12th Man Rising
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Seahawks defensive grades for their mid-term report card

By Todd Vandenberg

CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 13: Shaquill Griffin #26 and Bobby Wagner #54 of the Seattle Seahawks force Jarvis Landry #80 of the Cleveland Browns to fumble the ball on the goal line after a fourth quarter catch at FirstEnergy Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. Seattle defeated Cleveland 32-28. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 13: Shaquill Griffin #26 and Bobby Wagner #54 of the Seattle Seahawks force Jarvis Landry #80 of the Cleveland Browns to fumble the ball on the goal line after a fourth quarter catch at FirstEnergy Stadium on October 13, 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio. Seattle defeated Cleveland 32-28. (Photo by Kirk Irwin/Getty Images) /
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Mychal Kendricks of the Seahawks
CARSON, CA – AUGUST 24: Tyrod Taylor #5 of the Los Angeles Chargers runs out of the pocket to get away from Mychal Kendricks #56 of the Seattle Seahawks in the first quarter during a pre-season NFL football game at Dignity Health Sports Park on August 24, 2019 in Carson, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /

Seahawks linebackers aren’t the unit we expected

Believe me, it was truly painful to write that heading. I’m familiar with Mark Twain’s quote regarding statistics. If you’re unfamiliar with it, the line is, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Twain himself didn’t claim to be the originator, but if you want to find the true author, have fun in the rabbit hole of the interwebs. The point is that while statistics can be twisted, there are far too many that show the Hawks linebacking unit isn’t the best in the league anymore.

Let start with Mychal Kendricks. I was pretty excited when we found out that he’d likely be available for the entire season. Now, I wish the Hawks had gone in another direction. On the surface, his stats look pretty good. He’s got 41 tackles, five of those for a loss, two sacks and three quarterback hits. Toss in a pick and three pass defenses, and it’s a solid performance.

Except it isn’t at all. Check the advanced stats from pro-football-reference.com. When Kendricks is targeted in pass defense, opposing quarterbacks have a passer rating of 99.3. Bear in mind that he’s often kept on the field in lieu of a nickel corner. Jamar Taylor, the Hawks primary nickel, has a passer rating against of just 76.9. We’ll dive into that a bit more soon enough. Kendricks’ biggest flaw is his abysmal tackling. Alvin Kamara wasn’t the only player to make him look silly, as Kendricks has missed a whopping 26.8 percent of his attempts. Oof.

Fear not, things get better with K.J. Wright. He has 68 tackles, two for a loss, picked off a pass and broken up five others. Wright is faring too well as a pass defender overall, as he’s allowing a passer rating of 98.8. The good news – make that great news – is he’s only missed two tackles. That’s just 2.9 percent of his attempts, a phenomenal number.

And that brings us to Bobby Wagner, the acknowledged king of tackling. Last season, Wagner missed one tackle. That’s one, as in half of two, as in a ridiculously low number. That was out of 139 attempts, which means he missed .7 percent of his tackles. His passer rating allowed in 2018 was just 80.3, All in all, it was an amazing year.

2019 has been amazing for Wagner as well, but not in a good way. He’s already missed five tackles. For most players, that’s pretty good, but for Bobby Wagner to miss over 6 percent of his tackles is unheard of. His passer rating allowed this season is 116.3. That means the average quarterback targeting Wagner performs like Russell Wilson. Wright is playing well, Wagner is okay, and Kendricks… well, I want to see more nickel defense. The linebackers get a very generous B-.

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