“Olu will now play centrally for us and we are happy for his opportunity. Like all the other young boys who have had opportunities, Olu is there, he has given his best and he has been given a great opportunity. We are excited to to see him play.

“He’s a guy who’s been knocking on the door for a while. It’s obviously an unforeseen circumstance that you have to deal with, but the positive side of it all is that we see Olu doing his thing.” This guy has been working really hard, he actually started for us at center all offseason until we signed Connor, so we had a really good week of practice with Connor not here, and we’re moving forward.”

Williams, a seventh-year veteran, was in his first season with the Seahawks after signing as a free agent this summer. Williams previously was the starting guard for the Cowboys for three seasons before moving to center during his two seasons with Miami. His 2023 season was cut short by a torn ACL, but Williams was able to return for the start of the season and signed with the Seahawks in August.

Williams’ unexpected retirement was the second major roster move this week, following the Seahawks’ decision to waive starting linebacker Tyrel Dodson on Monday. But despite being significant changes, these moves haven’t distracted the team, Macdonald said.

“I thought we had an excellent week of preparation,” Macdonald said. “Our guys are doing a phenomenal job. This is the NFL, that’s also part of the message when things happen: ‘Hey, this is more the norm than not. Things will move and shake, and there will be storylines, which is good, it means people are interested in what we do, and things like that.” But our guys know this is noise, man. We gotta ignore the noise, keep moving forward, let’s let rock and roll go. Let’s focus on what we can control, which is a great week of practice, our attitude every day. And they did that, to their credit. They deserve a lot of credit.”