The NFLPA’s P.R. push for grass fields should focus less on making a broad-brush effort to shame the owners into choosing a better surface and more on getting specific teams to flip. That effort, as previously explained, should start with the Seahawks, who are in the process of getting a new owner.
On Tuesday, a pair of Seattle veterans made the case for grass during training-camp press conferences.
Defensive lineman Leonard Williams was asked whether seeing temporary grass at Lumen Field for the World Cup made him wish the grass would remain permanently.
“For sure,” Williams told reporters, “I think the whole NFL felt that way. We obviously prefer to be on grass. It’s less impact, better on the body. I understand there’s a lot of things that go into having grass in the stadium that I don’t fully understand yet, but if it was up to a player and it just came down to grass or turf, we obviously prefer grass.”
Receiver Cooper Kupp was initially more concise. “That would be sweet,” he said with a laugh.
Why the laugh? “It would be awesome,” Kupp said. “I’ve been vocal about it in the past. There’s so many moving parts, which I get. What we need to do -- there’s a great crew that works out in that shed out there. It’s a great crew that keeps this [practice field] grass nice. Go ask them, ‘Hey, what would it look like?’ I don’t know the ‘grassology’ of all that stuff. You got soccer teams playing on it, you have a lot of stuff happening. You have events being hosted. I would like to think with all the resources in the NFL that we can make that happen. There’s people that can make that happen. We need to, as players, keep voicing what we want and what we think is important, but eventually I do think it’ll get done.”
The best place to start would be in Seattle.
“It makes a huge difference,” Kupp said regarding the difference between grass and artificial turf. “I know all the metrics and all the data that say the injury rates of this, but I don’t know. I know how I feel. You ask a lot of players who will say the same thing. Whether injury rates change or not, I know how my body feels, everything on turf versus grass. You can ask coaches how their backs feel after standing on the turf versus grass. Coaches have a lot of other issues. But it does make a difference. . . .
“It’s possible. I know it’s possible. It’s a conversation that needs to continue.”
At some point, the conversation needs to become action. It has become a Collective Bargaining Agreement issue, which means that the players will have to give something up in order to get grass on all fields. But the individual teams can still choose grass over turf, like the Bills have done in their new stadium.
With the Seahawks soon having a new owner, why not launch a concerted effort to get Vinod Khosla to install a high-quality grass field that can be properly maintained and protected during the other events held at Lumen Field?
Talk is cheap. Grass fields aren’t. The players need to find a way to get more owners to ignore misleading injury data and to focus on the overwhelming anecdotal evidence that the players who have to perform on grass or turf strongly prefer grass because of how their bodies feel after playing on it, versus how they feel after playing on a surface that causes the extreme forces they create to ricochet back into their ankles, knees, and hips.
Seahawks Clips
The Seahawks plan to waive running back Kenny McIntosh, Brady Henderson of ESPN reports.
McIntosh currently is on the active/physically unable to perform list. He tore the ACL in his left knee during a training camp practice 366 days ago.
The Seahawks made McIntosh a seventh-round pick in 2023, and he injured his knee in his first training camp. He played only 13 special teams snaps in three games as a rookie.
In 2024, McIntosh appeared in every game, playing 75 offensive snaps and 173 on special teams. He rushed for 172 yards on 31 carries and caught three passes for 22 yards, while returning six kickoffs for 153 yards.
The Seahawks drafted Jadarian Price in the first round and signed Emanuel Wilson in free agency. Eventually, Zach Charbonnet will return from his torn ACL.
UPDATE 10:30 P.M. ET: The Seahawks have announced the move.
The sixth overall pick in the 2017 draft will be joining his sixth team.
Jordan Schultz reported that Jamal Adams will be signing with the Vikings. Adams has since confirmed it, tweeting, “Year 10 #skol.”
Adams spent three years with the Jets, making it to two Pro Bowls and finishing 2018 as a second-team All-Pro and 2019 as a first-team All-Pro.
He was traded to the Seahawks in 2020, qualifying for a third Pro Bowl and finishing on the All-Pro second team. The next year, he signed a four-year, $70 million extension that made him the highest-paid safety in NFL history.
He stayed with the Seahawks through 2023. In 2024, he played for the Titans and Lions. After switching last year from safety to linebacker, Adams appeared in 17 games with four starts for the Raiders.
Adams has earned more than $71 million in his nine-year career.
It’s unclear whether he’ll be playing safety or linebacker in the Brian Flores defense. Given the flexibility and creativity of the scheme, he could play both.
The Seahawks will defend their second Super Bowl championship by welcoming Hard Knocks cameras and microphones into practice for the first time. Coach Mike Macdonald has no reservations about doing so.
Asked on Saturday whether he has noticed the NFL Films crew, Macdonald said this: “A little bit, yeah, a little bit. I’m mic’d up right now. I’ve got to get used to that. I told the guys they are going to capture what we do, and they do a great job of doing that. Let’s be us. We want them to capture us. We are proud of who we are and how we do things, so there is really no reason to try and change anything or try to be something we are not. Probably by tomorrow, the next day, probably won’t notice it, honestly.”
It’s the right attitude, mainly because there’s no way around it. Their ticket had been pulled; they’re this year’s Hard Knocks guinea pig. Why fight it?
But, yes, Macdonald will need to get used to wearing a microphone. And he’ll need to remember to turn it off before going to the bathroom.
Hard Knocks debuts earlier than usual, with the first episode landing on Tuesday, August 4 — before the Hall of Fame game.
