Changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement have caused the holdout to become the hold-in, where players who want new deals show up but don’t practice until they get their contracts.
It’s less about withholding services and more about avoiding injury. And the teams typically go along with it, to a point, even if they could (if they wanted) play hardball and tell the player to get to work.
For the players who are negotiating deals and choose to practice, there’s a calculated risk. It came up last night in the context of Packers tight end Tucker Kraft, who’ll practice without an extension as he re-establishes himself after a torn ACL suffered last November.
Other players who are practicing without new deals surely have their reasons. But it’s still a risk.
Consider the comments of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel regarding cornerback Christian Gonzalez practicing while negotiating.
“Listen, we’ve talked about this contract,” Vrabel said. “It’ll either get done, and when it gets done, that’ll be the progress that’s made. Everybody that’s involved is working hard. I cannot express the professionalism that Gonzo has started camp with. It’s clear that he wants to improve, that he wants to be the best at his craft and at that position. I think that he’s made that known by the way he’s come out here to practice.”
That’s good. But here’s the thing. If lightning strikes, as it tends to do during training camp, the negotiations will end. Immediately. And they won’t continue until Gonzalez is back and able to show that he can perform at a high level.
It’s true for any player who has chosen to practice while negotiations happen. Gonzalez, Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon, Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, and any other player who is practicing while waiting for a new deal.
So that’s why players like Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs aren’t practicing. With a torn ACL or a blown-out Achilles, the offers go from wherever they currently are to zero dollars and zero cents.
Seahawks Clips
Six years after running back James Robinson rushed for 1,070 yards as a rookie in 2020 with the Jaguars, he’s looking for a path back to the NFL.
Robinson had a tryout on Saturday with the Raiders.
He played most recently for the Louisville Kings of the UFL, rushing for 324 yards in six regular-season games and adding 128 in two postseason games for the eventual league champions.
Robinson was traded to the Jets during his third season, to the Jets. He spent 2023 with the Packers, appearing in only one game and having just one carry. He did not play in the NFL in 2024 or 2025.
For his NFL career, Robinson has rushed for 2,264 yards. (So far.)
Also trying out on Saturday were running backs Dare Ogunbawale and Kenny McIntosh. Ogunbawale, a nine-year veteran, spent the last four seasons in Houston. His tenure including kicking a 29-yard field goal in a 2023 win over Tampa Bay, 39-37, after Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbarn suffered a quad injury.
McIntosh, a seventh-round pick of the Seahawks in 2024, was released on July 27.
In the push and pull over whether NFL fields will be covered with high-quality grass, a global solution is possible, albeit unlikely, through collective bargaining. For now, the decisions will be made one team at a time — especially as new stadiums are built.
The Bills decided to convert from turf to grass in their new stadium. The Chiefs, who are in the process of building a new domed stadium in Kansas, prefer to continue to play on grass, but no decision has been made.
The Browns are also building a covered stadium, in suburban Brook Park. They currently play on grass. Per the team, the Browns will play on artificial turf in the new stadium.
That said, the new stadium will have the ability to accommodate grass, which happens most often when a venue hosts soccer matches. Which means that, in theory, the artificial turf for NFL games could eventually be swapped out for grass.
For now, the plan is artificial turf. Which will tip the current 16-16 balance of teams playing homes games on real grass and fake grass toward turf, 17-15.
Unless, of course, owners of teams that play on turf decide to switch to grass. Starting with the incoming owners of the Seahawks, possibly.
The Seahawks added depth at linebacker on Saturday by signing Joseph Vaughn, the team announced.
In a corresponding move, the Seahawks waived linebacker Ja’Markis Weston with an injury designation.
Vaughn went undrafted out of UCLA in 2025, signing with the Colts. He spent camp with Indianapolis before the team waived him before the start of the season.
The Colts signed him to a futures contract after the season but waived him this spring.
In 2024 at UCLA, Vaughn appeared in 12 games in his one season with the Bruins. He totaled eight tackles.
Before his time in Los Angeles, Vaughn played three seasons at Yale. He was a two-time All-Ivy League selection, including first-team honors in 2023.
Weston, who signed to the Seahawks’ practice squad late last season, would revert to Seattle’s injured reserve list if he clears waivers.
Seahawks receiver Tory Horton, a fifth-round pick in 2025, had a solid start to his career, before an injury ended his rookie season.
As it turns out, the injury was a fractured shin — one that Horton managed to play through for several weeks.
