It's still August, but Sunday's exhibition in Nashville already has a real subplot: Seattle's wide receiver room took a hit at Friday's joint practice, and how much either team's actual starters play is now a genuine question mark.
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MON AUG 24 · 7:00 PM CT
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Seahawks
Titans
Best BetSeahawks +133
Tennessee's being priced like a real home favorite for a game where its own coach admits the rookie quarterback hasn't arrived yet. Seattle's front office has spent the offseason building out its receiver room and secondary, and even without Darnold guaranteed a full workload, the roster-wide talent gap doesn't match the number on the board. Backing the underdog here is a bet on institutional quality outlasting home-field preseason noise.
Seahawks
+Deep, retooled roster after an active offseason
+Witherspoon locked up long-term this month
+Darnold reportedly gets real reps Sunday
−Bobo's knee injury described as serious
−Multiple starters questionable or expected to sit
−Lost preseason opener to Dallas, 7-17
Titans
+Won preseason opener over San Francisco, 19-13
+Ward produced one long touchdown drive
+Trubisky back at full practice as insurance
−Callahan says Ward 'hasn't arrived yet'
−Ward went just 5-of-12 passing vs 49ers
−Just placed a safety on injured reserve
This one kicks off at 7:00 PM CT with both teams still figuring out who they are. Sam Darnold sat out Seattle's preseason opener against Dallas, and Friday's joint practice with Tennessee gave a mixed preview of what he'd bring if he does see the field Sunday — some sharp work to the receivers, but also a pick-six the Titans' defense hung on him. On the other side, Cam Ward is coming off an uneven preseason debut against San Francisco, and his own head coach isn't ready to hand him the keys yet.
The injury news is the real story here. Jake Bobo went down with what Mike Macdonald called a serious knee injury during Friday's joint session, and the team reportedly took a knee for him on the practice field — that's not typical exhibition-week noise. Tennessee has its own flickers of concern, with Mitchell Trubisky working through a biceps issue and Carnell Tate banged around at practice, though both were back on the field before kickoff week wrapped. Neither team is walking into Sunday at full strength, and neither coaching staff has been shy about who might sit.
None of that stops the odds board from treating this like a real game, with Tennessee installed as a healthy home favorite. Macdonald has already signaled that plenty of Seattle's established starters won't play Sunday, which matters more than usual this month — quantity of returning veterans on the field says a lot about how seriously either sideline is treating the scoreboard versus the evaluation period.
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Seattle's actual football form is a bit of a mirage right now — the win streak referenced in the record book belongs to last season, and the only game that's happened since is a 7-17 preseason loss to Dallas. Tennessee's picture is similarly split: a real preseason win over San Francisco sits next to a losing finish to last year that got Brian Callahan's rebuild started in the first place. Ward flashed one long touchdown drive against the 49ers but was otherwise inconsistent, going 5-of-12 through the air — hardly a finished product, but also exactly what a rookie quarterback's August is supposed to look like.
Seattle Seahawks
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Tennessee Titans
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Both rosters are dealing with the standard late-camp attrition beyond the headline injuries — Seattle is nursing questionable tags on Tory Horton, Nick Emmanwori and Emmanuel Wilson, while Tennessee just placed safety Nazeeh Johnson on injured reserve. None of it screams marquee matchup, but for a fan base starved for meaningful football, it's the first real look at whether either team's new pieces are actually ready.
