8 things we learned about the Seahawks during the 2022 offseason
The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their three-day voluntary “passing camp” OTAs last week, which officially closed the door on the 2022 offseason. The next time we see this group take the field in an official capacity will be at the start of training camp about five weeks from now.
Now seems like a good time to take stock and review what’s happened during what was the team’s most tumultuous offseason of the last 12 years, including major changes to the core of their roster as well as the coaching staff. With some musical accompaniment, here are eight things we learned about these Seahawks since last season ended.
The dawn of a new era
If you were to sum up Seattle’s offseason in a single sentence it might go something like this: They came as close to blowing the whole thing up as it gets without going full rebuild. To recap, the team’s front office cut ties with long-time starting quarterback Russell Wilson and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, who had served as the franchise cornerstones on offense and defense respectively over the last 10 years.
When that happened we assumed that a total trust-the-process kind of demolition was in the works. However, aside from those two massive shifts the Seahawks tried to keep their 2021 team together as much as possible. With the exception of 36-year old left tackle Duane Brown and underrated cornerback D.J. Reed, Seattle kept just about all of the other major personnel pieces from last season.
While the roster will look largely familiar outside of missing No. 3 and No. 54, the organization also underwent some huge philosophical changes – most notably in their approach to the NFL draft. The early results in the draft during the first three years of the Pete Carroll and John Schneider may never be equalled again even if the NFL lasts another 100 years. However, since the 2013 class this team’s returns in the draft have become a laughingstock. Good news: for whatever reason Carroll and Schneider went into the 2022 draft with a totally different approach.
Instead of reaching for iffy prospects at positions that primarily impact the running game, they doubled down at all the critical spots for the modern game, taking two prospects each at wide receiver, cornerback, offensive tackle and outside linebacker. While it’s way too early to judge the picks themselves, this represents a very promising shift in how this team goes about building its roster…
A possible Succession plan
Odds are we will never find out what actually prompted the organization’s sudden change of heart when it comes to the draft. Credit climate change, edibles or whatever you want – it’s an undeniably positive development for a franchise that has consistently disappointed its draft nerd fans for 10 years.
Ask us and our money is on the influence of the guy who may have been the team’s most important acquisition of the offseason: new associate head coach Sean Desai. For a few weeks in spring Desai was the single most sought after candidate for non-head coaching jobs around the NFL. Even though he had a lot of suitors the Seahawks won the Desai sweepstakes, scoring one of the league’s hottest up-and-coming defensive minds.
For now, Desai will be helping defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt come up with a gameplan every week. It’s hard to believe that Desai would have accepted this position if he also didn’t have some modicum of influence over the roster and maybe a promise for the future. While Pete Carroll’s energy is extremely uncommon for a 70-year old, he won’t be able to continue coaching forever. Right now the favorite to replace Carroll internally has to be Desai. It’s right there in his job title, after all.
Time will tell if Desai is actually next in the line of Succession or if Carroll will cling to power into his 80s ala Logan Roy.
A huge step backwards at quarterback
Assuming that Deshaun Watson was never going to take a snap for the Texans this year, no team took a bigger step backwards at the game’s most important position than these Seahawks. While it sounds like Russell Wilson didn’t give them much of a choice, that doesn’t make us feel any better about the trade or this team’s quarterback situation heading into 2022.
For the last decade Wilson led Seattle’s offense and did a pretty damn good job of it. While his game has flaws like any quarterback, Wilson played his position at a very high level for most of that time. At his best Wilson was a borderline top-five quarterback and it’s a crime that he hasn’t gotten a league MVP vote as of yet in his career. At worst, Wilson is still a top-10 talent and we wouldn’t be surprised if he finally gets some MVP votes his first year in Denver.
In the absence of Mr. Dangeruss, Seattle is holding its first legitimate quarterback competition since Wilson beat out Matt Flynn back in 2012. Drew Lock came over from the Broncos as part of the Wilson trade and he’ll be battling long-time backup Geno Smith for the right to replace No. 3 as the Seahawks’ new QB1.
Throughout this offseason we’ve expected Smith to win that competition. Coach Carroll says he’s still in the lead, so for now we’re still projecting he will start Week 1 against Wilson’s new team.
Defensive philosophy, leadership changes
Sean Desai was the major pickup on defense this year, but the team also made other big changes. At the top of the list was moving on from Bobby Wagner, who was entering the last year of his contract. While it made sense from a salary cap perspective, Wagner has functioned a lot like Wilson the last several seasons: propping up an imbalanced roster through sheer individual brilliance.
With Wagner out of the picture, the Seahawks will look to a pair of young linebackers to fill the void: Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton. Brooks has replaced Wagner as the team’s defensive playcaller, which means he probably has a good chance to also become the new defensive captain. Meanwhile, Barton is taking Wagner’s former position. He performed well in the final two games of 2021 but it was a very small sample size.
