Camp Takeaways: Ken Walker III Ready For Week 1, Seahawks’ Rookie D-Linemen Coming of Age

Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde discusses what he has seen from Jared Ivey and the rest of the team’s promising undrafted rookie defensive linemen in camp thus far.

RENTON, Wash. - While training camp isn’t officially over yet and two preseason games remain on the docket, the Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their practices open to fans with a highly competitive, intense two-hour padded session in soaring 90-plus degree temperatures on Tuesday afternoon.

What stood out at the VMAC in the final practice with fans on the berm for the summer? Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s 16th camp practice:

1. Ken Walker III running fast and with purpose, looking ready for 2025 season.

For the better part of the past two weeks, the Seahawks have purposely held Walker out of padded practices, choosing to keep him on the sideline after he missed a good chunk of the offseason program with a foot issue. According to coach Mike Macdonald, that strategy was part of the team’s plan for the oft-injured running back to keep him fresh and that they would continue to stick to that blueprint leading up to the regular season.

However, after not practicing in Sunday’s padded session and not practicing on back-to-back days for more than a week, Walker suited up full go for the first time since Seattle’s first padded practice last month, seeing a fair number of snaps with the first-team offense during 11-on-11 sessions. For anyone questioning where he’s at health wise, the former Michigan State star quickly silenced any of those concerns, using his elite accelerator to bounce a zone run to his right and rocket past a pair of defenders to the second level, seemingly picking up 25 yards in the blink of an eye to the delight of fans.

Only a few plays later, Sam Darnold dumped off a cross screen to Walker, who had a caravan out in front of him with guard Anthony Bradford and tackle Josh Jones ready to take care of defensive backs downfield, allowing the speedy back to get nearly 20 yards before going out of bounds. From that point, he didn’t play many more snaps in the final team periods, but Kubiak and the Seahawks’ coaching staff obviously had seen enough, handing the torch to Zach Charbonnet, George Holani, Damien Martinez, and Jacardia Wright for the rest of the practice.

“I know he has he hasn't been in every practice, but the ones he's been able to attend, you see the flashes of his talent,” Kubiak said when asked where he sees Walker fitting into his offense. “He's out there today, making plays in the pass game and the run game. I see him continuing to get better with reps.”

Considering Walker missed six games last year and has dealt with a variety of injuries in his first three seasons, the Seahawks won’t be taking any chances with him for the rest of camp and the preseason. Appearing to be more than ready to go for facing the 49ers in less than a month, expect him to stay in bubble wrap for the final two exhibition games and the team to remain cautious with his workload on the practice field from now until Week 1.

2. Competition talks be damned, Anthony Bradford has right guard gig on lockdown.

Over the past couple of days, Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak haven’t named a starter at right guard during media availability, with the former acknowledging that he would like to be able to name a starting five on the offensive line as soon as possible with hopes of a decision being made after Friday’s second preseason game against the Chiefs. Per both coaches, the competition remains on at that spot with Bradford, Christian Haynes, and Jalen Sundell all being in consideration.

But at this point, those words seem somewhat hollow based on how practice reps continue to be split up, as it seems like this “competition” has waded into Geno Smith vs. Drew Lock territory a couple years back where the decision had already been made behind the scenes. While Haynes did see a couple of first team reps at right guard for the first time in more than a week on Tuesday, he spent more time rotating in at left guard behind rookie Grey Zabel and Bradford continued to receive the vast majority of the snaps at the position, flashing in the run game as well as on a couple of well-executed screens and holding up well in competitive one-on-one battles against Byron Murphy II.

“AB [Anthony Bradford] has made great strides. Obviously, he’s a physical presence, but you see more consistency in his game throughout camp. I see a guy that's playing more confident,” Kubiak said after Tuesday’s practice.

Barring an ugly showing against Kansas City on Friday night or a - knock on wood - injury, it would be a stunner if Bradford isn’t starting in Week 1. He has been entrenched in that spot with the expected starters for the past two weeks with little to no evidence that Haynes is even in the mix based on practice reps, while Sundell has had to play center in place of an injured Olu Oluwatimi for the past week and thus hasn’t been getting any work at right guard either. Coaches can keep saying a decision isn’t final, but actions speak louder than words.

3. Collectively, undrafted rookie defensive linemen break out in spirited practice.

When the Seahawks open the season on September 7, they will roll out one of the best starting defensive lines in the NFL with defensive tackles Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, and Murphy ready to dominate in the middle and Demarcus Lawrence and Derick Hall bringing physicality, toughness, and quality all-around skill sets off the edge. But behind those five players, depth has remained a concern, especially with veteran nose tackle Johnathan Hankins on the Non-Football Injury list with a back issue and fifth-round pick Rylie Mills still a long way away from playing after tearing his ACL at Notre Dame in January.

If there’s a silver lining, however, the absence of Hankins and Mills has created opportunities for undrafted rookies to impress, and slowly but surely, a promising group has started to emerge that could yield a player or two capable on contributing at some point in the 2025 season. Leading that collection of players, former First-Team All-SEC selection Jared Ivey has quickly become a problem for Seattle’s offensive line to deal with, as the 6-5, 275-pound defensive end generated numerous pressures during the team period, including two “sacks’ that were blown dead before he reached Drew Lock and Jalen Milroe in the pocket.

