SB Nation - Michael Bumpus

Seattle Seahawks Announce Practice Squad, New Names

John Morgan — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:48:19 -0000

by Ted S. Warren - AP

Chris Spencer is not 286 pounds.

Seattle's practice squad is headlined by a couple new faces: Roy Lewis formerly of Washington and Blake Schlueter. Schlueter is a former Horned Frog. Years of cosmetic surgery have...

His acquisition is interesting. Like Vallos, Schlueter is an undersized college star that only fits in a very-pure zone -blocking scheme. If you're looking for further writing on the wall about the future of Chris Spencer, note Schlueter is 286; that Schlueter is another bad-frame, good at football pick. A guy Alex Gibbs might like.

Lewis should be familiar to most. I assume the Husky standout and former captain is the honorary Michael Bumpus signing with side benefits. He could have been hidden on a bad team.

The rest of squad is familiar.

Jamar Adams S

Mike Hass WR

Devin Moore RB

Logan Payne

Kyle Williams

And one open spot.

Seattle Seahawks 14 - Kansas City Chiefs 10 (Winners and Losers)

John Morgan — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:13:49 -0000

More photos » by Ed Zurga - AP

Corey Mays is forgiven for his foul. John Carlson deemed no flag shall be thrown.

Browse more photos »

Winners

Seattle Seahawks: Won at Arrowhead. Won with their starters and won with their depth. The Seahawks showed something passing, rushing, defending the pass and in coverage teams.

Matt Hasselbeck: Has developed #1-receiver like chemistry with T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Hasselbeck showed confidence in the system and decisiveness in his reads. Spread the ball well. Better poise in the pocket and near flawless decision making.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh: Fulfilling potential of stronger, more athletic Bobby Engram.

John Carlson: Better as a blocker, and taking his receiving game to the heights of ‘game-changing'.

Julius Jones: Productive, undemanding, reliable and fearsome as a pass blocker.

Courtney Taylor: Played with the first team and contributed. Put a sizable gap between himself and Ben Obomanu.

Ray Willis: His pass protection has grown in bounds.

Nate Burleson: Freed from Holmgren's exacting offense.

Aaron Curry: Still a rookie, but fans needed to see the athleticism and power. See the athleticism and power.

Will Herring: Herring entered the league a tweener with a legitimate chance to never make it. His light build and cover-only instincts threatened his chance to ever become an NFL linebacker. Tonight, he survived in the scrum and showed what it's like to have a linebacker with DB zone skills.

Darryl Tapp: Disruptive.

Josh Wilson: Incredible awareness. Wilson adjusted to an underthrown ball as it passed over the linebackers and broke for an impressive near-pick before defending the ball from his back.

Derek Walker: Made impressive plays in garbage time to protect him from the cut to 75.

Losers

Devin Moore: Cut is a lock, but does Seattle bother with the practice squad?

Logan Payne, Jordan Kent, Mike Hass and Michael Bumpus: Will, short of injury, not make the roster.

Jeff Rowe: Camp days coming to an end.

Steve Vallos: Enough of a problem at center that Seattle will entertain free agents.

Seneca Wallace: That grimace and sullen look says: "the dreaded groin."

Olindo Mare: Unable to make up ground.

Kevin Hobbs: Picked on and playing his way out of the league.

Ken Lucas: Another so-so game.

Lofa Tatupu: Have we reached the point where Tatupu is too bulked up? I think he'd have trouble hugging me.

Cameron Morrah: Now well behind Joe Newton.

