Seattle, WA
Seattle Seahawks Training Camp Takeaways: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Deep WR Group Sizzles
RENTON, Wash. – Featuring plenty of star power with perennial 1,000-yard receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett at the top of the depth chart, the rest of the Seattle Seahawks talented wideout corps continued to flex their muscles in Saturday’s fourth training camp practice.
Led by sophomore sensation Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who out on a clinic getting open throughout Saturday’s session, the Seahawks had several of their complementary targets enjoy strong afternoons. For his part, building off a fantastic offseason program, the second-year receiver out of Ohio State hauled in a touchdown on a perfectly thrown dime from Geno Smith on the opening red zone period and later added a pair of 30-plus yard completions where he found the soft spot in the coverage on corner routes from the slot.
Away from Smith-Njigba, Dareke Young caught a back shoulder fade from Smith for six points in the red zone and Jake Bobo found the end zone twice, making an impressive arms extended grab from Smith in 7-on-7 and capping off practice with a scoring reception from backup Sam Howell in the back of the end zone to draw cheers from fans nestled in front of the team facility. Veterans Dee Eskridge, Easop Winston Jr., and Cody White got in on the act with their best days of camp, developing a rapport with Howell and snagging four touchdowns in red zone periods.
While there’s still plenty to work on early in camp for one of the team’s strongest units, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald has been thrilled with what he’s seen thus far from a talented receiving corps loaded with quality players competing for roster spots.
“Making a lot of plays on the perimeter. It’s great to see,” Macdonald said. “Everybody’s touching the ball. I was just talking to the quarterbacks today. Trust the system, trust your reads, feel the spacing of the defense with what we’re giving you and the explosive plays will come. The guys are making plays. There’s a couple drops here and there, so we’re chasing that. I’m sure [coach] Fris [Jackson] will have a litany of things to give you that they want to work on, but I’m pleased that the guys are high-pointing the ball and catching back shoulder throws and things like that. It’s exciting to see.”
Looking back at Seattle’s final camp practice before busting out the pads on Monday, here are four additional takeaways from the VMAC:
Deep into the process of learning a new offense under coordinator Ryan Grubb, the gap between Smith and Howell has only widened in the first week of camp, making it clear as day who the best quarterback on Seattle’s roster is. The biggest thus far has been accuracy, where Smith has been consistently putting the ball on the money for his receivers at all levels of the field and Howell has airmailed several throws to another zip code in the early going, looking far from comfortable.
Though he found himself under a bit more pressure with Macdonald’s defense sending five or more rushers more often than they did in the first three days, Smith continued to spin it on Saturday, demonstrating a lightning quick release and elite accuracy dropping deep balls into the hands of his receivers. Most notably, his connection with Smith-Njigba keeps growing stronger, as the two were dialed in all practice long, particularly on downfield corner routes where the quarterback displayed excellent touch dropping the ball into the bucket for his young receiver.
For the third time in four days, Smith didn’t throw an interception either, and didn’t even have any close calls on Saturday. He’s been in complete command and making smart decisions, rarely putting the ball in harms way and efficiently throwing the ball downfield when opportunity strikes.
As for Howell, the third-year signal caller deserves credit for bouncing back some after a challenging practice on Friday where he misfired on several potential touchdowns in the red zone period. He was far from perfect on Saturday, including overthrowing two open receivers in the first red zone segment, but he started to find a rhythm as the practice progressed and threw touchdowns to Bobo and tight end Jack Westover to finish strong, hopefully providing momentum for continued improvement going into next week.
Despite having elite athleticism and soft hands for the position, Fant’s first two years with the Seahawks largely disappointed from a production standpoint, including catching no touchdowns in 17 games in 2023. But the front office believed those numbers weren’t a reflection of his talent and after hiring Grubb as the new play caller, general manager John Schneider made re-signing the former first round pick a priority, handing him a two-year, $21 million deal on the premise he would be far more impactful in a new offense.
Until games start up in September, it remains to be seen whether or not that promise will be fulfilled, but early signs have been quite encouraging. In the first three practices, Fant came open in the flats for quick dump off touchdowns in the red zone twice, showing how easy it should be to scheme him open and get him involved more often inside the opposing 20-yard line.
In Saturday’s session, while Fant didn’t score any touchdowns, Smith hooked up with him for a trio of first down receptions, hitting him in stride twice on crossing routes and firing a dart on the money on a curl route to move the chains. Per Macdonald, the Seahawks don’t have a set number of targets they will be looking to get Fant, but they are excited to see how he’s already meshing in Grubb’s offense and how his presence can open things up for the rest of their receivers.
