The Seahawks have built their culture based on competition. This off-season Seattle brought in a lot of players to already established positions. All I can say is, let the competition begin.
The Seahawks not only encourage but require competition. They believe through competition, the true alphas shine through. If there are two things head coach Pete Carroll loves, they are a hard worker and a fierce competitor.
This year will be an interesting one in terms of positional battles. Typically the position battles are two young talents fighting their way for a starting spot. However, for Seattle, it’s more about a potential changing of the guards, potentially both literally and philosophically.
The Seahawks could see a youth movement in several areas and I will focus on two of them in what follows. Besides Carroll loves besides a fierce competitor and a hard worker, is having a lot of players like that but at a young age on his team. Carroll sometimes works best when his teams are their least experienced.
Seattle has targeted very specific types of individuals in the draft. They look for a player who has gone through extreme personal struggles off the field and made it out. They also look for a player who specific athletic qualities (varies by position) and a player who is known as an alpha.
This article goes through 3 key positional battles that will take place this off-season. One player may be forced to switch positions. Another could lose the starting spot and be up for a trade. The last will have multiple starters due to a slight scheme change.
Seahawks Position Battle #1: Strong safety
The Seahawks have 3 starting caliber safeties. They have Marquise Blair, Quandre Diggs and Bradley McDougald. Quandre Diggs is almost guaranteed a starting spot. The guy can flat out play. The remaining question lies with who will be the starting strong safety between Bradley McDougald and Marquise Blair.
Bradley McDougald
McDougald is a great complimentary piece. Standing alone (like he did last year with Tedric Thompson) he gets exposed. However, when you add in a higher caliber player next to him like Quandre Diggs, you see his game open up and he wreaks havoc. Last season McDougald allowed a passer completion percentage of just 54.4% on 57 targets and 0 touchdowns.
The biggest hindrance would be that McDougald is turning 30 this year and is on the last year of his deal. Seattle could trade/cut him and save $4.1 million of his $5.3 million cap hit. He also lacks anything in the big play department. He is more of a quietly efficient and effective player who simply does his job, and does it well.
Marquise Blair
Blair is the polar opposite of McDougald. Where McDougald is clean and smooth, Blair has rough edges and will have hiccups. However, he possesses a great amount of potential. Blair missed most of the training camp, and preseason last year with injuries. This cost him a lot of valuable time learning the system and unfortunately, it also cost him the chance to compete for the starting position right away.
When Blair did play, he was exceptional. Sure, there were some rookie mishaps. However, through his hard nose defensive style and big hit ability, he helped bring back some of the bad boy image that is so sorely missed. At least for a couple of games.
Blair did start 3 games last season due to injuries around him. He posted the second-best PFF grade (71.3) for the Seahawks secondary behind only Shaquil Griffin (77) during that spree.
The biggest worry with Blair would be that he will have to learn on the field. Meaning, there will be coverage gaps. There will be missed tackles. There will be plays that are not read correctly. This is no different than Earl Thomas in his first couple of seasons. The hope is that everything starts clicking in the way it did for Thomas.
Conclusion
Coach Carroll has a big decision ahead of him. Does he start McDougald for the final year of his deal, due to his technical soundness and simply knowing what you are getting. Or does Coach Carroll veer for a changing of the guards to an inexperienced, yet big-play machine who could be the safety of the future?
My Pick:
Starting strong safety: Marquise Blair
Cut/Trade: Bradley McDougald
Seahawks Position Battle No. 2: Linebacker
I am going to go out on a limb here, but Bobby Wagner is about as safe as they come in terms of being the starter. It is the weakside and strongside linebacker positions that are up for competition. Last season, KJ Wright manned the weakside spot, where Mychal Kendricks was the strongside linebacker.
The current linebackers (including edge players) on the roster:
- Bobby Wagner
- KJ Wright
- Bruce Irvin (edge)
- Cody Barton
- Ben Burr-Kirven
- Shaquem Griffin (edge)
- Jordyn Brooks
Seattle paid heavily to bring Bruce Irvin back into the fold. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was used almost solely as an edge (pass-rushing specialist) and therefore not a starter. Shaquem would fit into the same bill.
Pete Carroll said last year that Ben Burr-Kirven is Bobby Wagner’s backup. While things change over time, I do think this is the best spot for him now and in the future. This leaves KJ Wright, Cody Barton, and Jordyn Brooks as the main competition for the two linebacker starting spots.
KJ Wright
Wright is about as well respected on the field, as he is off. He has led the NFL multiple times in tackles and has been near-elite for years. Yet, somehow outside of the Seahawks community, not many people know who he is or what he has accomplished.
When I think of Wright, I think of an exceptional pass defender, with a sky-high football IQ. However, Wright has visibly slowed down over the past couple of seasons.
This leaves one to wonder how effective he will be going forward. Seattle has drafted what appears to be his replacements in each of the last two drafts. Could this be the year that Wright is done in Seattle? Wright is in competition for both weakside and strongside spots, per Pete Carroll.
Cody Barton
Cody Barton was the golden boy last off-season. Between the coaches, players and media, everyone raved about the guy. He appeared to be the perfect rookie, he was hard working on the field and studied even harder off the field. He listened before he spoke and made every effort to not make the same mistake twice.
