Seahawks position battle: Ugo Amadi versus Marquise Blair

Seahawks training camp is theoretically a bit over two weeks away. One of the position battles to look for in camp is at slot corner.

The Seahawks never really found a good nickelback in 2019. A year after losing Justin Coleman, who was really productive in his two seasons in Seattle, the Seahawks tried rookies and well-worn veterans in the slot and none were consistently very good.

In 2020, Seattle needs to decide early who they are going to trust to start at slot corner. Will it be Ugo Amadi or Marquise Blair or someone else? Amadi got a crack at it early last season but Seattle seemed to lose faith in him quickly. That is until later in the year when his inexperience ended up costing the team in the playoffs versus the Packers.

Seattle, though, needs to get Marquise Blair on the field somehow. Both Amadi and Blair are theoretically free safeties by trade. Amadi has the near-perfect size for a nickelback but Blair has the quickness to play the position and can intimidate with his hitting ability.

Ugo Amadi

In 2019, Amadi was given a coverage grade from Pro Football Focus of 64.4. This was second-best among returning cornerbacks for the Seahawks. Amadi is listed as a cornerback because he got more snaps there than at safety for Seattle last year.

On run-defense, though, Amadi graded just 53.1. Sure, slot corners are not going to be involved in stopping the run much. If Seattle has five defensive backs on the field, that probably means they think the other team is going to throw the ball.

But while Amadi is quick and has the size to match up against slot receivers, he isn’t going to offer much as far as versatility.

Marquise Blair

Blair’s coverage grade was 80.5, best on the Seahawks in 2019. Surprisingly, though, his rush defense grade was the same as Amadi’s. Blair played on 163 coverage snaps, however, versus 74 run snaps so he had only a limited amount of run defense snaps to grade.

Blair is really the future of the Seahawks at strong safety. Heck, he might even overtake veteran Bradley McDougald there this year.

Who wins?

Both Blair and Amadi are going to make the Seahawks this year. But Amadi is going to win the slot corner job. Amadi isn’t a better player than Blair, but Blair is more valuable at safety than at nickelback and needs more snaps and experience at safety. That said, if Amadi has a couple of bad games in a row, Blair might supplant him as the temporary starter at nickelback.