Seahawks remain quiet in first week of training camp as NFL’s initial COVID-19 testing period ends

Published 12:32 am Saturday, August 1, 2020

A week in which the Seahawks made some of the biggest noise around the NFL — the trade for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams — was otherwise pretty quiet for Seattle.

And that’s a good thing these days.

As the Seahawks completed what was officially the fourth day of training camp Friday, the league again reported Seattle had no positive COVID-19 tests.

Friday concluded the league’s four-day testing period, and players who have not tested positive on any of the three tests taken this week will be able to enter facilities for physicals on Saturday and Sunday (though results were not yet recorded for tests administered Friday).

With the pre-entry testing period over, Seattle had only one reported COVID-19 transaction, veteran free agent guard Chance Warmack’s decision to opt out of the 2020 season.

Warmack’s opt-out, though, has yet to be officially processed by the league (Warmack remains on the team’s online roster).

Throughout the NFL, 74 players have been placed on the COVID-19 reserve list, but zero Seahawks. (Players are put on the list if they test positive or if they have come into contact with a person or persons infected. Teams are not specifying details for any players put on the list).

And of 31 officially reported opt-outs, none are Seahawks, with Warmack’s yet to be made official (with Warmack not yet official, the Seahawks are technically one of four teams to have neither a player placed on the reserve list or opt-out, the others being the Cardinals, Rams and Chargers).

Warmack’s agent, Ron Slavin, confirmed earlier in the week that Warmack will opt out and will be eligible for a $150,000 advance on next year’s contract (he signed a one-year contract that would toll, meaning simply roll over to the 2021 season).

Physicals being conducted this weekend, though, could result in more news as the Seahawks will be able to exam every player, including those coming off significant injuries, among them running backs Rashaad Penny, who suffered a knee injury on Dec. 8 against the Rams, and Chris Carson, who is recovering from a fractured hip.

Players who pass physicals will on Monday begin an eight-day strength and conditioning period (which includes one day off).

The conditioning period was added for this year as part of the league’s agreement with the NFL Players Association.

Players wanted an extended “ramp-up” period before doing significant football drills to try to avoid injuries, especially muscle pulls and other ailments of that nature that can be common at the beginning of camp.

There was a concern there might be more soft-tissue injuries this year because teams did not have any on-field work in the spring.

Teams will be allowed to begin practicing in helmets and shells on Aug. 12 with padded practices on Aug. 17. Teams can have 14 padded practices this year, an increase from past camps to try to account for the lack of preseason games.

“It’s completely different from any normal training camp,” middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said earlier this week.

But Wagner, who was vocal in his opposition last March to the league’s new collective-bargaining agreement with the players, voiced no complaints about the setup for camp this year when he talked to media via Zoom this week.

“I’m not concerned,” Wagner said. “You know, the Seahawks have done a great job of trying to provide a lot of protocols and things of that nature, so I think we’re just taking it a day at a time. I’m not really one that thinks about things, you know what could happen, ‘what-if?’ things of that nature. We just take it a day at a time and see what happens.”

So far, anyway, things appear to have gone smoothly for the Seahawks.

The team made a bevy of roster moves last weekend to cut down to 80 players from the usual training camp maximum of 90. Rules in place for this year state teams can only work with 80 players at once, meaning teams that keep 90 have to split into groups.

The Seahawks followed the lead of many teams in getting to 80 now, rather than waiting until all teams will have to do so on Aug. 16, the day before padded practices begin,

Once Warmack is officially removed from the roster the Seahawks will have an open spot to fill.

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