The Seattle Seahawks went 9-8 this season but missed the playoffs for the second time in three years. This was enough to have Pete Carroll removed from his head coaching gig. Seattle faces an offseason of question marks that go well beyond finding a new head coach.
Seattle also is over the salary cap heading into the 2024 offseason. The Seahawks will have to release some players to make even enough room to sign their 2024 draft picks. This is an offseason of transition for Seattle that will affect the next few years.
But some Seahawks wish they do the 2023 season over again. If they could they might have been more successful and that probably means the team would have as well. Here are four such players.
Seahawks edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu might wish for a re-do
Nwosu wasn't bad when he played in 2023. His issue was that he got injured on his way to possibly having the best year of his career. Nwosu was injured in Week 7 as the Seahawks were on their way to a 5-2 start to the season and the Seahawks would lead the NFC West after Week 8. But without Nwosu they simply were not the same defense, and therefore, not the same team overall.
Prior to his injury, Nwosu had multiple quarterback pressures in every game. He also had had 13 run stuffs, and there is no question that as much as Seattle missed Nwosu's ability to get to the quarterback after he was lost for the season, the team missed his ability to help in run support much more. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Nwosu graded higher in run defense than he did in pass rush through the first six games of 2023.
Nwosu was on pace for 17 quarterback hits, 6 sacks, and 11 tackles for loss this season before his injury. Both the QB hits and tackles for loss would have led the team. As much as Nwosu likely wishes he had not gotten hurt and was on his way to a productive season, the Seahawks likely wish even more he had not gotten hurt because the defense crumbled without him.
Seattle quarterback Geno Smith
Smith started the season not quite as efficient as he was during most of 2022. He wasn't awful, but he did go through a stretch of games where he had far too many turnovers. Was this due to Smith feeling like he needed to overcome a faulty defense and that he needed to force a few too many passes? Possibly. But even so, the bad rap that Smith got that he wasn't very good was likely false.
Smith finished with just 9 interceptions and an interception percentage of 1.8 which tied for 10th-best in the league. Smith also led the NFL in game-winning drives with 5 and tied for the league lead in fourth quarter comebacks with 4. So hate, if you must, but the fact is that had Seattle had almost any other quarterback in the NFL they would not have won as many games as they did with Geno Smith.
But Smith still got injured and missed two full games and parts of a third. While he was out, Seattle went 1-1 and they likely would not have won the one he lost had he played. But Smith's number would have probably looked better. If Smith had played the two games he missed he would have likely thrown 3 more touchdown passes (he averaged 1.3 touchdown passes in the games he did play) which means Smith could have finished with 23 touchdown passes in 2023 and this would have been 13th in the league.
2023 was a weird year for quarterbacks as no one came close to 40 touchdown passes or 5,000 passing yards. Maybe Smith's numbers were'nt as efficient as in 2022 but the entire league was depressed. Smith is good enough to keep around and help the team keep winning games.,
Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen
Riq Woolen had an important year while also having a poor one. He changed the way he wanted his name on the roster from Tariq to Riq. Maybe he felt he had earned enough respect from his excellent 2022 season to make some moves of his own. That is probably correct as far as his name goes; people can be called whatever they wish, of course.
But Woolen had not proven in one season that he would be great for the rest of his career. He made the Pro Bowl as a rookie but during his second season, he was benched. And for reasons other than Woolen being injured, which he was in minicamp prior to the season beginning. That injury appeared to affect Woolen mentally as much as it did physically.
During the 2022 season, Woolen did not seem to mind unleashing his 6'4" frame on a ball carrier and inducing a lot of punishment. Woolen was fantastic in coverage but he knew his assignments well in run support and helped keep the run inside (while Seattle was bad against the run in 2022 as well that was because the middle of the line was bad, and not Woolen's fault).
But in 2023, Woolen appeared to have no interest in keeping containment against the run and failed to be aggressive in run support. This is what got him benched: His seeming unwillingness to do his job in any other area but trying to bat passes down. That needs to be consistently fixed in 2024 or Woolen might find himself permanently benched.
Seattle safety Jamal Adams
Jamal Adams might have many reasons for a 2023 do-over. He may have rushed coming back from being hurt in Week 1 of 2022 and that lack of being fully healthy slowed him down and he lost most of the explosiveness that made him so impactful in pressuring opposing quarterbacks and helping attach the line of scrimmage in run support. As much as he wanted to play football, Adams might now wish he had returned midway through the season instead of in Week 4.
But Adams kept up some of the same tendencies he had prior to being hurt. That probably goes back to 2020 as well. Adams has never been good in coverage and since his first season with the Seahawks he has not recorded a sack. If he only does one or two things potentially well, such as rush the quarterback, and is incapable of doing those things then why is he playing?
Adams took snaps away from Julian Love in a couple of games and Love still ended up making the Pro Bowl. Defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt choosing Adams over Love cost the team defensively and that could have cost the team a win or two. There is a good reason Hurtt won't be the defensive coordinator moving forward.
But besides his play on the field, Adams got into a social media scuffle with a New York Jets reporter and part of that was Adams sharing a photo of the reporter's wife with a caption that read, "Ew." Classless. Adams also screamed at an independent neurotrauma doctor on the sidelines after being diagnosed with a concussion in Week 4. It was a season Adams would likely forget.