Takeaways From Seahawks’ Annual Football Fest at Lumen Field

SEATTLE, Wash. - Taking the next step towards their Week 1 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, the Seattle Seahawks hosted fans at Lumen Field for the first time in the 2025 season at their annual football fest on Saturday.

Unlike previous years where former coach Pete Carroll conducted a mock scrimmage with running clock, Mike Macdonald and his staff held a more traditional practice with individual and group drills littered in between situation-based team scrimmage periods. But they still kept score, with the green team “winning” 31-28 after a touchdown pass from Jalen Milroe closed out a fun, successful evening in front of the 12s.

“Great to be back at Lumen,” Macdonald said afterward. “Great practice, great show out from the 12s. It was a great atmosphere. Music was bumping. Guys were into it. We have gone the whole week now, so they are pretty sore. But great spirits and great practice, so day off tomorrow, and then we'll be back at it on Monday morning.”

Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s pseudo-scrimmage at Lumen Field:

1. Sam Darnold’s improving chemistry with Jaxon Smith-Njigba continues to manifest into big plays.

Tying Tyler Lockett for the most catches in franchise history (100) and eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in 2024, Smith-Njigba has been workmanlike in his approach during his third training camp adapting to a new offense and a new quarterback. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been productive, and as of late, the former first-round pick has been turning in more explosive plays on the practice field as his rapport with Darnold has grown over the past few weeks.

In Saturday’s situation-heavy practice, Smith-Njigba offered the first fireworks for fans to get hyped about, selling that he was blocking on a safety coming down from the slot before cutting out of his break to run a corner route. Leaving his defender in the dust on the play action pass, Darnold lofted a perfect throw to his new No. 1 target in stride, allowing the receiver to turn upfield down the sideline for a 35-yard reception that drew loud cheers from the crowd.

While Smith-Njigba didn’t have any other receptions north of 20 yards, he turned several quick receptions into 10 or more yards, demonstrating the run after the catch ability that Darnold said caught his eye before he joined the Seahawks as a free agent in March. Making an interesting comparison to another sport, he gushed about his smoothness as a route runner working in and out of his breaks, saying he played the receiver position as if he had ice skates on instead of football cleats.

“He's one of a kind,” Darnold said. “Just the way that he can get in and out of routes, his shiftiness. I think for him, just the way he gets in and out of cuts, his speed, it's really everything. I described the way that he moves kind of like a hockey player on ice, feels like sometimes he's just skating out there. The way that he can get in and out of cuts, and that's just how I feel as a quarterback. And even when I throw him the ball, even not being on his team, I always felt like he was one of the best guys run after the catch in the NFL. So to kind of see it in person, see it every single day during camp, has been special.”

2. Finishing off a strong week, Dareke Young and Tory Horton keep momentum going.

Every summer at Seahawks camp, there always seems to be a returning veteran hovering under the radar who enjoys an unexpected breakout, and this year, Young has fit that bill and then some. After not having a single reception in either of the past two seasons, the former seventh-round pick out of Lenoir Rhyne may have been written off by some, but he has been a huge surprise in the first two weeks, working his way up the depth chart to start getting first and second-team reps.

Earlier in the week, Young made a remarkable catch of an underthrown deep ball in a 1-on-1 rep off the helmet of cornerback Damarion Williams, seeming to reenact David Tyree’s famous Super Bowl catch from years ago. Then on Friday, he reeled in a tough touchdown reception in the back righthand corner of the end zone from Drew Lock, emulating Willie Mays snagging the ball over his shoulder and getting both feet down inbounds. Heading into Saturday, he had four touchdowns in the previous three practices during team or 1-on-1 drills.

Keeping his streak of scoring in practice alive, Young showed up big again on Saturday night, this time skying for a deep ball from Jalen Milroe in a crowd of multiple defenders, managing to come down with it for six points. He also returned a couple of kickoffs during the special teams period, working alongside rookie Tory Horton, suggesting those two players may be in the lead to win those roles, and Macdonald acknowledged that Seattle “can’t ignore” how he is coming through with plays every single day.

“I feel the physicality. He's always been a physical guy, especially on special teams, gunner, that sort of thing. But in the run game, we feel him,” Macdonald commented. “I feel like he's somehow gotten more flexible. He has done a ton of offseason work. He's a rocked-up guy, really strong, but getting in and out of his breaks, sinking his hips explosive out of breaks, you feel that. And then he's made some really great contested catches, especially in the red zone, so that's been great. Happy for him. He deserves the situation that he's put himself in.”

Speaking of Horton, after grabbing two touchdowns on Friday, the rookie out of Colorado State once again saw significant action with the first team offense. Darnold missed him twice early on in the scrimmage period with slightly overthrown balls, but he later connected with the speedy fifth-round pick for a couple of receptions and he nearly pulled off a remarkable grab in a 1-on-1 rep on a throw from Lock, narrowly missing getting his second foot down inbounds in the end zone. Adding that to his kickoff usage, he looks to be making a run at seeing snaps early on offense to bring a field-stretching element to the passing game.

