From top draft choice Jadarian Price through a 5-foot-6 United States Air Force lieutenant, the Seahawks brought in more guys for a rookie minicamp than they’ll have players on their roster next season.
It was 68 players in all. They were wearing the uniforms, practicing on the fields and getting trained by the coaches of the Super Bowl champions at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
Fifty-three of those 68 at the rookie camp were tryout players. They are seeking to earn the contracts eight draft picks plus seven undrafted free agents already have with Seattle.
“It’s a lot of tryout guys,” coach Mike Macdonald said as the rookie minicamp ended Saturday.
Why?
It’s part of Macdonald’s credo.
“It’s a chasing-edges thing that we believe in here,” he said. “We found some really great players to be on our kind of 120 idea over the years.”
Their “120 idea” is a pool of about 50 guys beyond the 53 players on the active roster and 17 on the practice squad during the season. Macdonald and his coaching staff are taking from this past weekend about 50 players they could potentially call if one of the Seahawks’ practice-squad players gets hurt, or signed by another team to its active roster.
Macdonald rediscovered a linebacker Seattle had during the 2025 preseason. The team signed him back a few days after its Super Bowl win in February 2026.
“Everyone’s on a different timeline,” Macdonald said. “We’ve had several guys that have come back in camp — or even after camp or after the season. Jalan Gaines is a guy that comes to mind that’s with us now.
“To go through it with these tryout guys, there’s some talented guys that we’ll be interested in. And we’ll be a better team for it.”
With 20 of 22 starters on last season’s championship team returning for 2026, there aren’t a ton of Seahawks jobs available for the players who wore on their fields this weekend.
Who and what stood out to me during this rookie minicamp:
1. Yes, Jadarian Price catches passes
New running backs coach Thomas Hammock took a break from his pre- and post-draft razzing of Price. Hammock mentored Price on nuances of the position in drills through cones and pads on the ground. And on ball security.
Price fumbled three times in his last two Notre Dame seasons. Not a ton, but enough to have Hammock’s and the Seahawks’ attention to improve.
Hammock was the head coach at Northern Illinois before Macdonald hired him this offseason. Northern Illinois upset Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, during Price’s 2024 season for the Fighting Irish. And he won’t stop reminding Price and his new Seahawks.
“You guys beat Notre Dame. All right. We get it,” Schneider has told his new running backs coach.
#Seahawks first-round pick Jadarian Price in one of his first NFL running-back drills with new Seattle RBs coach Thomas Hammock.
Start of rookie minicamp with the Super Bowl champions here in Renton.
@thenewstribune @933KJRpic.twitter.com/w0jQLAMFCH
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) May 1, 2026
From check-down passes to called primary routes, and in drills before scrimmaging, Price was conspicuously catching the ball from quarterbacks Blake Shapen from Mississippi State, one-time BYU then Tulane QB Jake Retzlaff and recent University of Washington backup Kai Horton.
It was conspicuous because Price was a high-efficiency running back (6-plus yards per carry) with 21 rushing touchdowns and national-leading kickoff returner in three seasons for Notre Dame. He caught only 15 passes in those three years.
Price said upon Schneider and Macdonald making him Seattle’s fourth running back drafted in the first round April 23 his goal was to become a better receiver and pass blocker.
It’s been an emphasis for him since his last college game Nov. 29.
“That was the biggest thing to show at the (NFL scouting) combine and (Notre Dame) Pro Day was my ability to catch the ball out of the backfield,” Price said, “because I didn’t show that as much on film.”
Macdonald said it is more a matter of Seahawks coaches keeping their replacement for departed (to Kansas City) Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker out of any potential leg tie-ups with other guys in this first minicamp.
“It’s not like an extra point of emphasis,” Macdonald said. “I think because of camp, probably more space plays rather than keeping him in traffic. Just trying to be smart on how we utilize him in this camp. Getting off, but getting off to the right start.
“Did a good job. It’s definitely part of our offense.”
2. Guard Beau Stephens’ side
Schneider and Macdonald didn’t reach into the Seahawks’ stash of 12 expected picks in a stronger 2027 draft to trade and get Beau Stephens. The All-American guard for Iowa was still available in the fifth round of this draft - no need to have Stephens sit and watch Grey Zabel continue to be a stud at left guard for years.
Stephens makes sense as Seattle’s right guard of the future. If not the now.
Stephens already gets that.
“They obviously have a really good left guard,” he said Friday of Zabel, Seattle’s first-round pick last year. “So I’m assuming.”
Assuming that Stephens being at right guard during this rookie camp means that’s where he will begin when starting right guard Anthony Bradford and the veteran Seahawks join the new guys in offseason practices the next few weeks.
Bradford, maligned by fans and people outside the team facility, will be entering the final season of his contract this fall. Stephens started the last two seasons at Iowa at left guard. He was the Hawkeyes’ starting right guard as a sophomore in 2023.
Macdonald smiled following the rookie practice Saturday and said he knew I would ask him about the longer-term significance of Stephens being at right guard this first weekend. The coach wasn’t about to put Bradford on notice the first days of May, four-plus months before the Seahawks’ first game.
“Beau is on the right side,” Macdonald said, “but we’re going to train him at both spots. We’ll see how it goes inside. You need flexibility across, on the interior part of your line.
“He’s played both in his career. Right now he’s playing right guard. But we’ll be training him right and left.”
3. Air Force officer in camp
Cade Harris was running routes and catching passes this weekend — while on permissive temporary duty (TDY) from the U.S. Air Force.
Harris played four seasons for Air Force. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in December 2025. That earned him a commission on active duty as a second lieutenant, in logistics.
He told me his agent has a connection in the Seahawks’ front office. The team needed more guys for this rookie minicamp. That’s how Second Lieutenant Harris got to Renton this weekend, on TDY.
The 5-6, 182-pound Harris said he has another tryout next weekend at a rookie minicamp with the New England Patriots.
Third-round draft choice Julian Neal (1) warming up with the cornerbacks for #Seahawks rookie minicamp. @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/FTzw7Mlqic
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) May 2, 2026
4. Undrafted rookie gets noticed
Uso Seumalo entered the weekend as one to watch, on a position where Macdonald is seeking more depth for the 2026 season
Friday, the Seahawks announced they had signed Seumalo among seven undrafted free agents.
About an hour later, moments into his first 11-on-11 scrimmage with Seattle, the nose tackle made an impression.
He jumped while getting blocked. The 6-foot-3, 330-pound Seumalo knocked down a quick, short pass by Shapen, who got most of the plays quarterbacking with Price, Stephens and what appeared to be a first-team offense, if there was such a thing this weekend.
By the end of the rookie camp, a member of the Seahawks’ public-relations staff was confirming the pronunciation of his name.
With Brandon Pili re-signed for one season and 2025 undrafted rookie Bubba Thomas back in reserve as Seattle’s only true nose tackles, there may be a reason to learn his name is pronounced EW-so SAY-u-mall-o. He played volleyball and basketball at Molokai High School in Ho’olehua, Hawaii. He didn’t played football until his senior year there. Seumalo then played two seasons at Garden City Community College in Kansas and four more for Kansas State.
The Seahawks did not draft an edge rusher because the ones they wanted were selected ahead of where they were picking in later rounds. So they signed three undrafted free-agent pass rushers: Devean Deal from TCU, Aidan Hubbard from Northwestern and Marvin Jones Jr. from Oklahoma.
Also signed as rookie free agents: wide receivers Michael Briscoe from Cal Poly and Kansas’ Levi Wentz, plus tight end Lance Mason from Wisconsin.
5. A 6-5 cornerback
Tyrone Broden spent last season on the Seahawks’ practice squad after signing in the spring of 2025 as a rookie free agent. He was at the position he played in college at Bowling Green and Arkansas: wide receiver.
Seattle’s coaches have moved him to cornerback for 2026.
A 6-5 cornerback would be the tallest in NFL history. Original Legion of Boom cornerback Brandon Browner was 6-4. Richard Sherman, Browner’s teammate on those Seahawks title-winning teams of a dozen or so years ago, was 6-3. Broden was hurt in practice last season. He has been on crutches this offseason. He isn’t ready to be on the field yet when the veterans begin the second phase of the Seahawks’ offseason program Monday.
But Broden at cornerback is a unique idea.
“He’s someone that did a great job at the beginning of last year and unfortunately got hurt. We loved his movement ability, and he’s got ball skills and he competes. He’s got a great attitude,” Macdonald said. “We felt like it could translate to being a heck of a DB one day.
“He’s dealing with some health things right now in terms of his timeline on when he can get back on the field. So right now we’re not exactly sure when that’s going to happen. But he’s in meetings, and he’s got a great spirit about him.
“We’re excited about it. It’s going to take some time, but he’s a great guy for the job.”
Macdonald was asked about a guy Broden’s height never playing cornerback in an NFL regular season game.
“He can bend really well. He’s not just a straight-legged 6-foot whatever,” Macdonald said. “He can move and get in and out of breaks. His lateral quickness is really good. He’s a great special-teams player. He’s a great gunner (outside on the punt team). Those are traits that you look for in defensive players.
“So we think that’s going to translate.”
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