The Seattle Seahawks had a much better preseason game than last week’s opener against the Dallas Cowboys. Well, at least much better in the first half.
You know you’ve done well when your backups and deep reserves outplay the starters on the other team, and that’s what happened in Seattle’s 19-16 loss over the Tennessee Titans. The second half, on the other hand? Ehhhhhhh.
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Unfortunately, the game was marred early on by the injury to second-round rookie Bud Clark, which is a significant blow to Seattle’s safety depth.
Let’s get to our second Winners and Losers of preseason.
Seattle Seahawks Winners
Elijah Arroyo continues a strong camp and preseason
A mostly unremarkable rookie season meant we didn’t see as much of Arroyo has hoped last year. He’s been one of the standouts in training camp, and the hope was that Brian Fleury would help unlock Arroyo’s potential. On the game’s opening drive, he caught a play-action pass out in the flat for a sizeable gain on 3rd and 1, then torched Tennessee’s starting defense (who, admittedly, torched themselves with a blown coverage) with a 36-yard touchdown grab.
Jacardia Wright comes back with a bang
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Having missed almost all of last season (albeit on the practice squad) with an injury, then a decent chunk of training camp with another injury, the second-year UDFA dashed through a gaping hole for a 69-yard touchdown run against Tennessee’s starting defense.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Wright, who had a brutal pass pro mix-up that led to a (negated via penalty) Drew Lock interception, and he also botched a 3rd and 9 conversion by not getting up the field instead of trying to juke a tackler.
Drew Lock bounces back
Lock had some wayward accuracy last week, but he was on point against the Titans, going 12/14 for 103 yards and a touchdown. He did have a pick taken away due to a ticky-tack penalty, and it was a poor decision, but I place the initial blame on Jacardia Wright. Given the performance of his teammate, Jalen Milroe, QB2 is safe.
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Connor O’Toole livens up the pass rush
From my camp observations, beat reporter write-ups, and the first preseason game, the pass rush depth at the bottom of the roster had mostly underwhelmed. Connor O’Toole had such a good summer as a rookie that he stayed on the roster and wasn’t even exposed to waivers at any point. O’Toole was excellent against the Titans, recording a sack and a key third-down stop on a Will Levis keeper.
Chazz Surratt, Chris Paul Jr impress in first half
Tyrice Knight and Patrick O’Connell are so valuable that even they got the night off. Surratt was shooting gaps and closing in on ball-carriers, notably recording a strip sack of Cam Ward. Paul, who has scarcely featured in camp or preseason, had a nice fourth-down run stuff of Tyjae Spears.
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Christian Haynes looks better
While I found it peculiar that Haynes played into the fourth quarter (maybe a result of Bryce Cabeldue being subbed in sooner for an injured Mason Richman), he looks like he’s improving a bit under John Benton. He had a key block as the pulling guard on Jacardia’s touchdown run, and he had a rep where he tossed Jeffery Simmons down in pass pro. Was there a snap where Simmons got him back? Sure! But he does that to a lot of guys. Maybe Haynes is salvageable as a backup guard.
The cornerbacks have bright moments
I thought Michael Dansby had a solid game in pass coverage, while Nehemiah Pritchett had a brilliant tackle on a screen pass when he undercut the blocker. Andre Fuller’s face mask was ugly but he had a nice sideline break-up that was, well, it was pass interference but let’s say it was great coverage. Noah Igbinoghene’s DPI was bogus and he looks like the most polished corner to me out of everyone who played tonight. Admittedly, Tennessee’s passing game looks so bad when guys like Will Levis and Mitchell Trubisky are doing whatever on the field.
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We’ll see how Trevon Diggs factors into the equation next week… and maybe Julian Neal?
Montorie Foster might be making this team
I forgot to put this in the original write-up, but Foster just narrowly missed out on what would’ve been a diving grab touchdown (one of Lock’s only two incomplete passes), had a 24-yard catch in the second half, plus a special teams tackle. If Foster is playing special teams, that helps his roster case. He did have a procedural penalty but that’s par for the course for preseason. Foster had tough odds without Jake Bobo, but Bobo isn’t playing this season so that changes the equation a bit.
Seattle Seahawks Losers
Seattle’s health is ravaged some more in Nashville
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First it was Jake Bobo, now it’s Bud Clark. The Clark injury on the first defensive play of the game was a real downer. You feel so much for Clark knowing he’s likely not going to play until 2027 after breaking his ankle.
