Seattle, WA
‘Lot of Moving Parts’: Rayshawn Jenkins Details Seattle Seahawks’ Versatile Defense
RENTON, Wash. – Now a wily eight-year NFL veteran, playing multiple positions isn’t a foreign concept for Seattle Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins, who has cut his teeth making an impact all over the field with a well-developed all-around skill set.
Since breaking into the league as a fourth-round pick for the Chargers back in 2017, according to Pro Football Focus charting, Jenkins has played nearly a 50/50 split between free safety and strong safety with close to 2,000 snaps in each alignment. After being used more in the box in his final season in Los Angeles, the Jaguars leaned more heavily into his flexibility the past three years, logging at least 250 snaps at free safety in each season.
But as he transitions into a new defense under first-time head coach Mike Macdonald, the architect behind the Ravens’ top-ranked scoring unit from a year ago who has earned a reputation as a schematic wunderkind, Jenkins’ adaptability has been pushed to a new limit in the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s a lot of moving parts, so you really have to know not just your position, but maybe three or four other guys position as well,” Jenkins said following Monday’s first padded training camp practice.
“Because there may be tempo, there could be a shift or a motion or whatever it may be, and sometimes there’s no communication because it happens that fast or that quick. We all have to be on the same wavelength or whatever you want to call it and we have to know not only our jobs but everybody else’s jobs.”
Dating back to the start of training camp, Jenkins has been seen everywhere from single-high free safety to two deep safety to big nickel in the slot to walking up to the line of scrimmage like a linebacker, filling a multitude of roles in Macdonald’s complex system built around keeping offenses on their heels. At this point, he might as well learn to line up at nose tackle to put the cherry on top.
As Jenkins elaborated, he doesn’t simply need to know his job at free or strong safety as a veteran leader in this defense. With communication being critical in a scheme requiring extensive checks at all three levels and players moving around pre-snap, he has to have a strong understanding of the responsibilities for his teammates around him knowing there’s always a chance he could have to take on their role depending on the call.
The same challenges face Jenkins’ new safety mates, as returning Pro Bowler Julian Love, fellow free agent signee K’Von Wallace, cornerback convert Coby Bryant, and Ty Okada have to be masters of the playbook beyond their normal position, which has made building chemistry in the secondary a bit more of a prolonged process with the offseason program and a week of training camp in the books.
“It’s still a work in progress,” Jenkins said. “It’s me, Julian, K’Von back there, Coby, Ty, so we’re always back there playing with each other and kind of getting a feel for each other’s game and different plays. I may see one thing different from him and vice versa. Those are the plays we have to really just be able to communicate and get it around the board to everybody.”
While Jenkins and his safety cohorts still have a ways to go learning a new defense and how each of them tick as players, however, he believes the reward at the end of the tunnel could be a special one.
For one, Jenkins doesn’t have any doubts about everyone in the safety group having the prerequisite skills and football instincts to handle a heavier workload playing multiple positions. As he demonstrated in his first season with the Seahawks and previously with the Giants, Love can play either safety spot at a high level as well as in the slot and even played outside cornerback in the past. Wallace has been equally versatile, including playing over 300 snaps at both safety positions and more than 100 snaps in the slot with the Cardinals and Titans a year ago.
Away from those three players, Bryant previously played outside cornerback in college at Cincinnati and excelled in the slot as a rookie two years ago before transitioning full-time to safety this spring, while Okada has a history of playing multiple positions dating back to his time at Montana State and the recently re-signed Marquise Blair has previous NFL experience at safety and nickel corner as well.
Given the depth and talent in the secondary with cornerback Devon Witherspoon also being a Swiss army knife of sorts who can play inside and out, Macdonald could have the ability to unleash dynamic dime packages with six defensive backs or even play seven or eight at the same time in certain situations, something Jenkins believes Seattle has the pieces to “plug in” to do that effectively.
“Absolutely. That’d be fun to do, we’ve got the guys that are versatile enough to do those type of things,” Jenkins said. “We’ve just got a bunch of guys, like Coby Bryant, who can come in and play safety and nickel for us, just different looks like that. I feel like that presents a matchup problem because now you get these smaller, faster guys on the field, but we’re still strong enough to support the run game, so that’s just my thought process. But we’ll see how things go.”
Secondly, Jenkins loves the talent Seattle has amassed at other levels of the defense with versatility also being prioritized along the defensive line as well as linebacker, allowing for far more multiplicity scheme-wise away from the secondary.
Up front, the Seahawks re-signed Leonard Williams to go with Jarran Reed and Dre’Mont Jones, giving the team a trifecta of position-flexible defenders who can move up and down the defensive line and thrive in different alignments. Making the group even more dynamic, first-round pick Byron Murphy II has been everywhere from nose tackle to defensive end in training camp, providing Macdonald with yet another weapon at his disposal in the trenches.
As for the linebacker spot, Jenkins has been impressed by what he’s seen from newcomers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker, who have rebounded nicely from injuries that kept them out of action for the entire offseason program. The two veterans each have prior experience at both off-ball spots and have excelled as pass rushers, opening up the playbook for blitzes and sim pressures alike.
