RENTON — Tyler Lockett. Kenneth Walker.
Top rookies Devon Witherspoon and Zach Charbonnet.
Top sack man Darrell Taylor. Co-captain Nick Bellore.
Tre Brown. Dareke Young. Cameron Young. Kenny McIntosh. Joey Blount. Matt Landers. Vi Jones. Myles Adams. Eason Winston Jr. Bryant Koback. Austin Faoliu. Arquon Bush. Ra’Shaun Henry. Andrew Whitaker. Joshua Onujiogu.
Those Seahawks got hurt then missed at least one of the 16 practices of training camp.
It officially ended Wednesday, with veteran players who live in the area allowed to stay back at their homes instead of the team’s camp hotel from this point on. But for practical purposes the practices with no tackling to the ground remain the same until Aug. 29, the NFL deadline to cut down to the initial 53-man roster for the regular season.
Every training camp has assorted muscle pulls and absences. But coaches and players have noted this was one of the more intense training camps of the last several Seahawks summers.
“A little too intense,” general manager John Schneider told Sirius XM satellite radio Wednesday.
He’s the one who’s been signing replacement after replacement to get the team through practices and preseason games. Schneider signed three more Thursday, to reinforce the team for its preseason game Saturday night against the Dallas Cowboys at Lumen Field.
Seattle signed back cornerback Montrae Braswell and nose tackle Matthew Gotel from Lakes High School. The team also signed wide receiver Justin Marshall. He came down limping after leaping to make a sterling catch in the back of the end zone in his first practice with the team Thursday.
Head coach Pete Carroll doesn’t agree with his general manager. Asked Thursday if this Seahawks training camp was a little too intense, the veteran coach chuckled.
“No, not at all,” he said.
In fact, Carroll challenged his players to have more competitive, more intense practices — within the league’s many rules limiting contact during training-camp practices, of course.
“I think we’ve stepped it up,” Carroll said. “It was a call to return to the standard that we want to practice and perform right. I think we’ve done a more thorough job of making the point on how we want to go and how we want to prepare ourselves, so that carries over to the games.
“I think this is better than we’ve been in the last three or four years.”
Before he injured his hamstring last week, Witherspoon turned the coach’s directive to noticeable action in his first two camp practices.
After the fifth pick in this year’s draft held out the first two days to get his entire $31.8 million contract guaranteed, the cornerback had bigger, taller tight end Colby Parkinson barreling down at him as if intending to run him over following a screen pass. Witherspoon stepped up and put his shoulder into Parkinson. He drove the tight end into the sideline, literally, into the ground, during what was to be a no-tackle scrimmage.
The next day, Eskridge caught a pass a few yards in front of Witherspoon during a red-zone scrimmage. Witherspoon sprinted up to the wide receiver and smashed into Eskridge. Witherspoon lowered his shoulder into Eskridge’s chest and drove him into the sideline forcefully, as he had Parkinson the day before.
“I love that, a guy that’s going to go out there and compete and is not going to back down from a challenge,” Seahawks hulking wide receiver DK Metcalf said. “I know Colby tried to run into him, but he bowed up and tackled him.”
Each day this month, the defense has made an absolute show out of stopping the offense on a play. Like, won-a-playoff-game-in-the-last-second-type celebrating and roaring.
Tuesday, Metcalf and assistant defensive backs coach DeShawn Shead, a former Seahawk, got into a heated shouting match across the field disputing a route and pass in a one-on-one coverage drill.
On his next turn through the receivers’ line the still-steamed Metcalf took his anger out on undrafted rookie cornerback Lance Boykin. Metcalf bulled past his press coverage at the line then sprinted yards past him for an easy catch of Geno Smith’s pass.
Metcalf then continued his woofin’ at Shead after his touchdown.
The Seahawks players have noticed the increased intensity to practices this month.
“I would say, yeah, it’s pretty intense,” Smith said. “If you guys look at it out there, it’s a lot of back and forth. We got great guys on both sides of the ball. There is a lot of depth on all positions and all positions groups. The competition is there. The highlights are being made every single day. Some days defense wins more, some days offense wins more.
“And that’s what you want. It’s a battle. And I think iron sharpens iron. That’s where we’re at right now in camp.”