“Seems like a wise man Steve Smith Sr. once said, ‘Rookies need to make a play a day to make a name for themselves.’ He's doing that,” Macdonald said. “He's making multiple plays every day. So it is great for the Seahawks, great for him, and great competition in the receiver room.”

3. Tyrice Knight, Drake Thomas lead a stellar effort from off-ball linebackers shutting down the run.

Unlike most of the practices in training camp this year, there were not many big plays generated by Macdonald’s defense on Saturday night. The Seahawks didn’t pick off a single pass and honestly didn’t come close to intercepting one, with safety Ty Okada knocking the ball out of rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo’s hands for a pass breakup being the closest example.

With that said, Seattle’s defensive units stuffed a bunch of run plays during scrimmage periods, with the linebackers in particular standing out. On the first team session, Knight quickly read run on a backfield sweep to rookie Damien Martinez, strafing to his left before flowing downhill to smack the running back at the line of scrimmage for no gain. On several other plays, the second-year ‘backer navigated through traffic to quickly stifle rush attempts, limiting the offense to under two yards before the whistle blew.

Even without actual tackles happening, Drake Thomas’ presence could be felt working with the first and second-team defenses as well with the pop of his pads at contact. Early on in the scrimmage period, he stone walled George Holani with an audible thump before wrapping up, locking up the back in his tracks. He later tracked down Martinez on an outside zone that bounced to the perimeter, running him down in pursuit before he could turn upfield at the sideline and pushing him out of bounds for a loss.

With Ernest Jones still working his way back into full action coming off offseason knee surgery and recently missing time due to the passing of his father, Knight and Thomas continue to get a lot of reps at the MIKE spot. As things stand, the latter hasn’t yielded any ground to other competitors as the primary backup and if the season started tomorrow, he’d be next in line behind Jones and Knight on game day.

4. The Jalen Milroe, Tyrone Broden connection electrifies Lumen - with an assist from Mike Macdonald.

Earlier in the week, Macdonald hinted that Seattle’s younger players on the third team offense and defense would get plenty of run on Saturday, and that proved to be the case and then some. Early on in the scrimmage periods, Milroe took off as a run frequently, both on designed rollouts as well as improvised pass plays where the pocket broke down and forced him to escape, showing off his 4.39 speed to oohs and ahs in the crowd.

But after uneven practices on Thursday and Friday that featured several inaccurate passes that got away from him, Milroe impressed most as a passer in his first action at Lumen, starting with his touchdown throw to Young. On that play, he bided his time in the pocket before stepping up to evade an oncoming pass rusher, launching the ball from the condensed pocket with a beautiful spiral and putting it in a position where the receiver had the best shot to catch it. Moments later, he tossed a dime to John Rhys-Plumlee in 1-on-1s, placing the ball right on his hands in stride.

Milroe saved his best for last, however, receiving a bit of help along the way. Conducting a four-minute offense situational period, the rookie signal caller set his feet with multiple rushers squeezing down on the pocket and fired a perfect strike down the right sideline to Broden, feathering the ball over the top of tight coverage for a 30-yard gain along the sideline. Three snaps later, the drive appeared to stall out, only for Macdonald to pull the flag from an official’s pocket and call a penalty on his own accord to extend the possession with a new set of downs.

Capitalizing on the gifted opportunity presented by his new coach, Milroe confidently unloaded another well-thrown deep ball to the end zone, linking up with Broden again for a practice-ending touchdown. It remains debatable whether the receiver actually got both feet down, but without a replay booth, officials agreed to count it, sending fans into a frenzy before players started signing autographs for the better part of the next hour.

5. An unfortunate injury sullies an otherwise fun night returning in front of the 12s.

Nobody wants to see injuries happen in general, especially in a practice setting. The Seahawks hoped to come out of Saturday night unscathed without tackling allowed and more control over the elements than in a preseason game, but that wasn’t meant to be.

On Milroe’s touchdown pass to Young, multiple defenders were in the facility and the play emulated a typical Hail Mary toss with at least four players jumping to make a play on the football. While Young wound up bringing it in, third-year safety A.J. Finley landed awkwardly coming down from trying to make a play, immediately crumpling to the turf as trainers rushed out to the field. He had to be helped off the field and eventually left on a cart, with Macdonald later telling reporters that initial reports were “not good” and that he appeared to have a significant knee injury.

No other injuries appeared to happen during Saturday’s practice, but running back Ken Walker III (foot), guard Christian Haynes (pectoral), long snapper Chris Stoll (back), and receivers Steven Sims, Ricky White III, and Montorie Foster all sat out the practice. According to Macdonald, holding out Walker was more about maintenance for an injury that kept him out of most of OTAs, while Haynes was able to do some individual work and should be fine after a day off on Sunday and Stoll’s status for the preseason opener against the Raiders remains up in the air.

In Stoll’s absence, tight end/fullback Brady Russell handled long snapping duties on Saturday night, playing clean football snapping the ball to Michael Dickson on field goals and extra points.