Pads come on, intensity ramps up at Seahawks training camp

RENTON – Maybe the most entertaining thing to watch at a Seahawks training-camp practice, aside from the full-team sessions, is the one-on-one pass-rush drill. It’s simple: an offensive lineman tries to block a defensive lineman from reaching an imaginary quarterback as the rest of the players in each position group cheer them on.

The Seahawks don’t hit much during practice, but this drill is full-contact. As such, the intensity is ramped up. Things got heated last year when Frank Clark and Mark Glowinski mixed it up. And they did on Monday, this time between Michael Bennett and rookie Germain Ifedi as the Seahawks held the drill for the first time this training camp.

Bennett and Ifedi were the third pair up. Bennett went with a bull-rush, gradually pushing Ifedi into the backfield, and the two remained locked up well after what is considered the normal amount of time for this drill. After teammates and coaches separated the two, Bennett continued screaming at Ifedi (exactly what he said couldn’t be made out with music blaring in the background, but it was probably unprintable anyway).

Still miffed, Bennett came after J’Marcus Webb after he beat Cliff Avril on the next play. Bennett had more words for Ifedi after the two went up against each other again.

“I didn’t get to see the pass-rush, but I know that there was a little A&M issue going on down there, which was fun,” coach Pete Carroll said, referring to how Bennett and Ifedi both went to Texas A&M. “Part of the first day. Part of it.”

This was Seattle’s third practice of training camp but, as Carroll was referring to, the first day in which the team was allowed to wear shoulder pads per the NFL’s collective-bargaining agreement. That made for a noticeably greater intensity compared to the first two days.

“Yeah, it stepped up the way we had hoped to,” Carroll said. “I can’t wait to see the film but I think we got a ton of work. We really worked the young guys a lot and wanted to get them on film for the first time. You wait all this time – months and months and months – and it’s just not real football. This is closer to it. It’s not game-like, but it’s as close as we can get.”

Carroll was asked about Ifedi having a reputation in college as someone who plays and practices with an attitude.

“He must have because that’s who he is, and he’s shown that throughout,” Carroll said. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Very aggressive, very tough, willing to stand up for himself on the first day – that’s pretty good.”

There’s a line that Carroll doesn’t want his players to cross, but he didn’t seem to mind the extent to which Bennett and Ifedi got after each other.

“We’re built on this thought that we’ve got to prove it every day, and if you’re not that kind of guy, you don’t really fit in here,” he said. “I’m not asking guys to do something silly, I’m just liking what we’re seeing and we expect to participate on this practice field at a really high level and battle against each other day in and day out.”