By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Every thing Mike Mcdonald said after Day One of Seahawks training Camp

The Seattle Seahawks opened their 50th training camp Wednesday afternoon at the Vmac on a sunsplashed day full of adoring fans . Here is everything head coach Mike Macdonald said after the teams first day of training camp

Opening Statement) “First of all, great to see everybody. It’s an awesome atmosphere. I’ll tell you what, I’ll put our training camp atmosphere of the 12s, the weather, just everything; all the above is just second to none. Blessed to be out here with the guys, great spirits, locked in. It’s the first day back so there’s some things we’re working through, but optimistic. The guys are in a great spot, so I’ll go attack the rest of the day and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

(On what he is most excited to see on day one)

“I think it’s fun to see the progress come from the spring and, I’ll tell you what, the guys are on it, the intent is there, and it’s us as coaches like, ‘Hey, let’s point out the things where we want to grow from day to day,’ but yeah, it’s just great to have the guys back and we missed them.”

(On where Tory Horton is physically)

“We have a plan to bring him back full-speed. But I mean, when he’s out there, he’s full go, we’re just kind of managing his reps right now. But doing a great job. He’s right in the mix.”

(On the mixing of the offensive line and if it’s still a trial right now)

“It’ll probably go into next week when we put pads on. Yeah, for sure.”

(On Kenneth Walker III) “He looks great. He’s in a great spot, mentally. Just awesome seeing him do all the things that we wanted him to do from the get go. I know he’s really excited about what’s going on. Great first day with Ken.”

(On if his second minicamp feels different than last years)

“Second time around, I think it’s the same message with the rest of the team. If you don’t have the mentality of, ‘Hey, let’s assess where we were, what we were thinking, why we were doing the things, how we can learn, how we can grow.’ I’m right there with the guys. I’d say more confident. Have a better feel for what we’re trying to achieve on a day in day out basis. How we message things, keep it a little tighter. Just a connection with the guys, just being around for another year, whole staff, really. It’s really exciting, but a lot of growth.”

(On if he’s spent more time studying other offenses or other defenses this offseason)

“Probably from the spring till now, more offense. You’re trying to understand the time from the end of the season to off-season program, structurally, where you want to try to take some of our defenses. Yeah, but in the summer, it’s probably more so towards our opponents; for me personally.”

(On if he goes back and forth with Klint Kubiak)

“More so over tape. Most of our conversations have to do with football; we don’t have a lot of interests outside of this. Love sharing those ideas, bouncing stuff off one another. We’re doing a lot of situational work out there, so, we’re constantly going back, ‘Hey, this gives us trouble, or this is a pain in the butt.’ You want to keep it systematic to what we’re doing, but it’s great to have an insight from Klint (Kubiak).”

(On if Uchenna Nwosu is close to practicing)

“We’ll see. We’re going to the season, probably throughout the rest of camp, and then we’ll go from there. We’ll just hold on to the timeline right now, but we’re not necessarily close right now.”

(On if it was clear when hiring Klint Kubiak that they were a good fit personality wise)

 “There’s a lot of people that Klint has worked with that I trust and have those opinions about what it was like working with him. Kennedy Polamalu is a great example; working with him in Minnesota. Obviously what Gary brought to the table. These are the guys you’re working with every day and you’re going to go to battle with and Klint is just a high character guy, high integrity, great football acumen. Obviously, we love the system that he’s bringing to the table, but, yeah, it’s fun to work with him every day.”

(On how to take advantage of the allotted time during the acclimation period)

“Well, it’s critical; guys got to learn what to do and how to do it. You’re only allowed a certain amount of time on the field, and our theory is we’re trying to use that time better than anybody else and be more efficient so our guys can play better ultimately. It’s critical this time of year for sure.”

(On Johnathan Hankins’ injury)

“Yeah, right now he’s NFI, he’s working through a back right now. Long term I think he’s going to be fine, working through it, but Hank’s (Johnathan Hankins) a vet, he’s a twelve year guy. I mean we’re taking our time with it so we’re not in a hurry.”

(On Shaquill Griffin not practicing)

“Yeah Shaq (Griffin) just had a little bit of an illness last night so we’re just being precautious.”

(On re-signing Shaquill Griffin)

“Well it’s something we were working through there’s a process behind it, we had Shaq (Griffin) coming to visit. He had a great visit, kind of twilight zone coming back into the building, offices are flipped around, new faces and everything. But he fits in great, the building and staff love him, and it’s been only a couple of days with the rest of the DB room but he’s going to be a guy we’ll lean on being a vet presence for those guys and it’s been fun so far, but excited to get him out there working with the rest of the team.”

(On what position non mandatory practice in spring to mandatory practice now puts the team in going into the season) “

I think it’s really important personally, I think the guys feel it. They feel the confidence. You know you talk about just our installs today and it’s like ‘hey, I’ve heard this three times already.’ You know rather than the first time you’re hearing it. Offensively, I think we had almost 100% participation the whole time, you can feel the execution right now of where they’re at right now compared to where they were at the first day of Spring. Defensively we’re on a little bit of a different timeline, but you feel the connectedness of the guys and that’s really important especially on defense, you’ve got to play off each other. There’s a lot of chemistry that’s necessary to play good defense.”

