Addition by subtraction: 3 Seahawks who should be benched for rest of the season

Seahawks should bench Darrell Taylor

Uchenna Nwosu is a fantastic edge rusher and he has been missed since he left Week 7 with a pec injury that ended his season. Perhaps the worst part about Nwosu being hurt is that it meant Seattle was forced to play Darrell Taylor more. Through Week 15, Taylor is graded by Pro Football Focus (subscription required) as the 11th-worst edge rusher in the NFL. Plus, Taylor has only ever been good at rushing the passer and now he doesn't even do that well.

Through his first three seasons, Taylor has never graded better than 84 among edge rushers. But his pass rush grade is 59.9 this season which ranks 81st. He is trending toward a career low in sacks (he has 4.5 in 2023) and quarterback hits (13). This is true even though his snap count percentage is the same as 2022 when he had 9.5 sacks and 13 quarterback hits.

The Seahawks completely benching Taylor means giving his snaps to rookie Derick Hall. Hall has not exactly been great this year either, but he should be able to help Seattle more in the future. Taylor is a restricted free agent this coming offseason, and he should not be retained though likely Seattle will place some kind of tender on him. But at least Hall would get more experience to help him be ready for a bigger year in 2024.