As you might have heard, the Seahawks wrapped up their preseason last night with a 24 - 27 loss against the Oakland Raiders, finishing the meaningless season 1-3. In preseason, it's not so much about the score, it's really about the individual performances. Here is (in my opinion) the players who shined during these exhibition games, or did the opposite.
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Shined
Marcus Trufant After Tru's Pro Bowl 2007 season, the Seahawks signed him to a hefty 6-year, 50 million dollar contract. Unfortunately, he has had to battle injuries the last two years, putting him under some scrutiny with Seahawks fans. He had a several pass interference penalties last year due to his inability to keep up with guys like Miles Austin. But this preseason, he has seemed to have gotten back that speed he has always had. He has fully regained the starting CB spot, and looks to have a bounce-back year.
Mike Williams For those of you who don't know Mike's story, here is a short summary. Got drafted 10th overall out of USC in 2005, got lazy, got cut, got out of the NFL, got fat, got invited to Seahawks training camp. And what has he done? Only has fought for a roster spot against all odds, become the most productive WR on the Seahawks roster catching 8 passes for 149 yards. The great thing about Williams is he is only 26, is 6-5, and is 235 pounds and seems to have a bright future.
Chris Clemons To be honest, I was probably the least excited out of anyone when we acquired Chris in a trade with Philadelphia. But he has so far proved me wrong. In the three games he played this preseason, he has three sacks and one forced fumble. What makes me excited is he is 6-3, 254 pounds and two of his sacks were against a very good Vikings offensive line. He has consistently put pressure on the quarterback, which makes me imagine he should get around 8-10 sacks this year.
Regressed
Charlie Whitehurst After the Seahawks first preseason game, where Charlie threw 2 touchdowns compared to 1 interception with a 65% completion rate,which resulted in fans calling for Matt Hasselbeck's head. Not anymore. In his last 3 games, he has thrown 3 interceptions while only completing around 50% of his passes. He has looked especially shaky in the pocket, overthrowing his receivers multiple times.
The running backs When I say running backs, I mean the trio of Justin Forsett, Julius Jones, and Leon Washington. Forsett has done O.K., hitting holes when he has the opportunity. We can't really say how well Washington has done, considering he has only had a couple carries. As for Jones, it seems his style of running is more suited to running into his offensive lineman and flopping over (Shawn Alexander 2007 anyone?), instead of hitting the opening in the line. Let's just say our running game needs some work.
Reach Nathan Parsons at nathanparsons98@yahoo.com
