Three Seattle Seahawks that cannot be counted on in 2023

The Seattle Seahawks have made some good moves in free agency so far this offseason. The team should be better after the signings of defensive linemen Dre’Mont Jones and Jarran Reed. The players Seattle has lost in free agency, such as Rashaad Penny and Cody Barton, are replaceable.

The Seahawks also have a lot of high draft capital in the 2023 draft. Seattle currently has four picks in the top 53 overall. That means Seattle could draft three or four immediate starters that are expected to do really good things at the professional level.

Seattle also exceeded expectations in 2022 and bring back most of the roster, only with the added free agent signings and the good draft picks. Seattle should be better in 2023 and even better (after the young guys get an even better feel for the NFL) in 2024 and beyond. But there are a few players that Seattle will have on its roster in 2023 that are huge question marks. Here are three that the Seahawks shouldn’t completely count on for being consistently productive.

Seahawks cannot count on receiver Dee Eskridge

Seattle had three draft picks in the 2021 NFL draft. So far, the best of those players has been sixth-round pick Stone Forsythe. It’s not like Forsythe has been great because he hasn’t. But Forsythe has at least been available to play for the most part. In contrast to fellow 2021 choices Tre Brown and Dee Eskridge, Forsythe has been the Lou Gehrig of the Seattle football team. But Eskridge was the highest choice in 2021 and as a second-round pick should have been much better than he has been so far.

Eskridge has played 20 out of a possible 34 games in two seasons, and in some of those games, he hasn’t been fully healthy. But when he has been on the field, he has not produced. He has 17 career receptions for only 122 yards. That is 7.2 yards a reception which is incredibly bad. Eskridge has caught just 51.5 percent of his targets.

It says a lot that many observers of Seattle football say that one of the team’s main needs is finding a WR3. Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf are great receivers but they still need help. Well, the Seahawks are supposed to already have a WR3 in Eskridge, but at this point, it might be a better expectation that he is completely out of the league in two years than that he ever produces in a Seahawks uniform.

Seahawks cannot count on edge rusher Darrell Taylor

Darrell Taylor is a weird player. We learned in 2022 that he is horrible against the run. He is a pure edge rusher and when he is matched up against offensive tackles one-on-one Taylor is going to lose ground. This means Taylor is a one-dimensional player who is capable of disrupting an opponent’s passing game, but he also hasn’t shown he can perfect the pass-rushing moves he has.

The biggest issue with Taylor, though, is he is extremely inconsistent. In 2021, Taylor had 4 sacks in his first five games. Taylor then didn’t have a sack in the next four games he played. After Week 8, Taylor had just 5 quarterback hits in nine games. In 2022, Taylor had 3 sacks in the first eight games he played and just 4 QB hits. So between Week 9 of 2021 through Week 10 of 2022 – a span of 17 games, or the equivalent of an NFL season – Taylor had 5.5 sacks and 9 quarterback hits.

Those numbers aren’t completely awful, but for a player who is seemingly capable of doing only one thing – rushing the passer – Taylor needs to be better and far more consistent. And Taylor is capable of great things as a pass rusher. If one combines the first five games of 2021 and the last six games of 2022 (11 total games), Taylor’s numbers are this: 10.5 sacks, 17 quarterback hits, and 8 tackles-for-loss.

The reason the Seahawks can’t count on Taylor in 2023 is the team simply can’t know which Darrell Taylor is going to show up. Taylor needs to be consistently good and not be a player that ends up with 8 sacks but almost all of those come in six games. Taylor needs to be good for 17 games.

Seahawks cannot count on safety Jamal Adams

I like Jamal Adams and I think he is a team-first guy. Jamal Adams probably wants to be on the field and play at a high level and be used in the right way in the Seahawks defensive scheme. Heck, in the glimpse we saw of Adams in Week 1 of the 2022 season, it appeared defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt had a really good idea of how to implement Adams.

In 15 snaps in Week 1 against the Denver Broncos, Adams had 3 tackles, a pass defended, and a quarterback hit. He was active and looked a lot more like the 2020 version of Adams who had 9.5 sacks than the 2021 version when Adams had zero. But then, as always seems to happen with Adams, he got hurt and Adams missed the rest of the season.

Since coming to Seattle in 2020, Adams has missed 25 of a possible 50 games. Literally half the time the Seahawks have played, Adams couldn’t make it. Another concern is that Adams doesn’t always injure the same body part. He has hurt his shoulder (twice), his fingers, his leg, and likely other things. Adams just seems to be made out of glass and has a body that seems to be closer to 50 years old than the 27 that Adams actually is.

Adams might be ready for the start of the 2023 season. He is still working his way back from the quadriceps injury suffered in 2022. But is there any realistic expectation that Adams can come back before Week 1 and then stay healthy for nearly an entire season? That surely can’t be counted on.