5 guaranteed home runs from the Seahawks' 2024 offseason
By Lee Vowell
Seahawks drafted Byron Murphy II
The last couple of seasons have been bad for Seattle's run defense. The team was 27th in yards allowed per rush (4.6) in 2023, and 27th in 2022 (4.9). What made the issue more frustrating last year was that the team did not seemingly do much of anything to address the problem last offseason - the team used undersized Jarran Reed at nose tackle, a position Reed had never played before - and after starting the season surprisingly decently against the run, things fell apart.
The addition of Williams midway through the season did not help all that much because one player is not going to make a huge impact when the rest of the team is tackling poorly and the scheme is bad. This year, Williams will probably look more impactful because of a better defensive design. Plus, he will be a valuable voice for rookie Murphy.
In Macdonald's scheme, Murphy should be immediately helpful against the run. He might take a bit of time to consistently get press on opposing quarterbacks, but only because he is entering his first year in the NFL. His power and athleticism should get him a bunch of reps on early downs.
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Seahawks re-sign Noah Fant
Fant was underused in former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron's scheme the last couple of years. The tight end probably had higher hopes after being traded to Seattle as part of the move that sent Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos in the 2022 offseason. While he got a good amount of targets in Denver, his quarterback play wasn't good and he was mostly a dump-off option.
Instead, Waldron appeared to forget the athletically gifted Fant was on the team. The tight end got 93 and 90 targets in 2020 and 2021, respectively, with Denver but saw his targets drop to 43 in 2023 with Seattle. That is criminal because the tight end has excellent hands and good down-field speed.
Thankfully, Waldron is gone and Ryan Grubb is the new OC. Grubb has proven he can run an offense that uses all of the team's weapons, just a handful of wide receivers. Grubb will probably use Fant to take the focus off of DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Fant obviously has faith that the offense will work better because he chose to re-sign for two years.
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