The Seattle Seahawks do not seem to be going to the playoffs in 2023. Sure, they could pull off an early Christmas miracle in the next couple of games, but no one expects that. Seattle will be heavy underdogs in Weeks 14 and 15.
How soon does Seattle start thinking about the offseason? After the team is 6-8? Or not truly until the end of the year?
Plus, what changes should be made? The coaching staff goes away? QB1 is in new hands in 2024? Here are three changes Seattle could make.
Seattle Seahawks need to move away from head coach Pete Carroll
I have always been a fan of head coach Pete Carroll, whether that is him as a coach or how his positivity exudes every fabric of his being. He is not too old to coach, either. The problem is that every coach everywhere, just ask the New England Patriots about Bill Belichick, has a shelf life in one city. Carroll has made it in Seattle longer than most as he is currently in his 14th season as head coach.
The organization just needs a change. They need a new set of eyes to view how the league has changed and adjust to that. Since Carroll became the Seahawks head coach in 2010, the NFC West has seen the hires of Sean McVay with the Los Angeles Rams and Kyle Shanahan of the San Francisco 49ers. McVay has basically owned Pete Carroll and has a 10-5 record against Seattle's coach and has two wins this season even though, on paper, Seattle has the better overall roster.
Carroll was pretty good against Shanahan until the beginning of 2022, but the 49ers have basically just destroyed Seattle in four straight meetings with another likely coming up in Week 14. Seattle needs to hire a young, offensive-minded coach to keep up with their division rivals because if you cannot consistently compete in your division, you aren't going to make many runs at the Super Bowl.
Seattle needs to start over at quarterback
Geno Smith was surprisingly good in 2022. As a veteran quarterback, though, the expectation should have been that he improved his numbers in 2023 or at least became more consistent. But Smith, due to play-calling or just a general lack of high-end ability, has been atrociously inconsistent. Every time Smith has had a game where he has had at least a 103.9 quarterback rating, he has immediately preceded that with a game where he has a game with a quarterback rating of 84.1 or less.
Most of his important numbers are down in 2023. His touchdown percentage per pass is 3.7 compared to 5.2 in 2022. Smith's interception percentage is 2.2 compared to 1.9 last season. His completion percentage is 5 points lower going from a league-leading 69.8 in 2022 to 64.4 this year. While the offensive line isn't perfect, his sack percentage is lower in 2023 than in 2022 - 6.3 to 7.4. So pressure in his face is no worse than last year.
But Smith also isn't being helped much by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's play-calling or pre-game scheme. Waldron seems to either have a decent game-plan coming into games and then the other team adjusts and Seattle cannot adjust to that, such as both Rams' games this year, or Waldron doesn't have his unit prepared well enough and Seattle falls behind.
Either way, the Seahawks have a young roster and need a young quarterback to grow old with. Maybe that means 2024 is slight step back, but that could mean 2025 is much better and Seattle is a championship contender by 2026. Taking a quarterback in the first-round seems like a must at this point.
Seattle needs to make the tough cap decisions
People do not like to hear about receiver Tyler Lockett being released, and hopefully, he will not be and will just have his contract reworked, but Lockett is simply too expensive to keep in 2024 based on his current deal. Lockett's cap hit jumps from $11,060,000 to $26,795,000 next year. Should Seattle release him, they could save $7 million. Hopefully, a simple re-working of his deal keeps him around but if not, he is too expensive.
But Lockett's contract isn't the only problem. Safety Quandre Diggs certainly has not been as good in 2023 as in previous seasons - he currently has the highest quarterback rating allowed of his four-plus seasons in Seattle, his highest missed tackle rate since 2019, and his second-highest yards per target allowed since 2017. He has a cap hit of $21,262,500 in 2024 and Seattle could save $11 million by releasing him.
Defensive tackle Bryan Mone almost certainly won't return at his current salary as his cap hit is $6.4 million in 2024 and Seattle would save nearly $6 million by cutting him. Simply put, there are a number of Seahawks whose contracts should be reworked or the player released which would open up quite a bit of cap room for the Seahawks.
The focus then, of course, is to spend the money wisely. The Dre'Mont Jones signing this past offseason has not really paid off. But with a few key moves, such as bringing back free agent Leonard Williams, Seattle's roster could easily be better next year.