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Seattle: Offense, just offensive
Posted: Wednesday August 18, 1999 11:03 AM
This is the 13th in a series of postcards Sports Illustrated's Peter King will e-mail from his annual NFL training-camp tour.
Tuesday, Aug 17 TEAM: Seattle Seahawks SITE: Eastern Washington University, hard by the prairies of the inland west in the Spokane suburb of Cheney, Wash. You really feel like you'd find Wyatt Earp out here if you looked hard enough. As evidence: When I went to pick up my Hertz midsized car at the Spokane airport Monday night, they gave me an Isuzu Rodeo. The players' dorms look like silos with air conditioners hanging out the windows. Wheat fields sit above the practice fields. "They'll be harvesting in a week or two," said VP/football operations Randy Mueller . Get along, little doggies. PLAYER I SAW WHOM I REALLY LIKED: Wide receiver Charles Jordan , who caught but 36 passes in a failed three-year marriage with Miami, is probably on his last chance here. He's making the most of it. With Joey Galloway holding out for a new contract -- the Seahawks have offered an eminently fair seven-year, $35-million deal with $7 million to sign Galloway, who has averaged 65 catches and nine touchdowns a year over his four-year career -- Jordan's getting a hard look alongside Mike Pritchard and should make the team as the third or four receiver. THE FOOD: I erred big time, passing up the stir-fry bar for pressed turkey, watery mashed potatoes, fine cantaloupe, a real Rice Krispy Treat (not the phony kind you get in a cellophane wrapper these days) and Yoplait red raspberry yogurt. You live and learn in the training-camp dining table business. Dear NFL Junkie: Let's just say the Seattle offense has a long way to go. Judging by the disastrous first preseason game (Buffalo 24, Seattle 10) and what I saw Tuesday morning, the defense had better be the stingiest in the league if the Seahawks are going to challenge Denver for the AFC West title. At the end of practice, Mike Holmgren gave the offense the ball at its 40 with one timeout and 1:40 left in the game. Quarterback Jon Kitna had his first pass tipped (it fell incomplete). He overthrew Sean Dawkins on second down, hit Dawkins for a four-yard gain on third down and overthrew Pritchard on fourth. End of drive. Then he gave third-round pick Brock Huard a shot (seems like Holmgren likes him better than Glenn Foley , the Jet import), and Huard fell short. Then Kitna took another try. "Here we go, men!" Holmgren said. "Let's make it count." But the leaky offensive line allowed Kitna to feel too much pressure. Kitna completed four throws and got to the defense's 33-yard line, but three straight incompletions killed the drive, and Holmgren ended practice right there. I thought I saw him shaking his head. "We just need to move the ball better," Kitna said hopefully after practice. "We'll get there. We'll get there." I asked Kitna, a career 50% thrower in limited playtime, how efficient he had to be to make it in the Holmgren offense. "At least 60, and probably more," he said. "I've got to move the chains. I know that. When Joe Montana started to be such a precise passer in San Francisco, I think people saw how important that was to moving the chains. It's not going to be heaven right away here, but if anyone can get whatever talent I have out of me, it's Mike Holmgren." More postcards: Cleveland | Detroit | Tampa Bay | Minnesota | Green Bay | Chicago | New Orleans | Kansas City | Dallas | Washington | Oakland | San Francisco
Check back soon for more Postcards from Camp. To send a question to
Peter King's King's NFL Mailbag, click
here.
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