NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks’ offense faced a familiar foe during joint practice with the Tennessee Titans on Wednesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Roaming the Tennessee secondary wearing a No. 26 jersey was veteran safety Quandre Diggs, who was released in March after four and a half seasons with the Seahawks. Another former Seattle safety, Jamal Adams, participated on a limited basis, as he has been working back from an absence at Titans camp.
Ahead of the joint practices with his old team, Diggs offered some words of advice to the defense, according to Titans safety Amani Hooker.
“Know where DK (Metcalf) is, and know where (Jaxon Smith-Njigba) is at,” Hooker said. “Geno is going to find a way to get those guys the ball. Whenever they’re going deep, expect the ball is coming.”
For Seattle, the purpose of joint practices — there will be a second session Thursday morning — is to see how the team’s best stuff on both sides of the ball stacks up against an opponent. For the offense, it’s an opportunity to see how effective the Seahawks can be at getting the ball to their best players and, in the context of Diggs’ advice, how well they adjust to the defense working to eliminate their top weapons.
Because Seattle’s starters aren’t expected to play in Saturday’s preseason game, I spent Wednesday’s practice watching how the offense fared against Tennessee’s defense. The Titans’ secondary was without its top two cornerbacks, Chidobe Awuzie and L’Jarius Sneed, while the Seahawks’ offense didn’t have receiver Tyler Lockett (leg), tight end Noah Fant (undisclosed) and running back Zach Charbonnet, who didn’t dress due to tightness he felt Wednesday morning (coach Mike Macdonald said Lockett’s injury isn’t serious).
Overall, Seattle’s first-team offense handled itself well and finished strong with a touchdown to Metcalf on the final play.
GO DEEPER
How will the Seahawks’ offense look under Ryan Grubb? Here’s what we’ve learned
Diggs, who wasn’t made available to the media after practice, was correct about Smith’s desire to get Metcalf and Smith-Njigba the ball. Smith’s first pass of the opening team period was an incompletion to Metcalf. His next was to Smith-Njigba on a wheel route up the sideline for an explosive gain. When the first-team offense was up again, Smith and Metcalf couldn’t connect on a long ball down the sideline — it looked like a drop — but they hooked up on the next play, as Metcalf was able to get free in the second level of the defense.
After a break for special teams action, the first-team offense returned to the field, and Smith’s next three passes were a back-shoulder throw to Metcalf for a big gain against cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., an underneath pass to Smith-Njigba and then a comeback route to Metcalf (again against Brownlee). Even though the Titans knew where the ball wanted to go, Smith was able to get the ball to his top targets.
“I felt the offense felt comfortable today, honestly,” Smith-Njigba said. “We made the plays. Ones did their thing; twos did their thing. We felt comfortable, we trusted the play calling and trusted everyone to do their job.”
JSN and (I think) Robert Javier pic.twitter.com/zUjjFBHj7h
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) August 14, 2024
The challenge Seattle’s offense faced Wednesday wasn’t the throwing and catching as much as giving the quarterbacks time to get the ball out, a very familiar issue for this unit. After those three straight completions by Smith to his top guys, right guard Anthony Bradford was beaten by Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons for what would have been a sack on third down.
During a third-down pressure period, Smith didn’t get the ball to Smith-Njigba or Metcalf. The completions he had were to tight end Brady Russell and running backs Ken Walker III and George Holani (albeit for first downs in at least two of those three instances). Outside linebacker Harold Landry got a sack during that period, rushing from the right side of the offensive line.
GO DEEPER
Five unanswered Seahawks questions on eve of preseason: How reliable is the O-line?
Seattle’s offense ranked 23rd in third-down conversion rate last year, so that drill will be one of the most important to watch in practice and any preseason action involving Smith and the starting offensive line. There are a couple of ways to assess the starting unit’s performance in that situation Wednesday: On one hand, the ball didn’t get to Metcalf and Smith-Njiba against a secondary missing its top cover corners. On the flip side, Smith took what was available and moved the chains with throws to other guys. My unofficial charting had Smith’s group converting half of its third-down attempts.
“I want to watch the film so I can give you a complete answer, but overall, I think we handled it well,” Smith said of the first-team offense during that period. “I thought if it was a game situation, we would have converted a few of those. Obviously, last week in the game we were 55 percent (on third down), which is really good, so those are areas that we talked about improving. We’re working towards that, and it seems like we’re getting better in that area.”
The final period — known as the “move the ball” session — was the most game-like action for Seattle’s starting offense. It happened at the end of a two-and-a-half-hour practice in hot and humid conditions with temperatures in the 80s. It was a test of fighting through fatigue as much as it was a matter of executing the plays.
Metcalf was able to pick up a first down, but the lone run play didn’t appear to gain much of anything, and the starting offense’s first drive ended with a sack, with Bradford again appearing to be the culprit. The owner of the sack might owe an assist to Diggs, who looked to have taken away Smith-Njigba on the play. There were a few instances Wednesday in which it appeared Diggs anticipated a deep shot to Smith-Njigba or Metcalf and rotated accordingly to make the throw more difficult.
“Gotta know where he is; he’s an extremely smart player,” Smith said of Diggs. “He reads the quarterback’s eyes. I try to look him off, and he’s not always going to go for it. So, when you got veteran guys like that, it only makes me better. It makes our offense better the more I can go up against great players like Quandre.”
Smith’s final series of the day featured a big catch from Smith-Njigba, whose ability to get behind the defense infuriated one of the Titans’ coaches, as the safety on that play was removed from the drill (of note: the protection was strong on that snap). A fourth-down sack by defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day, who came from the right side of the line, killed that drive, though. Either because of the structure of the drill or a flag on the play, the drill continued, and the offense moved into the red zone.
Seattle’s offense ranked 20th in goal-line efficiency last season and 25th in the red zone. The team ranked 31st in EPA per rush in the red zone. How Seattle finishes this drill each day is arguably the most important part of each practice.
Holani had nowhere to run on a pair of goal-line carries, setting up a third-down snap to end the day for the starters. Metcalf beat cornerback Elijah Molden on a 6-yard slant to win the drill. Molden wrapped up Metcalf at the 1-yard line, but it doesn’t require much imagination to figure the 6-foot-4, 235-pound ball carrier’s momentum wouldn’t have been halted by a 5-10, 192-pound defensive back.
Macdonald spent the day calling the defense, so he couldn’t offer much of an assessment on the offense after practice, but his quarterback was encouraged by his group’s performance, and it probably helped that the final play was a touchdown to the guy the defense knew would be getting most of the attention.
“Not playing in preseason, you want to get those drives in, and we want to feel what it’s like go through a 10-, 12- or 14-play drive,” Smith said. “As you can see, once you get down there in the red zone, guys are going to be a little tired, but you’ve got to finish, and you want to see what that feels like. It was great to have that opportunity on the field.”
(Photo of DK Metcalf, 14, and Roger McCreary: Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA Today Network)
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Sign Up
