Three bright spots for Seahawks in win over the Raiders

While the Seahawks lost their 2021 preseason opener to the Raiders and looked pretty bad doing it, there were still a few players who did well. Just not enough to make it look like Seattle is ready for the regular season.

To be fair, Seattle didn’t play with most of the players they expect to make a positive impact on the season. If these were the actual players the Seahawks had to play this season, Seattle would lose every game. But this is the preseason! And players are really just trying to make an active roster.

Some players are also trying to show that they should get more reps in 2021 than they did in 2020. Three of those players are below. I don’t have Alton Robinson on this list and he could be. And Ben Burr-Kirven is not on the list either even though he led the Seahawks in tackles for the game.

Three Seahawks bright spots from an otherwise dismal loss to the Raiders

Rasheem Green

I am not sure what 12s think of Green. He is a solid player. Green has a little speed for his size and can disrupt at times. But I saw one tweet during the game from a fan that Green wouldn’t make the team. I mean, what? Green isn’t only going to make the team – he didn’t even need to play Saturday and he would have a spot on the roster – but he is going to get a lot of reps.

Against the Raiders, Green got fairly consistent pressure on Raiders quarterback Nathan Peterman even though his stat-line shows just one quarterback hit. Anybody who watched the game clearly saw that Green was able to get around blockers and be a bit of a menace, just like we hope he will be as one of the rotational pass rushers for Seattle this year.

Cody Barton

I am not quite sure what Seattle was trying to do with Barton in the first half because there was a lot of Jordyn Brooks and Ben Burr-Kirven and a little less Barton. Barton is better than Burr-Kirven so maybe Seattle was just trying to see what Burr-Kirven could do on defense instead of special teams.

But in the second half, Barton had two sacks, and looked fast getting to the quarterback, played good coverage and got the majority of his 9 combined tackles. In 2023, the Seattle linebackers are going to be Jordyn Brooks and Cody Barton and that is OK.

DeeJay Dallas

Alex Collins started the game for Seattle, didn’t really get a chance to show much as Seattle started with 10 straight passes (seriously) and on Collins’ two carries he gained one yard. But Dallas looked better than Collins anyway and I think it was because Dallas showed a lot of versatility.

Dallas had a 43-yard touchdown catch and run where she showed agility, speed and confidence. He looks like a bigger back than he was last year but with the same speed. Dallas and not Collins could, and maybe should, end up being Seattle’s third option at running back in 2021 behind Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny.