Seahawks camp day 3: Byron Murphy’s eventful day; Sam Howell struggling; hi Marquise Blair

Byron Murphy had his most eventful day yet in the NFL.

He loved the middle and end of it.

Friday the Seahawks’ rookie first-round draft choice was starting at defensive tackle for the first time. Murphy was on the starting defense during the first plays of 11-on-11 scrimmaging on the third day of training camp. The 16th pick in the NFL draft this spring out of Texas lined up next to $64 million veteran Leonard Williams. They were inside defensive end Dre’mont Jones and edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu.

He came off the field following the third practice of camp greeted by fans cheering his name. Murphy stopped and signed autographs. He smiled broadly into the equally bright sun.

Murphy has been the quickest defensive linemen off the snap in Seattle’s training camp. And the former University of Texas pass rusher and run stopper is beginning to show his versatility. New head coach Mike Macdonald and defensive coordinator Aden Durde, who has been deep in the D-line so far, have often played Murphy as a truer tackle on the outside shoulder of the offensive guard. He’s also been over and off the shoulder of the center as a nose tackle.

For one play Friday, the 6-foot, 306-pound Murphy lined up outside at right defensive end. He rushed at left tackle McClendon Curtis and quarterback Geno Smith.

Murphy has said pass rushing and adjusting to the speed of the NFL are his biggest challenges early in his rookie year.

But, he says, he’s in good hands.

“With these coaches, I feel like they’re going to put me in the best position in order to be successful,” Murphy said. “And also, too, I feel like once the game slows down, I feel like I can be me. I can be the best player I can be.”

Friday morning, his agent Ron Slavin posted online that Murphy has been targeted in an attempt at extortion by an online model. Slavin stated the alleged perpetrator has also targeted “other young players in the league.”

Slavin said he has contacted the FBI and the NFL.

“Recently, my client Byron Murphy was the victim of an extortion attempt from a text conversation that began and ended online,” Slavin wrote on his social-media account. “He had no contact with this person. This blackmail scheme has targeted other young players in the league. We have notified the NFL, turned the matter over to the FBI. Anyone involved in this scheme will be prosecuted.”

Sam Howell struggling

There was no quarterback competition at the start of training camp.

There is even less of one now.

Smith is three days into his third training camp as the Seahawks’ starter. He’s coming off two seasons of going to the Pro Bowl, the first two NFL all-star selections of his career.

Sam Howell is three days into an almost alarmingly inaccurate camp. So far, days before the team puts on full pads, the Washington Commanders’ starter last season is closer to competing with third QB P.J. Walker to be Smith’s backup than he is for any of Smith’s playing time this year.

Thursday, Howell threw a high, shot-put of a pass far short of receiver Dee Eskridge on a deep flag route to the right sideline. Second nickel defensive back Artie Burns glided off his man, peeled back and easily intercepted that pass.

Friday was Howell’s worst day yet. He threw a back-shoulder stop-route pass down the right sideline 5 yards wide right of Dareke Young. The ball skidded off the Boeing logo painted on the grass far off the sideline boundary. Howell overthrew leaping 6-4 receiver Jake Bobo by 5 feet on a 10-yard route across the middle. In the red-zone scrimmage that ended the practice, Howell threw well wide right again on the right sideline, that time with Easop Winston Jr. the intended receiver. Then Howell fired well over 6-3 Cody White through the back center of the end zone.

Seattle sent the Commanders a fourth- and a sixth-round draft pick this spring to get Howell.

After practice Friday the 33-year-old Smith, 10 years older than Howell, was asked what quarterback statistics or traits he thinks are the most important.

“I’ll take it back to Bill Parcells, man. The number-one thing you look at in a quarterback is accuracy,” said Smith, who led the NFL in completion percentage for Seattle in 2022, with a team-record 69.8. “Before decision-making. Before anything.

“If you are not accurate and you can’t hit the target, it doesn’t matter what decision you make.”

Geno Smith accountability

Smith was inaccurate, subtly, on one completion Friday.

