The Seahawks took a big hit when they traded Frank Clark and used a first-round pick to replace him with L.J. Collier. The conventional wisdom is wrong.
When the Seahawks traded away their top sack machine, Frank Clark, it certainly seemed like the defense took a major hit. We’ve written a lot about how Seattle had to improve their pass rush, as has virtually everyone interested in the Hawks. Clark had 30 percent of the team’s total sacks. While losing Clark won’t help their pass rush, it won’t hurt it as much as we worried. Shipping Clark out gave Seattle an extra first-round pick that kicked off John Schneider’s master class in drafting. And it brought L.J. Collier to the team, who can eventually help the team overall more than Clark.
Heresy, I know. I am in no way knocking Black Elvis. He was a solid player in his second and third seasons and should have started in the Pro Bowl last year. He was a good teammate by all accounts, and a good person, too. Clark was simply fun to watch. After all, the NFL is entertainment, right? So no, this is in no way a knock on Clark. More of a silver lining commentary.
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The silver lining in losing Clark for the Seahawks was this: they suddenly had $17 million more than they anticipated. That allowed Seattle to not only sign Collier at just under $2 million this year, but Ezekiel Ansah for $7.9 million, Cassius Marsh at $1.8 million, and Al Woods at $2.2 million. Combined those players’ cap space for 2019 is $13.9 million. That still leaves over $4 million, which the Seahawks could certainly use toward extending the contracts of Bobby Wagner and Jarran Reed.
Seahawks need more than sacks to win
Collier and Ansah are obvious mentions, as the Seahawks expected starters at defensive end. I added Marsh as he’s counted on to bolster the pass rush this year. His 5.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits in 2018 would have been the third and fourth highest totals in Seattle. The inclusion of Woods isn’t so obvious. In nine seasons he has amassed a grand total of 4.5 sacks. That’s could be a good two weeks for Clark. So why mention Woods at all?
Here’s the thing: football games aren’t won only by sacking the quarterback. Yes, it’s a passing league, blah blah blah. If sacks are so important, explain why only four of the top ten teams in sacks even made the playoffs? Why did the two teams that met in the title game rank 15th and 30th in sacks? Yeah, I know the Rams shouldn’t have been there, but they were. Sacks are great, but they aren’t everything.
Just as important to the Seahawks is stopping the run. Now, the smart folks reading this already know, or perused those links thoroughly and are about to scream at me. Two of the three worst teams in the league at stopping the run happened to be the Rams and Patriots. The Chiefs were sandwiched between them. Clearly, stopping the run has no importance in today’s game.
Seahawks win when they stop the run
Except it does, especially for the Seahawks. The Rams and Chiefs average yardage is inflated as their defenses were worried far more about the pass in most games. You roll up over 500 points on offense, you’re going to see a lot of passes coming your way. You’re not too worried about a running back ripping off six yards a pop when the opponent needs three scores. When it comes to the Hawks, those opposing rushing yards are critical.
In their 16 games last year, Seattle gave up over 100 yards seven times. In those seven games, their record was 3-4. nine contests they held the opposition under 100 yards, the Seahawks were 7-2. The first of those losses was the awful game against the Bears when they forgot they had a guy named Chris Carson on the team. The second was the even more egregious overtime loss to the 49ers. That’s it. Eliminate dementia in play-calling and holding blocks without getting called for holding, and Seattle would have been 9-0 in those games.
As it is, it doesn’t take calculus to figure out that 7-2 is good, while 3-4 is bad. If Seattle had won the same percentage of games when allowing over 100 yards, they’d have gone 5-3. That’s a two-game improvement, at least. You probably remember the Rams rolled for 155 and 149 yards versus the Hawks, right? Shut them down once and make a loss a win. That new 12-4 record gets you a lot better start in the playoffs.
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.
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.