Even with all of those components in place, Jenkins isn’t about to make a prediction for where the Seahawks will finish statistically as a defense in terms of points or yardage allowed. But with Macdonald at the wheel and new pieces such as himself acclimating quickly with plenty of returning talent on that side of the ball, he’s bullish on their chances for dramatic improvement if the group as a whole executes their assignments and taps in with the willingness to play multiple roles.
“I feel like we can be really good. We can be a dominant defense, especially since we have a defensive minded head coach, so he spends a lot of time with us and he makes sure we understand why he calls the calls that he makes and he makes sure we understand the situation. So if we can just do our part – because I know they’re gonna do their part – we can do our part and come here everyday and just really embrace what he’s trying to give us, we can we can be a really dominant defense. I don’t want to put any numbers or stats just because you know how this league is, but we can be up there.”
Bryan Woo was the best pitcher the Seattle Mariners had in 2025 as they made their run to the playoffs.
He looked like that guy again on Wednesday afternoon.
Seattle Mariners 3, Atlanta Braves 1: Recap | Box score | Standings
Woo shook off a pair of recent shaky outings to go six scoreless, one-hit innings to lead the Mariners to a 3-1 win that clinched a series victory over the MLB-leading Atlanta Braves.
The 26-year-old right-hander worked around a pair of walks while tying his season-high with nine strikeouts.
Woo had a 2.25 ERA through his first five starts of the season, but he ran into trouble on Seattle’s last road trip, allowing seven runs on nine hits including four home runs at St. Louis on April 25. He struggled again last Friday, giving up four runs in the first inning and six runs total over six frames in a loss at home to Kansas City.
Those two outings pushed Woo’s ERA up to 4.61, but he lowered it to 4.02 on the year with his start Wednesday.
What Rowland-Smith sees in Woo’s recent struggles
With Woo dominant on the mound, the Mariners’ offense didn’t need to do too much to build a lead against the Braves. Seattle went up 1-0 when designated hitter Cal Raleigh came up with no outs and hit into a bases-loaded double play in the third inning, scoring catcher Jhonny Pereda.
Julio Rodríguez contributed with a little more volume in the sixth inning, blasting a 436-foot solo home run to center off of Braves starter Martín Pérez to put the M’s up 2-0. And after the Braves scored one in the eighth, team RBI leader Cole Young added some insurance by bringing home Josh Naylor home with his second double of the game.
The Mariners came back to beat Atlanta 5-4 on Monday, then had to bounce back Wednesday after falling 3-2 Tuesday night following Braves slugger Matt Olson’s go-ahead homer off of closer Andrés Muñoz in the ninth inning.
Seattle improved to 18-20 with the win, while the Braves dropped to 26-12. It was the first series loss of 2026 for Atlanta.
Houston Astros lose star Carlos Correa for season
The M’s are off Thursday, then begin a seven-game road trip at 4:40 p.m. Friday against the White Sox in Chicago. Mariners Radio Network coverage on Seattle Sports of that series opener will begin at 3:30 with the pregame show.
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Seattle, WA
‘Clueless’ socialist Mayor Katie Wilson in hot seat after video of 77-year-old beaten in downtown Seattle goes viral
Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson is facing fierce blowback on social media after a 77-year-old man was seen on video being beaten by two individuals in a crime that was captured by closed-circuit television cameras, a tool that Wilson has denounced in the past as something that makes the community feel unsafe and “vulnerable.”
The elderly man was walking down the street in downtown Seattle last month when two men walking by him stopped, without any provocation, shoved him to the ground and beat him, KOMO News reported.
Ahmed Abdullahi Osman, 29, was later arrested and charged with second-degree assault, and police are looking for the second suspect. Osman was reportedly booked into jail the night of the assault and then released back onto the streets before a bail hearing.
“Turning on more cameras won’t magically make our neighborhoods safer, but it will certainly make our neighborhoods more vulnerable,” Wilson said in 2025 after Seattle City Council’s approval of expanding the Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) CCTV pilot program, the program used to capture the video of this specific crime, according to KOMO News.
Conservatives on social media quickly pointed to Wilson’s policies, which have been much maligned as “soft on crime,” as a contributing factor, as well as her previous comments on CCTV.
“They elected a SOCIALIST,” Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez posted on X. “What did they think would happen?”
“Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson remains clueless on the job,” journalist Jonathan Choe posted on X. “So she’s allowing far-left activists to make public safety decisions for the city.”
“Go ahead and explain the ‘sOCiONoMic rOoT cAusES’ of this heinous crime,” Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael A. Mangual posted on X.
“Ahmed Abdullah Osman beat a 77-year-old in Seattle,” conservative influencer account End Wokeness posted on X in a clip that has been viewed over a million times. “Police ID’d him thanks to street video cameras. Mayor Wilson: ‘CCTV puts refugees at risk.’”
Wilson has amplified concerns from local activist groups that CCTV cameras will pose a threat to illegal immigrant communities.
“We are deeply concerned that the expansion of these tools will create an infrastructure where federal agencies can more readily target vulnerable communities, including immigrants and refugees,” the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Washington and the Church Council of Greater Seattle said in a letter last year.
