The Seahawks are this close to being in the Super Bowl and this close to not making the playoffs. The difference could be these three players.
The Seahawks went 11-5 in 2019 and won 85 games by one score. That last sentence is not exactly true (11 of their 12 wins, including the playoffs, were by 8 points or less). Just three of Seattle’s six losses were by 6 points or less, though. This means Seattle was barely winning or losing by not-close margins half the time in their losses.
2020 will not be much easier. The NFC West is improving. All of the teams in the division are capable of beating the other. This isn’t the NFC East where two teams are bad and the other two are underwhelming, at least they were this past year. But what this really means is that Seattle has a small margin for error to make the playoffs yet again in 2020.
With such a small margin of error, the Seahawks need their starts, like Russell Wilson, Tyler Lockett and Bobby Wagner, to stay healthy and productive. But even if that happens, other players need to continue to be even better, like D.K. Metcalf. And then beyond that, players who haven’t truly made an impact for the Seahawks need to do so.
Who are these players that need to take the next step in their careers and become important players for Seattle and help the team to the postseason and possibly even the Super Bowl? Maybe these three that are about to follow.
L.J. Collier
Why don’t I have a better photo of L.J. Collier in action above? Well, as far as the Seahawks are concerned, there isn’t anything to choose from. Seattle is cursed when it comes to their first picks in drafts since 2015. Maybe Germain Ifedi (2016) played a bunch of games, but he wasn’t really good. Malik McDowell (2017) never played in the NFL. Rashaad Penny (2018) has been hurt a bunch, though he has shown promise when not.
The scary thing is that L.J. Collier could be worse in production than Penny or Ifedi. Missing on a first-round pick hurts a team long-term. A bad pick hurts a team’s cap space and affects the team’s depth. A defensive lineman, a good one at least, should be able to enter his rookie season and make some kind of impact. There isn’t a huge learning curve for linemen, they just need their physical ability to be decent.
Collier was so bad in 2019 that he was a healthy scratch in both playoff games meaning that he did not even grow enough during the season to warrant playing. This is a very bad sign. In 11 games, Collier had just three tackles. That’s atrocious. Yet worse, there wasn’t anything Collier did that might incline one to think he will be better in 2020.
Seattle has, of course, a huge need with the pass rush. Collier was drafted to help with that and be a bit like Michael Bennett in his versatility. Even if he can be a lot more next year like what Seattle thought he would be when they drafted him in 2019, great. If not, Seattle is going to be hurting for several seasons.
John Ursua
The Seahawks have two good receivers at the top of their rotation with Lockett and Metcalf. But they need a good third option and not someone who is a one-year rental. Possibly Josh Gordon could return from suspension, be re-signed and be the answer. But Gordon gets suspended a lot so that is unlikely. On the current roster, no other Seahawk appears close to the ilk of Lockett and Metcalf.
John Ursua, though, could potentially fill that need. I don’t really blame him for his lack of production in his rookie season of 2019. He was a healthy scratch most games. He had just one catch for 11 yards and that came in week 16. But the way he caught the ball was promising. He was confident and looked like he had caught an NFL pass a thousand times.
Last preseason, Ursua looked like he could be the slot receiver to replace Doug Baldwin. This is what Seattle needed then and what they still need going into 2020: Someone who can catch passes consistently out of the slot.
I am not sure what the Seattle coaches are seeing when Ursua is practicing and they know much better than I do, of course, but from I have seen from Ursua, he can catch, has some quickness and some ability to elude. He deserves a better chance to play in 2020 than he got in 2019.
Ugo Amadi
The Seahawks secondary was a weird thing last year. First, they got no help from any pass rush as Seattle finished with 28 sacks, tied for next to worst in the NFL. Cornerback Tre Flowers seemed to get worse as the season went on and picked up several bad pass interference calls the last third of the year. Yet, Seattle still found a way to finish ninth in quarterback-rating-allowed this past season at 85.6.
The Seahawks used a base of 4-3-4 a bunch, though. This means three linebackers on the field with just four defensive backs. This needs to change in 2020 as in today’s NFL a team needs to play nickel on a majority of snaps due to the number of receivers on the field. The Seahawks were stubborn with their base alignment last year and I blame defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. and then head coach Pete Carroll for allowing Norton, Jr. such control.
Seattle needs to go nickel a lot more in 2020 and I think Ugo Amadi fills that role. He can hit hard and has quickness. Sure, Amadi gave up 9 completions on 11 attempts against him in 2019 and gave up a bad reception in the loss to Green Bay in the playoffs. But most of this can be contributed to inaction and inexperience. Even Carroll said he wished he had used Amadi earlier in the season.
If the Seahawks defense is going to be better this coming year then it will need to use a lot more nickel. If Norton, Jr. allows this to happen hopefully he will allow Amadi to play more. If Amadi plays more, he will make plays and the Seahawks defense will improve. If the Seahawks defense is better, it may be enough to get Seattle back to the Super Bowl.