Another Day, Another Spectacular Touchdown Catch & Other Observations From Day 6 Of Seahawks Training Camp

Tuesday’s practice included the debut of a couple of interesting new wrinkles that livened things up a bit. First, Macdonald had the entire team gather at midfield to watch a few one-on-one reps between some of the team’s younger receivers and defensive backs and then between offensive and defensive linemen. One-on-one reps are a regular occurrence in practice, but doing so with the entire team watching added some excitement to the drill.

“It’s just an opportunity to get the young guys a chance to shine in front of their teammates and add a little competition, spice it up a little bit,” Macdonald said.

Later in practice, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that the offense and defense were going to face off in what Macdonald later called a mystery situation, which ended up being an end-of-game scenario in which the offense needed a touchdown with 12 second left from the 15-yard line. As Macdonald explained, players, as well the coaching staff were in the dark on the scenario until it was announced, other than assistant head coach Leslie Frazier, who determined the time and distance situation along with research analyst Brian Eayrs.

“It just keeps us on our toes, more reps for myself, (offensive coordinator Ryan) Grubb, just identifying the situation, the guys understanding what they’re in, then just applying the tools that we’ve installed up to this point where everyone’s got to stay on their toes,” Macdonald said. “It’s fun, it’s a good situation, and we’ll do that probably the rest of camp.”

On this day, the defense won that mystery situation, with three straight Geno Smith passes going incomplete. The first pass, intended for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, was batted away by Artie Burns, and the next was over the outstretched hands of DK Metcalf with Smith firing high to try to beat good coverage from Devon Witherspoon. The final attempt, thrown to the back of the end zone towards Tyler Lockett, looked for a moment to be a chance for another Lockett toe-tap grab, but the long arm of Riq Woolen reached over Lockett at the last moment to swat it away.