We've reached the start of Seattle Seahawks preseason. The first exhibition of the Mike Macdonald era will be against Pete Carroll's old rival, Jim Harbaugh, and his debut as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. This is a road game but I wouldn't be shocked if Seahawks fans outnumbered Chargers fans in Inglewood.

Earlier this week I asked for your questions regarding training camp and preseason after I attended Seahawks practice at Lumen Field. Let's get to the best ones!

That he's adaptable to his players based on the situation. The skirmishes at Wednesday's practice is what led to Thursday being a glorified walkthrough and not a normal set of scrimmages and drills. I think it's established at this point that he's a stickler for detail, but all of the tussling was probably his first minor bit of conflict to deal with and it was probably for the best that they took it easy on Thursday given the actual game on Saturday.

Now that Williams is all but officially signed, he's going to be the starting center. Harris is already a guard/center hybrid so they could slide Harris to backup right guard and Oluwatimi remains the backup center. There's no need to move Williams to right guard. They signed him for a reason, which is to say "Other" won the starting center competition.

I'd rather take my chances that Williams can recover from his torn ACL and return to being a top-level center than bank on Oluwatimi making some outrageous second-year leap.

I'll get to Eskridge in a second, but Young is ahead of Eskridge on the depth chart. I think the projection of Young has been way overstated in terms of what he can do as a wide receiver. What I do value in Young is his special teams work and what he can do as a blocker.

As for Metcalf, he's still physically different than AJ Brown in the sense that he's not as smooth with his movement as Brown. I think that's a major reason why he struggles with contested catches compared to his peers. His body positioning and ability to "Moss" dudes is not at the level of the other big-bodied elite talents. Metcalf's strengths are allocated toward getting open and shielding defenders out of the way for bullet passes as opposed to jump balls. I also believe Metcalf's hands are better than his reputation suggests, but situationally he doesn't seem like someone who always plays to his physical gifts, so to speak.

One day isn't a complete training camp but he's not getting consistently open and he's had some drops. He's got almost no shot given the receiving talent in front of him. There was one nice play he had in last week's Lumen Field that led to the Marquise Blair skirmish, but that's about it. He's not an exceptional route runner, and despite that one kick return, doesn't appear remarkably NFL fast.

We're in Aaron Curry territory where the idea that he'll magically improve with a new coaching staff is more of a hope and not the reality. The Seahawks have been investing at wide receiver for a reason, and Eskridge's injuries and lack of development are partly to explain. Maybe he hangs on as a special teams guy but it's time to give up the ghost on Eskridge the receiver.

We're weeks away from finding out if everyone involved will even play -- not speculation, but just the nature of the NFL and how injuries can happen -- so I'm not going to answer that directly. I will note that the traveling I saw with Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen in particular at practice (usually on DK) indicates that we're going to see some major differences with how the cornerbacks are used under Macdonald compared to Carroll. We know how long it took just to let Richard Sherman go with the opposition's number one receiver. Macdonald's demand for versatility and unpredictability almost necessitates that the corners won't have

It's still very much an open competition for returner. Dee Eskridge will be one of the options, but I saw Laviska Shenault Jr, Dee Williams, Tre Brown, Easop Winston, and Dareke Young among the other options. I'd expect the Seahawks to experiment just as much as everyone else. What I don't envision is anyone other than Jason Myers doing the kickoffs.

Dan Viens talked about this in his recap video, and I think he's persuaded me on Jalen Sundell. He's curiously listed as a tackle (which is what he did play in college, to be fair) even though he's been a center in training camp. Watching the reserves was not particularly great entertainment, except noting Sundell looked comfortable and strong against everyone except one 1-on-1 rep with Byron Murphy II. Having the rare center/tackle versatility may give him a slim chance at the roster.

I'm also giving one of Jack Westover or Brady Russell a real shot to be on the roster as a reserve tight end. Despite the local ties and Ryan Grubb ties, I think Russell has the inside track to be the potential fourth TE on the team. Certainly have not heard a lot about AJ Barner, so tight end is an interesting roster battle.

The unfortunate part about Geno Smith not practicing last weekend is the fact that the playbook clearly shrinks with Sam Howell and PJ Walker, as you'd imagine with backup QBs. Even in the extended 11-on-11 sessions it was kept very close to the vest. Assessing the running game was close to pointless since it was mostly basic calls in any playbook, and the lack of live tackling until the third-team came in meant there wasn't too much you could conclude.

In terms of misdirection, fancy motions, super creative route combinations, the whole shebang we saw at Washington, that's likely not going to be seen a whole lot until the regular season. Seeing all of the tight ends positioned in-line, slot, and outside was intriguing if you want some insight in how they were used. There was a play where Pharaoh Brown was split out wide and caught a pass for a few yards and I didn't see that coming.

There's just not enough information to go off of when it's the backup quarterbacks competing, the offensive line lost a lot of reps against the defensive line, and downfield passing was most prevalent in 1-on-1 drills instead of simulated game situation.

I'll get back to you on that after cutdown day. At the moment, I see a slightly above-average roster when accounting for the question marks at guard, linebacker, interior offensive line, and even tight end. There's more potential on this roster than, say, 4-5 years ago when the veterans were disproportionately keeping the team afloat.

Seattle could become one of the best rosters in the league very soon if their key draft picks (e.g. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Charles Cross, Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon, Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II, etc.) all make strides toward being among the best at their respective positions. In Abe Lucas' case, I'd rather he just be healthy and then we can go from there.

Part of the Seahawks' recent struggles with making the playoffs/winning playoff games is not having enough draft picks who were anything better than a solid contributor. There's a real possibility the last three drafts could change the direction of the franchise for Seattle, such that even in a world where Geno Smith isn't the QB in 2025, the cupboard is not barren for his rookie replacement.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their questions! We'll do this again after roster cuts.