5 Burning Questions as Seahawks Face Titans in Second Preseason Game

Taking their training camp show on the road for detour to Nashville, the Seattle Seahawks held a spirited joint practice with the Tennessee Titans on Friday, likely meaning that no noteworthy starters will play for Mike Macdonald’s squad in Sunday’s second preseason game.

However, that doesn’t mean that the second dress rehearsal at Nissan Stadium isn’t still an important one. Even if Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Leonard Williams, and other stars stay on the sidelines with a jersey and ball cap on, plenty of roster spots remain up for grabs in all three phases with Seattle’s matchup against Tennessee providing another valuable opportunity to impress the coaching staff with cutdown day now less than two weeks away.

Looking to turn in a far better performance than they did in a 17-7 loss to the Cowboys on their home turf last weekend, here are five key questions for the Seahawks heading into their latest preseason tuneup against the Titans:

1. Will Seattle's quarterback duo of Drew Lock and Jalen Milroe bounce back after underwhelming openers?

Putting up just seven points on the scoreboard to kick off exhibition season, there were far more hands in the cookie jar of offensive dysfunction for the Seahawks than just Lock and Milroe, who each completed north of 60% of their passes but failed to generate much yardage with their passing opportunities, combining to average a dismal 3.6 yards per attempt against the Cowboys. As subs started to rotate into the lineup, the offensive line progressively got worse as the game wore on with the third-team unit allowing consistent pressure on both quarterbacks, including Milroe getting sacked twice in the second half. Penalties also proved to be a major issue, including reserve tackle Logan Brown being flagged twice for crucial fourth down holding penalties.

For the Seahawks to find more success on Sunday, there’s no question the offensive line will have to play better and cut down on the yellow flags that rained down from the sky at Lumen Field against an aggressive Titans defense that will mix in blitzes from the second and even third level. But the quarterbacks will have to do their part as well. Both Lock and Milroe weren’t overly effective beyond 10-15 yard throws against the Cowboys, including the former airmailing a potential 65-yard touchdown pass to Montorie Foster Jr. in the second quarter, while the latter seemed to speed up his clock for escaping the pocket a bit too much in the final two quarters and turned decent pockets into self-manufactured pressure as he tried to bail to use his legs.

It will be interesting to see if Seattle employs a similar strategy rotating Lock and Milroe throughout the game or if Macdonald decides to go back to the more traditional method with one player playing a half before giving way to the other one after halftime. Either way, offensive coordinator Brian Fleury will be tasked with setting up more favorable play calls for the two signal callers to be able to be a bit more aggressive throwing the ball downfield and assuming the line plays better than last weekend, the quarterbacks will have to do a better job of executing with those opportunities to generate more scoring chances, particularly in plus-territory where the team struggled mightily in the opener.

2. How much will Friday’s joint practice serve as an appetizer for running backs getting involved in the passing game?

Among the biggest storylines to come out of training camp for the defending champions, as expanded upon by running back/receiver hybrid Velus Jones Jr., the Seahawks have placed an increased emphasis on throwing the football to their backs this summer. Coming from Kyle Shanahan’s coaching tree, Fleury has taken a big page out of his master’s playbook, implementing a more advanced route tree out of the backfield and mixing in more motion to move backs into the slot or even outside as receiving threats.

That trend continued on Friday during joint practice for Seattle, with rookie Jadarian Price snatching a nice over the shoulder grab in 7-on-7, George Holani scoring a touchdown on a wheel route from Sam Darnold in a red zone drill, and Jones actively involved with several grabs, including a touchdown from Milroe. It remains to be seen if Price plays on Sunday, but if he does, it should be an expectation that he will have at least one or two passes thrown his direction before exiting to the sideline, likely putting him in bubble wrap for the looming regular season.

While Price’s status is up in the air, however, Holani played last weekend against the Cowboys and should see a little action once again, while Jones and Jacardia Wright will see the lion’s share of the reps. Given Jones’ prior background as a receiver, Lock and Milroe likely will be looking for him early and often, potentially even as a downfield threat with deeper routes out of the backfield. Wright also demonstrated excellent hands at the college level and could boost his own candidacy as a 53-man candidate with Emanuel Wilson still nursing a hamstring injury if he reels in a few passes and shows off his playmaking skills as a receiver, which could come in handy helping neutralize blitzes and pressure packages by Tennessee’s feisty defense.

3. Who rises up and seizes the opportunity from the receiver corps with Jake Bobo now lost for the 2026 season?

As feared and insinuated by Macdonald’s post-practice press conference on Friday, the Seahawks officially lost Bobo for the season with a serious knee injury suffered during the joint practice, as he landed awkwardly while trying to catch a contested throw against a Titans linebacker in coverage and had to be carted off the field. The team placed him on injured reserve on Saturday morning, re-signing Julian Hicks as a replacement on the 90-man roster to replenish depth at the position.

