The Seattle Seahawks are very unlikely to make the playoffs in 2021 and need to rebuild some. One of the most frustrating things about this season, one in which Seattle was once again expected to be good enough to make the postseason, is how parts of the team assumed to be good before the season haven’t been good at all.
Before I get into three Seahawks who should definitely not be back next year, I should mention those pieces of the team that will likely return next season for various reasons but maybe shouldn’t.
Jamal Adams is inconsistent and overpaid. To be fair, though, I had no qualms about Seattle adding him before the 2020 season (he’s physically gifted and tends to have a positive attitude). But something has happened this year. He’s shown he cannot catch well for one. He does have one interception but has dropped at least four easy picks. He also has zero sacks and just 2 quarterback hits. Not good at all.
Three Seahawks that do not need to return in 2022
Carlos Dunlap is signed through next year and will make $6.5 million with his dead cap of $5.6 million. That likely means he is too expensive to give up. But Dunlap has .5 sacks and just 4 quarterback hits. Part of the issue is Dunlap is being used in coverage more this year for some unknown reason. If he does return in 2022, hopefully that won’t continue.
L.J. Collier is simply too obvious to mention in this article. He almost certainly won’t be with the team next year but he also doesn’t seem to perform horribly when he is given a chance to play but he’s been a healthy scratch 7 times in 10 games.
However, there are three pieces of this team that do not need to return in 2022.
Benson Mayowa
One of Benson Mayowa’s issues is that he is used like Carlos Dunlap has been this season. He drops back in coverage far too much. This is clearly part of the overall design of the Seahawks defense and this is a defense that is terrible.
Seattle’s defense doesn’t give up tons of points but it does the next worst thing. That is, allowing an opposing offense to grind out yards and thoroughly control time of possession. The offense is bad but the defense doesn’t help them out because the offense doesn’t get the ball back quickly.
Mayowa, a pretty decent pass rusher over the last few years, has done extremely little this year even when he isn’t dropping into coverage. Mayowa has played nearly half of the Seahawks defensive snaps (304 of 611) in 2021 but he only has 1 sack and 2 quarterback hits and 2 tackles-for-loss. So what exactly is Mayowa bringing to the team this season?
Mayowa has a cap hit of $3.76 million in 2022 with dead cap of $2.25 million. That $1.5 million difference should be spent on a player who will produce more than Mayowa. “Who?” you ask. Well, nearly any other player, to be honest, could produce in as many snaps as Mayowa has this year.
Duane Brown
Duane Brown seems to have gotten old this season. He is 36 years old, to be exact. That isn’t ancient for an offensive lineman but a player getting into their late 30s is when a team might start to see diminishing returns from that player. That has happened to Brown in 2021.
There was some question as to whether Brown would hold out into the season as he wanted his contract re-worked. Seattle did restructure his deal and the team gave him a bonus of $7 million for 2021 for doing so. Brown’s 2022 year is basically voided and so Brown doesn’t have a contract past this year. And he shouldn’t return to Seattle next season.
Brown is graded by Pro Football Focus as the 33rd best tackle in the NFL currently but that number is skewed by PFF giving Brown a 90.1 grade receiving for some reason. In areas that truly matter, Brown is graded at 45th for pass blocking and 48th in run blocking. That’s not good.
Brown has also allowed 7 sacks already this year. That is his most since 2009 when Brown was in his second year in the NFL. But Brown still has seven games left to play this season. The Seahawks don’t have a definite replacement for Brown currently on the roster but paying Brown another $9 million-plus in 2022 would be a waste of money.
Shane Waldron
The Seahawks replaced their offensive coordinator after the 2020 season ended. Out went Brian Schottenheimer and in came Shane Waldron. At the end of last year, the offense was digressing quickly and had lots of issues scoring. There was little argument that a change was needed.
Seattle decided to bring in Waldron with the promise that he would make the offense more versatile and involve the tight ends and running backs more. That has not happened and the offense is much worse this year than it has been in a number of years. Worse, the offense is getting less productive as the season wears on.
The idea might have been to bring in a Rams-type offense and Waldron had coached with the Rams since 2017before coming to Seattle. Waldron had never called plays, however, and that shows this year. The offense is completely lost and there seems to be no true direction.
Seattle is 25th in the NFL in points per game (19.4) but that number goes down to 15.2 since week 4. Yes, some of those games were without Russell Wilson but one includes a game against the Jaguars when Geno Smith was the quarterback when Seattle scored 31 points. Since week 4 and in the 11 quarters that Wilson has been the quarterback, Seattle has scored 20 points.
The Waldron experiment needs to end. This is the NFL and not a place to experiment over years. Waldron hasn’t worked out, period. The offense is scoring less (28.7 in 2020 to 19.4 in 2021), averaging fewer yards per game (4.8 to 4.3) and average time per drive (2:42 to 2:16). There isn’t just a little bit of a drop from last year, there is a huge one. Seattle simply can’t risk bringing Waldron back for another season.