3 nightmare scenarios for the Seattle Seahawks in 2024

Seahawks' gambles on backend of the defense don't pay off

12s need to be able to trust the vision of general manager John Schneider and the coaching staff, of course. This is especially true this season because Pete Carroll is no longer in charge of the roster and the team's on-field product. With Carroll, the team and fans knew what to expect - good or bad. 12s could assume Seattle would take a certain player in the draft or have the same tendencies on defense.

The defense should definitely look different in 2024. Mike Macdonald's scheme is designed to allow for good linebacker coverage, something that the Seahawks have not had the last several years, and for safeties to be interchangeable and versatile. The plan works and we saw it work with the Baltimore Ravens the last two seasons. Baltimore also had good players that made the scheme work.

This offseason, Seattle let linebackers Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks leave in free agency, and the team waived Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams. To replace them Seattle brought in linebackers Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson and safeties Rayshawn Jenkins and K'Von Wallace. Especially with the linebackers, Seattle is taking a big chance that the players will be a bit better than their career numbers imply.

Dodson was very good in 2023, his first year being given a chance to start many games, but he missed 17 percent of his tackle attempts in his first two seasons. His two passes broken up last year were his first since 2020. He could be a mediocre player for Seattle in 2024 while being the green dot on the defense.

Safety Jenkins has always been an inconsistent tackler. He whiffed on 10.8 percent of his tackle attempts last year, a decent number, but missed 17.6 percent of the time in 2022. Seahawks fans saw Seattle miss far too many missed tackles in the last couple of years, and Jenkins might not help fix that problem.