“We’re really excited about Noah and the type of player that he is,” Macdonald remarked. “I love his attitude everyday. It’s just steadfast, positive, a sense of urgency about what he’s doing. And then when he’s out there making plays, you can feel that the process is coming to life and you’re excited for him that there’s results on the field, so we want that to keep trending in the right direction.”
Being a first-round pick with lofty expectations, all eyes have been zeroed in on Murphy since camp opened on Wednesday. But in the first three days of practice, he had yet to make any splashy plays, at least in terms of penetrating the backfield and positioning himself for sacks or tackles for loss when tackling isn’t yet allowed.
However, Murphy started to make his presence felt in Saturday’s session, starting in the first red zone period when matched up against fellow rookie Christian Haynes. Rocketing out of his 3-point stance, the rookie defender fired his hands into the blocker’s frame and then executed a filthy swim move that drew oohh’s and aahh’s from the crowd, leaving Haynes lunging for air as he promptly slipped past him and closed in on Howell, likely setting himself up for a sack if he could hit the quarterback.
On two other occasions, Murphy used his quick first step to shoot a gap and rip past a blocker to close in on the quarterback, showcasing his burst and disruptive capabilities as a pass rusher. With the pads coming out on Monday, Macdonald is eager to see the youngster build off his best practice so far and see how he responds with a chance to finally get physical in the trenches.
“Murph had a slower couple days than he wanted to out there to start out, but he’s bounced back and he’s making a lot of plays out there. Initially, you think more of a B-gap type of player, but being able to move inside and out from the A-gap all the way out, I think if he keeps staying on this progression you could see him at any one of those spots.”
During his time with the Ravens as defensive coordinator, Macdonald loved to mix in three-safety personnel groupings in nickel and dime sets, sometimes playing as many as eight defensive backs on the field at the same time. In the early stages of camp, players such as K’Von Wallace, who has played extensive snaps at both safety positions as well as slot cornerback in his career, have been pleading with the first-time coach to deploy more DB-heavy groupings.
“I just told the guys today – they’re begging for multiple DB and getting eight guys out there – well, we’ve done it before,” Macdonald smiled. “But it’s up to you guys. If you earn the spot and that’s gonna put us in the best position to make a play, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Playing in his first training camp with the Seahawks, Wallace seemed to take those words to heart, actively disrupting plays all afternoon while logging snaps all over the field. Along with a pass breakup, a quick pressure as a blitzer, and snuffing out a screen, he put himself in the perfect position at the perfect time settling in the middle of the end zone, picking off Howell as he tried to thread the needle looking for White along the back out of bounds line.
“I think his words were ‘Alright, bet,’” Macdonald said, drawing laughs from reporters.
Along with Wallace turning heads, a newcomer in the secondary continues to make plays for the Seahawks in undrafted rookie Dee Williams, who opened camp wearing a blue offensive player jersey working with receivers. Starting on Friday, he switched over to cornerback, his original position where he earned All-American honors as JUCO standout before transferring to Tennessee, where he emerged as one of the SEC’s most dynamic kick and punt returners.
With more of an opportunity for snaps on defense, Williams has made the most of limited playing time over the past two days, frequently coming through with big plays on Saturday. He slipped past a block on a screen to wrap up DK Metcalf during the first team session and later made a fantastic pass breakup in coverage against Laviska Shenault in the end zone, swatting the ball away along the sideline, standing out for Macdonald at his “new” position.
“It was really just to give him another opportunity to get on the field corner-wise,” Macdonald said. “Wasn’t getting a lot of reps at receiver. But I think the game is more natural to him on the defensive side, he’s got really good movement ability. We’ll see as it evolves here, but pleased with what we’ve seen since the switch to defense and he’s an All-American JUCO corner, so he’s familiar with that position moreso than wideout.”
Seattle, WA
VIDEO: Scream Club Seattle keeps growing, midway through first year
(Story originally posted 8:22 pm, updated 12:32 am)
By Torin Record-Sand
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
From a distance, they looked like a regular crowd of people enjoying a nice evening walk on the shores of Lincoln Park. But they were gathered here for a singular purpose: to scream. Since September 2025, the Scream Club Seattle has met at Lincoln Park on every third Sunday to scream, led by head organizer Amber Walcker. No explanation, justification, or invitation to scream is needed – come as you are. “There are some harder emotions people come here to deal with, sure, but some people also just come to scream.” head organizer Amber explained.
