We’re halfway into the 2019 season. Let’s see how the Seahawks defense has played compared to both last year and the league overall.
The Seahawks defense hasn’t kept pace with the offense in 2019. At the halfway point, the Hawks are ranked 20th in the league in points allowed and 23rd in yardage surrendered. I’m sure all 12s know this intuitively, but to clarify, that’s the worst ranking for Seattle since Pete Carroll first took the helm in 2010. In his second year, Carroll brought the Hawks all the way to seventh and ninth in points and yards allowed. So what exactly is going on?
Even last season, Seattle ranked 11th in points allowed. They were in the middle of the pack in yardage, at 16th, but I’m okay with that. In the final analysis, the scoreboard shows points and nothing else. But 20th in points allowed? This is a far cry from glory days of the Legion of Boom. The Seahawks led the league in defense – that is, least points allowed – for four consecutive years. Again, what happened?
One key difference between the Hawks of that era and the current team is the coaching staff. Current Falcons head coach Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator for two of those seasons. I think site expert Lee Vowell is on the right track with his call for a return of Quinn. But we’ll get to coaching when we wrap everything up. But now it’s time to talk about the players.
Seahawks D-line has been a huge disappointment
That may be a bit harsh, but let’s face it: 13 sacks in eight games is terrible. The Seahawks rank 27th in the NFL in sacks. They rank 26th in total pressures. We had high hopes when the Hawks signed Ezekiel Ansah and Jadeveon Clowney, but we’ve gotten little return from one of those deals. Spoiler alert: Clowney has been pretty good. He may not have the best stats of his career, but he’s been very, very good for Seattle. I can’t say the same for Ansah.
We all knew Ziggy Ansah would be an ongoing injury risk when Seattle brought him in. He’s missed three games so far and only started in one. At the halfway point of the season, Ansah has nine combined tackles with one of those for a loss. He’s added one sack and three quarterback hits. On the plus side, he has forced a fumble and recovered two. I liked the signing at the time, but Ansah hasn’t come within a light-year of replacing Frank Clark. The Hawks first-round pick, defensive end L.J. Collier, barely rates an afterthought. Yes, he had a late start with injuries, but we’re eight games into the season, and he’s done almost nothing.
On to the prodigal son, Jarran Reed. Yes, he’s only been back for two games. I don’t care. So far, he has three assists and one quarterback hit. Bryan Mone had three assists, and he’s on the practice squad now. Not that I always agree with Pro Football Focus, but they rate Reed the fourth-best tackle in Seattle, and it isn’t close. If Reed is even considering holding out, I hope it’s for a couple of hot dogs.
Now that I have that out of my system, Quinton Jefferson, Poona Ford, and Al Woods have all played pretty well. Jefferson got off to a great start. While he hasn’t had a sack since the first game, he’s tied with Clowney for the team lead in quarterback hits with seven. All three are solid against the run. There are issues with the run defense, but we’ll get to that next. Clowney gets an A- and the three tackles above get a B. The rest of the line…. Overall, I give the defensive line a C.
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-.
Seahawks secondary has struggled, but things are looking up
The Seahawks secondary has probably gotten more criticism than any other defensive unit. Seattle’s total of seven interceptions isn’t even half of the league-leading Patriots total. Even worse, the secondary is only responsible for four of those picks. Happily, this is one case where the advanced stats paint a better picture of the players’ actual performance than what we see on the surface.
Let’s start with Tedric Thompson. Despite his two interceptions, he’s clearly been the weak link in the defensive backfield. That’s no longer an issue, as the Hawks just put him on injured reserve. His two picks didn’t even balance his spectacular blown plays. His passer rating allowed, 86.8, was the worst of any defensive back targeted at least 10 times, and it wasn’t even close.
Here’s the good news. All the other key players have been much better. Let’s start with the starting cornerbacks Tre Flowers and Shaquill Griffin. While Flowers has just one interception and Griffin none, they’ve both been effective defenders. Flowers has allowed a passer rating of 77.7, while Griffin’s rate is 77.1. Both could improve their tackling, as they’ve both missed on about 14 percent of their attempts. Add in nickel corner Jamar Taylor, who hasn’t missed a single tackle and allowed a passer rating of 76.9, and the Seahawks corners are solid across the board.
At safety, the picture is even better. Marquise Blair has taken over Thompson’s role and has been a major upgrade. His passer rating allowed is 79.4, and his 18 tackles are just one less than Thompson racked up in three times as many starts. The future is bright with Blair. The Seahawks new addition, Quandre Diggs, will be able to step into either safety role or play slot corner. He’ll just be subbing at safety, as long as the Hawks strong safety stays healthy.
That gentleman would be Bradley McDougald. He only has 25 tackles, one interception, and two pass defenses. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Part of that low count is due to the fact he’s only been targeted 19 times. What’s phenomenal about McDougald is that he’s only allowed seven completions. His passer rating allowed is a ridiculously low 26.6. Remember, the average passer rating in the NFL last year was 92.0. McDougald is a stealth monster. His rating is a point better than Earl Thomas’s 27.7 – and yes, it sure would have been nice if the Hawks had kept him. Overall, the secondary could force more turnovers, but they’re not the problem. The DBs get a B.
And now we come back to coaching. Ken Norton Jr.’s insistence on playing so much base defense is bleeding the Hawks defenders dry. Week after week, opposing coordinators are exploiting bad matchups against Seattle linebackers. That’s what happens when your primary nickel corner sees about a fourth as many snaps as your starting corners. I’ll get into this at greater depth in another piece. For now, I’ll just say I see the strategy as deeply flawed. The defensive coaching, a C-.