4 days ago
Monday at Seahawks Training Camp- Darnold, defensive tackles Bohanna, Pili stepping up
Monday marked Day 16 of training camp for the Seattle Seahawks. The News Tribune's Gregg Bell shared thoughts live from the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Twitter as practice wrapped up just before 3 p.m.
Bell mentions that new quarterback Sam Darnold hasn't thrown an interception in practice in an entire week and looks comfortable in Klint Kubiak's new offensive system. Seahawks fans will be eager to get their first look at the former 3rd overall pick in game action the final two preseason contests, but the more Darnold has the offense humming in practice, the less he'll need to show it to the rest of the world before a massive revenge game opportunity against the San Francisco 49ers on September 7th.
Bell also asked Head Coach Mike Macdonald about Quinton Bohanna and Brandon Pili, two young nose tackles who played well in the Seahawks preseason opener after veteran Johnathan Hankins' injury. Macdonald mentioned that they both "have really taken ownership of the trajectory of their career by taking care of their bodies." While the goal of a nose tackle seems as simple as clogging as much space as possible, doing it effectively and consistently is so hard that there's really only a couple good ones at a time.
PFF recognizes this. RDEF is one of their rarest Grades to score high in- only 2 of 67 interior defensive lineman who played over 50% of their team's snaps in 2024 scored over 80.0. The mean of the data set, Seattle's own Jarran Reed, scored just 58.2. Nose tackles serve as specific a role as any defensive player, but the Seahawks have been desperate to stop the run the last three seasons, with their team RDEF Grades ranking painfully average at 17th, 23rd and 18th after ranking 3rd in 2021.
However, it took center-stage last season. The Seahawks 3-0 start was ruined as injuries decimated the defensive line before Week 4's game visiting the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football. They gave up 5.6 yards per carry and two touchdowns to Jahmyr Gibbs as the lack of depth was exposed. The New York Giants saw this and punished Seattle again in Week 5, who had a short week and was still banged up on the defensive front. The Giants funneled Tyrone Tracy to a 129-yard breakout where he averaged 7.2 yards per carry. Just six days after being 3-0 with a chance to make a statement in primetime, the Seahawks were 3-2 and plagued with injuries they couldn't control.
The defensive line wasn't poorly constructed, it was just injured for a few weeks- and the Seahawks moved from 3-0 to 3-2 because of it. Having more options with size at the position in Bohanna (6'4' 327 coming out of college) and Pili (6'2 ⅞' 316) shores the depth up in case of emergency, giving Macdonald a solid Plan B when injuries hit.
Finally, having better-fitting personnel will be a breath of fresh air for the rest of the defensive line. Byron Murphy and Reed, a pair of true 3-technique defensive ends, were forced to play there out of need last year. When Murphy was hurt they were shuffling through practice squad players in the Week 4 and 5 losses while they were undefeated prior. With Bohanna and Pili, Seattle can finally breathe a sigh of relief at a position they've craved depth in for years.