As if that wasn’t enough, backup lineman Mason Richman is believed to have a major injury as well after his knee buckled on the game’s opening drive. His season figures to also be over.
Whether through roster cuts (Andre Fuller, Emmanuel Henderson, Deven Eastern, and Michael Dansby are all on the bubble, at best) or injuries (Clark likely out long-term, Julian Neal has missed most of camp and preseason), it’s looking like there will be very little impact from this year’s draft. That’s not some disastrous outcome but it’s what would’ve been ideal, and now the 2026 class is almost destined to be largely dependent on what Jadarian Price can do.
The good news? As long as the mystery surrounding Tory Horton clears up, we should see him, Rylie Mills, and Elijah Arroyo all step up in year two. It’s more important the 2025 class takes that leap than ask a lot of out this year’s weaker (on paper) group. Richman, sadly, is part of that 2025 group and now he joins Robbie Ouzts on the long-term injury list.
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All the best to Bud and Mason.
It’s Jalen Milroe discussion time
That was bad. I can’t really sugarcoat it any other way. Milroe was 6/11 for 52 yards, two terrible picks, and two sacks. Once again he got sacked on a fourth down when throwing the ball up for grabs is arguably better. His best play was probably the over the middle throw to Montorie Foster Jr for 24 yards, followed by a deep ball to Cody White that was dropped. Everything else was just basic stuff that shouldn’t intrigue anyone as far as his ceiling.
I get that Milroe is mobile and fast but if he can’t do the quarterback stuff well then you can barely run an NFL offense with him. The good news for the Seahawks is that he was a hedge against Sam Darnold not panning out. Darnold is panning out thus far. My skepticism about Milroe before he was drafted was rooted in him not being good at a lot of regular quarterback things like throwing on time, pocket movement, decision-making, and bad turnovers. I kept an open mind when Seattle drafted him but I’m not really interested in keeping this up beyond for too much longer if there is not major improvement.
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I could live with Russell Wilson’s sacks (before he lost his elite mobility and elusiveness) because he did so many other cool things and was a super accurate QB who made a lot of great decisions. Milroe’s sacks and bad decisions don’t have any sort of meaningful payoff outside of scrambles.
Uhhhh is Jason Myers okay?
The one practice I saw Myers have a struggle was at VMAC. It was a bit of a breezy day and he was pulling all of his kicks wide right. Thus far in preseason he’s missed three kicks (two field goals and a PAT), all of which sailed right. Even his first-half field goal was drifting right from the left hash.
Hopefully he’s getting his misses out of the way now and it’s not a sign of a 2021 redux to come; especially given this is a contract year.
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Cody White does not help his case for a roster spot
Words don’t do justice for how badly Cody White misjudged this ball and gifted the Titans a field goal.
He followed that up later in the game with a drop on a deep pass from Jalen Milroe, tweaking his back in the process.
We’ve been used to White oscillating between roster and practice squad. Jake Bobo’s injury complicates the WR5/6 race a bit, but Cody did not help matters with his performance.
Logan Brown doesn’t fare much better in Week 2
While the offensive line as a whole mostly held up in pass pro, Logan Brown did not. After a penalty-laden, pressure-prone struggle against the Cowboys, Brown immediately started the Titans game with a false start. He also got run over for a sack on Jalen Milroe in the fourth quarter. It’s hard to imagine any path for him onto the 53.
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Final Notes
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What was up with all the face mask penalties? Both teams committed some egregious face masks that almost twisted heads off.
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Emmanuel Henderson Jr did some nice work as a special teams gunner, which is about the best case scenario for him as far as sneaking into the 53.
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Uso Seomalo is a nice story but he’s just getting blown back way too much as a defensive tackle. He might not even be a practice squad stash.
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Ricky White’s pass interference was not subtle and that’s what got him flagged. It could be another round on the practice squad for him.
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JR Singleton is the rare defensive tackle with 10 tackles in a game. Again, not likely to make the roster, but that was notable in the box score.
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Brandon Pili ate up Tennessee’s second unit by blowing up a run and drawing a holding penalty that wiped out a touchdown.
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We’ve got a short week before the preseason finale against the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday at 5 pm PT. After that, it’s a weekend of tough roster cuts and practice squad forming, and we can finally see the first-team in action. I can’t wait!
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