5 Seahawks who have offered almost nothing to the team in 2021

Defensive lineman L.J. Collier

Something happened with Collier and the Seahawks coaching staff that we may never know about. I am only guessing here but how else does one explain Collier, a first round pick in 2019, go from starting every game in 2020 and playing decently – 3 sacks, 7 quarterback hits, 4 tackles for loss – to being a healthy scratch in 6 of Seattle’s 9 games so far in 2021?

It isn’t like Collier plays badly when he is on the field. In 60 defensive snaps this year (or basically a full game on average), Collier has 4 tackles and 2 quarterback hits. So clearly the Seattle coaching staff is seeing something from Collier they don’t like. But what is it?

Collier, like Penny, is turning out to be a complete waste of a first round pick. First of all, even if he was playing every game his numbers don’t support high-round status. He produced in 2020 more like a third round pick. There were rumbles in 2019 when Seattle chose Collier that they chose him too high.

But the problem is this year that the Seahawks are choosing not to include Colier after choosing to start him every game last year. It’s confounding. Actually, week 10 was the first week in 2021 that Collier played and didn’t get a hit on the quarterback so what gives? Maybe one day we will know but either way Seattle is basically stuck with Collier through 2022 because releasing him will nearly cost as much in dead cap than they are paying him ($3.4 in salary, $2.5 in dead cap).