Seahawks 2016: On The Edge Of… Something

The 2016 Seattle Seahawks felt like they were close to turning the corner and becoming a great team again. It also felt like they were close to a complete collapse.

In retrospect the 2016 season doesn’t look like one to focus on, it looks transitional, a sign of things to come. Over the season the Seahawks were on the edge of something else, but I’m not sure what.

On the edge of greatness?

• Paul Richardson really came through after the injury to Tyler Lockett, showing why the team has had so much faith in him for so long. All successful NFL teams need strength in depth due to the nature of the game, and the depth the Seahawks have at WR and TE continues to impress.
• The Seahawks became the only NFC team to make it to the divisional round for the fifth year straight, and during the regular season the Seahawks beat both the teams that will take part in the SuperBowl. Both of those wins were impressive showings of the team’s resilience under pressure, particularly on defense. The Seahawks are still one of the best teams in the NFL.
• That Defense is still a force to be reckoned with, the third best team in the league by opponents’ points scored. While it’s common for this squad to be compared unfavourably to the 2013 team, I think that says more about the 2013 Seahawks than the 2016 Seahawks.
• The team appears to have lost the weakness that dogged them over 2015, namely being able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Most notably against the Bengals and then the Panthers.

On the edge of disaster?

• The injury to Earl Thomas exposed that the defensive scheme is based around a premier Free Safety always being available. The injury to Thomas exposed that Steven Terrell was not up to this role – but is this a problem with Terrell, or implementing a defensive scheme that unnecessarily relies on the presence of a single player in what is an injury strewn sport?
• The Offensive Line is a serious weakpoint, and appears to be a wobbly foundation that Darrell Bevell is unwilling or unable to scheme around, and the team isn’t planning to fix any time soon.
• The running game couldn’t be relied on at all, and the long snapping unnecessarily exciting; both those aspects of the game that need to be dependable for other parts of the gameplan to be effective.
• The team has lost its “always close enough to win in the fourth quarter” record that spanned five years. Does this illuminate a change in the team’s ability and strengths?
• A strength of the Seahawks has been their cohesiveness as a single-minded and stoic unit, whereas this season saw arguments between Bennett and everyone, Reed and Rubin, and Sherman and teammates, and Sherman and coaches, and Sherman and reporters.
• Looking ahead, while the team did win its division, the NFC West was statistically the weakest division in the NFL. With Kyle Shanahan all but confirmed as the new head coach of the 49ers, and the Cardinals undoubtedly resurgent, the Seahawks can expect stiffer opposition next year.

Next: Potential trades for a veteran OT

2016 didn’t feel like a year where the Seahawks would make it to the SuperBowl, or when the team would collapse, Cardinals style, to a losing season; it felt like a season between more significant seasons. While looking backward we can only look forward, and see what this season indicates for the future.