Seahawks position preview: Safeties might bring the LOB back

While the Seattle Seahawks safeties are mostly unproven, they have the potential to bring the boom back to the Legion of Boom.

The Seahawks secondary was lacking intimidation last year. With no more Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor, and mostly without Earl Thomas, Seattle’s Legion of Boom simply had no boom. And the Legion has all disappeared. What Seattle currently has at safety is a good Bradley McDougald and a lot of unknown after that.

But wait, 12s. There is hope. General manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll understand that while getting safeties who can cover is great what really separated the Seahawks is the fear they would put in opposing receivers with the LOB’s physicality. Thomas could hit hard and Chancellor could hit even harder and there were no Seattle safeties in 2018 who could do the same.

McDougald is very good in coverage and he is a solid tackler. But he doesn’t punish people the way Chancellor did. McDougald this offseason said he prefers to play Chancellor’s old position of strong safety as opposed to free safety. The two are different players, though. McDougald is more finesse and Chancellor almost complete power.

In April’s draft Seattle took Marquise Blair out of Utah. Blair is a free safety. If he develops into a starter, McDougald will stick at strong safety. Seattle took Blair not only for his range but he likes to hit people. While Blair lacks Thomas’s speed he is even more of a physical intimidator. So with McDougald and Blair playing together, they would be a bit closer to Chancellor and Thomas as far as disrupting passing routes out of fear.

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But Blair is raw and not likely to be very good for a year or so. He might become the starter midway through the season as neither Tedric Thompson or Lane Hill appear to be long-term starters at safety. Thompson played decently in 2018 but it is difficult to see how much upside he has. It is probably much less than Blair’s.

Seattle also took Ugo Amadi in this year’s draft. But the fourth round pick is more of a slot corner than a safety. Amadi will be a great guy in the locker room and help on special teams. If he plays many snaps on defense it will be as the slot corner.

The Seahawks definitely need better safety play in 2019 from everyone other than McDougald. Thompson will probably start the season and Hill will get a lot of reps. But by the end of the year Seattle will get a bit more boom back because the safety tandem of McDougald and Blair will be starting games and intimidating receivers.