1. Sam Darnold continues to grow in a new offense, and he's showing off his competitive spirit as well.
No player will have a brighter spotlight on him in training camp than quarterback Sam Darnold. That's just the nature of the position he plays, and when you're new to a team, a free-agent addition coming off a Pro-Bowl season, there's going to be a lot of interest in how you perform.
What the Seahawks are showing on offense this time of year under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak is far from a finished product, but what is showing in the early stages is Darnold's ability to get better every day.
"Sam is doing a great job," Macdonald said. "Sam is a great feel for the offense right now in terms of growing every day. So you can feel the growth. You can feel the improvement, the confidence that we're doing on that side of the ball and that we're growing. It's exciting to work with. He's a heck of a competitor. You know, this time of the year it's hard with all the competition periods, you're trying to create a bunch of situations where there's technically no winner or loser, but you are trying to just try to get great situational work where you're making great decisions, and we're doing that on both sides. Those are fun periods when you feel his competitiveness, and really all three quarterbacks you feel the competitiveness and the sense of improvement every day."
When Macdonald talked about Darnold's fiery side and if that surprised him, Macdonald noted the Seahawks saw it up close last season when the Vikings came back to beat Seattle on a Darnold-led drive.
"We went against him," Macdonald said. "… The thing you love about Sam is he is just a dude, man. He's like one of the guys. There's a sense that he's one of the guys, so he's right there with them in all the things, but that's him. There is some (stuff) to him. Don't mess with him. He's got that edge to him, that competitiveness, and the guys respect that. But he's him. He's not trying to be anybody else, and you have to respect that about him."