Five battles to watch in Seahawks training camp, headlined by...well, you know

The familiarity advantage Geno Smith has enjoyed over Drew Lock so far in the Seahawks’ derby to replace Russell Wilson?

That’s about to end as the Seahawks begin training camp.

So says Pete Carroll.

“Geno’s still ahead, you can tell that,” Seattle’s coach said, “but it’s not going to be too much for Drew to be caught up. By the time we get through camp, he’ll be there ...

“So we’re off and flying. Here we go.”

Here they go, into the greatest set of unknowns in Carroll’s 12 summers running the Seahawks.

He and general manager John Schneider traded Russell Wilson to Denver in March. That stunning move plus Carroll’s switch to a new, more versatile and faster 3-4 defense leave Seattle with its most to get done in any training camp of the last dozen years.

Camp begins Tuesday when all players are due to report to team headquarters in Renton.

The dominant matter Wednesday in the first practice: Aug. 13 when Seattle plays its first preseason game at Pittsburgh and into the season that begins Sept. 12 will remain Smith versus Lock for the quarterback job.

Yet that’s not the only issue the Seahawks need to settle over the next six weeks.

Here are top five training camp competitions The News Tribune will be watching from Wednesday until the season opener against Wilson’s Broncos Sept. 12 at Lumen Field:

1. Known vet vs. untapped potential

Carroll says of Smith and Lock entering camp “the competition is in great shape.”

But exactly how are they going to compete?

So far the 31-year-old Smith has been running the starting offense. That was through the offseason minicamp and organized team activities in mid-June. It’s been because he knows the offense and teammates better than Lock.

Indeed, Smith is the known. He started for the New York Jets at the beginning of his career, in 2013 and ‘14. He’s been Wilson’s backup on the Seahawks the last three seasons.

Lock is six years younger. He joined the team less than three months ago.

Yet one gets the impression Carroll really wants to see what he can turn Lock into.

If that fails, the Seahawks can go with Smith.

Yet Carroll believes he and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron can draw out Lock’s full potential. He’s only had parts of two seasons as his chance to start in the league. He was 8-13 for Denver. Then the Broncos basically gave up on him last year and signed veteran Teddy Bridgewater for the 2021 season.

“We’re showing him that we believe in him as a player and we believe that he can get it done, get the job done, and now we just have to play the thing out. I don’t know that he always felt like that,” Carroll said of Lock.

“He’s responded really well, and the coaches are really thrilled about it. So we’re in good shape at the position and we just have to see what happens.

“The games are going to be important. And everything will be important.”

The purest competition would be with Smith and Lock alternating series with the starting offense in training camp plus the three preseason games. That would have each QB behind the starting line that will have at least three new starters this season. It would have Smith and Lock each throwing in scrimmages against starting defenses to Tyler Lockett, Noah Fant and DK Metcalf, when Metcalf gets fully back from offseason foot surgery.

Waldron said he, Carroll and offensive coaches were to be meeting before the start of training camp to decide how to allot snaps for each quarterback during the preseason.

“To balance out reps, or to give reps to different guys with different people around,” Waldron said.

The News Tribune asked Carroll last month if and when Smith and Lock would alternate time with the first offense in camp.

“You’ll see,” Carroll said. “I’m not telling you that.”

2. Rookie starting tackles? Really?

Charles Cross is starting at left tackle. The Seahawks didn’t use the ninth-overall pick in this year’s draft, their highest choice in a dozen years, on Cross to have him sit on the bench.

Seattle also drafted Abe Lucas from Washington State, in round three. He and Cross were two of the more highly regarded pass protectors in college football last year. Lucas played right tackle opposite Cross during Seattle’s offseason practices.

Jake Curhan played right tackle, too, plus guard. He was a surprise as an undrafted rookie, playing well at right tackle for injured Brandon Shell last season.

The team let Shell and veteran Duane Brown leave at their end of their contracts in January. It’s Cross, Curhan, Lucas and 2020 sixth-round pick Shane Forsythe battling for two starting tackle spots this training camp. Forsythe, a left tackle at the University of Florida, played right tackle in offseason practices this spring.

Those four candidates have made three NFL starts, total. All were by Curhan, at right tackle late last season.

Only two NFL teams have started two rookie offensive tackles in week one over the last 40 years.

Are the 2022 Seahawks really considering doing it?

“In my mind, by the time we get to that first game and the best guys are playing, they’ll have earned those positions. And if it’s the two rookies, that means that they’ve beat out some guys that are good players in their own right,” Waldron said.

