A day after missing practice due to a family matter, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald was in his element. MacDonald split the coaching duties between Defensive Coordinator Aden Durde and Assistant Head Coach Leslie Frazier. Durden called the defensive plays during practice with Frazier overseeing the practice and giving the post-practice speech. When asked about his reasoning for missing practice, Macdonald was humble and deflected the attention to his team and the task ahead.
“It was just with my family, but everything’s positive, everything went great, and I’m very blessed. Very blessed. But all positive. People have big problems out there, I don’t, said Macdonald. T”oday kind of wrapped up a big push for us with last week and the day off and then we had two great days of practice here where we really got after it and great competitive practices. All attention now is to Thursday and getting our body’s right to go play a game.”
FOCUSING ON THE PROCESS RATHER THAN THE RESULT
MacDonald and his staff will be reviewing multiple items during and after the team’s preseason home opener Thursday night when they host the Las Vegas Raiders.
“There’s so much to get out of these games. There are a lot of position battles that you want to see, you want to see how guys handle live and in color schemes that they haven’t been seeing the last X amount of practices. Going against other people is really exciting, being in front of the 12s is going to be a lot of fun and we want to win the game,” said Macdonald.” That’s how we’ll call it, and that’s how we’ll handle all the situations, but getting our guys great reps as well. We want to get our guys an opportunity to go show what they’ve been practicing and training to do.”
While some of the starters will sit out Thursday’s game, it be more than several backups playing and looking to move up the depth chart. “Yeah, it’s not like, ‘Hey, we’re taking the 22 guys that are penciled in with the ones and they’re not playing, said Macdonald . ’ It’s select guys. Some position battles are still going. If there’s younger guys, like Nick (Emmanwori) will get some good reps. You’ll see Grey (Zabel) initially, Elijah (Arroyo) will play. So all those young guys, they need that, they need experience and reps too.”
A LONG INJURY LIST
While it is early in the preseason, several players missed Tuesday’s practice due to minor and some not-so-minor injuries that could affect their position on the team. Center Olu Oluwatimi missed the last several days of practice due to a tightening of his back. Macdonald said Oluwatimi’s situation is day to day. Linebacker Tyrice Knight missed Tuesday’s full practice after missing half of Monday’s practice due to a tingle in his knee, according to Macdonald, who also added that Knight’s knee will be getting imaged. Linebacker Josh Ross had surgery on is hand is expected back soon, according to Macdonald who did not have an update for Jonathan Hankins.
The Seahawks placed Hankins on the NFI ( non football injury list ) on July 23rd due to a back injury. Macdonald also stated that the team has a plan to integrate Shaquill Griffin back in the mix after he missed several practices while attending to a family matter. “We have a plan for Shaq (Griffin). He’s back. He’s missed some time, so you can’t just throw him in and let him rock with the wolves. But we have a plan, so we’ll stick to that, “ said Macdonald.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO SAY THANK YOU
Thursday night’s game will provide an opportunity for Seahawks fans to show their gratitude to former head coach Pete Carroll and quarterback Geno Smith. Carroll coached the Seahawks for 14 years and won one Super Bowl. Smith spent six years with the Seahawks.
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