The Seahawks were back at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on Monday after being on the road at Green Bay last week. This week is particularly important because on Tuesday, all NFL team's must trim down their roster to 53 players by the NFL's 1 p.m. PT deadline. On Wednesday teams can establish a 17-player practice squad, which for the Seahawks, like other teams around the league, will primarily consist of players who were just released by the team.

"We're looking at it through the lens of, 'Hey, this is the 70. This is not the final 53,'" head coach Mike Macdonald said. "We need everybody in our building, all these guys have been awesome. This is the crew that we're building for the long haul and so it's a big day for these guys. I understand that. Big couple of days, but hopefully we have kind of a longer term view their careers. We really appreciate the guys that have been here the whole time and done a great job."

Here are four takeaways from Monday's press conference:

1. Roster Cutdown Approaching

With the roster cutdown, it ultimately means there will be some players left without a job after Tuesday. Macdonald said he and his staff try to take an empathetic approach when letting players know that.

"It's not like a doom and gloom," he said. "It's kind of the whole point to the whole thing. It's, 'Of course where you want to be right now in your career. But it isn't the end. This is another transaction I unfortunately have to make at this point of the season.' Give him some feedback on what's going on and conversations vary based on the person, but all our coaches and personnel (department), they do a great job of keeping it real with the guy, telling him the truth, telling him with love. Hopefully we'll see him again real soon."

2. Looking Ahead To Week 1

The preseason is a wrap and Seattle's eyes are focused to Week 1 vs. the San Francisco 49ers while keeping in mind their goal of playing their, "brand of football."

"It's just how we go about our business on the field in terms of what we're trying to get done," Macdonald said. "That varies. Like today, it was a shorter, quicker, faster practice. Now, we're doing some extra conditioning. Anytime we take the field, it's always at the same intent of what we're trying to create. So we're trying to play our brand of ball every time we get out there and we keep that going all the way into the next week. [They're] going to have a long weekend, so staying sharp is really important, stacking great reps, keeping our wind, keeping our conditioning is going to be really important as well."

3. Jalen Milroe's Game Was A 'Good Foundation'

Jalen Milroe played the entirety of Seattle's final preseason game, and while there were some of what Macdonald called "setbacks" in the game overall, including multiple lost fumbles, he Macdonald liked a lot of what he saw from the rookie QB.

"I thought there was a lot of good stuff," Macdonald said. "He made some really good throws on time, went through his progressions. We go back to the ball. I think that's pretty obvious leaving the field. I thought the guy made some really cool plays around the game. Stuff that we can build on moving forward. Of course there's things that we want to get better at and put up more points and all that type of stuff, but definitely a good foundation moving forward."

Milroe finished the game 13 of 24 for 148 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 31 yards on seven carries. While Saturday's game might have been the most extensive action Milroe will see, the Seahawks do plan to use him in the regular season.

"We're going to have plays for Jalen in the game plans," Macdonald said. "He's going to rep those with the ones. However we build the package for him going into games, he needs those reps in walkthrough and full speed, so that's going to be important. How we do it, who gets how many reps—obviously Sam, it starts with how many reps he needs to get ready, then we kind of work off it from there."

4. Seahawks Linebacker Depth Has Been Stepping Up

With Tyrice Knight dealing with an injury and a separate health issue, Seahawks linebackers Patrick O'Connell and Drake Thomas are two guys that have stepped up in his place, both getting in meaningful reps with the first-team defense.

"I thought both guys played a really good game last game," Macdonald said. "Talking about two guys that have been available the whole time. Great intentionality, great spirit, played really hard. I thought they put some of their best football in the last game, which was great."