“So, we have a lot of competition at those tackle positions. The draft obviously has taken that competition to a different level, as far as younger guys that are competing against each other. So, I think it’s going to be a great thing in the long run. And if those guys go out and earn that job, then you feel comfortable because they’ve earned it over other guys that have had a chance to play and play well in the NFL.”

3. Cornerback

Seahawks coaches really like what they’ve seen from Tre Brown.

They just haven’t seen much of it.

Brown is coming off season-ending knee surgery in November. That prematurely ended his rookie season. The initial estimate from head team physician Dr. Ed Khalfayan was Brown might be ready for full football activities by June.

This past week, Brown posted pictures on his social-media account showing him working out his reconstructed knee and legs.

“I think we’re doing just fine,” he wrote on his post.

Brown started three games as a rookie before he got hurt. When he returns, he and Sidney Jones appear on the inside track to start as cornerbacks, at least based on 2021. The Seahawks re-signed Jones, the former University of Washington standout, to a one-year contract this spring. He started 11 games for Seattle last season.

Artie Burns replaced Brown as the first-team cornerback with Jones during offseason practices this spring. He practiced fast in his Seattle debut because he wasn’t thinking as much as his new teammates.

A 27-year-old former first-round pick by Pittsburgh, Burns knows the new Seahawks schemes with multiple and disguised coverages new secondary coaches Sean Desai and Karl Scott are installing this summer. Burns played for Desai last season when Desai was the Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator.

“Real positive about him,” Carroll said of the stretchy, 6-foot, 197-pound Burns. “I was fired up about Artie. I didn’t realize he would look that good that early. So, he’s taking to our stuff.”

Rookie Coby Bryant, the former University of Cincinnati ballhawk, impressed during the spring. He’s very smooth staying with receivers and reacting to passes in the air.

Tariq Woolen, another rookie cornerback Seattle drafted this spring, is the curiosity of training camp. He is in the Richard Sherman mold of tall, long cornerbacks Carroll has until recently (with Brown and now-departed D.J. Reed) featured almost exclusively. Woolen is 6-4. He’s run 40 yards in 4.26 seconds.

Carroll keeps saying he’s never seen or heard of a man that big running that fast. Woolen’s new Seahawks teammates were doing double takes at him during OTAs and the minicamp last month.

“He hasn’t done nothing yet,” Carroll said. “But there’s a lot of potential there and it’s fun to see.”

4. Two tight ends vs. three wide receivers

Waldron now has the two prominent tight ends to feature, like he did when he was the Rams passing game coordinator. Carroll hired him to Seattle last year.

The Seahawks got former first-round pick Noah Fant from Denver in the Wilson trade. Then Seattle re-signed Will Dissly. Dissly’s $24 million contract suggests he’s going to be a large factor in the offense. The Seahawks guaranteeing Fant more than $9 million for this year and next by picking up his fifth-year contract option for 2023 means Fant is going to be large, too.

Fant, Lock’s former teammate in Denver, has this first impression of Waldron’s offense: “It’s very favorable to the tight end.”

So the Seahawks’ search for a dependable third wide receiver behind Metcalf and Lockett might not matter as much by the end of August.

Wide receiver Dee Eskridge is trying to assert himself after the concussion that cost him most of his 2021 rookie season. Penny Hart has eight catches in two NFL seasons with Seattle. Cody Thompson by all accounts had a great offseason, including while working out in Texas with Lock. Thompson has yet to catch a pass in an NFL regular-season game. Rookie draft picks Bo Melton and Dareke Young disappointed Carroll by being injured during most offseason practices.

The Seahawks like bulked-up Travis Homer and former University of Miami wide receiver DeeJay Dallas as their third-down, pass-catch and blocking backs. Having a third-down back on the field with Metcalf, Lockett, Fant and Dissly — plus the five blocking linemen and the quarterback — means no third wide receiver.

And third tight end Colby Parkinson is an enticing option to match up on defenders on third downs plus in the red zone. He’s 6-7.

It might take Waldron going no backs to get a third wide receiver on the field much this season.

5. Rashaad Penny vs. Ken Walker

Not really for the starting running-back job. That is Penny’s, with Chris Carson’s career in doubt following his neck-fusion surgery last year.

When the Seahawks drafted Walker in the second round this spring, amid all their other needs, it signaled Walker is going to matter this season.

He needs to improve his pass blocking in training camp. That’s the quickest route to playing time for a rookie running back on a Carroll team. But Walker has the elusiveness and burst through the line to be a 1A-type rushing option with Penny on early downs this season.

Penny has played in just 37 of a possible 65 regular-season game since the Seahawks drafted him in the first round in 2018 because of all his injuries. That’s why Seattle re-signed him for only one year coming off the best four games of his career late last season.

And that’s why the Seahawks drafted Walker so highly.