The victim in the incident spent a week in a hospital after suffering a broken arm, knee and facial injuries, KOMO News reported.
Wilson’s office directed Fox News Digital to a March press release in which she outlined her position on the cameras, saying she is leaving the current cameras on but “pausing expansion of the pilot” program until “we have completed a privacy and data governance audit, and taken significant steps to strengthen our policies.”
Wilson acknowledged there’s “no doubt that these cameras make it easier to solve some crimes” that include “serious ones like homicides, but also, cameras are not the one key to making our neighborhoods safe.”
“I want to acknowledge that this is a controversial issue,” Wilson added. “For some people, seeing CCTV cameras in the neighborhood where they live or work or attend school makes them feel safer. For others, those same cameras make them feel less safe.”
“Those feelings are important, because our quality of life is partly about our feelings of safety or lack thereof, and our sense that our city is a welcoming place that is designed with consideration for our well-being and our humanity.”
Wilson continued, “But precisely because different people and different communities experience the cameras differently, it’s important to base a decision on more than feelings. It’s important to ground our actions in a thorough understanding of how the cameras are being used, of the public benefits they are providing, and of any harm they are causing or could cause.”
In a Tuesday press release, the Redmond, Washington Police Department announced the second suspect, Jes’Sean Tyrell Elion, was arrested with the help of Seattle police officers.
However, Osman is on the run and “currently wanted on a $200,000 warrant” and “officers are actively searching for him,” the press release said.
Last month, Fox News Digital reported on city advocates who say they are struggling to find solutions as homelessness and open-air drug use spread across Seattle’s streets, amid growing concerns about the direction of Wilson’s new administration.
“You can just see the foil is like blowing down the sidewalks like autumn leaves,” Andrea Suarez, founder and executive director of We Heart Seattle, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“Very common to see property damage of our parks and shared spaces. You can see Narcan is used to reverse an overdose, so you’ll see cartridges. But at least we’re remodeling the bathroom to be gender-neutral. I’m not [kidding] you, that’s where our priorities are.”
The Seattle Mariners have been staring down a difficult decision for weeks now and it’s only getting closer as Bryce Miller nears the end of his rehab assignment.
Two factors Hyphen sees in Bryan Woo’s recent struggles
When Miller makes his return to the big league club, which is now less than two weeks away barring a setback, the Mariners will have six capable starters but only five rotation spots.
The assumption when Miller started the season on the injured list was that he would replace Emerson Hancock when he returned, but Hancock has been Seattle’s best starter thus far, posting a 2.59 ERA over seven starts while striking out batters at a career-best 28.9% clip.
Now it looks as if veteran Luis Castillo could be the top candidate to taken out of the rotation. In seven starts this season, the right-hander has produced a 6.29 ERA and minus-0.8 bWAR.
ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan weighed in on the possibility of Castillo being taken out of the starting rotation when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday.
“I think it all depends on where Luis Castillo’s frame of mind is,” Passan said. “If Luis Castillo is open to going to the bullpen, you consider that. And if he is not, then you take a look and see what his willingness to go on the injured list is. And if that’s not the case, then maybe you do consider a six-man rotation. I think there are just lots of different possibilities here.”
For Passan, what Castillo has done for the organization, which includes helping the team reach the playoffs twice, is also an important part of the equation.
“I think what also factors in is Luis Castillo has done this for a really long time at a really high level and been a really important part of the success that you’ve had organizationally, and I don’t take that lightly,” Passan said. “I think the way that you treat people who have done right by you and helped you get into the position (you’re in), they’re not disposable. So you can’t just say to Luis Castillo, you’re not performing right now, you’re going to the pen.
“Well, you could. I just don’t know how well that goes over and I don’t know what sort of precedent that sets for treatment of players going forward.”
Passan added that moving Castillo to the bullpen is the type of “cold” decision a contender has to make sometimes, but that having a productive Castillo is also key for the team.
“Having a productive Luis Castillo makes them much likelier to be a World Series team,” Passan said. “You can get rid of your manager and survive that. But knowing that Castillo has to be around still, you just need to be mindful of the way – not even the way that you’re treating him, because the way that you’re treating him is through your perspective. The question is, how does he feel like he’s being treated? That is imperative here, and if you can thread the needle and figure out a way to solve your problem while still keeping Luis Castillo content, then that’s the ideal (situation). That’s the goal, that is the aim of this whole thing. And it’s a very delicate and difficult subject.”
Castillo in line for positive regression?
While it has been a struggle for Castillo early on, Passan sees some reason to believe his numbers will level out with more starts. He pointed to Castillo’s 4.25 FIP, which is nearly identical to Bryan Woo’s and better than Logan Gilbert’s. However, he is concerned with Castillo’s career-low groundball rate.
“Ever since he’s come to Seattle, he’s been much more of a flyball pitcher. But he’s down to a 33% ground ball rate this year. Not good,” Passan said. “I will say this, the positive regression is going to come in the form of runners being stranded. He’s got a strand rate right now of only 58.8%, league average is somewhere in the 70-plus range.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
Seattle Mariners coverage
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