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RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks report to 2022 training camp on Tuesday at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Here’s a closer look at a few storylines:

Biggest question: Can the Seahawks be competitive without quarterback Russell Wilson? Despite how it might have looked to casual observers when the Seahawks parted with Wilson and linebacker Bobby Wagner, this is a team in transition as opposed to a full-on rebuild. Shelling out big money to keep 29-year-old safety Quandre Diggs and other veteran players like running back Rashaad Penny and tight end Will Dissly says as much. Those re-signings, plus other marquee returning players (receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, safety Jamal Adams) plus two sure-fire starters they got back in the Wilson trade (tight end Noah Fant and defensive end Shelby Harris) plus a big free-agent addition (edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu) and a promising draft class that featured their first top-10 pick since 2010 (offensive tackle Charles Cross) leave the Seahawks with a solid roster … outside of quarterback.

Their defense and backfield look strong enough to keep them in games if quarterbacks Drew Lock and/or Geno Smith can be capable game managers. But can they avoid enough mistakes to play that way? And can they deliver in crunch time like Wilson so often did? If Lock doesn’t show that he’s worthy of a longer look, Seattle has the extra 2023 first-rounder from the Wilson trade to target his long-term replacement in next year’s draft.

The most compelling position battle: Will Lock’s upside or Smith’s familiarity win out? Lock and Smith are duking it out in the Seahawks’ first quarterback competition since 2012. That was the year that Wilson (an electric rookie) beat out free-agent pickup Matt Flynn (the presumed starter for much of the offseason) and incumbent Tarvaris Jackson (whom the locker room loved). The intrigue in this competition won’t come from name value but from how close it might be.

Some in the organization have anticipated that Lock’s talent (which hasn’t been his issue in three up-and-down seasons) will win out. But there’s a thought that he may have to win convincingly or else Seattle’s coaching staff will opt for the more known commodity in Smith and award anything close to a tie to the 10th-year veteran who’s backed up Wilson the last three seasons. Pete Carroll made it clear that Smith was still ahead when the offseason program ended.

The player with the most to prove: Can Adams return to his 2020 form? In his debut season in Seattle, Adams recorded a defensive-back record 9.5 sacks en route to his third straight Pro Bowl. He looked worthy of the big price the Seahawks paid to get him (a package that included two first-round picks) and to keep him (an extension that made him the NFL’s highest-paid safety). Then 2021 happened.

Adams was held without a sack and had as many forgettable plays in coverage as productive ones. He also played through injuries for the second straight year until his season ended after 12 games because of a re-torn left shoulder labrum that required another surgery. Adams’ dropoff in pass-rushing production last season was largely the result of all the attention opponents started paying to him after his record sack binge, which led Seattle to blitz him less often. He may benefit more than anyone from the scheme changes they’re implementing because he should be harder for offenses to pinpoint pre-snap. But he has to stay on the field for any of that to matter.

Fiercest fantasy relevant position battle: Can Penny last as RB1? Chris Carson‘s chances of returning from neck surgery continue to look iffy, with word still yet to emerge on whether he’s been medically cleared. There’s no question as to who would be the No. 1 option in his absence. Penny is the guy after his stellar finish to last season, when he led the NFL in rushing by a wide margin over the final five games. But you know the deal with Penny: his long injury history makes it unlikely that he’ll be there for all 17 games.

Even when he is healthy, the Seahawks will almost certainly try to manage his workload with an eye towards keeping him fresh. Second-round pick Ken Walker III figures to factor heavily into the backfield rotation one way or another. He’s a must-have handcuff for any fantasy player with Penny on their roster.

As NFL training camps swing into action, NFL Nation looks at the top storylines and offers a prediction for each team.
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What’s the deal with Metcalf’s contract situation? The Seahawks typically don’t finalize big-money extensions until the start of training camp, so they aren’t necessarily behind schedule with Metcalf. And they’ve sounded optimistic that they’ll get a deal done, but it doesn’t seem like a slam dunk given everything that’s happened since March. The receiver market exploded, leading general manager John Schneider to express sticker shock at some of the megadeals. Then Metcalf skipped mandatory minicamp with an unexcused absence, which was surprising given that he had taken part in some voluntary work.

The steep fines are a huge disincentive for training-camp holdouts, but the recent trend with Seahawks and other players in Metcalf’s position has been to “hold in,” meaning they show up to camp but don’t participate in any on-field work, thereby avoiding fines and the risk of injury. Will Metcalf do the same?

Camp prediction: Coby Bryant will be a Week 1 starter at cornerback. Seattle’s rookie corner has more than a famous name. He also has a ton of college experience (53 career games) and some serious ball skills (the best of any defender in this year’s draft, if you ask him). Those traits could make him more NFL-ready than most rookie corners drafted in the fourth round.

