Duane Brown teaching, not practicing. Pete Carroll and the Seahawks like it that way
It’s easy to assume Duane Brown is doing next to nothing and missing most of Seahawks training camp.
The 14-year veteran who turns 36 this month has yet to practice through this first week of camp. He’s come out each day during team scrimmaging and stood in the back behind the huddles. He’s been watching with a hoodie often up above his wide shoulders and blue, No. 76 practice jersey.
He looks idled.
Stone Forsythe knows better.
“No, that’s not the case. I’m definitely learning from him,” Seattle’s rookie left tackle said before he got his first snap with the starting offense Monday during the fifth practice of camp.
“He gives me great coaching points here and there. He’s watching.”
Brown is in all the position, line and team meetings between practices. He is participating in the walk-through practices the team has each morning, before the full workouts in the afternoons.
He is actually doing Forsythe, Seattle’s sixth-round draft choice this spring out of Florida, a favor beyond just teaching him during practices. Brown staying out of these early camp workouts is giving Forsythe and Jamarco Jones, the team’s fifth-round pick in 2018 from Ohio State, more time on the field at left tackle.
Jones has been playing for Brown on the starting offense. At least he was until he injured his knee during a red-zone scrimmage Monday. Coach Pete Carroll said Jones “got rolled up on” and that the team doesn’t think it is serious.
Forsythe replace Jones as the starting left tackle to finish that red-zone series. Cedric Ogbuehi moved from backup right tackle to fill-in, first-team left tackle the rest of Monday’s practice.
Forsythe is getting second- and third-team reps, twice as many as the rookie would be getting if Brown was practicing.
“I get a lot of reps out here. Just taking a few back from here and taking what I’m learning from him, adjusting to it,” Forsythe said.
“Just kind of taking things in his game and using it in my game.”
That’s the idea.
Carroll and the Seahawks see Brown teaching as more important and beneficial to the linemen as they learn first-year coordinator Shane Waldron’s offense than having Brown trudging through practices in early August.
When will Brown start practicing?
“Soon,” Carroll said.
Perhaps not this week when the Seahawks begin practicing in pads after the league-mandated acclimation period without them.
“It’s a long camp,” Carroll said.
Basically, the oldest Seahawk and the team’s best offensive lineman isn’t practicing because he doesn’t have to.
“There are ball games, and there’s weeks and weeks to get ready,” Carroll said. “He’s returned in fantastic shape. He’s doing all of the stuff in the morning and participating to the max in all of that.
“I’m not worried about Duane’s football. I just want to make sure that I’m doing everything to make him strong as possible when we start. He’s so gifted at playing, conditioning and all of that. I would like to buy him some time here and start him down the road in a little bit.
“We don’t need to get him out here on the field and bang on him for a while.”
The Seahawks play the first of their three preseason games Aug. 14 at Las Vegas. There is one fewer exhibition games this summer with the NFL going to an additional, 17th regular-season game.
It’s conceivable Carroll departs from his usual way with the preseason opener: veteran starters playing maybe one drive then departing to get long game looks at younger players such as Forsythe.
The Seahawks drafted him to perhaps eventually replace Brown at left tackle whenever Brown wants to stop playing.
That isn’t this year. Or next.
Brown has told the team he wants a new contract beyond his that ends with the 2021 season. The Seahawks are open to that, but first have to finish the rich, new deal for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams.
Adams is also in camp but only watching, not practicing.
This month Carroll could, because of one fewer preseason game, play Russell Wilson and the veteran starters longer in the exhibition opener than he has in past summers.
The new format means teams will have two weeks instead of a little more than one from their final exhibition game to the opener of the regular season.
Seattle hosts the Los Angeles Chargers Aug. 28, then begins the season Sept. 12 at Indianapolis (perhaps against Lake Stevens native and former University of Washington quarterback Jacob Eason, with Colts starter Carson Wentz having foot surgery this week).
Carroll has a plan in mind but said he wasn’t ready to talk about it, not publicly, anyway.
“You’ll see as we go,” the coach said of his 12th set of preseason games as Seattle’s coach. “I’m not going to divulge how we are doing this thing. We have a real plan here. I like what we are doing here, and you’ll see as we go. The players don’t know what we are doing yet either, and it’s not the time to talk about that yet.
“It’s not hard. It’s just that you have to do it a little differently. The two weeks before the first game is a really good decision I think for the league, the players, and the buildup of the preparation. This gives us the best chance to have the most guys available in the first game, and that’s really good, smart thinking. We will take advantage of that.”
Forsythe will continue taking advantage of Brown teaching him and of the extra reps he’s getting while the Seahawks preserve Brown.
“(He’s teaching me) what the D-ends are allowed to do in the NFL, compared to what they did in college,” Forsythe said, meaning more freedom from their coaches on which gaps they take, inside or outside. “Different assignments they have, and how they play different things on the back end.
“I’m just taking those little points — (the defensive end’s) body position and hand position — helping me out. ... All their handwork. They have the ability to take the inside move whenever they want.”
Mannion in camp
Former Oregon State quarterback and Rams and Vikings backup Sean Mannion signed with the Seahawks on Sunday and was on the field for his first Seattle practice Monday.
The 29-year-old veteran had a tryout with the Seahawks last week.
Mannion was in Waldron’s system with the Rams in 2017 and ‘18. He spent 2019 as Kirk Cousins’ backup in Minnesota.
The Seahawks waived quarterback Danny Etling and gave Mannion his roster spot.
Etling and Alex McGough had been the third and fourth quarterbacks behind Russell Wilson and Geno Smith through the first four practices of training camp. McGough has taken very few scrimmage snaps so far in camp.
This story was originally published August 2, 2021 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Duane Brown teaching, not practicing. Pete Carroll and the Seahawks like it that way."