With Bobo done for 2026 and Tory Horton out for a “period of time,” in the words of Macdonald, Seattle will need to figure out who it can count on to plug those gaps on offense as well as special teams. Foster, the second-year wideout who has emerged as an unexpected training camp star and Hard Knocks darling, isn’t a hand in glove fit to replace Bobo, as he doesn’t have near the same size and while he gets after it as a run blocker, he isn’t the same force on the outside in that regard. Still, he has been incredibly consistent this summer, catching nearly everything thrown his direction with plenty of visits to the end zone, including scoring the team’s lone touchdown in the preseason opener. He’s also a talented special teams player in his own right, which would help compensate for Bobo’s absence, and a stellar outing on Sunday could lock up his roster spot.

Away from Foster, no player may benefit more from Bobo now being out than Cody White, who at 6-4 has similar size while having a bit more athletic juice to go with it. He may have been a practice squad candidate if the receiving corps was fully healthy, but given the injuries that have stricken the position group over the past week, he now has a prime opportunity to solidify his standing as the fifth or sixth receiver with a quality showing in Nashville, and there’s a clear pathway for both him and Foster to make the team at this point. As for dark horses to watch, Ricky White III and rookie Emmanuel Henderson should get more reps against the Titans and if either pops, with each being versatile special teams assets, they could be right back in the mix.

4. Will there be any semblance of a pass rush coming from the front line to harass Will Levis, Titans’ plethora of QBs?

Since the Seahawks didn’t play Uchenna Nwosu, Demarcus Lawrence, Derick Hall, or Dante Fowler Jr. in the exhibition opener, there’s obviously a big asterisk when it comes to the team’s lack of pass rushing production. But at the same time, the Cowboys didn’t play any of their starting offensive linemen either, so the playing field was more than level enough, and quite frankly, the second and third tier defensive lines didn’t offer much bite at all when it came to getting after the quarterback, as J.R. Singleton and Mike Morris were the only players to generate a quarterback hit on the night.

From a depth standpoint, Seattle needs at least one or two of its young EDGE defenders to elevate their game on Sunday. If there was a bright spot in the opener, Jalan Gaines turned in several flashy speed rushes, including one that forced athletic quarterback Joe Milton up in the pocket, only for rookie Aidan Hubbard to fail to bring him down for a sack as the play turned into a positive run on a scramble instead. The second-year player out of Illinois State has another chance to show what he can do with extensive playing time against Tennessee’s backups, and finding a way to get a sack this time around could work wonders for his value as at least a prioritized practice squad option to retain, if not potentially sneaking onto the roster as a fifth EDGE.

In addition to Gaines, Sunday will be a critical audition for third-year pass rusher Jamie Sheriff, who missed a large chunk of camp with a lower body injury and returned to action last week. A preseason star two years ago, he needs to rediscover that mojo against the Titans to keep himself in the mix to at least stay on Macdonald’s “ready squad,” while second-year rusher Connor O’Toole has plenty of work to do if he wants to keep his spot on the 53. In addition, it would be nice to see either Hubbard or Marvin Jones Jr. splash a bit after mostly quiet camps for the pair of undrafted rookies.

In the interior, rookies Deven Eastern and Uso Seumalo along with Singleton and Bubba Thomas may be vying for one spot on either Seattle’s 53-man roster or the practice squad, as there’s no guarantee any of them will make the team initially. Painting it bluntly, there’s a ton riding on this game at a star-laden position group that already has most of the roster decided for Week 1, and coming through with a few pressures and/or plays in the backfield could be a major difference maker for one player in Nashville.

5. Does Seattle's defense find a way to coax a turnover - or maybe more - after being shutout in the opener?

Macdonald has never been quiet about his desire to generate turnovers defensively, and on their way to a Super Bowl win, the Seahawks were one of the very best in the league at doing just that last year. In the first preseason game, however, that fortune evaded them, as they didn’t intercept a pass or force/recover a fumble, with the lone quick change coming on a muffed punt for the Cowboys on special teams that the offense then failed to capitalize on.

Playing on the road for the first time, Seattle will be playing against a Tennessee squad currently rostering four quarterbacks. Cam Ward may play a few series with starters as he did in the first preseason contest, but most of the game will be played by backups Mitch Trubisky, Will Levis, and Hendon Hooker, three players that don’t exactly have reputations for being the most cautious and careful when it comes to putting the football in harms way. Odds are that the Seahawks’ linebackers and secondary will have a few chances to be able to get their hands on the football, and if they can capitalize on those opportunities, they could flip the field in quick fashion to try to help spark the offense with excellent starting position.

As far as players to watch on that front against the Titans, Bud Clark racked up interceptions in bunches at TCU and he produced an interception in Friday’s joint session. The rookie safety has been slowly getting acclimated to Macdonald’s complex scheme, but as his comfort level grows playing both free safety and big nickel in the slot, his playmaking tendencies are bound to take over and Sunday could be a bit of a breakout opportunity on that front. Keep an eye on rookie cornerback Michael Dansby as well, as the seventh round pick has gotten his hands on a few interceptions in training camp and has the coverage fluidity to jump a route on a forced throw from Tennessee’s quarterbacks.