National Football League

Seahawks free agents finally get to work

Published Aug. 5, 2011 4:08 a.m. ET

foxsports

Sidney Rice thought the Seattle Seahawks had unwittingly become the subject of a practical joke as he stood on the sideline and watched them practice without him for yet another day.

''We thought we was getting pranked for a minute with everyone just sitting out there with their pads on waiting on a phone call,'' the wide receiver said.

It was one last strange moment from the collective bargaining process that took a little longer than expected to get completed.

''It wasn't that odd considering what's happened the past six months,'' tight end Zach Miller said. ''It wasn't that surprising to have to wait a few more minutes to go. I think everyone was excited to finally, officially, (know that) everything is over and done with and the next 10 years we'll have football uninterrupted.''

The Seahawks open the preseason with a trip to San Diego next Thursday. Seattle will have just four more days of practice as a full team, with a scheduled players day off on Sunday, before they take the field for the first time. Ultimately, the free agent signings had to wait an extra half hour before getting to work out with their teammates.

Seattle had 16 players dressed in shoulder pads watching as their teammates went through individual drills at the beginning of their scheduled afternoon practice. Ten minutes into it, the entire team stopped what they were doing to go over to the fans located on the edge of the practice field. The team spent the next several minutes signing autographs and talking to fans to stall until the players got the final word that they could work out.

The players finally came together soon after and were given the green light to practice.

''We had to sit around for an extra 25 minutes waiting on the word for us to be able to go,'' Rice said. ''But it felt good to be able to get out there with my new teammates and get to work.''

Seattle has been one of the most active teams in this mad dash of an NFL offseason. The team added quarterback Tarvaris Jackson and big name free agents Rice, Robert Gallery and Zach Miller to an offense the Seahawks desperately wanted to overhaul.

The new pieces were about to work together for the first time on Thursday, and the lack of familiarity was obvious. In one three-play sequence, Jackson fumbled two snaps from center Max Unger and a handoff to running back Leon Washington. The practice was littered with fumbles and false starts as the team struggled to digest the playbook of new offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell.

''Usually you have 15 days before your first preseason game, so to go in a week really compresses everything,'' Miller said. ''You're going to have to study a lot. You're going to have to get as many reps as you can because it's coming quick.''

Carroll designated Jackson the team's starting quarterback on Saturday without him taking a single snap in practice for his new team. Charlie Whitehurst has been working with the first-team offense for the first week of training camp, knowing he was just a place holder until Jackson was able to begin practicing.

Now Jackson is on an accelerated timetable to get comfortable with the rest of his new teammates in time for the fast-approaching preseason opener.

''Trying to learn the guys, and they're trying to get used to me,'' Jackson said. ''Snap count, getting used to the centers and stuff like that. Getting used to the receivers and how they like the ball thrown and stuff like that. That's why that one week was so big for us not to be able to practice because we could have that stuff worked out by now and be more familiar with each other.''