Seahawks defense will be special, trust me

The Seahawks defense is built on the back of established veterans but the untapped potential of their young starters will make all the difference.

At first glance, this Seahawks defense seems painfully pedestrian. 19th in defensive points-per-game, 15th in yards per game, tied for 3rd in penalties, and 15th in sacks. On a more encouraging note, they are tied for 8th in forced turnovers and 8th in 3rd down percentage, showing that they know when to rise to the occasion.

When the average fan thinks of this year’s iteration of Seattle defense the first thing that comes to mind might be their top tier trio of linebackers (Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Mychal Kendricks), or their newly acquired former Pro Bowl defensive ends (Jadeveon Clowney and Ziggy Ansah). While all those players mentioned are instrumental to the Seattle’s success there are three emerging stars that will be able to vault the defense into a top 10 unit by the end of the year and help jump-start this year’s Super Bowl run.

Rasheem Green

With the defense, it all starts up front. For Green, he began his career with the Seahawks with a promising preseason where he showed flashes of the then recently departed Michael Bennett in his game. Unfortunately, a rookie season where he was hampered by injuries and limited snap counts, tempered expectations for many fans.

Green seemed to get lost in the shuffle this offseason when the team made acquisitions for both Ansah and Clowney, but he has loudly reemerged early in this season. Green so far has as many sacks as Ansah and Clowney have combined. He also has the second-most sacks out of all 2nd-year players.

Increased film study along with a refined technique has him on the field more than ever logging 69% of the team’s defensive snaps in Seattle’s 30-29 week 5 win which included some big quarterback hurries on crucial 3rd downs, as well as a batted ball at the end of the first half.
The most impressive play so far this season for Green was this sack 1 on 1 in the open field against the far more agile Kyler Murray.

Green’s hot start has been tipping the scales of this defense in the right direction so far this season and with continued improvement, he will become an invaluable asset if this team trajectory continues to point towards a deep postseason run.

Tedric Thompson

The third-year safety has played sparely early in his career as he was rightfully slated behind the legendary tandem of Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor on the depth chart. Now in the first full season without either on the roster Thompson has been forced to step into a full-time starting role at the free safety spot.

In the playing time that he has gotten up to this point, he has been fairly maligned for missed tackles and a lack of awareness in coverage. Certain individual plays have been so head-scratching that some wondered if he should even still be on the 53-man roster much less starting.

It’s important to remember that he has only 13 games starting under his belt. Even Earl Thomas was not perfect in his first 16 starts. Thompson is very quick and has shown on numerous occasions now that he too knows how to bring the boom. He needs to slow himself down in the open field and focus on the fundamentals. In coverage, he needs to continue studying film and trust his coaches. If his ball skills were ever in question I think they were answered this week against the Rams.

Thompson has the tools to be a very good player. He needs encouragement from those around him and he needs to believe in himself. With those two things, he can be a special player and just who the Seahawks’ need at the top of their defense in January.

Shaquill Griffin

Before the season many wondered if Griffin would ever take the next step towards becoming the number one corner he was drafted to be. So far he has made a statement that he not only is number one corner material but that he is darn close to putting himself into the conversation of the most elite corners in the game.

In the offseason, Griffin promised that this season would not be a repeat of the disappointing season that preceded him. He has more than delivered. He is using all the measurables and skills that scouts saw in him as well as using his brain. Learning how to sit on top of routes has been one of the huge differences in this year to last. In fact, he has gotten so good in coverage that some have noticed that quarterbacks are rarely even attempting to throw to his side.

He has been so good that he has graded as an elite corner by Pro Football Focus as of the quarter mark of the season.

With a renewed swagger in his game, Griffin looks to definitively be the top corner that he was drafted to be. The sky is the limit for this young stud and the same goes for the Seahawks if they continue to have one side of the field on lockdown.