Following a dominant Week 1 victory, the Seattle Seahawks dropped to 1-1 in the preseason after falling to the Tennessee Titans, 16-15, at Nissan Stadium on Saturday.

It’s preseason, so the result doesn’t matter much. But the first half was much better for the Seahawks offense and defense than the second half was. That’s telling for the depth of Seattle’s units.

Here are three players whose stock is rising after Week 2 of the preseason, and three players whose stock is falling.

QB Sam Howell

Sam Howell seemed anxious to begin the game but finished looking as confident as we’ve seen him in this new offensive scheme. Howell finished 11-for-14 for 153 yards and a touchdown, displaying perfect touch on a 23-yard score to Easop Winston Jr. in the first quarter. As the game went on, Howell only continued to get better.

On the first throw of Seattle’s next drive, Howell rifled another one between two Titans defenders to wide receiver Cody White for a 33-yard completion — the longest offensive play of the day for the Seahawks. The offensive line in front of Howell was fine, but parts of the front broke down and he could navigate it. He finished with two rushes for 11 yards as a result, evading the broken plays. Howell’s pocket presence, overall, looked more like his better days with the Washington Commanders.

DT Myles Adams

Playing for most of the first half, Myles Adams held it down in the middle of Seattle’s defensive line. He finished with three total tackles, but that’s not representative of his overall impact on the game. Adams’ interior pressure freed up edge rushers Derick Hall, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe and others, pushing the pocket around Malik Willis and forcing him to make quick decisions in the pocket.

Adams is the perfect depth interior lineman for Seattle. With Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy and Johnathan Hankins already anchoring that unit, Adams and Mike Morris will be the rotational players that could be difference-makers for the Seahawks during the season. At 6-2, 290 pounds, Adams presents the size inside the Seahawks want as well.

WR Easop Winston Jr.

With his play in this second preseason game, Easop Winston Jr. is making the competition at Seattle’s sixth wide receiver spot extremely close. It’s clearly between Winston and Dareke Young, and the latter has led the group through training camp and the first few weeks of the preseason. Winston, a fifth-year pro out of Washington State, displayed his veteran tendencies on the 23-yard score from Howell by showing his hands late, securing the touchdown against Titans cornerback Tre Avery. Winston’s release on the fade route was also impressive against Avery, burning the corner to make Howell’s decision to throw into a one-on-one situation easy.

Winston finished with three catches for 47 yards and a score, leading the Seahawks in receiving in every area. He also saw the most targets of any Seattle player with four. Even if he is relinquished to the practice squad, Winston would be a quality player to be elevated to the active roster in a pinch should the Seahawks need him.

CB DJ James

Despite being a sixth-round pick by the Seahawks, DJ James just looks out of place with Seattle. He’s been borderline lost in his two preseason appearances, and he allowed the Titans’ lone touchdown in off-coverage against Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Mason Rudolph with 38 seconds left in the second quarter.

James was also hit with two defensive penalties on Tennessee’s second drive of the second half, first on a holding call and then on a facemask just two plays later. That allowed the Titans to get back into the game and eventually convert on a field goal to make it 12-10. He hasn’t been good in coverage and hasn’t shown enough fundamentally to make the Seahawks’ 53-man roster to this point.

T Stone Forsythe

At this point, Stone Forsythe’s standing with the Seattle coaching staff is a mystery. He hasn’t been good in either preseason appearance after making eight starts last season and has continued to just look overpowered by edge rushers on a down-to-down basis. Forsythe was tripped by running back Kenny McIntosh on a sack-fumble by Sam Howell — recovered by Forsythe himself — given up in the first quarter, but he was already beaten off that block which is why he was dropping so far back into protection.

Seattle’s depth at left tackle is a concern with Forsythe’s struggles, even with veteran George Fant able to play both sides of the line. The margin for error is getting slimmer and slimmer for Forsythe heading into the third preseason game, and he could be cut if he doesn’t show a significant improvement in the final contest.

QB PJ Walker

Taking over the offense in the second half, PJ Walker had similar weapons to Howell but looked far less capable of operating the Seahawks offense. He did, however, have an even less effective offensive line in front of him. Regardless, even when Walker had time to throw, he was early on some timing routes, and that snowballed into a lack of progression from the offense. The offense looked much more sluggish with Walker at the controls.

