The Seahawks are three weeks into training camp and approaching their second preseason game, which means the regular season is approaching soon. It also means that now is a great time to open up the mailbag and answer some questions from you, the fans.

As always, thanks to everyone who asked questions this week, and apologies if I wasn't able to get to yours this time around. And remember, the mailbag is always open for submissions at Seahawks.com/mailbag.

@axelmtg.bsky.social asks, "How do the Seahawks think they match up against their division rivals?"

A: The Seahawks head into the 2025 season expecting the NFC West to offer some tough challenges, but they also do so fully expecting to compete for a championship. That's not arrogance or a lack of respect for opponents, but rather the mindset any professional athlete or coach has to have if they're going to be successful. The Rams are coming off a division title, having also gone 10-7 but having won the strength of victory tiebreaker, while the Cardinals and 49ers both have reasons to believe they'll improve upon their sub-.500 seasons in 2024. Again, winning the division won't be easy for the Seahawks, but after going 4-2 in the division last year, and heading into 2025 feeling good about their new-look offense, and especially about a defense that returns almost all of its starters after a strong finish to last season, they are confident they can stack up well against anyone.

Mike Macdonald explained that mindset earlier this offseason, using an example from his earliest days in coaching when he was still a college student working as an assistant at Cedar Shoals High School. Xarvia Smith, the head coach at Cedar Shoals who was also Macdonald's high school coach, made a point in a meeting with his staff that has stayed with Macdonald all these years later.

"I want to win the Super Bowl," Macdonald said in March at the NFL Annual Meeting. "That's the expectation, man. Every time you step on the field, your expectation is to win. When I was a high school coach, our head coach, Xarvia Smith, got the staff together in the summer and he's like, 'Hey, write down what you think our record is going to be this year.' And guys would turn in like 8-2 or 7-3, 9-1 or whatever. And to those people, he was like, 'What games are we going to lose so we can just go ahead and not play those games?' So if you go into this whole process not expecting to win, you're not doing it the right way."

@cristo-blue.bsky.social asks, "How many receivers are you expecting the Seahawks to keep and who do you think they will be?" @homechix also asks about the competition at receiver.

A: This is the time of year when people try to predict what the 53-man roster will look like, and receiver is definitely a position with a lot of possible outcomes. When it comes to how many players, the Seahawks have in the past usually kept five or six, and in a few rare cases, seven receivers on the roster, and I'd be surprised if the total didn't fall in that range again this year. The real deciding factor on if the Seahawks keep a sixth, or possibly even a seventh receiver will be special teams play. Beyond the top two of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp, nothing is set in stone at receiver, though rookie Tory Horton is making a strong push for the No. 3 job, with veteran Marquez Valdes-Scantling also in the running for that job. Just about every receiver not named Kupp or Smith-Njigba will be expected to contribute on special teams if they're going to be on the team, which is why when it comes to the final few spots at that position, special teams will be key. Jake Bobo, Dareke Young and Cody White are all valuable special teams players so they are all very much in the mix, as is Steven Sims, a veteran with considerable kick and punt return experience. Sims has been sidelined by injury recently, which could complicate the decision. I'm going to stay away from making any predictions on who sticks around and who doesn't make the team, but the competition will be a good one to watch the next couple of weeks. Also, it's always worth remembering that with practice squad elevations, the Seahawks can have more receivers available on the practice squad who could be called up on gamedays.

@lattelover012 asks, "Which young OL outside of the starting five do you think we hold onto?"

A: First, the Seahawks need to settle on a starting five, but I'd say it's a safe bet that whoever those five are, plus the players competing for those jobs, are all going to be on the team, meaning left tackle Charles Cross, right tackle Abe Lucas, left guard Grey Zabel, and the four players competing at center and right guard: Olu Oluwatimi, Jalen Sundell, Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes. That's seven players, and team usually keep nine or 10 linemen, though last year the Seahawks had 11 on their initial 53-man roster. So for those of you who don't want to do some basic math, if we're assuming those seven spots are pretty locked up, that's somewhere between two and four spots available for backups like Josh Jones, who is probably a safe bet to make it as the swing tackle, and young players like Sataoa Laumea, Michael Jerrell and rookies Bryce Cabeldue and Mason Richman. And as always when it comes to final roster spots, teams have to consider not just who they want to keep on the 53-man roster, but who is more likely to clear waivers and be available to sign to the practice squad.

