while Russell Wilson thought he was running an out route. Wilson’s pass was almost picked off by Shaquill Griffin. Wilson ran over in Darboh’s direction clapping his hands and yelling “let’s go,’’ making a point while alternately encouraging

— A play or two later, another player having a nice camp stood out — J.D. McKissic — catching a touchdown pass from Wilson when he snuck behind the secondary and into the end zone. This time Wilson ran down the sidelines shouting “yeah’’ as he greeted McKissic. Later, Wilson praised McKissic when he met the media saying: “J.D. has been special. His work ethic, first of all, it starts with that. I think that with J.D. he’s super fast, super talented, can catch the ball really well, runs the ball really hard, too. He’s quick, he’s explosive and I think he’ll be a good addition to our football team. We’re excited to see him play this preseason and see what he can do.”

— Pocic again also played a significant amount of center — remember that there is always a lot of mixing and matching of the OL in different drills — and it’ll be interesting to see how much of that he does against the Chargers. As noted yesterday, if he shows he can play center – his primary position in college — that could mean the team doesn’t need to keep Joey Hunt as the backup there.

— Blair Walsh was 5-6 on live field goals during team drills hitting from 33, 38, 43, 37 and 33 and missing one from 37 which went just a tad left.

— It was another good day for undrafted free agent tight end Tyrone Swoopes, who like the rest of the backup TEs got a little extra work with Luke Willson being out. Swoopes ended practice with a diving catch on a fade route in the corner of the end zone on a nice ball from Trevone Boykin.

— Another TE having a nice day was Nick Vannett who caught passes on two straight plays during the team session.

— Undrafted free agent WR Darreus Rogers caught a touchdown in a team drill on a play in which he beat Neiko Thorpe, who stayed on his knees with his head in his hands in apparent frustration for several seconds afterward. Shaquill Griffin’s emergence has relegated Thorpe to a second-team role at cornerback at best.

— Terrence Garvin appeared to be the strongside linebacker with the starting defense most of the day.