(On releasing Noah Fant and the competition for TE)

“I haven’t had any conversations with them. It’s just understood that what we’re trying to achieve as a football team. And we love Noah, we wish him the best, but we also love the guys that are still here. They know what’s at stake and it’s going to be a lot of fun watching that competition at tight end.”

(On releasing Fant/why)

“We released him a few days ago. I’m not going to tell you exactly why there’s multiple reasons.”

(On the process of preseason)

“You’re not going to know, these things come in pieces. I think it’s just a process so you have daily goals of what you’re trying to achieve. You’re going to hit a lot of them, you’re going to miss your target on some of them and then you kind of recalibrate and go. I mean, there’s going to be stages to camp too, right now we’re kind of in a ramp phase, an execution phase. We’re not really physically competing so some of that evaluation’s going to take time, so you know when you get into pads and start doing more situational work, one of our philosophies is we’re going to get a ton of reps over the course of time. All those battles will be able to show themselves and declare themselves, and schematically we know who we’re going to be. But how we’re going to do it, how we’re going to call it, how we’re going to formation it and present itself more clear towards the end of camp”         

(On the offensive schedule so far)

“Yeah, we’re right on schedule.”

(On the importance of offensive meetings/schedule)

“Yeah it speaks to the connection. We talk a lot about 12 is One around here and it wasn’t like I’m going to Sam (Darnold) and telling him to get the guys together, I mean that was totally driven by Sam and the rest of the guys. I don’t know how many routes they ran or how well it was, but it’s just important to be together, talk through those things. I think that sets them up to have a better start to camp and that’s really important.”

(On Jalen Sundell race for right guard) “I would say so, Jalen’s right there though. Up to this point, he won our Top Hawk program, and he keeps having great days. I’m excited to see how it shakes out. It’s going to take time, but it’ll declare itself. I don’t want to just put a number on the guys right now.”

(On what Sundell won)

“Yeah our strength guys, Danny (Van Dijk) and Ivan (Lewis) put together a great offseason program. There’s both a group competition over the offseason and individual. There’s all sorts of different metrics we keep track of. Jalen won it and he had a tremendous offseason, so yeah I’m really excited.”

(On Brady Russell getting tight end time)

“I think what Brady brings to the table is he can do fullback stuff, and he can do tight end stuff, and that makes you more multiple on offense and how you can formation stuff. Whether or not Noah (Fant) was here or not, that’s what Brady brings to the table.”

(On what Mike Morris needs to do to get more opportunities on the field)

“The D-line is exciting. I mean we got a lot of great talent there, a lot of great vet presence. You know us, we’re always trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle. We take pride in the guys who play multiple spots. But the things that Mike is great at just show that when the pads come on, when competition hits, and we start playing preseason games. He knows that, it’s a production business. But we’re excited about Mike. He’s one of those bigger guys that can play the edge and reduce downs. He’s got a pretty cool skill set.”

(On what stood out about DeMarcus Lawrence)

“He’s the best drill player I’ve ever seen in my life. You could ask him to do any drill known to mankind, and just the trust he has on why you’re doing it. It is 1000% every rep, the intent of what he’s trying to create. That’s the standard he’s setting for our front so the guys don’t have a choice but to fall in line and it’s just exciting to see them out there working. You know what he can do on the field, the tape speaks for itself, but you understand how it comes to life based on how he works.”

(On how rare that is for veterans) “I can’t speak for everybody but sometimes vets come in saying look I don’t understand, I can do that, or I only want to do it a certain way, but that’s not DeMarcus (Lawrence). He’s really fun to work with and AD (Aden Durde) obviously loves him, (Justin) Hinds and CP (Chris Partridge) can’t get enough of him.”

(On how the staff manage expectations going into the season)

“Our expectations can’t be any higher than what we expect from ourselves. I mean, bring it on. Yeah, we want to win the championship but in order to do that we have to become a championship team that we’re trying to be. We have a vision for our team of what we want to be, and we believe that vison is a team that the 12s are going to be really proud of, but it takes time. We have to put it together, we have to do all the work, we have to do all the meetings, we have to do all the reps, we have to make those tough decisions. I mean there are so many things that need to happen between now and when we kick it off, that’s why every day is so critical, you can’t skip steps.”

(On Jared Ivey)

“He’s one of those big end type bodies that we’re trying to figure out the best role for him. But he’s right in the thick of it. It’s great competition but that role is kind of unique to us on how we utilize those guys, so he fits in pretty good.”

(On the plan for Byron Murphy II and pass rushing opportunities)

“We’ll create more pass rushing opportunities for our defense and he’ll be right there. Not to be a smart aleck, but we have to play better on early downs to create those situations. We have to play better complementary football. To play with the lead more, all those things as a football team where we can force teams to drop back when we know they’re going to pass. But Murph will earn those roles. However it shakes out with Leo (Leonard Williams) and J Reed (Jarran), and all the rushers, however we can put it together. Yeah, we have a vision for him but as a football team we’ve got to create more of those opportunities for everybody.”

(On what he’s excited to see the offense do)

“Run off the rock man. We want to play our style of ball. Let the O-line do their thing, get Sam (Darnold) on the move, separate the defense, all those things. It’s fun to watch these guys put it together and how they drill it, go from individual to group, how it fits together, all the rules. It’s really exciting.”

Discover more from Cascadiasports.net

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply