Seahawks news: Predicting Seattle’s linebacker room in 2020

The Seahawks may have the best group of linebackers in the NFC West in 2020. But which linebackers will make the week one roster and which ones will be cut?

The Seahawks week one roster in 2019 featured six linebackers. Seattle knew then, and 12s would soon find out, that one reason Seattle was keeping so many linebackers was that they would play a lot of 4-3 base last year.

Whether that strategy worked out or not is debatable as Seattle’s defense overall wasn’t very good. But the linebackers did a decent job. Bobby Wagner was the 11th highest-graded linebacker, according to Pro Football Focus, and Mychal Kendricks was 36th.

Still, Seattle will almost definitely not return free agent Kendricks and clearly the Seahawks thought they needed more speed in the group. This is one reason the Seahawks chose Jordyn Brooks out of Texas Tech in the first round of the 2020 draft.

Seattle currently has nine linebackers on their 90 man roster. That number will have to be cut to 53 overall players by week one of the 2020 season. And the linebacker group will probably be cut to six.

So here is my guess at which Seahawks linebackers make the team this coming season and which don’t. This is important as the linebackers are now the most important unit on Seattle’s defense.

Starters

Bobby Wagner

K.J. Wright

I am really hoping that the Seahawks nip that one year experiment of having three linebackers on the field a lot of the time. The strategy just didn’t work overall as it caused Seattle’s defensive ends to play more technique and not try to get up the field to hit the opposing quarterback.

Wagner might be diminishing a bit but he is still one of the best linebackers in the NFL. Wright had a tremendous season in 2019 after coming back from injury in 2018. But he could still be a trade piece before the 2020 season begins.

Backups

Cody Barton

Jordyn Brooks

Shaquem Griffin

Ben Burr-Kirven

In three years Seattle’s starting linebackers might no longer be Wagner and Wright but Barton and Brooks. Brooks has yet to prove he can do anything in the league, of course, as he is a rookie. But he has tremendous speed and likes to attack (sounds like Wagner, right?).

Barton is more like Wright in that Barton can cover pretty well. He showed enough in 2019 in limited snaps to prove he deserves a chance at starting one day.

Griffin, I hope, will be used a lot more in pass rush situations this season. With a more creative defensive coach than Ken Norton, Jr., Griffin would already be at a level where 5 sacks a season is not out of the question.

Burr-Kirven makes the roster because Seattle likes to use their linebackers on special teams and he is a great fit there.

Cut

Emmanuel Ellerbee

Sutton Smith

So wait, that’s only eight players and I said there were nine linebackers on the current roster. Where is number nine? Free agent signee Bruce Irvin is still listed “officially” as a linebacker but he isn’t anymore. Irvin will be an edge rusher in 2020 almost solely. This makes him more of a defensive end than a linebacker.