RENTON, Wash – Loaded with talent atop the depth chart at arguably the team’s deepest position group, an undrafted rookie making the Seattle Seahawks roster at cornerback seemed like a long shot heading into training camp.
But while he remains squarely on the bubble with the likes of draft picks Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James vying for a spot on the team and veterans such as Artie Burns, Tre Brown, and Mike Johnson ahead of him, Carlton Johnson continues to stack quality practices. The star of the day in Seattle’s 12th training camp practice with five pass breakups, including one that resulted in an interception, the former Fresno State star has put himself on the radar for defensive coordinator Aden Durde and a new coaching staff.
While praising Johnson for his efforts on Tuesday, Durde cautioned that he has to continue to put strong days together, but he’s been encouraged by what he’s seen from him as the rookie has progressed during his first two weeks of training camp.
“With young players like that, it’s about how they develop,” Durde said of Johnson. “He did a great job today, but it’s like how does he move on from that? We’ll see him in pads, we see him in different situations, but I think for those young guys, it’s like constant development. Where do they need to improve? What’s the one thing they need to improve on? He’s doing a great job at the moment.”
On Seattle’s radar throughout the pre-draft process, after running a blazing 4.28 40-yard dash at Fresno State’s pro day, Johnson flew out to the Pacific Northwest for a top-30 visit. The team quickly signed him as an undrafted rookie and after a slow start to his first camp, he has heated up in the past few days, producing a pair of pass breakups in Saturday’s mock scrimmage at Lumen Field.
On Tuesday, Johnson seemed to get his hands on the football nearly every snap in team and 7-on-7 drills. On back-to-back plays early in the first team scrimmage, he knocked away a pass intended for Cody White and then showed off his track speed covering a corner route by Laviska Shenault, getting a finger tip on the pass from PJ Walker before fellow undrafted rookie Dee Williams dove to secure the deflection for an interception. He later broke up a fade route to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in 7-on-7, capping off an outstanding practice.
As for Williams, after opening camp as a receiver, the undrafted rookie out of Tennessee continued to impress as a boundary cornerback. In addition to his interception, he also got his hands on a second pass breakup and played tight coverage in the back of the end zone that forced an incompletion by Sam Howell in the red zone period after he extended the play as a scrambler outside of the pocket.
Johnson and Williams weren’t the only undrafted rookies to shine on Tuesday, however. For a second straight day, running back George Holani impressed, albeit without pads on to dish punishment to defenders as he did on Monday. He still took off for several big runs and caught a couple passes out of the backfield, drawing praise from offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb following practice as he competes against Kenny McIntosh for the third down role.
“I think George has been a standout in general at camp,” Grubb remarked. “He’s got a really, really physical style and his contact balance is really good. He’s picked up the offense really quickly, he’s a bright kid. He has the ability to pass protect and he’s really firm in the inside and at the same time, he has good hands outside, so I think George is a good fit.”
As the Seahawks draw closer to the first preseason game on Saturday, here are three additional takeaways from training camp practice No. 12 at the VMAC:
1. In a battle aptly suited for the 100-meter dash at the Olympics as much as an NFL practice field, DK Metcalf bests Riq Woolen on the deep ball.
It’s rare to see two players with sub-4.33 speed competing against each other at an NFL training camp, but Metcalf and Woolen have been must-see entertainment going against each other since the latter came into the league in 2022. Since the first day of camp, the two have been engaged in a back-and-forth battle with both winning their fair share of reps and even jawing at each other after a few of them, but it’s safe to say Metcalf won the day on Tuesday.
Midway through the first extended team session, Geno Smith dropped back with a clean pocket and instantly drifted his eyes to the left sideline, seeing Metcalf with a couple of steps on Metcalf on a go route after creating early separation off the line of scrimmage. Pulling the trigger with a quick release, the veteran quarterback lofted a tight spiral to his receiver in stride, leaving Woolen in the dust in a rare instance where the speedy cornerback couldn’t recover from getting beat initially as he surrendered a 65-yard touchdown.
Later in the practice, Metcalf cooked Woolen again, beating him with a double move to get to the sideline and using his speed to once again create separation downfield. Smith again delivered a perfect ball with touch and accuracy, as safety Julian Love wasn’t able to get to the sideline on time for a pass breakup and Metcalf hauled the pass in for another long score, finishing the day with three total touchdowns in scrimmage play.
2. From an accuracy standpoint, Sam Howell enjoyed his best – and most consistent – practice throwing the football.
With Smith tossing dimes most of the afternoon – save for a near pick-six that Woolen couldn’t reel in – Howell didn’t gain any ground on his veteran counterpart. But he continues to look more comfortable in Grubb’s offense and after struggling with errant overthrows for much of camp, he was more dialed in on Tuesday, cutting down significantly on his inaccurate passes and making smart decisions with the football.
Much to Howell’s detriment, he hasn’t been helped playing with second and third-string receivers, and that continued on Tuesday. Making arguably his best throw of the entire camp, he fired a perfectly thrown bullet down the seam to Dee Eskridge, only for the ball to fly between his hands without the receiver even getting a piece of it. Two plays later, Eskridge let him down again, as a touchdown pass bounced off his chest in the back lefthand of the end zone after Howell threaded it past Artie Burns in coverage.
When his receivers weren’t dropping passes or completely whiffing on them, however, Howell moved the ball well through the air, however. He did an excellent job reading a cornerback blitz, promptly hitting McIntosh on a wheel route out of the backfield with no defenders in the vicinity for a big play. He later hooked up with Cody White on a fade route for a 25-yard touchdown, playing some of his cleanest football while not receiving the best support from his skill players.
3. Apparently, if the Seahawks have two centers, they didn’t have one.
Over the past week, the Seahawks have opened up the competition at center, mixing veteran Nick Harris into the lineup for reps with second-year pivot man Olu Oluwatimi after the latter seemed to have the job on lockdown early in camp. That trend continued into Tuesday, with Oluwatimi opening each team segment with the first-team and Harris rotating in to snap to Smith.
Following the conclusion of practice, Grubb went as far as saying both players were “doing great” when asked about the center battle, but it’s safe to say that’s not how the Seahawks truly felt at a key position up front as they promptly added an upgrade in free agent Connor Williams.
Less than an hour after Grubb’s comments, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Seattle agreed to terms with Williams on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million. While the coaching staff may say that the competition remains on, assuming the seventh-year veteran has fully recovered from a torn ACL suffered last December, the contract alone should install him as the starter instead of Oluwatimi or Harris. Add in the fact he was once of Pro Football Focus’ highest graded centers the past two years and it seems like a no brainer he will start in Week 1.
What does that mean for Oluwatimi and Harris? In the short term, both should stay on the roster, especially since Harris has prior experience playing guard in the NFL. But come the regular season, it’s hard to envision all three being on Seattle’s 53-man roster, and signing Williams confirms the coaching staff didn’t feel either player was a good enough option to move forward with at this point.
