Wednesday in Hawkville

[News Bot]

A recap of the day’s activities at Virginia Mason Athletic Center:
FOCUS ON
John Carlson. Tuesday, it was announced that the team’s incumbent starter at tight end would need season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum. Today, Carlson talked about the injury and the decision to have surgery.
“The decision was kind of made by my shoulder,” Carlson said.
Talk about body language. But that was the case. Initially, Carlson was going to rehab the shoulder and try to play with it.
“It kind of resolved itself by not coming along as far as we wanted it to,” he said. “That’s where my shoulder is. I need to get it fixed and start the rehab process.”
Carlson injured the shoulder diving for a pass in practice on Aug. 13. He then aggravated it later in practice while blocking.
“I’m disappointed, obviously,” Carlson said. “I felt like I had a great offseason of training. Our offseasons are normally devoted to OTAs and minicamps, and those things are great for developing offenses. But the individual training sometimes is lacking and I felt like I had a great offseason in that respect.
“So it’s really disappointing to have to miss this year.”
ROOKIE WATCH
Kris Durham. The wide receiver, and fourth-round draft choice, has had back-to-back impressive practices. And right on cue, with the preseason finale on Friday night and the roster cut to 53 players on Saturday.
Tuesday, the 6-foot-6 Durham went up and over cornerback Kennard Cox along the sideline to catch a pass from Tarvaris Jackson; made a nice catch of a pass from Charlie Whitehurst despite being held by the defensive back; and adjusted his route on a roll out by Whitehurst to get open, and get a hand slap from coach Pete Carroll for the effort.
Today, Durham caught a half dozen balls, including one where he went over Cox to grab a TD pass from Whitehurst on the final play of the two-hour practice.
“I’m working back into it,” said Durham, who missed the preseason opener because of a sore hamstring but has six receptions in the past two games. “It’s a grind. Some of the guys got banged up, unfortunately, so we were a little shorthanded. But a lot of guys came in and stepped up – (Ricardo) Lockette, Doug (Baldwin), Golden (Tate).
“Everybody was just out there making plays.”
Including the one he didn’t mention: Durham.
“I’m just trying to compete and get better,” he said.
PLAYS OF THE DAY
Both involved Lockette, the ridiculously fast rookie free agent. On the first – the offensive play of the day – Lockette somehow made a reaching, one-handed grab of a pass from rookie QB Josh Portis in the end zone despite free safety Earl Thomas being all over him.
“Actually, I didn’t even see him coming,” Thomas said. “I’m looking at the ball and all of sudden he was just there. Boom. It was a great catch.”
When Portis went to Lockette again a few plays later, it produced the defensive play of the day as rookie cornerback Richard Sherman matched the speedy receiver step for step as he locked in on the ball. Sherman then went up in front of Lockette to intercept the pass.
IN AND OUT
Wide receivers Patrick Williams and Chris Carter, who were released Monday, were re-signed today. The club needed their hands because Sidney Rice (shoulder), Ben Obomanu (head) and Isaiah Stanback (hamstring) did not practice, Mike Williams (foot) was limited to individual drills and Deon Butler (leg) remains on the physically unable to perform list.
Each receiver celebrated his return with a nice catch. Williams turned and jumped in one smooth motion to catch a Portis pass along the sideline against cornerback Brandon Browner. Carter ran a nice route and made an even better catch of a pass from Jackson while running toward the opposite sideline, an effort that earned a hand slap from Carroll as Carter returned to the huddle.
Defensive ends Chris Clemons and Dexter Davis and Leroy Hill returned after sitting out Tuesday, while strong safety Kam Chancellor was limited.
But eight others sat out, including running back Marshawn Lynch (ankle) and middle linebacker David Hawthorne (knee). Leon Washington got the first reps with the No. 1 offense for Lynch, while rookie K.J. Wright continued to fill in for Hawthorne. Atari Bigby worked for Chancellor with the No. 1 defense.
Also out: safety Josh Pinkard (knee), defensive end Pierre Allen (hamstring) and Carlson, in addition to the other three players who are PUP – tight end Cameron Morrah (foot), defensive tackle Colin Cole (ankle) and cornerback Roy Lewis (knee).
RETURN REPLAY
Just how good was Baldwin’s 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Saturday night’s game against the Broncos in Denver? We decided to ask Washington, who had scoring returns of 101, 99 and 92 last year in his first season with the Seahawks.
“Doug does a good job of practicing it, he hits it hard in practice,” Washington said. “So I wasn’t surprised in the game for him to finish the way he did. That was impressive.”
Washington saw the same thing that Baldwin mentioned after the game: Great blocking that allowed Baldwin to run untouched until he eluded one would-be tackle at the 20-yard line.
“We had a bounce set up, where he’s going to sell it to the middle of the field and then bounce it to the left,” Washington said. “The wedge did a good job, and Doug did a good job of selling it. Once he broke it to the left, there was nobody over there. So he did a good job.”
UP NEXT
The players have a morning practice on Thursday, their final full session before Friday night’s preseason finale against the Oakland Raiders at CenturyLink Field. They will then have Saturday and Sunday off.
The 80-man roster must be trimmed to 53 players on Saturday.
YOU DON’T SAY
“It’ll be fun to see those guys, I know them so well. So it will definitely be fun to go out there and play against my old team.” – tight end Zach Miller, who played the last four seasons for the Raiders

Source: Seahawks.com