Seahawks Julian Love discussed his first few months in Seattle, his unique connection to Seattle and more on Day 2 of minicamp.John Boyle
The Seahawks signed Julian Love in free agency because they loved his talent as a versatile defensive back and his leadership as a former team captain with the Giants.
What they likely didn't know is that Love, despite being from Chicago and spending the first four years of his career on the East Coast, has a unique (and delicious) connection to Seattle that could give the team one heck of a sandwich hookup.
Love's grandmother's brother is Lorenzo Lorenzo, the founder of Paseo, the Seattle restaurant famous for its Caribbean sandwiches among other things. Paseo has since changed ownership, but Lorenzo Lorenzo's two sons took their father's recipes and started Un Bien, which also specializes in in Caribbean fare.
"He was the founding father of a restaurant called Paseo," Love said. "Lorenzo Lorenzo, that's my grandmother's brother. Then my cousins opened up a restaurant called Un Bien. There's a couple of them now. That's kind of the founding father, Paseo, (Un Bien) is the new jam now. I need a sandwich endorsement or something. Random fact. Wasted it early."
Love has so far been too busy getting up to speed with his new team to venture across Lake Washington to try his cousins' place, but what he has done since signing with the Seahawks in March is make himself comfortable with a new defense and a new group of teammates.
"It's a process, you've got to take advantage of each day," Love said. "I was out here this spring just for that, to get the playbook down and get my surroundings down because come training camp, you want to be hitting the ground running. And everyone has bought in already. I was a little late to the party, but they've accepted me and it's been a good process so far."
With a pair of Pro Bowl safeties on the roster already in Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams, the Seahawks still were eager to sign Love because of the type of player he was in New York, and because they love the versatility he can bring to a defense that is expected to feature a lot of three-safety looks. For now, with Adams still rehabbing a quadriceps tendon injury, Love has worked with the No. 1 defense along with Diggs, but when Adams is back, the plan, as Carroll explained earlier this offseason, is to frequently have all three on the field together. While it's too early to know exactly what a secondary featuring all three of those safeties will look like, Love is confident it will work out well once Adams returns.
"When you have a team, you try to put the best players on the field for each situation, and that's kind of my mindset," he said. "I have starts at every DB position, so I am a versatile player. So I'm just trying to take advantage. I have a great group around me. I don't have to do anything outside of myself. I can just lean on the guy next to me to do my job."
And in the meantime, Adams' presence at minicamp has been felt even if he isn't able to take the field yet.
"He's a presence, leader on this team," Love said. "Everyone loves and respects him. When he talks, everyone gets quiet and listens to what he has to say. Him being out here this week meant a lot to the guys. For me knowing him, coming from New York together, but the young guys, you could see it in their eyes, they're all ears perked up to hear what he says. Jamal is a presence for this team."
Working alongside Love and sitting with him in position meetings, Diggs, one of Seattle's two defensive captains last season, has been impressed with his new teammate.
"It's been cool," Diggs said. "J-Love is a really smart guy. We sit in meetings, and I have a question or he has a question, just kind of ask each other and see what it is. But you can tell he's definitely been studying his stuff. He knows what he's doing. I'm comfortable letting him make calls and things like that. It's been fun. He can play. You guys saw him last year when we played (the Giants); he was making plays all over the field. So, I'm excited to get to know him more during the year and we have a really good safety room."
As Diggs notes, a safety room led by a trio of Diggs, Adams and Love could be something special, and the Seahawks also really like what they have at cornerback in Tariq Woolen, a Pro-Bowler as a rookie in 2022; Mike Jackson, last year's starter opposite Woolen, and a standout in offseason workouts this year; Coby Bryant, last year's starting nickel corner; Witherspoon, the No. 5 overall pick in this year's draft; and impressive depth that includes Tre Brown, who stepped into a starting role as a rookie before suffering a season ending knee injury, and Artie Burns, a former first-round pick who was looking like a starter in camp last year before an injury sidelined him.
Yet as deep and talented as Seattle's secondary now looks on paper, Love isn't too interested in buying into any offseason hype. He'd prefer to have that group prove it in the fall.
"I'm not a huge fan of talking about potential," Love said. "We have a job to do when everyone gets healthy and gets back. I think you look at who we have across the board on paper it looks good; it's now our job to make that a reality. And so that takes each day grinding, getting close to each other, going out to dinner together, the little things just so we can work as one this season."