Seahawks midseason grades: Some studs and some duds

Oct 31, 2021; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks free safety Quandre Diggs (6) celebrates following an interception against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the second quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 31, 2021; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks free safety Quandre Diggs (6) celebrates following an interception against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the second quarter at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Seahawks have started the year 3-5 and are halfway through the 2021 season. How do the grades look for Seattle so far?

First of all, as you will see in what follows, a lot of the blame for the start of the season, besides the injury to Russell Wilson, does not actually lie on the defense’s shoulders. Sure, they gave up a ton of yards in the early games of the season but they also were on the field a lot due to the inefficiency of the offense. Is the defense great? No, but some key statistics show it is better than we might assume.

There are a lot of mediocre grades that follow. No group has an A. But there are still some units doing a good enough job to help get Seattle back into the playoffs. The studs that follow are any group that is a B or higher and the duds? Well, obviously any group with a C- or less.

Seahawks grades for the first half of 2021

Quarterback

Normally this would be a Russell Wilson-only category. But due to Wilson’s finger injury in week 5, backup Geno Smith has had to start three games. For all of the complaints about Smith, he still has a quarterback rating of 103.0 with 5 touchdown passes and just 1 interception. Smith has been sacked 13 times in 3+ games, though, so the issues with Seahawks quarterbacks getting hit didn’t end when Wilson couldn’t play.

Wilson, though, had 10 touchdown passes and 1 interception in a little under 5 full games and a league-leading 125.3 passer rating. He hasn’t been perfect and the new offensive scheme still seems to be coming together but Wilson has still been his usual goodness.

Grade: B