In addition, coming off a stellar preseason debut where he racked up six tackles for the Seahawks, Ivey won three out of his four reps during the team’s two-on-two blocking/pass rushing drill, dominating second-year guard Sataoa Laumea on back-to-back reps by winning with a swift swim move and bullying the blocker into the backfield with a devastating power rush.

As noted by defensive coordinator Aden Durde after Tuesday’s practice, Ivey wasn’t the only undrafted rookie defensive lineman who impressed in the final open practice in front of fans, however. Defensive tackle J.R. Singleton got chippy with a couple of offensive linemen during the two-on-two drill after battling his way into the backfield and added a couple flashy stops at the line of scrimmage during the team period, while edge defender Jalan Gaines frequently turned up the pressure on Lock and Milroe in team sessions and defensive tackle Anthony Campbell used a nasty arm shiver move to knock guard Bryce Cabeldue onto his backside.

“All those young guys were rolling today, I felt that was one of the best practices they all had as a group,” Durde remarked. “They’re starting to learn how to play together. It's hard when you come in as a front and you're coming into a group of players that have played together for a year. Some of them played longer, we just weren’t here before. So they know how to play off each other. And then you come in, there's real big personalities in the room. Now they're starting to, not getting comfortable, but they're starting to understand the expectations of that position and what's expected of them. You're seeing them all grow. It's kind of cool.”

It remains to be seen if Ivey or any of the other undrafted rookie defenders Seattle has battling in camp will earn a roster spot, but that group continues to improve each day, which has a chance to be a game changer for Durde’s front line once the season arrives.

4. Door kept open for Shaquill Griffin, Nehemiah Pritchett in cornerback competition.

Coming off a practice on Saturday where he broke up five passes in coverage, Josh Jobe again shined in Tuesday’s session, generating two more breakups working against Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. After jumping into the starting lineup in late October and not looking back last year, all signs point to him once again being the No. 3 cornerback for the Seahawks behind stars Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen.

But echoing the words famously used by long-time coach and analyst Lee Corso, when asked about Jobe’s standing as the third cornerback rolling towards the new season, Durde pulled out the stops by unofficially saying “not so fast, my friend.” Still with plenty of time to assess Griffin, who missed more than two weeks of practice away from the team for personal reasons, as well as Pritchett, he wasn’t about to declare the third cornerback spot as decided just yet.

“All of it is an ongoing thing,” Durde said when asked about Jobe’s standing as the third cornerback. “Me and Mike [Macdonald] talk about it all the time. I think Jobe is competing, he's doing his best out there, and we just we'll just see how it plays out.”

Gradually working his way back after the long layoff, Griffin saw his most extensive playing time yet on Tuesday, seeing quite a few snaps as a boundary cornerback with the second-team defense. Though he didn’t produce any pass breakups or interceptions, he also didn’t give up any big plays downfield, and Durde anticipates that as he gets his legs back underneath him, he will be able to throw his helmet into the ring ready to vie for playing time against Jobe.

As for Pritchett, the second-year defender out of Auburn has been playing with far more confidence than he did as a rookie, continuing to build momentum off an impressive preseason debut last Thursday where he intercepted Aidan O’Connell and also produced a nice pass breakup on a deep ball along the sideline. Making one of the best plays of the afternoon against the speedy Valdes-Scantling, he denied the veteran wideout a potential touchdown by swatting away a pass from Darnold in the back lefthand corner of the end zone.

Based on his performance in the first three weeks of camp, Jobe should be viewed as the favorite to see reps in Week 1 when the Seahawks enter nickel or dime packages with three or more cornerbacks on the field. But Durde’s lukewarm commentary suggests that the team still hopes to see him get pushed by Griffin and/or Pritchett at minimum, if not passed on the depth chart.

5. Jay Harbaugh, Seahawks’ staff still in evaluation mode with kick/punt return game.

With the real bullets less than a month from flying at Lumen Field, the clock is certainly ticking for Harbaugh and the rest of Seattle’s special teams staff to figure out who will handle return duties on kick and punt teams. But at the same time, after losing Kenny McIntosh to a season-ending ACL tear in late July and taking one of the front runners out of the competition, there’s still two preseason games left for evaluations to be made, so a decision doesn’t need to be rushed into on that front either.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Harbaugh commented. “This time of year, there’s a lot in the flux in terms of who is going to be on the team and everything like that. So you’re trying to build flexibility of, ‘Ok if the roster goes this way or that way’ you have answers and you’re trying to get guys experience. I would feel differently if it was the first week coming up, but we’re in that process of evaluating and seeing what guys can take it from the practice field into a competitive atmosphere.”

In Seattle’s exhibition opener, running back Damien Martinez, who never returned kicks or punts at Oregon State or Miami in college, returned two kickoffs in the second half, muffing one of them in an eventful special teams debut for the seventh-round pick. Quarterback-turned-receiver John Rhys Plumlee also returned a kick, while receiver Tory Horton made one of the most spectacular five-yard punt returns you’ll ever see by making multiple defenders miss before finally being tripped up and brought to the ground.

Prior to that contest, Horton and receiver Dareke Young saw action together in the Seahawks’ Football Fest practice at Lumen Field, hinting that those two players could be at the top of the depth chart in early August. Horton has the edge as a punt returner after taking three back for touchdowns at Colorado State. But neither of those wideouts have won either job yet, and based on Harbaugh’s remarks, nobody should rule out a surprise emerging in those races, whether it comes in the form of rookie receiver Ricky White III, Martinez, or another wild card who proves himself as a viable option in coming weeks during practice and game action.