Aside from the usual passel of injuries that afflict every NFL team in August, the Seahawks have had a mostly quiet preseason. No holdouts, no real fights, few starting position contests or strategy shifts, and no off-field dramas or orations like those from the provocateurs of yesteryear, such as Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman or Michael Bennett.

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Disjointed as was the game Saturday night, the post-game delivered its own clank when Seahawks coach Pete Carroll disclosed that prized rookie WR DK Metcalf will need surgery to fix a knee problem that kept him out of the Seahawks' 25-19 exhibition loss (box) in Minneapolis. Carroll, however, said the surgery isn't major, and held out hope that Metcalf could return as soon as the Sept. 8 opener.

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When the Seahawks defense dials up a blitz for a cornerback or a safety, to say the DBs get fired up . . . it's a little like finding out Beyonce is suddenly single.

"I was definitely excited when I heard that call," said DeShawn Shead.  "Anytime we get a chance to get after the quarterback, we take it like getting a pick. We enjoy the opportunity."

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Mock, if you must, the NFL exhibition season. Go ahead and call fake football the worst full-price thing on the national sports calendar. Besides the fake football of the Pro Bowl, I mean.

The cruel rhetoric cannot shield the bright light of truth that was seen Thursday night at the Clink. I'm pleased to say I was there when Paxton Lynch rose from mud and leaves to overtake Russell Wilson as Seahawks quarterback, and stepped over the carcass of his former team to do it.

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Since the Seahawks the past season transformed from one of the NFL's worst rushing teams to its best, making for a potent offense -- over the final half of the regular season, the Seahawks averaged 30 points a game, trailing only Kansas City (34) and the Los Angeles Rams (32.6) -- the 2019 course should be obvious.

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BOTHELL -- Not that he doesn't have enough records already, but Russell Wilson accumulated an odd one Saturday afternoon -- the most effort to get to a football game at Bothell High School.

In a departure from training camp custom, that's where the Seahawks played their mock game. Wilson's route to sold-out Pop Keeney Stadium, not far from Lake Washington's north shore, went through Virginia.

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Turns out L.J. Collier's injury is one for the (medical) books.

A sprain coach Pete Carroll Thursday called "rare" will keep the first-round draft choice out indefinitely and cause the Seahawks to scrounge the marketplace for something else also rare -- a decent rush end who is unemployed.

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Tuesday was going to be DE L.J. Collier's turn at the Seahawks' training camp podium. With many clubs in the NFL, the first-round draft pick often is the first man up for interview requests. But in Seattle, lower expectations are built in.

Sure enough, Collier lived down to those expectations. It wasn't his fault, and the Seahawks hope it isn't his fate to extend the club's dubious first-round outcomes.

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Pete Carroll said something Sunday about Bobby Wagner that I never heard him say about a Seahawk.

"He’s a beautiful illustration and example of what a young man should be like,” Carroll said after Friday's news that Wagner had become the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL.

Whoa.

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The final major item on the off-season to-do list is done: Bobby Wagner will stay a Seahawk, and he will be the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL, after an agreement was reached Friday. NFL Network reported that the three-year contract extension through 2022 is for $54 million.

The $18 million average annual value exceeds the previous high, established earlier in the summer when the New York Jets paid C.J. Mosley $17 million.

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As much as coach Pete Carroll gushed Thursday about all that was fresh and glorious about the start of a new Seahawks season, there was no escaping the dubious news that trailed along, stuck like toilet paper to a shoe. Not a good look.

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Making the playoffs in 2018 for the seventh time in coach Pete Carroll's nine seasons, and for the 12th time in the past 16 years, was certainly a noteworthy feat for the 10-6 Seahawks, particularly given all the changes on the roster and coaching staff. The question after the draft and free agency is: Are they better in 2019?

As training camp opens Thursday in Renton, I'd say no.

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A two-year-old episode of domestic violence has put DT Jarran Reed, one of the top returnees for a middling Seahawks defense, on the NFL's suspended list for the regular season's first six games.

The NFL's website first reported Monday that Reed violated the league's personal conduct policy, and his appeal was denied Friday morning.

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One of the more annoying scams in pro sports is the NFL's insistence on charging full price for each team's two home fake games each August. I suppose that if theater goers are willing to pay to watch dress rehearsals, the NFL can say it wasn't the first to the notion, but I stick to the ancient principle of charging half-price for half-baked.

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The news Friday that former Seahawks owner Ken Behring died at 91 called to mind a January 2006 phone conversation I had with John Nordstorm. He was the leader of the family ownership group that brought the Seahawks into existence in 1977, then in 1988 sold to Behring, perhaps the worst choice in Nordstrom's otherwise illustrious business career.

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In mid-June, NFL talk is cheap, cheaper than sand in Egypt. That's why no one was taking too seriously LT Duane Brown's recent claim that the Seahawks' offensive line might be best in the league in 2019. No one snickered -- Brown is the most powerful Seahawk, so the threat of sudden harm is always in the consciousness around him -- but the remark seemed hyperbolic.

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A bit lost in the run-up during the week of the Seahawks' playoff game at Dallas in January was a regular-season statistical feat on offense that not only was a club record, the NFL had never seen its like since the data was tracked.

QB Russell Wilson targeted WR Tyler Lockett 70 times in 2018. He completed 57, including 10 touchdowns. None were intercepted. According to a formula devised by the NFL and tracked since 2002, the tandem made for a passer rating of 158.3. The figure is the formula's maximum possible. In the parlance of the trade: Perfect.

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Every sports fan operating off of more than his or her medulla oblongata knows that a professional athlete's prime time -- except for golfers, bowlers and good quarterbacks -- is short. But that truth stands little chance against the tsunami of sentiment that follows career's end for a beloved local hero.

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The traditional awkward dance between the Seahawks and a star player seeking a third contract is underway again. This time, LB Bobby Wagner seems be going out of his way not to step on toes.

After the unpleasantness with Earl Thomas a year ago, and Richard Sherman before that, and Kam Chancellor before that, Wagner decided to show up for practice. But not actually practice, until a deal for an extension is struck.

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Mid-May is a poor time for forecasting an outcome for the pending NFL season. Then again, so is mid-December. The chance for looking foolish, however, at least is reduced.

The notion of looking foolish came up in the NFL Wednesday because the New York Jets fired their general manager after Mike Maccagnan chose a new coach, spent $120 million in the free agent market and chose the players he wanted in the college draft.

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