Every Seahawks player at voluntary OTAs. They think this bonding is going to be huge
Michael Bennett missed them; he stayed home with his wife and kids in Hawaii. Bruce Irvin skipped.
Marshawn Lynch? He wasn't there. Because he couldn't get fined(!)
The NFL players who miss voluntary OTAs may have contract issues and want to send a not-so-subtle message to their team. Or they just want to spend more time at home with family. Or on vacation. Anywhere but in practices they aren't required to be at in June, three-plus months before the season begins.
Some of the most accomplished show up in the offseason only when they absolutely have to, such as the lone mandatory minicamp Seattle has over three days the middle of next week.
But these 2025 Seahawks are different.
Kicker Jason Myers (34) and nose tackle Johnathan Hankins (33) are the oldest players on this team. They have played in the NFL a combined 22 seasons. They are here.
Myers was kicking away, as usual, Thursday, while Hankins was on the field in his helmet and 97 jersey going through drills.
DeMarcus Lawrence, also 33 years old, is entering 12th NFL season. His first 11 years were with with the Dallas Cowboys. He spent Wednesday in one of his first practices with Seattle doing pass-rush drills on the side field. He was working with fellow edge rushers Boye Mafe and Derick Hall, who are seven and nine years Lawrence's junior.
A few yards away, Jarran Reed was working on his footwork and hands charging into fellow defensive linemen. Reed is 32. The Seahawks drafted him three U.S. presidents ago, in 2016.
Leonard Williams, the Seahawks' $64.5 million, Pro Bowl defensive end? Yep, he's been here, too. The 30-year-old veteran heartily jogged onto the field to begin yet another OTA practice of his 11-year career this week.
The last two weeks, the 2025 Seahawks have had every player on their roster, 100% of 90 guys, veterans, rookies, starters and reserves, at these voluntary workouts. That's for one of the only times in recent memory around here.
It speaks to what Mike Macdonald has built in 16 months with one season leading the remade Seahawks.
It's a sign the league's youngest head coach at age 37 is getting the buy-in from veteran players every young leader must have to succeed.
One of the most importantly — and most recently paid — players on the team thinks the perfect attendance including from new starting quarterback Sam Darnold plus former Super Bowl MVP wide receiver Cooper Kupp on the remodeling offense is a sign of what's to come for Seattle in 2025. And beyond.
'I think for this team, I think we're bought into the goal and the mission,' middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV said after practice Thursday.
'And the goal is to put another banner up in here. And I think everyone believes in that.'
Jones is the defensive signal-caller and thudding tackler who transformed Macdonald's defense after Seattle traded with Tennessee for him in the middle of last season. The Seahawks just gave him a $33 million contract in March. He doesn't need to be here for these OTAs, either.
But he is.
'We're going to show up to work,' Jones said, 'and do we have to do to make sure we get it done.'
The News Tribune asked Jones if the players talked internally about making sure they showed up for these voluntary weeks.
'It wasn't something that we just sat there and say, 'Hey, make sure you're here,'' Jones said.
'But if we want to be who we say we're going to be, if we want to do what we want to do, and as when the best teams I've been around (including as a Super Bowl champion with the Los Angeles Rams), OTAs were really good.
'So I think that's just a direct reflection of what the work you get in here and what carries you into the season.'
Seattle's defense has all 11 starters from last season returning off a 10-win team. That defense is the strength of this team, by defensive-guru Macdonald's design.
Reed's a central part of it. He's the veteran tackle in the middle of the defensive line.
His daughter Jacey was born the spring the Seahawks drafted him in the second round out of Alabama. She just turned nine.
The defensive tackle could have been home with her. But he's here with all the other Seahawks, voluntarily.
He said the players know this is the time to bond, with each other and their coaches. He says the players are truly 'jelling' with the coaches.
'Just to build a chemistry,' Reed said this week, 'and for one, just to be around the teammates.
'I like being here. It was actually fun. When you're away and you're watching film (by yourself remotely), you're just missing a lot and missing the camaraderie, that togetherness, building that connection with your teammates. That's the time that we use for right now.'
Jones thinks having all of the returning defensive starters practicing together when they don't have to in May and June is going to pay massive dividends in December, January into, yes, perhaps February.
That's when the Super Bowl is.
'I think it's going to be special,' Jones said of his Seahawks defense.
'I'm excited. I don't want to give too much because we've got to go put the work in. But, if the vision lives up to what I think, yeah, it's going to be something crazy.'
After seeing them in these OTAs, what does Jones think about his defensive teammates already, a month and half before training camp begins?
'Hoopers,' he said.
'I like us, man. I like us versus anything and anybody.
'That's how I'll leave it.'
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