The Seahawks had a scrappy session on Wednesday, punctuated by at least five fights. On Thursday, coach Mike Macdonald expressed satisfaction at the effort, with one caveat.
“We had a great practice yesterday,” Macdonald told reporters on Thursday. “I think, like I said, we’re right there on the edge. At this point in camp, we’re tired of going against one another. There’s some edge to us, which is good to a degree. We just have to make sure that we keep our poise in certain situations because at the end of the day we want to take care of one another and we’re all wearing the same helmet.”’
Macdonald praised receiver DK Metcalf, who removed cornerback Tre Brown’s helmet and started swinging it, for his message to the team.
“DK is a leader on this team,” Macdonald said. “We look to him and as he goes we’re going to go for a lot of where we want to go as a football team. As expected, had a great message, the guys were in. . . . It was positive. It was just ‘Hey guys, just a reminder what we’re trying to achieve here. Let’s take a deep breath and let’s make sure we close out practice the right way.’ To the guys’ credit, I thought we did that. . . . Trust me, it was a great message. It was what we needed to hear.”
All coaches want their players to have that edge. Does it boil over at times? Sure. Would that kind of thing create problems in a game? Absolutely. But most would say it’s better to have to control fire than to have none.
The Seahawks, in their first camp since 2009 without Pete Carroll as the coach, have that fire. Now, all Macdonald has to do is harness it.