Seahawks: could Ziggy Ansah replace Frank Clark?

The Seahawks lost one of the best pass rushers in the league when they traded Frank Clark. Ezekial Ansah could still be in the mix as his replacement.

As you may have heard, the Seahawks traded away one of their top players, Frank Clark. As I wrote in an earlier piece, there were no bad guys here. Each side was simply doing their best to ensure their own best future. Clark had a very high trade value, as we saw. But his production needs to be replaced. Could Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah be the answer for Seattle?

The Seahawks have already made a couple of moves to address the loss of Clark, of course. They signed free agent edge Cassius Marsh just a few weeks ago. They then used a first-round pick on defensive end L.J. Collier. Both have promise, but neither have ever been sack machines like Clark. Collier had six sacks in his best season, while Marsh had 5.5. On the bright side, their career highs were both last year.

Regardless, the Seahawks are still on the hunt for a known pass rush artist. Former Lions defensive end Ziggy Ansah certainly fits the bill. He’s topped a dozen sacks twice and had two other seasons with at least 7.5 sacks. In the past, he has been even more of a monster than Clark. He made the Pro Bowl in 2015 on the strength of 14.5 sacks and 34 quarterback hits. That’s at his best, of course. He’s also had a couple of injury-plagued seasons. 2016 was the worst as he had just two sacks and 14 quarterback hits in 13 games. The highs are very high and the lows are very low with Ansah.

Seattle Seahawks

Would Ansah replace Clark’s production for Seahawks?

How do Ansah and Clark stack up over their careers? Time to get mathy! Ansah has 3,032 defensive snaps under his belt, an average of 37.9 snaps per game appearance. Multiply times 16, and he averaged 606 snaps per year. That’s almost exactly 5 full seasons. Ansah has averaged 9.6 sacks and 22 quarterback hits per 16 games. That’s a pretty solid average.

So how did Black Elvis fare? He has taken 2.473 snaps on defense and averaged 39.9 snaps per game appearance. More math gives you 638 snaps per year, or 3.88 full seasons. Clark averaged 9.02 sacks and 18.56 quarterback hits per 16 games. So Ansah overall has been even more productive than Clark.

Ah, but there are those injury years. Ansah had shoulder surgery after his rookie year, then played through a high ankle sprain in that benighted 2016 season. He played through a knee injury in 2017 that required postseason surgery. Last year he hurt his shoulder on opening day, missed the next six games, then was put on injured reserve after re-injuring his shoulder in his second game back. Ansah is a talent but has been anything but durable.

That’s the reason that months ago, I argued against the Seahawks adding him. For a steep discount, he’s certainly worth a look. As Lee Vowell wrote around the same time, a line with Ansah, Clark and Jarran Reed would be phenomenal. That’s assuming Ziggy would be healthy, of course. But Clark is gone now, and it would be much easier for opponents to double team Ansah, lowering his value to Seattle that much more.

The fact he’s still on the market implies that he probably would come at a steep discount. We’ve written before how important compensatory picks are to the Seahawks. The NFL set May 8th as the deadline for free-agent signings to count against the compensation formula. So Seattle could sign Ansah on May 9th, and he wouldn’t count against their comp pick for 2020. Seems weird to me, but it’s their game. So don’t expect anything to happen with Ansah until then.