Notes from Seattle Seahawks Training Camp, Part 2

John Morgan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:07:21 -0000

Justin Forsett was more involved in pass drills than last season. Greg Knapp likes to run play-action and then pass to his running backs and his running backs should all be able to catch. Forsett was especially active out of shotgun formations. That foreshadows his early role with the team this season: third-down back. Force has good hands, and his redirect is clean, but his routes are elementary if not unrefined. So it was nice to seem him run a play-action out of shotgun and then curl into the flat. Expect to see that play in the season, and given his skill-set, it could be a winner for Seattle.
Devin Moore attacks the edges. Seattle was attacking the edges a great deal in Monday's training camp. Moore is destined to start on Seattle's practice squad and if and when he ever breaks the roster, he looks exclusively like an edge and outside rusher. He broke an arm tackle in practice.
John Carlson motioned out of split backs and to tight end.
Aaron Curry ruled pass rush drills. He has great acceleration, size and pass rush technique. He will be a factor on blitzes if Seattle blitzes him both off the edge and between the tackles. It's the latter he looks potentially excellent at. In one drill, he ran past Owen Schmitt. Minutes later, the two collided with a resounding "crack".
Seattle executed a successful screen pass to the right side. Expect Julius Jones to be regularly targeted on screen passes.
Jordan Kent is two steps from being good. He has good hands and tracks the ball well. His athleticism is a given. He loses focus in traffic and can be knocked off his route. I hate to drop a noun that has connotations of manliness or the lack thereof, but Kent needs toughness. Kent needs to accept football is a hitting sport and thrive in it.
Curry slapped around Forsett in pass rush drills. It exhilarated a very ugly part of the soul like a good medieval stoning.
Heater looks like he can blitz. See if Seattle blitzes David Hawthorne on Saturday. Hawthorne is designated a middle linebacker, but I think he has the best skill-set to replace Leroy Hill in a pinch. He burst through the backfield on a run play and closed on Duckett, but it was a bad angle and even a man who relishes contact like Hawthorne can't take down a larger man with a step, angling the other direction. It would have taken a legendary arm-tackler like Rey Lewis to sink Duckett for a loss.
The player that broke Kent's concentration in traffic? Kelly Jennings. I expect Jennings to start for Marcus Trufant for as long as Trufant is out.
Michael Bumpus is the antipode of Jordan Kent.
On back to back plays, Brandon Mebane tore through Rob Sims. On the second he completed a pincers attack with Darryl Tapp. Matt Hasselbeck was the unlucky recipient of both.
Ben Obomanu came back to a pass that was otherwise in traffic. That's not a skill I've seen much from Obomanu and so it was encouraging.
Jordan Babineaux sacked Seneca Wallace on a safety blitz. Seattle was frequently blitzed its DBs.
That revealed Ray Willis's continued weakness against the edge rush. If only we had a young, skilled, developing and cheap tight end that could help chip edge rushers and minimize Willis' one damning weakness. Then Willis would be a two-ton, pneumatic clobbering machine. If only.
Michael Bennett suddenly appeared and played football. Consistency is a term rightfully lampooned, but if we can unpin our grammar rodeo ribbons for a second, I think we all know what coach's mean contextually when they say "consistency". And that's a player that fights every snap.
I saw Aaron Curry play end.
Not much info on Max Unger, but Mebane bent him like wheat in the wind and then dropped him entirely. Unger, so polished, so good at football, is learning so many positions that he might be a bit slow getting up to speed.
Darryl Tapp had the sweetest move of training camp. In team drills, he exploded towards Kyle Williams, got Williams backpedaling, then dropped his shoulders, did this freaky bob-weave, lulled Williams into a trance and exploded again through and past Williams for a sack. Let it be known now that if Seattle fails to re-sign Tapp, I will summon a plague on Renton's first born.
Mr. Raw is likely Seattle's starting right guard. Mansfield Wrotto is raw like unfinished, and raw like, nasty, hardcore and sanguinary. He defused Craig Terrill's spin move and then effortlessly slid Terrill wide. If this is a sign of development as a pass protector - Oh and it is - Wrotto could be fulfilling the talent that got him drafted. Somewhere Darrell Jackson picks his foot-long goatee.
Sims contained Mebane. Mebane was auditioning a spin move.
Red Bryant doubled-over Mansfield Wrotto the wrong way. Wrotto is hugely powerful and has great leverage. Bryant is another species.
Nick Reed put an inside move on Williams and slid past him. He also showed a good swim move. Unger matched skill with Reed and won.
After practice and across the field I saw Derek Walker head down, two helmets in each hand, slumping towards the VMAC. Walker has been so impressive to me, but I don't think he is getting recognition from the coaches. So I said to Walker "stick with it, you're doing good out there." He looked surprised.

Seattle Seahawks Training Camp Notes, Part 1

John Morgan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:29:43 -0000

I just got in and am I'm a little worn out and more than a little hungry. Here are a few quick notes until tomorrow.

Logan Payne knows how to play. You can see his practiced feet in cut drills. He sets ups his breaks with a deep plant foot and snaps his body around. During receiving drills he watches the ball into his hands and after catching, holds it high between his forearm and bicep. It's the technique that Tom Coughlin taught Tiki Barber that fixed Barber's fumbling problems. Payne goes all out in practice and his effort is admirable, but he does look to be putting in maximum effort around players that are not. I can see why the front office likes Payne. More than most of Seattle's receivers, it's not technique, effort or consistency that will determine Payne's potential, but his athleticism. If he can contribute, he will contribute.
On Monday, Brian Russell and Josh Wilson were jawing about something or another on the sideline. Wilson had gotten into a scrape with Michael Bumpus and it looked pretty intense. There was a dog pile and the two were forcibly separated. Bumpus is in a position where he has to go all out. Wilson is not. I wonder if that creates some friction between the established players and the guys on the bubble. Russell was probably telling Wilson to act like a veteran if he wants to become a veteran.
Wilson did turn it on for one play. He had tight man coverage on Branch on a deep pass, and when Matt Hasselbeck's pass sailed a little, jumped up and caught it for an interception. It was Trufant-esque.
Watch Mike Teel's pocket presence if he gets snaps on Saturday. I saw the strangest thing on Monday. Seattle's quarterbacks were alternating during receiving drills. In one, a coach was acting as a pass rusher. He would "rush" the quarterback with his hands up and the quarterback would need to complete the pass over or around him. It was decidedly low-pressure. But there was 14, inexplicably throwing pass after pass off his back foot. Teel has a cannon. Easily the best arm in camp, but "under pressure" he was throwing Alex Smith ducks from Alex Smith's second favorite position.