> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Camp Takeaways: Riq Woolen, Jaxon Smith-Njigba Enjoy Spirited Battle at Seahawks 12th Practice - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/camp-takeaways-riq-woolen-jaxon-smith-njigba-enjoy-spirited-battle-seattle-seahawks-12th-practice/ - Published: 2025-08-06T01:17:11.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:36:53.000Z - Author: Corbin Smith - Tags: Analysis, Seahawks, Riq Woolen, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Anthony Bradford, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Dareke Young, Tory Horton, Training Camp ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/unnamed--281-29-format-original-1.jpg) RENTON, Wash. - Just two days away from their preseason opener against the Las Vegas Raiders at Lumen Field, the Seattle Seahawks turned in their last full throttle practice of the week as they start winding down preparation for their first dress rehearsal of the summer. “Today kind of wrapped up a big push for us with last week and the day off and then we had two great days of practice here where we really got after it and great competitive practices,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said following practice. “All attention now is to Thursday and getting our body's right to go play a game.” What went down at Seattle’s 12th training camp practice? Here are five takeaways from the VMAC: ### 1\. Riq Woolen and Jaxon Smith-Njigba engage in a back-and-forth, practice long duel on the outside. Two of the team’s best young stars, Woolen and Smith-Njigba test one another regularly on the practice field in a true “iron sharpens iron” type matchup. But in Tuesday’s practice, the two franchise cornerstones took the competition up a notch or two with quarterback Sam Darnold more than happy to test Woolen lined up across from Smith-Njigba on the boundary. Interestingly, Smith-Njigba endured an uncharacteristic bout of the drops early in practice, having a short pass from Darnold clank off his hands after coming open over the middle running a drag route out of the slot and failing to bring in a deep ball down the left sideline with the pass bouncing off his left hand after getting a couple steps of separation against Woolen, missing out on a couple of passes he normally would snag. But from there, the two exchanged wins with big catches and pass breakups that stirred up the large crowd watching from the berm. Transitioning into Seattle’s second team period, Smith-Njigba caught a pair of slant routes from Darnold while working against Woolen, using his elite initial quickness and suddenness to win at the line of scrimmage and create quick separation. But when the quarterback tried to challenge the long, speedy cornerback on a go ball again moments later, while the throw was an excellent one with plenty of air underneath it, Woolen extended his arm and swatted the pass away, denying the offense a 30-plus yard completion. He later added another breakup on a quick comeback, leading to an even score between them on four targets. “It seems like he got faster,” Woolen said of going against Smith-Njigba. “A lot of people think he was a person that can just play in the slot but that was a misconception and what people would say. They never really watched his game because he’s got releases, he’s got great hands, and he can get yards after the catch. He’s real smooth, he runs like water.” ### 2\. Competition continues to heat up between Marquez Valdes-Scantling, young receivers. Signed to a one-year contract in March shortly after the team traded away DK Metcalf and cut Tyler Lockett, the Seahawks brought Valdes-Scantling on board with the expectation that he would be their No. 3 wideout behind Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp. The veteran receiver found great success in coordinator Klint Kubiak’s offense in New Orleans last season, averaging north of 20 yards per reception and scoring four touchdowns after joining the Saints in the middle of the season, making him an ideal fit to help replace some of the production lost in the offseason. But after two full weeks of practice, Valdes-Scantling has been pushed by numerous wideouts on the roster, including fifth round pick Tory Horton. Back healthy after undergoing knee/hamstring surgery last November, the speedy ex-Colorado State star has emerged as one of Darnold’s favorite targets as camp has progressed, earning himself a ton of snaps with the first team offense at the veteran’s expense. He continued to light it up on Tuesday, springing open on a smoothly ran corner route with Darnold hitting him in stride for a 25-yard gain. Away from Horton, fourth-year receiver Dareke Young also kept momentum going in his favor as he pushes to stay on the 53-man roster, making a spectacular one-handed catch on an underthrown deep ball by Jalen Milroe and pulling it away from the defender in the air before waltzing into the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown. Rookie Ricky White III also had his best day of camp so far, snagging a 22-yard fade route from Milroe and later adding a nice run and catch over the middle from Lock, further ramping up the pressure on Valdes-Scantling. “He knows he's in a battle, and I think he respects Tory \[Horton\], what he's doing, and he's had a great attitude,” Macdonald stated. “He's a competitor at heart. He's had a great career, but there's also a lot of great competition too. That's what you want from vets that you bring in. Come on and bring it, but if doesn't go your way initially, the way exactly you want it, that's okay. We're still halfway through. Let's rock and roll. Start stacking some more plays and it's a fun competition to watch.” To Valdes-Scantling’s credit, the veteran hasn’t shied away from the competition even while ceding first team reps to Horton and Young as of late. Though he didn’t see a fastball from Lock whizzing past his helmet on an incompletion along the right sideline, he came back on the very next play and caught a slant over the middle, turning on the afterburners to run past two oncoming safeties for a 55-yard touchdown. With him not considered a contributor on special teams, even with $3 million guaranteed on his contract, he will have to continue making such plays to ensure he sticks on the roster. ### 3\. There may - or may not? - be clarity emerging in Seattle’s ongoing right guard competition. Last week, Macdonald made it known that he hoped Seattle would have a better idea of who would be starting at center and right guard by the conclusion of the second preseason game. Even with Olu Oluwatimi missing a second straight practice due to a sore back, he seems to have a firm grip on the center job over Jalen Sundell, and right guard appears to be getting closer to a similar conclusion. For the past week of