3 projected starters Seahawks fans should be worried about vs 49ers

The Seahawks are 1-2 for many reasons: Poor coaching, poor efficiency and penalties. At least two of these are fixable (the coaching could be as well but that won’t happen until after the season). But the players on the field need to execute whatever is called better and stop hurting themselves by silly and untimely penalties.

For Seattle to move to 2-2 in 2021, three players (well, two players and one position) need to be very good.

D.J. Reed

Seattle must improve its defense overall but especially its pass defense. While much of the blame for the Seahawks giving up completions at a 70.7 percent rate (25th in the NFL), D.J. Reed hasn’t been great either. Maybe part of Flowers’ and Reed’s issues are related to the scheme but these two are also get paid to do good jobs as players and that hasn’t happened this season.

3 Seahawks need to step up against the 49ers in week 4

Reed is the best corner Seattle has. But Pro Football Focus has him graded as the 49th-best corner in the NFL overall so far in 2021. Against the 49ers, who have a banged-up running back group, Reed needs to be very good and not let the 49ers win by throwing.

Right tackle

Brandon Shell is pretty good when he plays but in his two seasons with Seattle Shell has already missed seven games. Seattle has several options to play at right tackle instead of Shell as he will miss the game with an ankle injury. That’s not good because it means whoever backups Shell hasn’t truly separated themselves from others.

The 49ers pass rush hasn’t been as good so far this year compared to previous seasons. But most teams seem to get home against Russell Wilson at least twice and normally more. San Francisco could fix its pass rush in week four just because right tackle could be on a swivel.

Jamal Adams

Jamal Adams said in the week leading up to the game that starting this week “things will change.” Adams hasn’t been bad this year but he hasn’t been used the way he should have for a player of his special skillset. In 12 games last season, Adams was blitzed 98 times, a bit over 8 times a game. In 2021, Adams has blitzed 10 times or 3 times a game.

For things to truly change for Seattle’s defense, Adams needs to be used differently. If he is against the 49ers and it doesn’t pay off, fine. But the Seahawks have to at least try to get Adams involved in more aggressive ways or otherwise why did they even extend his contract this offseason?