The Seattle Seahawks have a bunch of talent on the 2022 roster. At least, seemingly they do. Three players might be a tad overrated. Maybe more than a tad.
For this coming season to be a success, Seattle is going to have to get max production from all of the players assumed to be stars, like Quandre Diggs and Rashaad Penny.
The Seahawks are also going to need unexpected players to be very good as well. There is no Russell Wilson to seemingly bail the team out of trouble.
But three players who are perceived to be good players might not be as good as 12s hope. If the three players aren’t good in 2022, neither will Seattle.
Three Seahawks who might be overrated heading into the 2022 season
Seahawks safety Jamal Adams
I actually mean no disrespect to Adams here. He is a very good player with unique abilities. But his uniqueness is only valuable when used correctly in the defensive scheme and when he is able to stay on the field. The last two seasons – his first two years with the Seahawks – have been shortened because of shoulder injuries.
Adams has the ability to chase down quarterbacks as well as anyone in the history of the NFL as far as defensive backs goes – if he stays healthy. He can disrupt the timing of a team’s run game as well as he can crunch the line of scrimmage down and force a running back to choose a hole to run through and then get gobbled up by the likes of Poona Ford – if Adams can stay healthy.
Seahawks kicker Jason Myers
Myers came to the Seahawks in 2019 to try to help fix a long-standing issue at kicker for the team. Seattle had funneled through players like Blair Walsh and Sebastian Janikowski and that clearly wasn’t working. Myers was a Pro Bowler for the Jets in 2018 and had the ability to make long field goals and get the ball into the end zone of kickoffs.
Between 2016 and 2018, Myers had a touchback rate of 73.2 percent or higher in each season. This meant Myers was helping his team’s defense by nearly always making the opposing offense drive 75 yards in an attempt to score a touchdown.
But since Myers has been in Seattle, his touchback rate has diminished every year, and his highest has been 57.1 percent or lower in each of the past two years. In 2021, Myers’ touchback percentage was an atrocious 37.3, fifth-worst among any kicker who played more than one game.
In 2020, Myers didn’t miss a field goal and was 24 for 24. Expecting that kind of perfection isn’t logical. But Myers does need to be better than he was in 2021 when he started the season 6 for 10 through Week 7. His missed field goals in Week 7 may have cost Seattle the game as well (the Seahawks lost to New Orleans 13-10).
Myers is entering the last year of his contract and will be owed $5 million in 2022. If he doesn’t earn his money, he could help sink Seattle’s season.
Seahawks tight end Noah Fant
I like Fant a lot and think he has a ton of potential to be a very good tight end for Seattle beginning in 2021. With Russell Wilson gone and most likely a more pure running of offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s idea of what an offense should look like (less catering to what Wilson wanted and more of what Waldron wants to try), the Seahawks tight ends might be a lot more involved in the passing game.
Fant was a key piece Seattle got back from Denver in the Wilson trade. He is entering his fourth season and since he was a first-round choice, Seattle had the option (and did pick up Fant’s option) to pick up Fant’s fifth year in 2023. Fant is definitely in Seattle for at least two more seasons.
But while Fant has increased the number of receptions between 2019 and 2021, his yards per reception have gone down each year. Fant is basically doing less with more opportunity. His number of touchdowns has greatly increased either. In his first two years, he had 3 touchdown catches in each season. Last year, he had 4 even though he had 28 more catches than he did in 2019.
Hopefully, Fant coming to a new offensive system will help him as Waldron should be able to put Fant in better situations to succeed. Having Drew Lock in Seattle should help too. While Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf are more familiar with Geno Smith, Fant is more familiar with Lock having played with him in Denver. But Fant still needs to prove he can be a red zone threat and be extremely productive.