Seahawks will be better with L.J. Collier (and others) than with Frank Clark
Seahawks can win more with Collier, Ansah and Woods
I’m not saying last year would have played out any differently, but it’s foolish to say holding the running game in check doesn’t matter. It clearly matters to Seattle. If you were wondering, the Seahawks were 3-4 in 2017 when they allowed over 100 yards rushing, 6-3 when keeping the opponents in check. That’s right, that was the playoffs right there. Stopping the run may not matter in the rest of the NFL, but it clearly does in Seattle.
And this is when we come back to Al Woods, Ziggy Ansah, and L.J. Collier. As I said earlier, Woods is no sack artist. What he is, is a run-stuffer. He’s basically the flip side of D. J. Fluker; Woods is the 330-pound boulder that the 340-pound road grader will struggle to move. Ansah has been a pretty good run defender in the past, somewhat better than Clark, at least. And Collier has been compared to Michael Bennett so much, I halfway expect him to jump offsides about ten times this year, just for the heck of it. Collier did play quite well against the run in college and is expected to do the same in the NFL.
Next. Shaq Griffin needs a new direction. dark
Again, I’m not knocking Frank Clark. I look forward to him destroying opposing offensive lines in the AFC for several years. But from here it looks like the Seahawks added more heat to their pass rush and to their run stopping power too. It hurts to lose Clark, but the Hawks will actually improve by bringing in a lot of upgrades overall.