While the Seahawks’ final preseason game is set for Saturday in Green Bay against the Packers, the last time many players may see live action comes Thursday morning in fields adjacent to legendary Lambeau Field.
For the second straight year, the Seahawks are taking advantage of a recent trend in the NFL to participate in a joint practice.
The Seahawks flew to Green Bay on Wednesday and will have a joint practice against the Packers Thursday morning and stay in town and play a preseason game Saturday.
Depending on how the joint practice goes, most or all of the players the Seahawks consider starters or those who might play significantly once the regular season rolls around may take Saturday’s game off.
That would leave the game itself to mostly younger players (expect Jalen Milroe to play a lot Saturday) or those at the bottom of the depth chart.
The Seahawks did not take part in joint practices during the Pete Carroll era (though Carroll held one this year with the Raiders, last week against the 49ers) but had two last year in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans.
The Seahawks will have just one this year as Macdonald said he came to the same conclusion as have many other coaches around the league — that there are diminishing returns on a second day of joint practices and more propensity for tempers to flare.
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“This is an opportunity for our ones and twos to be in this environment, practice against a good team, and get some great work in,’’ Macdonald said.
One reason coaches prefer joint practices to games is that they can script scenarios to assure they get work in things such as short-yardage situations or two-minute drills while controlling the action enough to try to prevent injuries.
Teams typically do one-on-one drills against each other, a good chance for coaches to evaluate younger players.
“The rule of thumb is you want two-to-three pretty good intense exposures before you kick it off,’’ Macdonald said of mixing some work in preseason games and scrimmages with joint practices in preparing for the regular season.
“You can manufacture that in practice with borderline live periods, (but) it’s hard to do that in house, so I think that’s where the joint practices come from, where it’s a little bit more of a controlled environment, but still intense, which is important.
“… I think it gives some flexibility and opportunity to play against really good competition before we get ready to play the season.”
A full-strength Packers team would give the Seahawks one of the tougher tests they could ask for. Green Bay finished 11-6 last season, which included a 30-13 throttling of the Seahawks in Seattle on Dec. 15.
That game snapped a Seahawks’ four-game winning streak and dealt a blow to their playoff hopes, and made it clear they had some work to do to become the kind of physical team Macdonald desires.
The Packers outgained the Seahawks 369-208, including 140-80 on the ground.
Green Bay starting quarterback Jordan Love is recovering from a left thumb injury that required surgery and coach Mike LaFleur indicated this week Love may be limited only to 7-on-7 drills — meaning, no linemen on the field and only skill players working against a defense’s back seven — against the Seahawks.
Green Bay allowed the fifth fewest yards and the sixth fewest points in the NFL last season will be a good test for a Seahawks offense that has appeared revived in two preseason games.
The offensive line, using an outside zone scheme as the basis of its rushing attack under first-year coordinator Klint Kubiak, has paved the way for the Seahawks to rush for 438 yards on 80 attempts.
The joint practice should be a particularly good test for Seahawks’ first-round pick, left guard Grey Zabel, who has earned plenty of plaudits for his play. Zabel and the rest of the offensive linemen should get some good work in pass-rush drills and in 11-on-11 sessions.
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Macdonald said the plan is for running back Kenneth Walker III — who has not played in the preseason — to get some work, which would be his only live action before the regular season begins on Sept. 7 against the 49ers.
The joint practice may give the Seahawks their most accurate view of how quarterback Sam Darnold and the entire offense are working as a unit.
Darnold played just one series in Friday’s preseason game against the Chiefs, who played six starters but held out most of their biggest names. Darnold went 4-of-4 for 34 yards in leading the Seahawks on an 81-yard, 10-play TD drive to start the game — his only preseason action so far.
Special teams questions
The Seahawks should get some good work on special teams (live except for to-the-ground tackling), which may help sort out who will do the returning and hopefully smooth out some of the mistakes of the KC game.
Veteran free agent Steven Sims, who was signed in the spring with an eye toward possibly being the primary punt returner as well as one of the main kickoff returners, has practiced sparingly in camp and did not play in the preseason games while dealing with a hamstring injury. He was back at practice this week, appearing as if he will be ready for the joint practice against the Packers.
If the Seahawks feel satisfied Sims is where they want him to be health- and ability-wise that could go a long way toward solidifying the return units.
The Seahawks’ coverage teams struggled against the Chiefs, allowing an 88-yard punt return as well as three kickoff returns of 34 yards or longer including a 49-yarder.
Special teams units in the preseason tend to feature a lot of young players and often players in roles they haven’t been previously in their careers.
Macdonald said this week he feels the team’s schemes are fine.
“This isn’t a cop out, but it’s execution,’’ Macdonald said. “What we’re asking these guys of is very clear. We’re not doing anything crazy right now schematically, and we have to be able to get runners down and get off blocks and make plays and not get field positions flipped on us.”
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.