@tompage asks, "It seems like Zach Charbonnet has flown under the radar this camp, what do we think his role is going to be this season?"

A: Even if Charbonnet hasn't been generating headlines this summer, he has had a great camp, and always draws rave reviews from coaches. And while Kenneth Walker III is the starter, Charbonnet will have a significant role in the offense. Running backs need breaks within games, the position is just too physically demanding for one player to be out there every snap, with a few rare exceptions. And as much as the Seahawks plan to run the ball under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, there should be plenty of touches for Charbonnet even as the No. 2 back. And as Charbonnet showed last season, he is more than capable of stepping into a starting role and producing if the need arises at any point this season.

@curtis93969 asks, "Have you gotten to see the Rivalries jerseys? Without revealing specifics, what is your first impression?"

A: I have indeed seen the new Rivalries uniforms… And I also signed an NDA, so I can't tell you much about them, though I did like them. More importantly, players like them. As receiver Jaxon-Smith-Njigba said earlier in camp, "Y'all are going to like the jerseys. Y'all are going to really like them. They look really clean. Even the guys that have no swag are going to look good out there. It's a good jersey, that's all I can say."

As someone who has no swag, I agree they are clean.

So too does cornerback Devon Witherspoon, who very much has swag, and who said after getting his first look at the Rivalries uniform this summer, "This shit looks clean."

For more information on the Rivalries uniforms, which will be revealed on August 28 and worn for Seattle's Week 16 game against the Rams, head to rivalries.seahawks.com.

Andrew from Seattle asks, "Christian Haynes entered camp as the presumptive starter at right guard, and looked to be buoyed by a new scheme that matched his talents. But during against the Raiders, he played second-string LG behind The Immovable Grey Zabel. Is he still in the running for starting RG, and if not, is that a result of Bradford taking a leap or Haynes himself stagnating/regressing?"

A: First off, I'd push back on the notion that Haynes, or anyone else, was the presumed starter coming into camp. Anthony Bradford won the starting job last year and started the first 11 games of the season before being sidelined by an injury. Macdonald made it clear at the start of camp that those two were competing for the starting job, and then Jalen Sundell worked his way into the mix, and if Haynes was seemingly getting more work early in camp, my guess is that that was just part of the planned rotation. As for why Bradford, who did indeed start the opener, seems to be taking the lead in that competition, which Macdonald said still isn't settled, it seems to be more about his play, particularly since pads went on, than with anything Haynes is doing wrong.

"AB has made great strides," offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said earlier this week. "Obviously he's a physical presence, but you see more consistency in his game throughout camp. So I see a guy that's playing more confident."

That competition isn't settled yet, according to coaches, but could be soon if Bradford continues to show that consistency, especially in Friday's game.

@_danchu asks, "Does the coaching staff plan on giving Milroe any live reps with the 1s and 2s before the season starts?"

A: For the most part, unless there's a competition going on, NFL teams reserve all or the vast majority of the reps with the starting offense for the starting quarterback. That's what we've seen so far with Sam Darnold, and then after that Drew Lock has consistently worked with the No. 2 offense with Jalen Milroe working with the threes, and that's what I would expect to continue going forward. Reps are too important to not maximize the preparation that a starter gets each week, and that's especially true when you have a new quarterback in a new scheme throwing to receivers he has never worked with.

Now, if the Seahawks do decide at one point to work in a few special package plays for Milroe to capitalize on his athleticism, something Mike Macdonald and John Schneider mentioned after he was drafted, then yes, he would reps those plays in practice with the starters. If and when that happens, however, it would be in a closed practice so we wouldn't be able to tell you about it.