The stars of the Seahawks roster are all well known, but who could have the sort of season in 2021 that could bring them to the attention of all NFL followers, not just Seahawks fans.
The Seahawks provided seven members of the NFC Pro Bowl team last season, Russell Wilson, D.K.Metcalf, Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams are known and respected to varying degrees across the entire NFL.
The other two members of that Pro Bowl team came from the Seahawks specials teams unit. Long snapper Tyler Ott and special teams ace Nick Bellore were the two guys concerned. Ott and Bellore go pretty un-appreciated by even Seahawks fans as their work is never going to make highlight reels.
In this piece, I want to talk about five players who could all have breakout campaigns in 2021 and thus bring themselves to the attention of the wider NFL fan base.
A break out year for five Seahawks
All five of the players I think could really come to prominence in 2021 are all on the defensive side of the Seahawks roster.
Jordyn Brooks
Brooks started his rookie season in 2020 as backup linebacker to K.J.Wright, moving into a starting role following the injury to Bruce Irvin.
As the 27th overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft, we should expect Brooks to perform to a high level in order to justify that draft pick.
He recorded a total of 57 tackles in his rookie campaign, only one of this came in the first five games, twenty one in the next five games and thirty five in the last six games of the season. If he were to maintain the rate of the last six games of the 2020 season (5.83 per game) for the entire of the upcoming season he would tally 99 tackles.
And given the steep line of progression Brooks showed through his rookie season and the fact he will be a starting linebacker in the upcoming season, he could easily record in excess of 100 tackles in the season.
Poona Ford
In just his third season in the NFL after entering it as an undrafted free agent Ford was rated the third-best nose tackle in the NFL by pff.com behind Tyson Alualu of the Steelers, and the Bucs Vita Vea.
He was also the tenth overall rated defensive tackle overall with a pff rating of 81.9, following ratings of 73.4 and 90.3 in his first two seasons. Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox and Grady Jarrett were the three NFC Pro Bowl defensive tackles in 2020.
Whilst this is indicative of a lack of appreciation for nose tackles in general, it is certainly possible that Poona Ford has another excellent season and does enough to make his first Pro Bowl.
D.J.Reed
Selecting Reed as one of my five breakout candidates is more speculative than some of the others. Firstly, he needs to win a role as a starting corner for the Seahawks in order to have the opportunity to show how good he can be.
Following two seasons as a 49er, Reed come over to Seattle last season and had to wait till the second half of the season for his opportunity to start. He appeared in ten games for the Seahawks last season, starting eight and recording 62 tackles, 2 fumble recoveries and 2 interceptions in these appearances.
So like Jordyn Brooks, at the rate of production in 2020, he could record in excess of 100 tackles, 4 fumble recoveries and 4 interceptions in 2021.
Looking at pff ratings for his first three seasons he recorded ratings of 66.5, 74.8 and 73.1 so the ability is there and he may just need the opportunity to display it as an NFL starter.
Darrell Taylor
After taking Jordyn Brooks in the first round of the 2020 draft, the Seahawks moved up eleven spots to select Taylor with the 48th overall pick in round 2. Due to a serious injury, Taylor missed the entire of his rookie season, but early reports out of the Seahawks 2021 minicamp indicate that Taylor is healthy now and looking good.
It also looks likely that he is in the midst of converting from DE to hybrid end/linebacker and is being lined up as the starter at LEO for 2021. This could allow Taylor to thrive as a pass rusher in 2021, he recorded 16.5 sacks in his last two college seasons at Tennessee.
So if he is back to full health he could well record 8-10 sacks for the Seahawks in the coming campaign.
Ahkello Witherspoon
Witherspoon is another former 49er cornerback that looks a likely starter for the Seahawks in 2021.
Joining after his rookie contract expired in San Fran, Witherspoon never really nailed down a starting role for the 49ers and is in Seattle on a one-year prove-it deal.
When somebody is given a fresh challenge and is aware that failure to perform could lead to the rest of their career earnings declining as a result, they find levels of performance that surprise even those that hired them.
Witherspoon could well be one of those.
Having had ratings in excess of 100 with pro-football-reference.com for two of his seasons in San Fran, the sort of ratings that would put him in top 20 cornerbacks in the league, and a pff.com rating in excess of 80 for last season, this again indicates he has plenty of ability.
He is the sort of tall rangy corner the Seahawks coaches love, and I can really see them bringing the latent ability Witherspoon has to the fore in 2021 and beyond. If I am right about these five guys, or even just seem of them, the Seahawks defense could really shine in the coming season.
Add these to the guys highlighted by Lee Vowell in a recent piece on this site and this explains why the Seahawks go into the 2021 season vastly underrated outside of Seattle.