4 Seattle Seahawks players whose career went awry in 2023
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks underperformed this season for two reasons, and both relate to the postseason. Last year, Seattle made a surprising run to the postseason as they finished 9-8. The team seemingly added talent in the 2023 NFL draft and in free agency but Seattle once again finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Plus, Seattle only needed to win their final two games to clinch a postseason spot and they couldn't.
Now, Seattle has let Pete Carroll go as head coach and the team is searching for a new one. Carroll was hampered by possibly being a bit too lenient on players, but also not fixing the run defense. The next head coach can't be worse at run defense, surely.
But the players that follow were also reasons for the Seahawks seasons not meeting expectations as the players didn't. Three are capable of being much better in 2024 and beyond. But we will start with a player likely not capable of being very good.
Seattle Seahawks right guard Phil Haynes was a mess
Phil Haynes finally got his chance to be a full-time starter at guard for the Seahawks this season. After three years of mostly being a backup when he was healthy enough to play, Haynes did not have real competition before the season to start. Sure, Haynes rotated in 2022 with Gabe Jackson and Haynes was better than Jackson for most of the year, but Jackson was released last offseason which meant right guard should belong to Haynes.
Seattle did take Anthony Bradford in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL draft, but Bradford was not expected to supplant Haynes right away. Seattle re-signed Haynes last offseason to a one-year deal so if Bradford was going to take Haynes spot that was supposed to happen in 2024. But Haynes reverted back to his pre-2022 form in terms of not staying healthy.
Haynes only played in eight games this year. This marked the third season out of Haynes' five years with Seattle that he failed to reach double-digits in games played during the course of a season. But even when Haynes did play this year, he was not good. He allowed 5 sacks in 299 pass block snaps and had six penalities as well. Haynes will be a free agent again this offseason and very likely will not return to Seattle and he might be lucky to catch on anywhere in the NFL.