Worst case scenarios for 2022 Seahawks based on preseason opener
By Lee Vowell
Preseason games are meaningless but from what we saw the Seahawks do against the Steelers, there might be some hard truths in 2022.
A lot of the issues with the Seahawks against Pittsburgh were that they were things that shouldn’t be issues to begin with. Tackling was a problem and that is just a fundamental aspect that shouldn’t change much from week to week.
A lot of the reasons Seattle hopes to surprise most national pundits in 2022 and win a lot more games than expected – meaning, great defense and very good special teams – weren’t on display. In fact, those units weren’t good.
So while preseason NFL football is like baseball’s spring training (all fans can still have hopes for a good season from the favorite teams), 12s might already be facing problems that are going to roll over into the regular season and cause 2022 to be very bad.
Seahawks worst fears for 2022 might already be becoming realized
The Seahawks special teams hurt the overall team’s success
Maybe it’s just a preseason thing, but Seattle’s special teams were pretty awful against the Steelers. While Michael Dickson averaged 47.8 yards on five punts, his net was just 32.2 yards and that is atrocious. Two of Dickson’s punts could have been downed inside the Steelers 20 but Dickson uncharacteristically punted the ball into the end zone. Then Seattle allowed a return of 38 yards as well.
Jason Myers was one for one on field goals but it was only a 33-yard attempt and it clinked against the left upright and happen to bounce in. Not a great effort. Plus, after Myers’ production in the early part of 2021, his game against Pittsburgh didn’t inspire confidence. Myers needs to be near-perfect to keep the Seahawks from losing a bunch of close games this season.
Seattle averaged 3.5 yards per punt return and just 20.2 yards on 5 kickoff returns. Any team that hopes to win games based on great defense and not-so-great offense also needs fantastic special teams and Seattle certainly did not have that against the Steelers.