Seahawks WR Terrell Owens works his first practice with his new team.


WR Terrell Owens makes a catch with tight coverage from CB Richard Sherman.
photos by Kim Grinolds / Dawgman.com


WR Terrell Owens talks about his first practice with the Seahawks.

by Curtis Crabtree
KJR reporter
Twitter: @Curtis_Crabtree

RENTON - The T.O. show officially moved into Renton on Wednesday as WR Terrell Owens took to the practice field for the first time with the Seattle Seahawks.

Owens was the center of attention and looked like he fit in well despite admitting he felt rusty on the field.

Owens worked primarily at flanker and will continue there as he acclimates to the Seahawks playbook.

Owens made a few nice plays throughout practice, but was on the losing end of perhaps the highlight of the day. Owens went against CB Brandon Browner in one-on-one drills and tried to run through Browner's press coverage. Browner wouldn't have it and engaged with Owens at the line of scrimmage and drove him into the turf.

"It was fun," Browner said. "He's going to get me better. I'm going to get him better. We play guys like Brandon Marshall, Larry Fitzgerald, so it was good work. It's always good work."

"I get extra amped about it. He probably doesn't but I got extra amped about it."

Owens made several nice plays throughout the day as well. He beat CB Richard Sherman in press coverage and made a nice grab on a curl route. He also made a juggling, diving catch up the right sideline behind CB Jeremy Lane and S Winston Guy on a nice throw from QB Matt Flynn.

"A little rusty but just glad to be out here," Owens said. "Grateful for the opportunity the Seahawks are giving me and thankful for God for giving me this opportunity. Today didn’t go as particularly well as I would like but it was definitely a step in the right direction."

Owens said he wants to be a part of the Seahawks and not the center of attention and hopes to put some of the antics of his prior stops in the NFL in the rearview mirror.

"A lot of things have occurred in the last two years and I’ve had a lot of time to think about things and put things in perspective and I just want to move forward and leave all the things that happened 5 to 10 years ago behind me," Owens said.

As for Flynn, he had a very strong showing during practice Wednesday. Flynn will get the first-team reps in practice for the remainder of the week and start against the Tennessee Titans in the preseason opener on Saturday.

Flynn took advantage of the extra workload and put together perhaps the strongest showing from a quarterback during the first two weeks of training camp. Flynn was precise and decisive in making throws all over the field. He connected with WR Golden Tate up the left sideline, fitting a ball into a window between Browner and S Earl Thomas.

He found Tate again for a touchdown over Browner during a two-minute drill toward the end of practice as well as hitting TE Zach Miller on a crossing route and TE Cameron Morrah up the seam with nice throws as well. The throw to Miller was across his body as he was rolling to his left.

Flynn said he noticed the extra reps helped him get settled in and build some rhythm with the offense.

"I think it does. I think it’s going to help significantly," Flynn said. "Like I said, I even felt a little bit of that today in practice, and hopefully that continues, and it’s going to be good to be able to go with that one group of guys that you’re going to be playing with. They get used to you, and I get used to them."

QB Josh Portis actually got some action today as well and did complete a nice pass to TE Cooper Helfet across the middle.

CB Walter Thurmond (leg) and G James Carpenter (knee) remain on the physically unable to peform list.

Seven other players were held out of practice on Wednesday: DT Alan Branch, LB Allen Bradford (hip), LB Jameson Konz (shoulder), LB Matt McCoy (knee), TE Kellen Winslow (knee), WR Ricardo Lockette (upper leg) and WR Doug Baldwin (hamstring).

DE Dexter Davis was back at practice after missing Tuesday with a hip flexor. WR Sidney Rice remains in a red no-contact jersey and is not participating in team drills.