Analysis: Six things to watch in Seahawks final preseason game

SEATTLE – Seahawks fans should get to see most of the team’s starters play a series or two Saturday when they close out the preseason against the Cleveland Browns.

Among those expected to play is quarterback Geno Smith as coach Mike Macdonald said this week he wanted to get the starters some work in the team’s only preseason game this year at Lumen Field. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

What Macdonald also wants to see are fewer mistakes after six second-half penalties led to a 16-15 last-play loss last week in Nashville against Tennessee.

“There’s a lot of room for growth, which is an optimistic way of saying there are a lot of things that we screwed up,” Macdonald said earlier this week. “And if you look at a positive it’s like, ‘Good, all right, we know what we got to work on, let’s get after it.’ But time’s ticking, there’s a sense of urgency behind it. We have to make some of these mistakes go away as we move forward. The guys know that and expect some big-time jump here this week.”

Maybe even more critical is the game will give Macdonald and general manager John Schneider one last bit of info on players as they finalize decisions on cutting the roster to 53 by Tuesday’s 1 p.m. deadline.

The Seahawks surely have a good idea of what they will do regarding most of the roster. But some of the tougher decisions could be swayed by what happens Saturday night.

How will the starters perform?

The starters don’t figure to play long – maybe a series or two, based on how long those series lasts.

Macdonald surely hopes that on defense, the starters play as well as they did against the Chargers when the Seahawks allowed just 7 yards on six plays, with no first downs, before departing. That was against Chargers backup Easton Stick. Seattle’s starters this time could go against Deshaun Watson.

On offense, all the Seahawks have seen out of Smith and the offense in a game-like setting were the joint practices against the Titans.

That was a good test, going against Tennessee’s starters on back-to-back days.

But Tennessee runs the same defense as the Seahawks. They might hope they get some different looks and a few series against Cleveland’s starting defense just to see something else.

While no one should read much into what happens Saturday one way or the other – the Seahawks are sure to still keep things fairly vanilla – Macdonald would obviously feel better seeing a good drive or two from Smith and the offense heading into the regular season.

The third running back battle

Second-year player Kenny McIntosh and undrafted rookie free agent George Holani remain locked in a battle for the third spot behind Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet.

McIntosh has seemed to have the upper hand of late just based on rotations in games and practices, and he’s impressed in the preseason with a team-leading 84 yards on 16 carries, 5.4 per attempt. Holani has 28 on eight.

The Seahawks could also be compelled to keep both on the initial 53-man roster.

The competition at right guard

The most competitive starting spot remains the right guard battle between Anthony Bradford – who started 10 games last year as a rookie – and rookie Christian Haynes, a third-round pick out of UConn.

Bradford appears to have a slight edge as they might prefer his experience heading into the season.

Judging by the depth chart, Bradford would seem likely to get the nod to start Saturday.

Haynes undoubtedly is a big part of the team’s future regardless of who wins the job to begin the season. That he started last week at left guard seemed to indicate the team was getting him ready to play either side, if needed, during the regular season.

Could the Seahawks decide to rotate the two at right guard? That might be on the table as well.

K’Von Wallace at safety

Starting safety Rayshawn Jenkins won’t play after suffering an apparent foot/leg injury in practice Wednesday. That will give the start to K’Von Wallace to work alongside Julian Love at safety.

Wallace has played well in camp to secure a spot as the third safety, which will mean a regular role on gameday in three-safety sets.

With Jenkins out and Wallace starting, Coby Bryant likely steps into the third-safety role for Saturday, with Marquise Blair and Ty Okada also moving up in the rotation.

Blair and Okada are fighting for roster spots – and could be competing against each other to force the Seahawks to keep a fifth safety, assuming Bryant has earned a roster spot as the fourth.

Another WR or two tries to force way onto roster

The Seahawks have four sure things at WR in Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jake Bobo. Laviska Shenault Jr. appears set as a fifth, because of his expected role as a kickoff returner.

There’s no guarantee the Seahawks keep more than five. They certainly could and the likes of Dareke Young, Easop Winston Jr. (Washington State), Cody White and Dee Eskridge will all get one last shot to state their case.

The guess here is Young may have a slight edge on that group, because of his special-teams roles and a style that offers something a little different. Winston continues to make plays, such as the 23-yard TD last week and his 77 receiving yards for the preseason leads the team.

Eskridge missed last week but was a full participant in practices this week and may have one last game in what could be his last shot with the Seahawks.

It’ll be especially interesting to see how Eskridge is used on returns, which figures to be his most viable path to a roster spot. Cornerback Dee Williams handled most of them last week along with Shenault.

One more look at Howell

While Smith will play some, Howell figures to get most of the reps at QB with the Seahawks hoping he can take one more step forward after turning in a steadier outing against Tennessee than he had in the opener against the Chargers.

Howell is 27 of 41 for 283 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, four sacks and a 102.0 passer rating in the preseason.

“I thought he was efficient with the ball,” Macdonald said this week of the Tennessee game, when Howell was 11 of 14 for 153 yards, a TD and no interceptions. “There’s a couple decisions we looked at and we said, ‘Hey, we could have made another decision presnap.’ For the most part, we moved the ball I thought pretty well. I thought we could start drives a little bit better. Getting it out of his hand, getting it to the playmakers, making good decisions in the run game, protections.”