Griffins shoring up Seahawks’ defense
RENTON, Wash. — That fantastic one-of-a-kind story of twins and reuniting on the Seahawks? It just got better. Friday, for the first time, in the seventh practice of Seattle’s training camp, Shaquem, the rookie linebacker who’s been zooming around the lakeside practice field like one of the Blue Angels flying over it this weekend, joined starting cornerback Shaquill with the No. 1 defense. The moment came in a series of plays near the end of the team scrimmaging.
“It’s good. Just being around anybody that play out there is an extreme blessing,” said Shaquem, younger than Shaquill by one minute. “Me being out there with the ones allowed me to kind of open up more. It allowed me to talk more. You see how it’s actually done [among the starters], opposed to the young guys that are still learning the process. Me being out there, I kind of get a feel for how everything is going.”
Shaquem was the weakside linebacker spelling Pro Bowl veteran He played next to All-Pro middle linebacker
and in front of his twin, the Seahawks’ starting left cornerback since his rookie season last year.
What did the younger twin learn while running with the ones?
“They talk very well. They talk fluently,” Shaquem said. “I just want to be able to, when I’m with the twos and everybody else, I should be able to replicate that just like how they are.”
So does running with the ones just over a week into his first NFL training camp signal to Shaquem he’s arrived, that he indeed belongs at this level as the first one-handed player drafted into the league in its modern era?
“Definitely not. Definitely not,” he said, flatly. “I’ve got a lot to prove. I’ve got to prove myself, every single day. I’m not going to get comfortable where I’m at.
“I’m blessed and happy to be here. But the work is not done. Far from done. I’m just here to learn more and be the best player and be the best teammate I can be.”
His humility and his rise on the Seahawks’ defense are not all to this most unique story in the NFL this preseason.
Or do you know of other twin brothers as teammates and roommates?
The Griffin twins recently got a puppy, a fivemonth-old blue French bulldog. They named him Tank. Tank lives with them in their place they share in suburban Seattle. Tank already has a big belly, Shaquem reported with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” Shaquill told me Friday. “He’s big.”
“He’s a very hefty puppy,” Shaquem confirmed. “Big stomach.”
Tank’s arrival has exacerbated a concern Shaquill has (only semi-jokingly) had since the Seahawks drafted his twin three months ago: his brother and his possessions are going to take up too much of Shaquill’s living space. Just like it used to in their childhood home in St. Petersburg.
“So now we are taking up more room,” Shaquem said of he and Tank. “We are kind of taking over right now.
“He don’t like it that much.”
While the Griffins are in the Seahawks’ team hotel on Seattle’s east side during training camp, a dog-sitter is watching after Tank.
Tank’s missing a Griffins mini-takeover of this Seahawks training camp.
The twins are reunited and living together following a 2017 that was the first year of their lives they lived separately. Shaquill left UCF and played for Seattle last year while Shaquem stayed in Orlando to finish his fifth and redshirt-senior season.
That’s enough reason for the Griffins to celebrate. But they are also all over the Seahawks’ defense right now. Shaquill, who learned the craft last year as All-Pro
protege, is entrenched as the starting left cornerback. He is replacing Sherman, who is now with San Francisco. Shaquill’s moved over from the right corner he manned last year as a rookie thirdround pick. He has switched sides with
Maxwell is currently starting on the right side, pending a seemingly imminent push from rookie draft choice for the starting cornerback job there.
In the league’s best story of April’s draft, the Seahawks drafted the younger Griffin in the fifth round. They did so because of his speed, which he’s shown in the last week here is truly eye-catching, and his tackling ability. Seattle’s coaches also love how the defensive player of the year two seasons ago in the American Athletic Conference, a star of UCF’s 13-0 team that beat Auburn in January’s Peach Bowl, has experience as a college safety down the field in pass coverage plus as a thudding linebacker up on the line against the run.
So the Seahawks are exploring all the ways they can use him right away this season. In the spring’s offseason practices Griffin often backed up Wagner in the middle. Lately he’s been backing up Wright off the weak-side edge. Shaquem is also running down field on special-teams units.
What strengths have coaches noticed already in Shaquem?
“Well, he’s best at a lot of things. I think his biggest strength is, everyone knows, is his speed. He’s really, really fast,” defensive coordinator said. “He has a great combination with that speed: his mind. He really thinks well and really loves ball.
“So, it’s been a joy to coach him because he has his combination of speed, he loves ball and he understands what his strengths are. And he plays to them.”