His swing pass to rookie running back Kobe Lewis was a couple steps up field from where Smith wanted to hit Lewis in stride. Lewis lost his balance lunging to make the catch. He fell to the turf. The undrafted rookie from Florida Atlantic got up and gained a few more yards, but Smith knew he’d ruined a bigger gain.

Smith kicked the grass, knocked the side of his helmet with a closed fist and tapped his chest to acknowledge to himself, to Lewis and the team that despite the completion Lewis’ fall was his, the QB’s, fault.

P.J. Walker so far

Walker, who started for Cleveland against the Seahawks at Lumen Field last season, threw a pretty, deep strike on a line about 50 yards to tight end Brady Russell running of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb’s many deep routes down the center of the field for a touchdown.

At 5-11 and wearing number 15, Walker reminds those who have been around team a bit of former QB Seneca Wallace. Wallace wore the same number and had the same stature as Walker when he went 5-9 in 14 starts for Seattle as an injury fill-in for coach Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks from 2005-09.

Smith said he’s known Walker for a few years, through seeing and chatting with him before and after games. Walker, 29, is entering his eighth NFL season out of Temple. He’s made all nine of his career starts the last four years, for Carolina (he went 4-3 in seven starts for the Panthers) and Cleveland (he went 1-1 last season for the Browns).

“Always been a big fan of his. I thought he did a tremendous job at practice today,” Smith said. “He’s a hard worker. He’s a guy who understands the game. He’s obviously played some big-time football, and beaten some really good teams.

“I think P.J. is going to be a guy that’s going to help our QB room. And if he’s got to step in there and play, man, I know he’s going to go do his thing.”

Marquise Blair is back

New/old safety Marquise Blair is back.

The team’s hard-hitting, 2019 second-round pick signed back with Seattle Friday morning. The Seahawks released second-year safety Jonathan Sutherland to make room for Blair on the 90-man preseason roster.

Blair was playing with the second-team defense Friday. The 27-year-old chatted with fellow safeties Ty Okada and Coby Bryant at the start of his first practice for the Seahawks since Oct. 2021.

He was poised to be a starter for Seattle in 2020. He played 41% of the snaps in that season’s opening game, at Atlanta. The following week during a home game against New England, Blair tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee on the third play. He missed the rest of that season. Another major knee injury ended his 2021 season after six games.

He played in three games for Carolina off its practice squad in 2022. He was also on Philadelphia’s practice squad that season. The Eagles released him in April 2023. He’d been out of the league since then.

“It’s been a long year,” Blair told reporters before practice Friday. “I ended up tearing my Achilles last April, so I missed all of last season. So I’ve just been training to get back in the league.”

Defensive lineman Jarran Reed was a Seahawks teammate of Blair’s in 2019 and ‘20.

“Blair is a great player. I think he is a hard hitter,” Reed said. “We like physical players out here. You’re getting that Seahawk football.

“I actually saw him when we were training down in Miami the past two years. I remember talking to him. When I saw him come in the building, I was excited to see him. That guy works hard. I think he deserves the opportunity in this league especially here to come back and have a second chance to play football again.”

Extra points

*New linebacker Jerome Baker, expected to start this season next to fellow offseason signee Tyrel Dodson, missed offseason practices following wrist surgery and a lower-body injury. Baker fully participated with the starting defense next to Dodson in the first and second practices of training camp. Friday, he was in sneakers and his number-17 practice jersey without a helmet, watching drills.

With Baker missing, rookie fourth-round pick Tyrice Knight was the starting inside weakside (“Will”) linebacker Friday.

*Another practice, another example of Devon Witherspoon’s swag. The 2023 rookie Pro Bowl cornerback raced from his primary nickel spot inside straight up the field and blew up a quick toss sweep run by Zach Charbonnet in the backfield. Witherspoon then flexed towards the offensive players, growled and yelled at them.

*George Fant was the starting right tackle Thursday while Abe Lucas remains out indefinitely following his knee surgery. Friday, Fant had a veteran’s day off. Curtis was the starting right tackle for the second time in three days.