Walker finished 4-for-8 for 38 yards in the game and also allowed a sack. The offense gained just 38 total yards in the second half with Walker leading the unit, as opposed to the 231 yards the offense gained with Howell under center.

A familiar story was read again on Saturday when the Seattle Mariners went up against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The offense couldn’t take advantage of runners in scoring position and the bullpen couldn’t keep the game within reach.

The Mariners fell 7-2 and dropped to 63-61 on the season. It was their fifth straight loss — tied for the longest losing streak of the season. The loss dropped Seattle to 3.5 games back in the American League West standings as of this posting.

Pittsburgh got to Seattle starter Luis Castillo quickly in what was an unusual off day for the eight-year veteran.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first to put the Pirates up 1-0.

Victor Robles tied the game up with an RBI single in the top of the second. Rowdy Tellez pulled the Pirates back ahead with a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that put Pittsburgh back up 3-1.

The Mariners cut into the lead again in the top of the fifth off an RBI double from Jorge Polanco. That was the last run Seattle scored.

Holding on to a narrow lead — the Pirates bolstered their advantage with four runs in two innings. Bryan De La Cruz hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth. Jared Triolo hit a solo home run, Joe Bart hit an RBI double and Tellez hit an RBI ground-rule double — all in the bottom of the seventh — for the eventual final of 7-2.

The Mariners loaded the bases and had a chance to rally in the top of the ninth with no outs. Robles popped out and Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodriguez both struck out to leave three runners on the base paths. They left 10 runners stranded for the game. Arozarena (0-for-5) and Dylan Moore (0-for-4) both earned golden sombreros and accounted for nine of Seattle’s 14 strikeouts for the game.

Everyone knows the Mariners are struggling. Everyone knows the reasons the team is losing games. There’s 38 games left in the season. With every loss the playoffs become less and less likely. Seattle needs to start winning. And it needs to start now.

PIRATES SNAP 10-GAME LOSING STREAK AGAINST MARINERS: The Pittsburgh Pirates snapped their 10-game losing streak with a 5-3 win against the Seattle Mariners on Friday. CLICK HERE

MARINERS RIVALS SUFFER INJURY TO KEY PLAYER: The Seattle Mariners American League West rival Houston Astros lost third baseman Alex Bregman for the weekend’s series against the Chicago White Sox with an elbow injury. CLICK HERE

TIGERS SWEEP MARINERS: The Detroit Tigers completed a three-game series sweep against the Seattle Mariners with a 2-1 win on Thursday. CLICK HERE

Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @wdevradiobrady

Of all the first-year head coaches, Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks sure seems like the one with the most hype surrounding him.

It certainly helps that he’s inheriting a much better roster than most of his peers, but Macdonald has no shortage of merits on his own. He led a Baltimore Ravens defense that was arguably the league’s best last season, and as the NFL’s youngest head coach at 37 years old, he has a long and bright future ahead of him.

A long list of analysts have praised Macdonald over the course of the offseason, and now a familiar face has joined that list. Former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who played for Seattle from 2001-10, got the chance to watch the Seahawks’ joint practice with the Tennessee Titans on Thursday and spoke with Macdonald one-on-one for the first time.

“I gave him a couple things that I was impressed with,” Hasselbeck said on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “And he said, ‘We have a lot of work to do.’ Even though the [preseason opener against the] Chargers went pretty well for them in a lot of ways, I think he’s looking for like, ‘Hey, how can we do pregame better? How can we do everything better? How can we do our halftime better?’

“He’s very excited about some of the things that they have (and) he understands where they need to get better.”

With the hiring of Macdonald, the Seahawks became the latest team to jump on the trend of hiring a young head coach with new ideas. The trend began when the Los Angeles Rams hired Sean McVay in 2017, making him the youngest head coach in NFL history at the time. With McVay immediately turning the Rams around, many teams have tried to emulate that success in what is known as the “Sean McVay effect.”

Macdonald may be a defensive-minded coach, contrary to the offensive minds that have taken the league by storm, but he has the potential to match those coaches’ success.

“He reminds me of a young version of a defensive Sean McVay vibe,” Hasselbeck said. “Probably less caffeinated than Sean McVay, but there’s something special there. You definitely can tell that he has it.”