It also helps that the position is wide open. Sidney Jones IV looks like a favorite to start at one of the spots, but no one is entrenched. Tre Flowers won a starting job at corner as a rookie in 2018 — even as a converted safety. So Carroll isn’t afraid to trust young players at that position. For that matter, fifth-round rookie Tariq Woolen could factor into the competition along with Tre Brown and Artie Burns.

RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks are undergoing their most significant defensive shift under coach Pete Carroll.

They have a new coordinator in Clint Hurtt, who was promoted before Seattle hired a pair of high-ranking assistants to work with him. The new brain trust of Carroll — Hurtt, associate head coach Sean Desai and defensive passing game coordinator Karl Scott — is installing a refreshed scheme that it hopes will fix the issues that led to some historically futile stretches in each of the past two seasons.

Consider safety Jamal Adams a fan.

“It’s really exciting,” Adams said during minicamp. “We brought in some coaches that really are eager to teach everybody. It’s a defense that I know [Quandre] Diggs and I are really excited to be a part of. It’s very aggressive to where we can be interchangeable, to where we can make a lot of plays on the back end.”

Perhaps no one on Seattle’s defense stands to benefit more from the scheme changes than Adams, the strong safety who made the Pro Bowl during a record-setting debut season in Seattle in 2020 but was underwhelming during a disappointing 2021 follow-up.

Actually, the strong- and free-safety designations might be less applicable to Adams and Diggs in Seattle’s new defense.

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In the front seven, the Seahawks will incorporate more 3-4 looks in a continuation of the shift that began last season. On the back end, they’ll run more split-safety looks — a hallmark of the Vic Fangio system that Hurtt and Desai learned as assistants under Fangio with the Chicago Bears. The idea is that if Adams and Diggs are both aligned as high safeties before the snap, opposing quarterbacks can’t determine as easily who is doing what on a given play.

On a larger scale, the goal is to keep offenses guessing by being able to run multiple coverages out of the same pre-snap alignment.

“I think it’s going to help both of us,” Diggs said. “I think guys can’t automatically tag [Adams] and say he’s in the box and he’s blitzing and slide his way. I’ve always learned from the different quarterbacks that I play with. They always watch the backside safety. And now with the backside safety just showing something different or kind of sitting there … you don’t know what we are in. You don’t know what checks we have. So I think that’s going to be dope.”

The belief inside the Virginia Mason Athletic Center is that Adams went from 9.5 sacks in 2020 — the most by a defensive back since sacks became an official stat in 1982 — to zero last season in large part because he became too easy for opponents to pinpoint. With offenses paying more attention to Adams, the Seahawks significantly dialed back his blitzing. He averaged four per game compared to 8.25 in 2020, even though he played 5.75 more snaps per game as Seattle’s defense struggled to get off the field.

But some in the organization think more creativity with how Adams was deployed as a blitzer would have made him less predictable.

“If every time this guy’s in this position, he’s doing this, well, it makes it easier for that opponent to say, ‘OK, he’s here, we’re doing this,'” said Scott, who coaches defensive backs in addition to his defensive passing game coordinator role. “Whereas if he’s in this position, now he’s going to the half, he’s blitzing, now he’s playing curl-flat … now the multiples occur and now it’s the guessing game on them. Kind of taking the chalk back and having the chalk last to dictate what they’re doing instead of them dictating to us.”

Adams and Diggs will have more freedom to move around pre-snap in order to disguise defensive looks and make that guessing game even harder on opposing quarterbacks.

“If you know the nuances of what offenses are looking for, that can help you as a player disguise and have a little bit of control in what you’re disguising,” Scott said. “Because at the end of the day, you’re trying to disguise to fool them, not yourself. It’s kind of like organized chaos.”

The four-year, $70 million extension Adams signed last summer likely ties him to the Seahawks for at least the next two seasons, as they’d incur more than $21 million in dead money by moving on from him before then. So he’s far from at a crossroads in Seattle. But Adams does need to produce more like he did in 2020 for the Seahawks to justify the investment they have made — two first-round picks and a record extension to keep him.

The changes to Seattle’s scheme will only make a difference for Adams if he can stay healthy. That includes a twice-torn left shoulder labrum that required surgery in each of the past two offseasons. He and Diggs — who’s also coming off surgery after dislocating his ankle and breaking his fibula in last season’s finale — took part in walk-throughs during minicamp. Adams left no doubt he’ll be full-speed by the time training camp begins on July 27, while Diggs said his plan is to be back by then.

Adams also had repeat surgeries this offseason on the ring and middle fingers of his left hand, which he started dislocating in 2020. They’re fused at such an angle that he can no longer fully bend them into a fist.

Between the injuries to his shoulder and fingers, Adams said he “played with one arm damn-near for two years.”

“It’s for the love of the game,” he said. “Been going through that for two years now. My first year when I got here, I dislocated by ring finger probably about 10 times, and the other one probably about … 12. Been dealing with that. Ain’t really said much. Let everybody talk about it, whatever. But it’s good now, and they’re in trouble.”

New fingers, new shoulder, new coaches, new scheme.

Can all that unlock the Adams of old?