We’re still waiting for the Seahawks pass rush to show up this season. With Quinton Jefferson out, it’s time for L.J. Collier to shine this Sunday.
On the face of it, how weird does that statement sound? The Seahawks brought in two big names in the offseason to bolster their pass rush. Between them, Ziggy Ansah and Jadeveon Clowney have 79 sacks and 182 quarterback hits in their careers. Somehow the expectations haven’t panned this season. So far, the acclaimed duo has accounted for just two sacks and five hits on the quarterback in 2019. Quinton Jefferson has more than matched their stats with two sacks and seven quarterback hits of his own. He’s out this Sunday. That isn’t great news for the Hawks, but it could be very good news for rookie defensive end L.J. Collier. He’ll get his chance to shine.
When the Seahawks drafted L.J. Collier, he wasn’t expected to be a sack machine. As Lee Vowell wrote in that pre-draft analysis, Collier projected to be much more in the Michael Bennett mold than the Frank Clark type. In other words, he’d likely get his share of sacks but play solid run defense as well. Coming into 2019, that seemed to be exactly what the Hawks needed.
As we now know, 2019 hasn’t played out the way we expected. There’s nothing wrong with being 5-2 going into the midpoint of the season. But 11 sacks is far from what the Seahawks thought they’d get from their defensive line by this point. 25 teams have recorded more sacks than the Hawks. In fact, Shaquil Barrett and Myles Garrett each have nine sacks of their own. Seattle can certainly use Collier’s aid.
We may not have expected a pass rush specialist, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t expect a lot out of the TCU product. There was good reason to project L.J. Collier as a future star and long-term fixture on the Hawks defensive line. No one saw him as a player that would ever get twenty sacks a season. But with his prowess against the run, I believed the Seahawks defense would be even better this season with Collier in the lineup.
So far, I was about as wrong as wrong could be. Mainly because the Hawks first-round pick hasn’t been in the lineup much. Collier fell far behind as he fought a high ankle injury for much of the preseason. He’s only played in four games so far and was a healthy scratch twice. Seattle had a logjam on the defensive line, but 51 snaps and one solo tackle is not the stat line anyone envisioned for him. With Jefferson ruled out, Collier is getting his chance at last. I believe he’s up to the task.