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KANSAS CITY -- John Schneider talked with 'Voice of the Seahawks' Steve Raible on the field at Arrowhead Stadium moments before Seattle kicked off its first preseason game of 2016 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here's five thoughts from the Seahawks general manager:
1. (On what he's seen in training camp so far...)"The guys have really been pushing it. We've had a lot of soft tissue issues and that's just basically a direct reflection of the effort guys are giving and really their output levels. Really, they compete at a high level, pushing each other, we've seen some great veteran leadership from guys like Sherm and Michael Bennett, Kam, Russell, Doug Baldwin. We've just had some really good leadership. Much more of a business-like approach than last year at this point when you don't have a lot of distractions. Hopefully it's going to be very hard to cut this football team."
2. (On evaluating talent on the Seahawks current roster...) "First and foremost we need to know our team as well as we possibly can and then as we concentrate on that, trying to evaluate everything their doing, and how they handle themselves in the building as well as on the field. [The NFL] just started playing games two nights ago, so our staff, we have all this film coming in and we try to keep track of who's playing and what rotations for other teams and trying to see if there's anybody we need to trade for, or claim if people are cutting people, and you just get ready for the two big cuts coming up."
3. (On the Seahawks offensive line...) "The way I would describe it is it's a number of people that a lot of people don't know yet. Our hope is that these guys settle down in their positions and we're hoping to keep this group together as long as we possibly can because it's a cohesion thing with that group. … The cohesion with this group, they've shown a nastiness, a ton of tenacity with their work ethic in practice and throughout the preseason. I'm excited to watch them play. It's definitely going to be a growth thing, but I think they're doing a great job."
4. (On the Seahawks' depth...)"I think it's very similar to 2013, there's a couple of positions that we've had some injuries with now that we need to get some guys healthy. Like I said, we've had some of those soft tissue injuries. We need to get C.J. Prosise out there, Zac Brooks. Need to get some guys back practicing, and hopefully we'll get them back soon. But our staff has done a really good job, our personnel staff, of getting guys in. Our sports science staff has done a great job of identifying specific positions that are being worn down a little bit, so our coaching staff has been on it for us to bring guys in that we want to give an opportunity to, so you'll see some of that today. You'll see some guys, that like I said, a lot of people haven't heard of yet."
5. (On what he's hoping to see against the Chiefs...) "Just the effort. The biggest thing I want to see is zero injuries. I want to see guys taking care of themselves, take care of their teammates, and obviously the effort. We're kind of re-establishing ourselves here. We came here last year and got knocked around a little bit in preseason and it was a little bit of an eye-opener for us, so I'm hoping to see a little different attitude here, and obviously, these guys have been working their tails off, so excited to let them get out there and practice against somebody else. You know what that's like."