“About Week Three, I started feeling my shin and worked through it through a couple games,” Horton told reporters on Friday. “Got to Week 9, got it checked up and found out there was a crack. Ended up getting surgery on it and that was that. Something that you work through until you can’t. It’s not something that I wish happened but it did and we got the issue solved and the leg isn’t going anywhere now. I feel good.”
His last 2025 appearance happened against the Commanders. Horton caught four passes for 48 yards and two touchdowns in the 38-14 win on the road.
“It didn’t feel as bad as it got until after the Washington game,” Horton said. “Those couple weeks before, building up, there was always a little something there that I felt and over the weeks it got worse. I finally took the time to get it checked out and that’s when we found out.”
Eventually, the decision was made to operate.
“I did have surgery,” Horton said. “I have a metal rod in there so the leg isn’t going anywhere.”
Horton’s return makes the passing game even more potent, especially with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and Rashid Shaheed on the depth chart.
Veteran defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins has hung up his cleats.
Hankins, 34, told Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report that he is retiring after 12 seasons.
Hankins did not play for the Seahawks last season, going on the non-football injury list after injuring his back in the 2025 offseason. The Seahawks released him from NFI on Dec. 3, and he has been a free agent since.
He signed with Seattle in 2024 and appeared in all 17 games with eight starts. In what turned out to be his final season, Hankins recorded 30 tackles, with five tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a sack. He also made the first interception of his career.
A second-round pick of the Giants, he also played for the Colts, Raiders and Cowboys.
Hankins appeared in 169 career games and was among the league’s premier run-stuffing interior defensive linemen, with 433 tackles, including 44 for loss.
The Seahawks activated rookie defensive tackle Deven Eastern from the active/physically unable to perform list on Thursday after he passed a physical, the team announced.
The Seahawks made Eastern a seventh-round pick out of the University of Minnesota, the 242nd overall choice.
He missed much of the offseason program with an undisclosed injury.
Eastern will compete for a roster spot at nose tackle, with Brandon Pili the only true nose tackle on the roster. Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy II also play the position.
Defensive back Nick Emmanwori and running back Zach Charbonnet are the only players the Seahawks have left on PUP.
The Seahawks signed wide receiver Kyre Duplessis on Wednesday, the team announced.
The Seahawks had an open roster spot after waiving Kenny McIntosh on Monday.
Duplessis was an undrafted free agent who briefly was on the Lions’ 90-player roster.
He played at Delaware in 2025, recording 60 catches for 824 yards and five touchdowns. Duplessis spent four seasons at Coastal Carolina before transferring to Delaware.
He made 23 receptions for 348 yards for the Chanticleers.
The Seahawks are working out free agent safety Donovan Wilson on Wednesday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Wilson, 31, spent seven seasons in Dallas, and Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde was on the Cowboys staff from 2021-23.
The Cowboys drafted Wilson in the sixth round in 2019.
He started 75 games, including 15 last season, and has totaled eight interceptions, 19 pass breakups, nine forced fumbles, 13 sacks and 20 tackles for loss in his career.
In 2025, he recorded two interceptions, five pass breakups, one forced fumble and three tackles for loss.
The Seahawks have some uncertainty regarding safety Nick Emmanwori’s availability for Week 1. He is on active/physically unable to perform after undergoing ankle surgery earlier this month.
Jalen Carter agreed to a new deal with the Eagles this week that will make him the highest-paid defensive tackle in the league and that development is of interest to plenty of people outside of Philadelphia.
One interested party could be found in Seattle. Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams is heading into the final year of his current deal, which has an average annual salary of $21.5 million. That ranks 14th at the position for a player who was a second-team All-Pro last season.
Williams might not jump back to the top of the heap at this point in his career, but he said Tuesday that he’s had “a few conversations” with the team about extending his stay in Seattle. Williams said he’s doing his best to keep those conversations from impacting his preparation for the season.
“I try not to think about it, honestly,” Williams said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.com. “I’ve always been that type of guy. I’ve obviously had a lot of contracts at this point in my career, and I’ve always noticed players that really focus on their contract end up not playing well, they end up having their head in the wrong place, and I’ve noticed that when I focus on just being where I’m at, focusing on my team and how I can get better individually, things always tend to work themselves out.”
The Seahawks are also talking contract with cornerback Devon Witherspoon, so there could be multiple contract announcements in the near future if all goes well for two of their top defensive players.
