After finishing up Day 2 of rookie minicamp practice, Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James walked off the field together, chatting it up, like they've probably done many times before. The duo grew up about 45 minutes away from each other in Jackson, Alabama and Mobile, Alabama, respectively, and spent two years together at the University of Auburn.

"I was super excited," Pritchett said when he found out James was drafted to the Seahawks. "Me and D.J. (James) have been friends for a really long time…We played in the all-star game together in high school. I tried to get him to come to Auburn, when he was coming out of high school, but he decided to go to Oregon. Me and him have been having a good time so far."

Pritchett was drafted No. 136 overall in the fifth round, and James was taken a round later at No. 192 overall. James said that right after he was drafted, Pritchett and himself talked about both being drafted to the same team.

"We both were excited, both felt more comfortable about coming far away from home, but with each other," James said. Jackson, Alabama is more than 2,000 miles from Seattle, and before this week, Pritchett said he'd never been to Seattle. James on the other hand, spent the first part of his college career at Oregon and played at Husky stadium in 2019, is somewhat familiar with the PNW.

At practice on Saturday, Pritchett and James were running through some of drills together and Pritchett said that it was something they did at Auburn too.

"We're just trying to make each other better. Me and him used to pair [up] and try to get the best out of each other."

Head coach Mike Macdonald said Pritchett and James are off to a good start. "It's hard to tell with the tempo, but mentally, not a lot of mistakes. I thought they moved well…They only know cover three and cover four right now, there's just a lot of things we're going to be working on, but obviously a good start. We're trying to get them to talk a little bit more and open up, I'm sure that will happen pretty soon."

And Pritchett feels confident that they will adjust well to learning NFL defenses.

"I think we had really good coaches at Auburn that got us prepared us to learn new defenses, and learn new techniques," Pritchett said. "Just having good coaches at Auburn got us prepared for this moment."

And even though the idea of playing on the same NFL team didn't cross their minds through the draft process, they are enjoying this opportunity.

"It's great just having a former teammate with me," James said. "Us living our dream of playing in the NFL, it's fun, we're having fun."

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