Tonight’s crowd showed the club is rapidly growing. From around a dozen or so participants in the first gathering in September, tonight seemed to attract around 40 people gathering to let it all out.
As the sun started to set, and everyone was finally gathered together, the Scream Club was ready to begin.
There are only three screams, organizer Amber explained. The first, she said, is a scream to get used to doing it in public. The second scream is there to ground you. And the final – and longest scream – is there to let you have an emotional catharsis.
She also wanted to make sure people were taking care of their vocal health beforehand. As she told everyone to walk a little bit from the meeting place and start to gather near the shore, she instructed the crowd to hum for a few minutes on the way, to warm up the vocal cords.
With that, the crowd walked towards the shore.
“On the count of one – two – three – scream!” said organizer Amber.
You can see our video of the proceedings here. After the screaming, we talked to a few participants about why they came out.
“There’s not one thing that’s really making me want to scream. There’s a lot of stuff going on for me, a lot of emotional ups and downs. Screaming into the ocean together gives you a sense of community.” said Jessie.
“This is my third or fourth time coming to scream. With the political climate, with everything that’s happening, getting together with local community to scream feels more productive than screaming into the internet on social media.” said Ursula.
“This is my first time coming out.” said Liz. “I screamed after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, and I really felt something. I realized I’ve been feeling a lot of frustration recently, and it felt like coming here was a healthy way to get it out rather than screaming at your neighbors.”
Organizer Amber recognizes much of what they were saying. “Meeting like this can be an important element to have in your mental health toolbox. It’s rare to have scream therapy.” She shared an anecdote about the therapeutic origins of the group, which originally started with a chapter in Chicago. “The founder was a life coach. Their girlfriend was having a bad day, and they encouraged them to go to the Chicago Pier and just let it out. He walked her through the process, and that was that. Eventually they invited more people to come do it.” She hopes to bring that same therapeutic energy to the practice here. “It’s a moment of emotional release more than anything else. Depending on what’s going on in people’s minds, everyone will come here with a different mindset and purpose. We’re providing a safe space to do that.”
Scream Club Seattle meets at Lincoln Park on the first Sunday of every month, and they are also starting to meet on the third Sunday of every month at Golden Gardens in Ballard. Tentatively, the next events will be in Lincoln Park on April 5th around 6 PM, and Golden Gardens on March 15th around 5 PM. If you’d like to know more, you can find them on Instagram here or look at their future events on their Eventbrite page here.
Seattle, WA
Detectives Investigating Robbery, Shooting Over $20 Necklace – SPD Blotter
Seattle police detectives are investigating a robbery and shooting of a 23-year-old man over a $20 necklace in Pioneer Square this morning.
At about 12:40 a.m., patrol officers responded to a shooting in the 500 block of 2nd Avenue. There, they found a victim, bleeding, with a gunshot wound to his right thigh. Police and the Seattle Fire Department treated his injury. Medics took him to Harborview Medical Center (HMC) in stable condition.
Police determined that the victim just left a bar, getting into the passenger seat of his friend’s car, when the suspect, wearing a ski mask and armed with a firearm, approached him and demanded his necklace. They struggled over the item, and the suspect shot the victim in the leg. The shooter fled in a vehicle with the necklace before police arrived. The value of the “chain” is about $20.
Detectives in the Robbery Unit responded to the scene and HMC. Anyone with information is asked to call the SPD Violent Crimes Tip line at 206-233-5000. Anonymous tips are accepted.
Incident Number: 2026-57536
Seattle, WA
Fast Start for Kraken Win, Homestand | Seattle Kraken
That stretch begins with five more home games: A skilled and successful Carolina squad Monday, followed by St. Louis (for the second time in a week) Wednesday, Ottawa next Saturday, then Nashville (just behind Seattle in the West wild-card race) on March 10 and then finishing with Western Conference leader Colorado March 12.
Stars Shine and Star-Crossed Hat Trick
Vince Dunn opened the scoring in his 600th NHL game. Jordan Eberle topped the best Kraken-season goals mark with his 21st and 22nd goals of the year, with 23 games left to flirt with his first 30-plus goals on the year since his sophomore season in 2011-12. Joey Daccord registered 27 saves on the victorious night, including nine high-danger chances in the first 40 minutes alone.
To the fans’ disappointment, the slick-stickhandling Daccord missed a historic goalie goal by inches. But the sellout crowd was rewarded when Eberle cashed in on the Vancouver empty net. Eberle now has four two-goal games this season.