Seattle also made a huge move at the top by firing former defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and promoting popular defensive line coach Clint Hurtt to take his place. Like Desai, Hurtt comes from the Vic Fangio coaching tree and will be implementing some serious philosophical changes. We’ll have to wait until September to see the details in action, but as far as broad strokes go fans should expect more two-high safety sets, more man coverage and more blitzing – in general a more aggressive mindset on this side of the ball.
The run will still be established
While the philosophy on defense may have changed dramatically, on offense head coach Pete Carroll appears to be doubling down on his run-first and run-second instincts.
By taking Michigan State stud Ken Walker in the second round of the draft we learned two things. For one, it’s unlikely that former starter Chris Carson will play another snap due to his neck injury. Also, this team is going to continue with a heavy running attack on offense regardless of who starts at quarterback.
For now, Rashaad Penny is the projected starter at this position and his blazing finish to the 2021 season should mean good things for the running game. If he picks up where he left off, Seattle could have the most potent rushing attack in the league outside of Baltimore.
If Penny gets injured again or regresses to his 2018-2020 level of play, then Walker is waiting in the wings to take over. It’s hard to project how any rookie will perform when it first enters the league. However, we expect him to be an awesome three-down running back once he gets up to speed.
The offensive line will be (really) bad
Running backs can only do so much, though. That’s why smarter teams than this one tends to invest in their offensive line first when they’re looking to establish a strong run game. For most of Carroll’s tenure this team has had the same dynamic going on no matter who the offensive line coach is: they tend to excel at run blocking while struggling in pass rotection.
Looking ahead of the 2022 season, it’s tough to say if that theme will continue. However, it is clear what was already one of the weakest units on the team got even more thin this offseason. The loss of left tackle Duane Brown could be a serious blow for an offensive line that can ill afford to lose consistency and veteran leadership.
A great deal will depend on just how fast Charles Cross and Abe Lucas adjust to the speed and the physicality of pro pass rushers. If they hit the ground running it will make a huge difference. That said, for now fans should expect poor offensive line play. In fact Pro Football Focus has them ranked as the worst unit in the NFL.
Pass rush improvement may be the x-factor
The changes the team has made (outside of losing Wagner) have been mostly positive this offseason. What may ultimately decidce just how good this defense is though will be the performance of their pass rush.
Last season, this was easily the team’s greatest weakness on this side of the ball. As a group, the Seahawks were awful in traditional stats like sacks and quarterback hits as well as advanced stats like pass rush win rate and pressure percentage, with most of their team-wide numbers falling somewhere between mediocre and terrible.
Seattle made major changes here, as well. It’s debatable whether they’ll add up to an improvement or not, though. The most-expensive free agent signing the team made in March was adding Uchenna Nwosu, who’s a tremndous all around defender but not really a monster pass rush threat. The Seahawks also drafted two young edge defenders in Boye Mafe and Tyreke Smith. If those two come out swinging the sky is the limit for this group.
However, the real key to growth will be how much third-year edge rushers Darrell Taylor and Alton Robinson can improve. Both have shown flashes of potential greatness but the Seahawks need them to become legitimate double-digit sack threats if this defense is going to be dominant in 2022. Either way, it would probably be wise to bring back Carlos Dunlap (ex-factor), who was the team’s best pass rusher the last season and a half. He was officially released on June 1 and recently visited the Panthers.
Legion of Boom: The sequel?
It’s been almost five years since the original Legion of Boom imploded thanks to Kam Chancellor’s career-ending neck injury and Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman both falling out with the front office. Since then the Seahawks have had a difficult time putting together a quality secondary and they’ve fielded some truly terrible back ends the last few years.
However, there appears to be a new and strong foundation in place for this critical unit. Starting safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams are the stars of this defense now. Both are under contract for at least the next three years and going nowhere. Behind them, Marquise Blair and RYan Neal offer quality depth, making this one of the league’s best safety rooms.
The real missing piece of the puzzle has been how to replace Richard Sherman, who was a one in a million talent at his position. It seems the Seahawks may have at least found someone who can match his rare physical gifts. Fifth-round pick Tariq Woolen has all of Sherman’s height, length and power to go with vastly superior speed and explosiveness. Woolen impressed observers throughout the offseason and appears on track for some real playing time.
Woolen may not even be the best cornerback the team picked up this offeason, though. Fourth-round pick Coby Bryant has more than just a competitive name. Bryant played opposite Ahmad Gardner in college and drew a ton of attention from opposite quarterbacks. He rose to the challenge and eventually won the Jim Thorpe award last season. Together, these two give the Seattle a stronger core at cornerback than they’ve had since Sherman’s prime when it almost didn’t matter who played the other side.
Add it all up and this may now be one of the most talented secondaries in the NFL. With some help up front this defense could be heading back towards elite territory sooner rather than later.
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