One of the great things about writing for this publication is that I am encouraged to write as a Seahawks fan, and not necessarily as a journalist, though I consider myself both to some degree.
I can be impartial if I desire to be, and I usually try to in the interest of offering the most reasonable opinion I can muster.
I am also afforded the luxury to speak candidly about the Seahawks, drawing on my experience as a fan of 19 years, beyond what can be expressed in box scores and stat sheets.
I say that to say this — I am having more fun watching this team than I have had in almost a decade. Maybe it’s the lowered expectations that come with not having a franchise quarterback locked up long-term.
Things we learned from the Seahawks Week 5 loss to the Saints
It could be that I’ve been lying to myself for years, and I do, in fact, enjoy explosive offense more than I tell myself I value run fits and play design. Or maybe I’ve simply fallen into my vices as a journalist and enjoy rooting for the one that everyone else counted out.
Whatever the reason may be, I suspect I’m not alone in being more invested in the Seahawks than I have been in years. Even in easily the most frustrating game of the year to this point, this team was more fun to watch than it has been since they were hanging 40+ on division opponents with impunity.
Are the Seahawks good again? No, not really. But maybe almost? I don’t know, it’s complicated. But given what we’ve seen thus far, it seems as though they might not be as far off as many think, if you’ll allow me to explain.
It’s officially time to admit it — Geno Smith is for real.
I’ve been talking about this for the last month and a half now, and I think we’ve finally reached a proper sample size for Geno to conclude that not only was he the correct choice for Seattle to start, he might be one of the better quarterbacks in all of football.
I broke down Geno’s statistical dominance late last week, and he only added to it on Sunday, notching a second consecutive game with a passer rating north of 130, this time on the road against a highly-touted, veteran defense. I’ve noted previously that we had yet to see Smith make the kinds of throws that franchise QBs make. Those throws were present and accounted for against one of the best defenses the Seahawks will face all year.
Geno dropped two in the bucket to Tyler Lockett in some tight, tight windows and threw another couple of darts to DK Metcalf, one of which would have been a touchdown had it not been dropped. He looks every bit the part of a highly competent starting quarterback and has now made every throw one might expect a first-round draft pick to make.
For those familiar with Smith’s college work at West Virginia a decade ago, that should come as no surprise — he drew a lot of talk as a potential first-round QB, though his background in spread offenses ultimately dropped his draft stock. That said, a decade removed from the expectations that he could upgrade the Jets’ offense after Mark Sanchez flamed out, he looks the part.
Tariq Woolen is quickly becoming Seahawks ace cornerback.
Seahawks fans understandably have some high standards for cornerback play over the last two and a half decades. From Shawn Springs to Marcus Trufant to Richard Sherman, Seattle has rarely had to wait very long to find a number one corner.
Of the three listed, Sherman’s shoes are undoubtedly the toughest to fill; the Stanford product was a combination of length, instinct, and savvy that created an entirely new archetype for the cornerback position, and finding a suitable replacement has been a tough ask for the DB whisperers in the Seahawks’ coaching staff, perusing through names like Shaquill Griffin, Tre Flowers, and D.J. Reed before finally landing on Woolen this past training camp, albeit somewhat out of necessity.
Now, of the potential replacements Seattle looked through, very few were outright bad, and Reed especially looks like a stud in his own right, but Woolen has begun his career looking like an evolved version of Sherman. He’s not as sharp when it comes to reading and studying the opponent — he is only a rookie, after all, and Sherman has very few peers in that regard throughout the history of football.
That said, Woolen is even longer than Sherman, more nimble, and infinitely faster. His ball skills are sharp, and he’s plenty clever himself, as he’s proven more than once using his superior athleticism to bait quarterbacks into throwing the ball right in his path. Sherman may be the one tutoring Woolen, but there’s an equal measure of Champ Bailey shining through. If Woolen keeps improving and adding to his athleticism and soft skills with additional study, he has unlimited potential, beyond anything we’ve ever seen at the cornerback position.
The Seahawks’ run defense is coming along, sort of.
Yes, I’m serious. As much grief as I’ve given Seattle’s putrid run fits over the last month, there were areas where they looked, dare I say, even good on Sunday. Yes, they gave up a million and a half yards to Taysom Hill. I understand that doesn’t look good when you look up which teams have given up the most rushing yards.
Here’s the thing, though — the Seahawks are not going to face another Taysom Hill this season. The only other QB in the NFL asked to run the option as often as Hill would be Trey Lance, and he’s already out for the year. And against the Saints’ halfbacks, Seattle wasn’t half-bad. They gave up 119 yards on 32 carries. That’s a clip of less than four yards a carry, which would be in the top quarter of the league over the course of the season.
Specifically, Uchenna Nwosu has proven me wrong about his abilities in run defense, and getting Shelby Harris helped in a big way. Between Al Woods and Bryan Mone, the Seahawks are already set at nose tackle, and that’s made Poona Ford an exercise in sunk cost fallacy. Ford is the highest-paid player on this defense, and it’s becoming clear that he’s a 4-3 specialist at this point, because he just hasn’t matched up well playing heads-up on the offensive line the way most 3-4 defensive linemen do.
Seattle could really stand to re-evaluate his share of the snaps because Ford still looks lost, and they need to find someone to win those matchups, or else Cody Barton and Jordyn Brooks will continue to find themselves on the outside looking in on that side of the formation.
There are a couple of options for Seattle in that regard, but none are terribly appealing at the moment — they could give Quinton Jefferson more snaps, but he’s primarily been a pass rush specialist to this point in his career, and it’s worth questioning whether giving him more snaps will improve the run defense. They could immediately plug L.J. Collier into Ford’s spot, hoping that Collier is a better 3-4 DE than he was a 4-3 DE.
I don’t doubt Collier has worn out his welcome with Seahawks fans at this point, though, and it’s perfectly fair to question whether he would have anything additional to offer playing heads-up. The free agent market is equally thin at the position, and the only two options that make sense to me would be Robert Nkemdiche, who the Seahawks already released, and Ndamukong Suh, who is transcendentally talented, but also carries a less-than-stellar reputation.
Here’s the thing, though — if you fix that position, the rest of Seattle’s defense starts to click into place. There are still questions as to who pressures the QB, but Ryan Neal has, once again, proven to be a suitable backup for Jamal Adams, and Cody Barton has played better than his reputation suggests, in part because the line in front of him has been so bad. It’s just a matter of one or two more holes to patch, and there’s enough talent in other places to not be completely terrible.