The Seahawks may not be the team they have been the last few years. Here’s why that is one reason to be thankful for the 2018 Seattle football team.
The Seahawks roster does not have the experienced talent it has had in the last half-decade. And gone are players like Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett. Heck, even Earl Thomas probably won’t be coming back either.
But all that experienced talent having left is not really such a bad thing. I will tell you why in just a minute. The point of this is, Seattle may have less proven players on the roster. And yet, this is also a roster head coach Pete Carroll might love for the next several seasons.
That is if Carroll chooses to stick around for the next several seasons. This will be another point of mine in this column. Should he be the head coach of the Seahawks? Or should he be let go in favor of a younger coach?
To be honest, there are a lot of reasons to be happy as a 12. Are the Seahawks of this season going to win a Super Bowl? Probably not. But the fact that the answer to that last question is not a definite “no” is a great thing.
2019 might be better. And 2020 even better yet. But don’t stop watching the Seahawks of 2018 just yet. And there are a lot of reasons to be thankful for this year’s edition of the Seattle team. What are they? Well, here are only five of those reasons.
Reason number 5: Michael Dickson is going to help the Seahawks win games for years!
Michael Dickson was drafted in 2018 to do one thing: Be a great defensive weapon. So far this season he has led the league in net yards-per-punt. So yeah, he is really good. And he should continue to get better.
Several times this season Dickson has flipped field position and pinned the opposing team inside its own 20-yard line. Many times the defense has allowed the other team to get out of that bind, however. But the defense is going to get better. And Dickson is going to help them be better.
Dickson will be in Seattle for at least 10 years. Seattle will win football games because of him. And he has made the 2018 team better than the team would have been with any other punter.
Reason number 4: Seattle is a more fun team to pull for than in previous years
I know that Sherman and Bennett (and Earl Thomas, for that matter) are great football players. And 12s were happy to have them on the the Seahawks as those players made Seattle a better team.
But let’s be honest, most of us were fans of theirs because they won games, not because we liked them specifically as people. I am not saying any of those players are bad people. I don’t know them and I am sure they are fine individuals.
But some of their actions made them hard to like at times. Sherman had flare ups on the sidelines and to reporters. Bennett seemed a bit whiny. And Thomas seemed a bit, well…Thomas.
How much more fun is it to have players like Chris Carson playing for the team we love? Because players like Carson and Shaquem Griffin work their butts off to be good. That’s all anyone can ask of another human. Thank goodness Carson and Griffin, to name two, play for the Seahawks.
Reason number 3: Seattle’s backfield is loaded this year and for the next few
Speaking of Carson, the Seahawks have a running back room that is nearly full of the backs that Pete Carroll likes. Not only did Seattle make an effort this offseason to get back to running the ball a lot more, they have actually done it. And been good at it.
Seattle currently leads the NFL in rushing yards per game. For a team with an extremely young defense, and one that has limitations beyond that, Seattle needed an offense that could eat clock. Seattle in 2018 does that.
And not only is Carson a very good back, he has help. First-round draft pick Rashaad Penny started off slowly, but has done well over the last two games. That includes him gaining more than 100 yards against the Rams in week 10.
Better yet, Carson and Penny are in Seattle for the next two seasons beyond this year at least. Seattle’s offense is going to be just fine.
Reason number 2: Pete Carroll is still the coach in Seattle
Pete Carroll may at times make some maddening decisions, like allowing Seattle to throw the ball from the one-yard line in the Super Bowl against the Patriots. But over the last nine years, would the Seahawks have been as successful as they have been with nearly any other football coach? No.
Carroll has gone 84-53-1 in his time in Seattle. The Seahawks won the franchise’s only Super Bowl. Seattle has missed the playoffs just twice in his nine seasons. And maybe they will this year as well, but they also may not.
And would many other coaches have the 2018 Seahawks near the playoffs 10 games into the season? Again, no.
Reason number 1: The Seahawks are exceeding expectations in 2018
Do you remember the preseason expectations of the Seattle professional football team? I seem to recall one pundit at ESPN saying the team would go 4-12. And this was when Earl Thomas was still healthy and probably going to play this year.
But think about how much this team has lost as far as talent since last year. General manager John Schneider set the expectations that the team was not rebuilding but “retooling.” What this really meant was to tell 12s to not expect the Seahawks to be as good as they have been.
And sure, the team is just 5-5. But winning five games 10 games into the season is already one game better than ESPN predicted. And Seattle could easily be two games better than 5-5.
This team is sniffing the playoffs. And win over Carolina on Sunday and this team is exploding with optimism that a playoff spot will happen. And with all the talent that is no longer in Seattle, making the playoffs would be a massive accomplishment.
Plus, this is a team that has a completely new secondary than it did three years ago and the Seahawks are the team where the Legion of Boom made them a contender each year. The secondary currently starts two guys in the second year and a rookie, plus Bradley McDougald. This LOB 2.0 is going to be good.
And the Seahawks of 2019 and 2020 are going to be even better than this year’s team. Seattle isn’t going to be simply hoping to make the playoffs in the next few seasons; They are going to be back to contending. Carroll and Schneider have retooled the right way. And that is a very good thing.