Seahawks training camp 1st days: Invoking Michael Jordan; Tory Horton’s back

Mike Macdonald gathered his players inside the main auditorium of Seahawks headquarters.

It was Sunday morning. It was the start of day two of a training camp that will soon become a hot, sweaty grind.

The 39-year-old first-time head coach has a massive challenge in this camp. He must find news way to motivate his players who won the Super Bowl five months ago — some of whom got paid royally for that (Jaxon Smith-Njigba, $169 million ), others who are about to (Devon Witherspoon, a deal at perhaps $31 million per year incoming). The coach must get his guys to reload, re-dedicate and do it all over again.

Sunday morning, Macdonald changed it up. His new message to his players was about a sports immortal.

Mike Macdonald talked Michael Jordan.

Pro Bowl veteran safety Julian Love, a native of Chicago, loved that.

“What new am I learning (about Macdonald)? He’s GOOOD, man,” Love said following practice Sunday. “We had a good talk today. His team meeting was on point today, talking about the early (Jordan) Bulls teams, the ‘91 team, how they got over the hump.”

Macdonald told his Seahawks the story of how those 1991 Chicago Bulls, after years of Jordan being other-wordly and winning four league scoring titles individually, finally won the team’s first NBA title. Macdonald told the Seahawks how Jordan famously followed coach Phil Jackson’s approach by ceding some of his wondrous scoring and individualism to better the entire Bulls team.

Only then did the Bulls finally vanquish the rival Detroit Pistons, and finally won it all.

“Him being selfless enough to dial it back a little bit,” Maconald told the Seahawks of early 1990s Jordan.

“Understand that WE get the job done.”

Love called it another new “nugget” Macdonald gave to his Seahawks Sunday.

“Basically the message is, his message is, the new thing, the little nugget that he gave to us is: Man, that ‘12 As One’ is real,” Love said. “The more we dive into and invest into each other, the more good we will receive out of this whole deal.”

That was the players’ off-the-field highlight on the first weekend of this Super Bowl-champions, Hard Knocks training camp .

The on-field highlights included the return of their game-breaking wide receiver and kick returner.

NFL Films/HBO Hard Knocks film/sound crews all over Cooper Kupp’s, Jake Bobo’s conversation, all over #Seahawks training camp’s 1st practice. They installed robotic cameras in the team meeting rooms+ Mike Macdonald’s/John Schneider’s offices. Handheld cameras inside locker room pic.twitter.com/0Ln1oonu62

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) July 26, 2026 Tory Horton is back

Tory Horton is on the field for the first time since a major shin injury ended his rookie season for Seattle last November.

Thought to be a candidate to join Nick Emmanwori , Zach Charbonnet , Kenny McIntosh and others on the physically-unable-to-perform list, Horton instead began camp practicing. He was running smoothly. He glided while catching passes from quarterback Sam Darnold in group drills, and punts from Michael Dickson in special-teams drills.

Horton stayed out and watched 11-on-11 team drills in the first two practices. During 7-on-7 drills Sunday between receivers and defensive backs, Horton was on another field running routes without passes thrown to him while a trainer watched.

“Yeah, it’s great. I know Nick’s getting a lot of attention, as he probably should. But the guys that we had return-to-play programs (on) since the end of the season, all those guys are participating right now,” Macdonald said.

That list includes tight end AJ Barner. He had offseason surgeries on his shoulder and ankle, two injuries he bulled through while starting all 17 regular-season games and all three playoff games for Seattle last season.

“It’s great to see Tory back out there,” Macdonald said of the 6-foot-2, 196-pound receiver and returner.

“We haven’t seen 15 doing this thing in a minute.”

Horton had a knee injury prematurely end his final college season at Colorado State in 2024. He was a star of Seahawks training camp last summer, and of the team’s wins over the Saints and Washington Commanders with touchdowns.

His shin injury preceded the Seahawks trading for Rashid Shaheed from the New Orleans Saints in November.

Now with Horton plus Shaheed back, re-signed to a $51 million deal following his hugely valuable final two months of last season, the Seahawks have two deep, speed receivers. Macdonald and new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury envision Horton with Shaheed opening more open, intermediate routes with Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Barner and more against conflicted pass defenses.

We’ll see. But so far (way early), so good for that idea.

Running-back rotation

With Kenneth Walker gone in free agency to Kansas City and fellow running backs Charbonnet plus Kenny McIntosh on the PUP list watching the end of these practices in sweats, coaches are working Jadarian Price.

A lot.

The rookie running back and first-round draft choice is catching — and sometimes dropping — pass after pass in early camp practices.

Jadarian Price getting drilled—a lot—in the passing game in these first days of #Seahawks training camp. The rookie RB and 1st-round pick has been on the 1st-, 2nd and 3rd-team offenses in 11 on 11. Coaches maximizing his reps. @thenewstribune pic.twitter.com/xQOUod5CId

— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) July 26, 2026 The pass game is what Price, whom the Seahawks drafted a month after Super Bowl MVP Walker to sign for three years and $43 million with Kansas City, says he needs to improve most in the NFL. He rarely caught passes or pass blocked as the backup to star running back Jeremiyah Love at Notre Dame.

Love was the third pick in this year’s draft, to the Seahawks’ NFC West-rival Arizona Cardinals.

After new Seahawks running backs coach Thomas Hammock threw to Price in position drills Sunday, the rookie was doing more of that plus running on outside-zone plays for the first-, second- and thi...

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