The Seahawks opened training camp on Saturday, only two weeks after the organization announced that the team would be sold to a group led by Vinod Khosla, pending league approval. Coach Mike Macdonald addressed the looming change in his first press conference of training camp.
“We haven’t had much interaction yet, and everything is about the same as it’s been,” Macdonald told reporters. “Nothing’s changed on our front, nor will it for the foreseeable future. So that’s how we’re approaching everything. We had great visits with all the folks that were here. The best way to describe my mentality is that I’m excited to get going.
“We’re thankful for Jody [Allen] and the things that her and the rest of the ownership group did, especially since I’ve been here, it’s been fantastic and hopefully the rest of the 12s feel the same way as they should. Now we’re entering a new chapter in our organization’s history. That’s a cause for excitement as well.”
Macdonald said he had a brief meeting with the new owners. “You can always talk on the phone and do Zooms, but being in person is a different experience, which I definitely appreciated,” Macdonald said.
With the Khosla group ready to pay a record $9.612 billion for the Seahawks, it will be theirs to run as they see fit. They should see fit to let the organization run at it has.
It’s clearly not broken; nothing needs to be fixed.
Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori required arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle earlier this month. Emmanwori injured the ankle during practice four days before Super Bowl LX.
He played 70 of 72 defensive snaps against the Patriots, but the ankle never bounced back in the offseason.
“It’s the ankle from the Super Bowl,” coach Mike Macdonald said Saturday, via Gregg Bell of The News Tribune. “I guess the best way to describe it is, it’s something he’s been dealing with since the Super Bowl. He was able to perform, was able to train and do some things in the offseason program. But [he] just got to the point where it was the best for him, really just best for him in the long term, just go get it fixed. So that’s what he all decided to do. “Really, [it’s] the best for him for now and the foreseeable future, the rest of his career.”
Macdonald was noncommittal about Emmanwori’s return. He was asked multiple times whether he expects Emmanwori to play in the season opener without a definitive answer.
“I don’t know,” Macdonald said. “I mean, could he play in the opener? Sure.”
Emmanwori is expected back before the start of the season, Bell reports, but Macdonald wants to avoid a timeline so as not to pressure Emmanwori to rush back.
Emmanwori is on the active/physically unable to perform list.
One of Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald’s talking points this offseason was the need for the team to “run it forward” after winning the Super Bowl and that mindset was on players’ minds on Friday.
The Seahawks have reported to training camp and linebacker Ernest Jones said that his message to the team was that “those wins last year won’t help you this year” as they fully turned the page to the 2026 season. Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba shared the view that the Seahawks have to put the title in the past and said that he thinks the team is embracing the chance to start all over again.
“It feels like a revamp, a new energy in the building, honestly,” Smith-Njigba said, via the team’s website. “It feels good to put the past behind us and really focus on the future. On right now in front of us, that’s attacking training camp, and I can just tell by the vibe of the guys, talking to them in the locker room, we’re ready for that. We’re ready for the next thing. It’s awesome to be here now.”
There will still be reminders of what the Seahawks accomplished in the weeks and months to come because they’ll start the season by raising a banner before facing the Patriots in a rematch of Super Bowl LXII, but they won’t get any boost from what happened in that game and any hope of ending in the same place will be dashed if the team rests on its laurels.
The Seahawks have brought back a veteran player on offense.
Seattle announced on Friday that the club has signed tight end Nick Vannett.
Vannett, 33, was a Seahawks third-round pick back in 2016. He was traded to Pittsburgh midway through the 2019 season after appearing in 42 games for Seattle with 16 starts over his first four seasons.
Since ending 2019 with Pittsburgh, Vannett has spent time with the Broncos, Saints, Giants, Texans, Chargers, Titans, Vikings, and Rams.
He’s appeared in a total of 121 games with 54 starts, tallying 108 catches for 1,012 yards with nine touchdowns.
Vannett appeared in 10 games with one start for the Vikings and Rams last season.
As a corresponding move, the Seahawks have waived cornerback Tyrone Broden.
The last two teams standing in the 2025 season will kick off their 2026 training camps on Friday.
Veteran players for the Seahawks and Patriots will report to camp and both teams will hold their first practices of the summer on Saturday. The Cardinals and Panthers, who play in the Hall of Fame Game, became the first two teams to open camp earlier this week.
The Seahawks and Patriots are reporting ahead of other teams because they will play the first game of the regular season on September 9 in Seattle. The Seahawks are hosting the game because they beat New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX.
The Rams and 49ers will have their full squads in camp on Saturday and the remaining 26 teams will get things going on July 28.
The Seahawks announced Monday that they had placed safety Nick Emmanwori on the active/physically unable to perform list. His injury was unknown until Wednesday.
Brady Henderson of ESPN reports that Emmanwori underwent right ankle surgery earlier this month and could miss some time in training camp. Emmanwori, though, is expected to be ready for Week 1.
Emmanwori had participated in the offseason work with teammates but continued to experience soreness, leading to the arthroscopic procedure.
The 2025 second-round pick had two injuries to his right ankle last season. He had a high-ankle sprain in the season opener that forced him to miss three games and then a low-ankle sprain before Super Bowl LX , which he played through.
Emmanwori tallied 81 total tackles with nine tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, 11 passes defensed and an interception in 14 regular-season games in 2025. He added 13 total tackles with four passes defensed and a fumble recovery in Seattle’s three postseason games.
The Seahawks can activate Emmanwori back to the 90-player roster as soon as he passes a physical.
