It is time for Seahawks to shift to plan B for solving the pass rush
By Geoff Shull
A few notes about the players I have to believe Seahawks should target, and the defensive end draft
Many of you will say this lacks any sort of sexiness, and you are right. This is especially true with the media hyping up the possibility of Seattle being a big spender this free agency and the chance of trading for Yannick Ngakoue. The key thing with Ngakoue, he is looking for (and will likely get) $21-22 million per year. If Seattle refused to Pay Frank Clark and Jadeveon Clowney $20 million a year, why would they pay Ngakoue, an unknown entity, an even larger sum?
The other half of you will say, why don’t we just focus instead on drafting defensive lineman. This is a good idea, there are a couple issued though. First, this draft lacks many players who I feel will be able to contribute in year 1. Second, the draft is more heavily geared toward 3-4 OLB than 4-3 DE.
Think about Joshua Uche, K’Lavon Chaisson, and Zack Baun, they are all better fits as an OLB than a DE due to their size and skillsets. Many of the pressures they accumulated came from LB blitz as opposed to a standard rush that Seattle deploys.
Many media outlets mock Yetur Gross-Matos to Seattle, however, I’m not a fan of this at all. He lacks the key ingredient that makes a DE great, a strong motor. When watching film, he gives up too easily, if his initial attack is beaten, the play is over for him. What makes it worse, he is very raw in his pass-rushing skills. So, his initial attack is beaten quite regularly.