3 Seahawks that must impose their will against Panthers

Seahawks need Cody Barton to be tremendous

There seems to be a lot of dislike about Cody Barton and most of it is incorrect and expected. While he isn’t truly replacing Bobby Wagner this year (Jordyn Brooks is doing that more directly), he is still a new long-term starter. We already knew what Brooks would do. We also knew how great Bobby Wagner was. Barton, however, we weren’t so sure how good he would be.

To be fair, Barton has gotten better as the season has worn on. This might be because even though he’s been in the league for four years he has never come close to having the kind of responsibility or playing time that he has this season. Let me point out some good things he has done.

He has only missed one tackle all year, per Pro Football Reference. His quarterback rating against is 85.2 which isn’t too bad for a linebacker. He allows only 7.8 yards when targeted. Barton isn’t terrible, he just isn’t Bobby Wagner.

Barton has also had two interceptions combined in the last three games. And he might need to pick one off against the Panthers on Sunday, too. Carolina isn’t likely going to try to stretch the field against the likes of Tariq Woolen but eating up yards with the running of D’Onta Foreman and the short passing of Darnold would be a key to victory for them. If Barton can take away some of the intermediate passing, the Seahawks defense will probably look a lot better.