He started a handful of games last year. He showed glimpses of being a high football IQ player. However, it was not consistent. He allowed a completion percentage of 77.8% on 9 targets. However, in the two playoff games, Barton showed some significant improvement. He didn’t allow a single completion. He had 2 passes defended, 1 sack and 1 tackle for a loss.
Barton’s two best positional fits would be middle linebacker and strongside linebacker. However, he does have experience playing in all 3 spots.
Jordyn Brooks
The final piece of the equation would be Jordyn Brooks. He is an unknown entity, as he has yet to take a snap for the team. In college, he played all 3 linebacker positions and played them well.
His main strengths are run defense, man coverage, where he uses his speed and football IQ to diagnose and make the play. His biggest draw was his poor performance in zone coverage, which was truly atrocious. So long as he can stay in man to man, or as a spy, he should be golden.
The best two positional fits for him would be middle linebacker and weakside linebacker. Long-term, I like him inside. But as we all know, that is Wagner’s spot and he doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Conclusion
It really depends if there is a training camp/pre-season etc. If there is, I can Brooks speed and football IQ winning him the weakside spot. If there is not, the team will likely elect for a more experienced group with KJ at weakside, and Barton at strongside.
I think Seattle will keep the core of Bobby Wagner and KJ Wright together for one more year, this time Wright will be at the strongside. Look for year 3 of Cody Barton to move into a full-time role as the strongside linebacker.
My Pick:
Weakside Linebacker: Jordyn Brooks
Middle Linebacker: Bobby Wagner
Strongside Linebacker: KJ Wright
Backup: Cody Barton
Seahawks Position Battle No. 3: Tight end
The Seahawks have spent a lot of cap space and draft capital on tight ends this offseason. Seattle is making a slight scheme change and is planning on utilizing the 12 personnel group. This change would give Seattle 1 RB, 2 TEs, and 2 WRs on the field at any given time. So, who will be the two starting tight ends for Seattle in 2020?
The tight ends group:
- Greg Olsen
- Jacob Hollister
- Will Dissly
- Luke Wilson
- Stephen Sullivan
- Colby Parkinson
- Tyler Mabry
- Dominick Woods-Anderson
The competition looking at this grouping really lies between Greg Olsen, Jacob Hollister and Will Dissly. I really like Colby Parkinson and Stephen Sullivan. However, I view both of them as backups for now, with potential in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised given the scheme change and durability concerns if Seattle keeps 5 tight ends on the roster in 2020.
Greg Olsen
Olsen made it clear, he came to Seattle to be a starter. He has no issue helping others around him, but he will not be on the team in a pure mentor role. He has more to prove and he believes the combination of his route running, sure hands and Russell Wilsons’ accuracy, could be something special in Seattle.
Last season he registered only 3 drops on 82 targets. To put into context, he played with two QB’s who could hardly throw an accurate pass 10 yards down the field. Cam Newton was injured and overthrew nearly everyone. Kyle Allen was completely erratic with both underthrows and overthrows. Not ideal circumstances for a pass catcher. So long as Olsen can stay healthy, he should be able to consistently provide a safety net for Wilson.
The biggest draws to Olsen would be his lack of blocking ability and durability concerns. He is more or less a big slot receiver. He has ranked in the bottom third amongst tight ends in blocking numerous times in his career. For Olsen to play and play well, Seattle will need to use him almost solely as a pass-catcher. Olsen has missed 18 games over the last 3 seasons as well.
Jacob Hollister
Jacob Hollister was an absolute steal, last year. Seattle sent a 7th round pick for a player who ended up with 41 receptions, 3 touchdowns and only 1 dropped pass. He left such a high impression on Seattle that they placed a 2nd round tender on him. This more or less told other teams to keep their hands off.
While Hollister is great in terms of pass-catching, he again falls short in terms of blocking. Don’t get me wrong, it certainly is not from lack of effort. It is just not his bread and butter. His one year cap hit is just over $3 million, which would make him a very expensive player if he ended up as the backup.
Will Dissly
Dissly has been a star for Seattle when on the field. The guy can flat out play. One of the most impressive facets would be his blocking ability. I remember when Seattle played the Saints last year. Dissly took star DE Cameron Jordan 1v1 numerous times and succeeded. To put into context how impressive this is, Jordan had 15.5 sacks last year.
Dissly is also a reliable pass catcher and red zone threat. In the 6 games Dissly started, he accrued 23 receptions on 27 targets, including 4 touchdowns. He didn’t have a single drop either. The chemistry between Russell Wilson and Will Dissly is incredibly strong.
However, Dissly has struggled mightily with health. He has ended both the 2018 and 2019 seasons on the injury reserve. He has played a total of 10 games out of 35 possible games (including playoffs).
The team is undoubtedly concerned about his health and ability to play long term in the NFL. He has All-Pro potential if he can stay healthy. The team will need to juggle whether his upside is superior to his injury concerns. This is especially true if he were to take a starting spot away from a developing talent like Hollister.
Conclusion
Olsen and Hollister are nearly identical players at this point. The Seahawks didn’t pay Olsen $7 million to ride the bench. I for one think Dissly can be a top 5 TE in the NFL if he can remain healthy. To me, his star power shines much brighter than the questions surrounding his injury history.
That being said, given the durability issues surrounding both Olsen and Dissly, Hollister is more important than ever. I originally thought he could be a cut candidate, but looking through the injury history, Seattle would be wise to keep him very close.
My Pick:
Starters: Greg Olsen and Will Dissly
Backup: Jacob Hollister