Harvin looked great. In my opinion, he was the most explosively quick-twitch athlete on the field. He took a fly sweep around the corner and, sticking closely behind a Luke Willson lead block, broke it into the open field down the sideline. He ran a few intermediate underneath routes, which provided an outlet checkdown option for Wilson, and on those he looked extremely fast. He's just fast. I think everyone there watching would agree that he looks like the superstar we expected, and the only, literally only thing that matters is that he stays healthy.
Past Harvin, I thought the other standout at receiver was Kevin Norwood, a Seahawks fourth round pick this year out of Alabama. He caught three sideline passes (that I saw) after running deep outs or crossing routes, and provided exactly what had been projected -- a big target with soft hands. He displayed great body control to go up and get one off-target pass that came in at an awkward angle, and smoothly brought it in and turned upfield to run. I can see how this guy developed a reputation as a "quarterback's best friend" with the Crimson Tide.
Paul Richardson definitely looked fast -- he caught a high pass at the sideline as well, but was otherwise quiet. Kevin Smith, the former Husky, looked good, and had a few nice catches, including the previously mentioned duck from Terrelle Pryor, in which Smith waited and more or less boxed out Chandler Fenner until it hit him in the hands.
Taylor Price was another guy that stood out slightly to me -- he didn't have a ton of catches or anything, but he's an extremely smooth athlete that moves really well on the football field. He has a gliding gait that I would say is somewhat similar to Doug Baldwin -- effortless looking. He may be a total long-shot for the roster, but his speed was apparent.
Overall, in fact, speed was the one thing that really stood out for Seattle's receiving corps. There is more speed in this group than I can ever remember. One instance: Ricardo Lockette caught a ball on the sideline then turned on the jets upfield, easily beating (I think it was) Brock Coyle as he pursued in a zone coverage, and jailbroke what should have been a short gain. They didn't call it a touchdown -- Coyle did tap him and they whistled it dead, but I think Lockette had the angle on him that meant in a real game situation he could have been long-gone. (For the record, I think Coyle had a pretty nice day - especially when he blew up a screen play by the offense).
Phil Bates is fast. Bryan Walters and Arceto Clark are both very quick in the slot. This new guy David Gilreath is very quick. Kevin Smith has nice speed and is an intriguing size. Really only Chris Matthews looked slow, and he's enormous, so his height is his standout feature.
http://www.fieldgulls.com/nfl-offseason ... hawn-lynch
