Seahawks should take a pass on edge rusher Takk McKinley

The Seahawks need to take a pass on recently-waived Takk McKinley.

The Seattle Seahawks defense is a complete mess and the biggest reason that Seattle likely will not make the Super Bowl in 2020. Russell Wilson is forced into being near-perfect every single drive of every single game because the Seattle defense cannot keep other teams from scoring. But while the defense needs help, Seattle does not need to go after recently-waived edge rusher Takk McKinley.

(The Atlanta Falcons waived McKinley on Monday after not being able to trade him.)

There are two big reasons for this. One is that the Seahawks pass rusher should be better, and in fact was in week 9, with the addition of Carlos Dunlap and that Jamal Adams was able to play again. Seattle sacked Josh Allen 7 times and hit him 10 times. This was a week after Seattle put serious heat on the 49ers in an easy win.

Sure, Seattle lost embarrassingly to the Bills but that was the fault of the defensive line, per se Which leads me to point number two.

What Seattle really needs is a good healthy cornerback. Or a free safety who is better than Quandre Diggs, who has not been good this season. Or a strong safety that is great in coverage. The talent in the Seahawks Legion of Boom was great but why is the 2020 version on the secondary so bad?

LOB 2020 stinks!

This is why in comparison. Earl Thomas was great free safety (and currently still available on the free agent market, mind you) who could use his speed to cover the entire field and also tackle ferociously. Kam Chancellor was a great strong safety who could support the run, cover tight ends some, had the speed to help deep and made opponents fear him with his ferocity. Richard Sherman could tackle extremely well and shut receivers down.

In 2020, Seattle has Jamal Adams who can’t cover very well right now, Quandre Diggs who simply isn’t Earl Thomas, Shaquill Griffin who still isn’t Richard Sherman and is hurt and two other cornerbacks in Tre Flowers and Quinton Dunbar who shouldn’t be playing.

Or maybe, just maybe, this is the biggest issue: Ken Norton, Jr. Norton, Jr. is an awful defensive coordinator. He can’t get the best of his players. Seattle needs secondary help more than pass rush help (sounds weird but it’s true) but even if you give Norton, Jr. more talent he wouldn’t know what to do with it. Takk McKinley is not all that good – he has 17.5 sacks in four years with his main role being to pressure the quarterback – but even if he was, he’d be wasted in a Ken Norton, Jr. system.