In a bizarre twist, when Eberle scored that empty-netter, Kraken fans rightfully cheered and tossed headwear for what was presumed to be a hat-trick score. But after Eberle scored, the scoring change on the Kraken’s power play goal was announced when off-ice officials realized Eberle’s shot had just ever-so-slightly deflected off Matty Beniers’ skate. So no hat trick for the second time this season. Linemate Jared McCann and hat-tossing fans thought the Kraken’s all-time leading scorer had notched a hat trick earlier this season, only to have it reversed when an offside infraction by, wait for it, Beniers, erased the goal.
Eberle joked post-game that maybe fans deserved some hats. The Kraken captain also said when Daccord missed by inches on his goalie goal, he was on the bench saying, “he got it, he got it.” Post-game, Eberle said, “It’s just a matter of time before he gets one” because he greatly admires the goaltender’s puck-handling skills.
The Kraken came out fast Saturday night with two goals, a couple of near-misses, lots of scoring attempts and pucks on net during the first 20 minutes. One near-miss was a hard wrist shot from Jordan Eberle that clanged off the far post. But no matter, Eberle scored a pivotal goal in the second period, getting in front of a Vancouver shot and chasing his own ricochet to create a breakaway with his still-elite speed. The 35-year-old Seattle captain went to his lethal backhand to beat Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen. Eberle’s tally re-upped the two-goal lead.
Good night for Kraken special teams as well. The penalty killer snuffed an early third period Canucks power play to keep the two-score cushion. Later third period, Matty Beniers scored on the power play, deflecting an Eberle shot, to push the score to 4-1. Chandler Stephenson earned his second point of the night with the primary assist. Same for Dunn, who notched the second assist. The Kraken needed just 10 seconds to score the man-advantage marker.
Captaining His Best Kraken Season…
It is Eberle’s 21st goal of the season. The next one he scores will set a new high as a Kraken for the teammate everyone calls “Ebs.” That makes it three of five seasons that Eberle has scored 20 or more goals. Eberle almost scored again later second period when matching cross-checking penalties on SEA forward Kaapo Kakko and VAN defenseman Filip Hronek. The ensuing 4-on-4 play was dominated by the Kraken quartet of Eberle, Matty Beniers, Brandon Montour and Ryker Evans. Beniers stood with some moves and an improv that had future Hall of Fame play-by-play man John Forslund saying, “Beniers did everything but score.” It was heartening to see Seattle flexing its offensive chops with a 3-1 lead.
The Kraken scored twice in an opening 20 minutes played to order, returning to the hard forechecking game they exhibited on a heater 10-game streak before the Olympic break. The starting goalie did his part, stopping all nine of Vancouver’s shots in the first 20 minutes to bring confidence to the first-intermission home locker room.
Jumping Out of the Starting Blocks
The Kraken faithful were mega-decibel loud during the announcement of the starting lineups, welcoming back Olympian bronze medalists Kaapo Kakko and Eeli Tolvanen, as well as Seattle teammates. This week’s two road losses forgotten, replaced by rousing cheers for starters and fourth-liners Freddy Gaudreau, centering Jacob Melanson and Ben Meyers (on the wing for the first since a road matchup in LA right before the winter holiday break).
Defenseman Cale Fleury and Ryker Evans rounded out the skaters in front of Joey Daccord. It’s not a stretch to think head coach Lane Lambert was sending a message with his fourth line and third pair getting the first shift after losing two games in the Midwest by a composite score of 9-2.
Saturday morning, both defenseman Vince Dunn and Lambert both talked about what would be the ideal first 10 to 20 minutes in this Pacific Division showdown with rival Vancouver.
“We need to play simple and hard and direct,” said Dunn, who was playing in his 600th NHL game, 333 with Seattle. “I think we’re very connected when we can get our forecheck going. I think the way we play as a five-man unit is that we slow teams down and don’t get scrambled in our own end. We’re more patient in our own end and letting guys accept their positions and roles and areas that they need to defend in.
“Right away, we need to start shooting pucks … the past two games, the shot count hasn’t been where we wanted it to be in the first 10 minutes. So let’s get some looks and see what happens. Let’s see if we can get the other team scrambling.”
-
World5 days agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts5 days agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Denver, CO5 days ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Louisiana1 week agoWildfire near Gum Swamp Road in Livingston Parish now under control; more than 200 acres burned
-
Technology1 week agoYouTube TV billing scam emails are hitting inboxes
-
Politics1 week agoOpenAI didn’t contact police despite employees flagging mass shooter’s concerning chatbot interactions: REPORT
-
Technology1 week agoStellantis is in a crisis of its own making
-
News1 week agoWorld reacts as US top court limits Trump’s tariff powers