practices, Anthony Bradford has received the lion’s share of the Seahawks first team reps at right guard, a telltale sign that new line coach John Benton has liked what he has seen from the third-year blocker. Behind him, Sundell hasn’t been a factor the past few days because of him taking all the center snaps with Oluwatimi sidelined, while it was Sataoa Laumea instead of Christian Haynes working at right guard with the second team offense on Tuesday with the latter moving over to left guard. “I think he's taking control of his career,” Macdonald said of Bradford’s progress in a new offense. “I think it's his mentality that it's up to him. Nobody else can want it for him. We obviously know he has the talent to be a great player in this league, and he's shown it in practice consistently. He has game reps where he's shown it. We all know it's a matter of consistency and that's the challenge for him to finish this start that he's put together and we're about halfway through training camp. Let's go close the thing out the right way. It's a long season and we have to keep stacking those reps.” It’s been quite the regression for Haynes, who opened camp getting the bulk of Seattle’s first team reps and appeared to be in the lead in the competition. But since then, he has struggled trying to acclimate to center with misfired snaps and several missed blocks in team periods, and the decision to now swap him and Laumea suggests that they have seen enough of him at right guard and that he’s played out of that competition. As Macdonald noted following practice, after an up-and-down first two seasons where he flashed at times but also struggled in pass protection and committed far too many penalties, Bradford has to prove he can play with better consistency during the preseason and remainder of camp to lock up the job. So for now, the Seahawks aren’t ready to name him as the starter with Sundell still a possibility once Oluwatimi returns, but there does seem to be some headway in that competition heading into Thursday’s exhibition opener. ### 4\. Well ahead of last season, Josh Jobe keeps stacking quality days vying for significant secondary snaps. Weeks before the start of training camp, the Seahawks signed veteran cornerback Shaquill Griffin to a one-year deal, bringing him back on board for a second stint with the franchise. With this return to the Pacific Northwest, the former Pro Bowler was expected to compete against Jobe for the third corner spot behind Woolen and Devon Witherspoon, but he missed nine practices for personal reasons and didn’t participate on Tuesday despite being back with the team. Taking advantage of Griffin not being able to practice or even be at the facility, Jobe has picked up where he left off last season as an unexpected practice squad-to-starter success story. After being claimed off waivers from the Eagles, he wound up starting 10 games for the Seahawks and took former starter Tre Brown’s job in the process, leading to the team signing him to a new one-year deal in March. While Jobe hasn’t made many splash plays in camp to this point, he has performed well in one-on-one matchups against Seattle’s best receivers and rarely gotten beat for big plays in coverage during team sessions, maintaining his edge despite not having any viable competition pushing him for snaps. In Tuesday’s practice, after initially getting beaten outside by Kupp on a comeback route, he recovered and demonstrated outstanding technique using his hands to rip the ball out of the receiver’s hands before he could fully secure the catch for a pass deflection. There's some areas where he's done a lot of work on, which is fun to see him do that,” Macdonald remarked. “And he's got a great opportunity in front of him. We all know that we have our corner situation, and he's right there, and he played a lot of great football for us. We talked last year about his approach, and I think that's also contagious. You walk in the building as a practice squad guy, and kind of an unknown guy in the building, and you just plug away at it, play by play. And you stack reps and you start to make the plays you're supposed to make, then you're going to get noticed. And we're going to give you opportunities. Then he makes the best of all those opportunities. “That's how we want to roll here, and he's a great example about how you can change the trajectory of your career.” Even on a play late in practice where Jobe ended up surrendering a touchdown to Smith-Njigba in the red zone, he had excellent coverage on the receiver as Darnold rolled out to his right, only for the quarterback to make a perfectly placed throw towards the front right pylon for six points. Sometimes, a better throw simply beats fantastic coverage, and most of the time, that play wouldn’t have resulted in a score. As things stand, even with Griffin expected to start working his way back into the rotation, it seems highly unlikely Jobe will be surrendering snaps to him anytime soon. ### 5\. Expect a blended approach regarding which “starters” will play in Thursday’s preseason opener. In the midst of their first game week of the 2025 season, Macdonald clarified his previous statement from Saturday’s Football Fest on starters not playing for the Seahawks against the Raiders, indicating that it wouldn’t be as cut and dry as the top 22 players on offense and defense sitting out. While stars such as Leonard Williams, Ken Walker III, and Witherspoon will be kept in bubble wrap, this shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that the team still has a couple positional battles ongoing on the offensive line, including Bradford and Sundell vying for the right guard role. Away from those obvious position battles, Seattle also will play rookies who could start or play major roles such as left guard Grey Zabel, safety Nick Emmanwori, and tight end Elijah Arroyo to see their first true NFL game action before Week 1\. How long of a run those players will be given remains to be seen, however, and it could be a fluid situation depending on how the early stages of the game play out when it comes to how many snaps they will receive. “It's select guys. Some position battles are still going. If there's younger guys, like Nick \[Emmanwori\] will get some good reps. You’ll see Grey \[Zabel\] initially, Elijah \[Arroyo\] will play. So all those young guys, they need that, they need experience and reps too.” One thing is for certain, though. Macdonald isn’t going to be basing any of his decisions on whether or not former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll plays his starters on the other side. Every team has different approaches this time of year and based on how he handled things last year, expect the team to err on the side of caution if there’s any questions about a player suiting up and actually logging snaps.