Carnell Tate Camp Update — August 23: Catchless Again in the Joint Practice
2026 NFL Season · Sunday, Aug 23
Carnell Tate caught zero passes in Friday's joint practice with the Seahawks — targeted on the pick-six, a drop, an offensive pass interference flag — and is now catchless in both external tests of his rookie summer. Cam Ward spent Saturday defending him on the record.
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Carnell Tate caught nothing in Friday's joint practice with the Seahawks: zero receptions, the target on the interception Ty Okada returned for a score, a drop, and an offensive pass interference flag, all per Jim Wyatt at the team's website. Wyatt's own weekend preview stated the pattern directly — the fourth overall pick is now catchless in both the preseason opener and Friday's joint session. The week around the blank line was rough in its own right: Monday he made the catch of the day, a spinning grab on a Cam Ward two-minute throw, then took a mid-air hit from safety Kevin Winston Jr. on the way down — "I think he just got a little bit dizzy. I don't think we're concerned about concussions or anything," Robert Saleh said, per Wyatt — and Wednesday he sat out with what the team called stiffness.
His quarterback went on the record about it Saturday. "He doesn't have a cold streak. He plays one of the hardest positions in sports... whether he has a drop, whether I have a bad pass, he never points the finger at nobody. He always comes back with the next play mentality," Ward said, per Austin Stanley at A to Z Sports, in a piece that traced the arc honestly: a rookie who dominated the spring and early camp, cooled by the external tests. That defense is the second time in three weeks Ward has publicly stood in front of Tate, after rushing to defend him in the Santa Clara scuffle.
Back in June we previewed Tate with a deliberate refusal — draft capital plus camp buzz does not predict rookie production at a standard we would cite — and named two checkable things: the every-down starter role, and where targets actually flow. The role still checks out; he kept drawing first-team targets all week. The conversion of those targets into catches, against real coverage, has not started yet.
What to watch: whether Ward and Tate connect in game action for the first time tonight against Seattle — the starters are slated for roughly 20 to 25 plays, per Wyatt — and whether the stiffness stays out of the injury report through cut week. We'll check after cut day.
_Data via nflverse._
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