Seahawks return to training camp ready to make another run | SEAHAWKS SPECIAL SECTION

Published 12:21 pm Friday, July 29, 2016

When last we saw our heroes, they were walking off the field at Bank of America Stadium as the wrong team celebrated punching their tickets to the NFC Championship game. It had been a long game, with the Seahawks falling behind quickly 14-0 and then even farther behind as they faced a 31-0 deficit at halftime.

But instead of giving in, the Seattle Seahawks dug deep as Russell Wilson showed why he is one of the best young quarterbacks in the game, throwing three touchdowns as Seattle scored 24 unanswered points, a run that included a fake punt and a 60-yard field goal with 1:12 left on the clock.

Again, the impossible seemed within reach.

But when the Carolina Panthers recovered an onside kick on the next play, Seattle’s hopes of a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance were dashed.

But even in the loss, there was hope as it seemed the Seahawks, playing on the road, didn’t lose so much as run out of time.

This summer, the Seahawks are back at camp looking to make sure that doesn’t happen again. This team will always compete.

Led once again by Wilson on offense and cornerback Richard Sherman on defense, the Seahawks retain most of the same core of players that has led to the recent run of success, and the team feels good about their chances to get back to the NFC Championship game and beyond this season.

“It allows you to play at a high level and play confident and trust one another,” Wilson said earlier this summer about keeping a core group together. “I think the biggest thing is that nucleus, the togetherness, the thought process, the approach to the game, the preparation that we all know it takes and I think that feeds off to the young guys.”

“You also learn from your mistakes and use that for the next opportunity you get,” he said.

For the Seahawks, it seems like every year brings a new opportunity. Even after the team dropped four of its first six games last year, Wilson found his groove and the team turned it around, winning eight of the next 10 to earn a wild card spot.

According to Head Coach Pete Carroll, Wilson, who is beginning only his fifth year in the league, benefitted from a change in emphasis mid-season to getting the ball out quicker.

“We called a lot more calls that dictated the rhythm and timing, as opposed to mixing things,” Carroll said earlier this year. “It was mostly about the rhythm and expectations of it and then it was the calling and the consistency to keep us in that kind of approach to our game, so it worked out great for us.”

But not all is consistent from the past few season. There are some changes this year, and some big ones at that.

Perhaps the biggest hole in the hearts of 12s everywhere is Beast Mode-shaped, as running back Marshawn Lynch has opted to retire after spending much of the 2015 season on the sidelines with an injury.

The big man’s absence leads to question as to who will be running the ball this year and all signs point to Thomas Rawls, an undrafted free agent who signed with the team last year and put together an impressive rookie campaign as a replacement for Lynch. In his first game, Rawls ran for more than 100 yards and then did it again two weeks later. Then, on Nov. 22 against the 49ers, Rawls broke out for a total of 255 yards, including an amazing 209 on the ground to become the team’s first 200-yard rusher since Shaun Alexander in 2006.

Unfortunately, Rawls’s season came crashing down on Dec. 13 when he fractured his ankle on the game’s opening drive.

This year, he’s back in camp and is expected to play in the opening game, though there is a bit of a running back competition this summer, which will include third-round draft pick C.J. Prosise and Christine Michael, who is back with the team after stints with the Dallas Cowboys and Washington. Michael was re-signed after the Rawls’s injury and ran for 192 yards in three games and added 70 more yards during the postseason.

“This is an exciting group,” Wilson said this summer. “It will be fun to see those guys run the football.”

“We’ll let it play out in training camp and we’ll have a great feel for those guys when that time comes,” Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell said.

Also this offseason, the Seahawks lost linebacker Bruce Irvin, defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, tackle Russell Okung and guard J.R. Sweezy to the free agency market.

To help fill the gaps, the Hawks signed defensive tackles Sealver Siliga and Bradley Sowell and offensive tackle J’Marcus Webb

The Seahawks will also get one of last year’s big name signings back this season after an injury kept him out of play for part of 2015. Tight end Jimmy Graham tore his right patellar tendon on Nov. 29, ending what was until then a good first season with the team in which he caught 48 passes and scored two touchdowns over 11 games.

Graham is back this year and like Rawls, Carroll is looking forward to getting them back in the game.

“They’ve worked their way back in the rehab process, and now they’re preparing to really push ahead,” Carroll said at minicamp in June. “I absolutely think that (both will be ready for the regular season).”

Excited yet? Us too.

Go Hawks.