One position Seattle Seahawks need to add legitimate depth

The Seattle Seahawks can't go into the season with 19 defensive snaps as the "experience" of their backup linebackers. The starters are great, but if one goes down - yikes.

Greetings, good 12s. I hope your summer has gone well so far, in a less-than-sweltering fashion. I apologize for my extended absence, just getting through my third bout with COVID. Yes, I got vaccinated and yes I believe it lessened the severity and no I'm not about to delve into the politics of it. I wasn't deathly ill, just didn't want to churn out garbage worse than my usual drivel. I'm sure several readers will say there would be no way to tell the difference; point taken. Regardless, I'm back.

Speaking of less-than-stellar performance, I'm quite afraid that's what the Seahawks have in store for themselves as the backup linebacker corps. As Bob Condotta reported in The Seattle Times Seahawks Mailbag, the Hawks' backup inside linebackers have exactly 19 snaps of experience as defenders.

Of the three players currently penciled in as the backups (Jon Rhattigan, Patrick O'Connell, and rookie Tyrice Knight), Rhattigan is the only player with any snaps other than on special teams.

The Seattle Seahawks have zero proven players among those backups

Some 12s might point to Rhattigan as the best among the three backups. I'd say he's the worst option. He was my first option as a roster cut when I wrote about cap cuts in March. To reiterate, Rhattigan has been on the team since 2021. Yet, he has amassed a grand total of 19 defensive snaps over three seasons. It's not like he wasn't available, as he played in 14 games as a rookie and all 17 last season.

Sure, he had Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks ahead of him. But Wagner was playing further south in 2022. Rhattigan couldn't play until Week 14, as he was recovering from a torn ACL from his rookie season. But not a single snap on defense? It's not like Cody Barton was playing at an All-Pro level in Wagner's place.

Barton played fairly well, but the Hawks did let him walk, as you know. Speaking of Barton, he only played 77 percent of Seattle's snaps in the middle of that year. Who took his place? Everyone but Rhattigan. Tanner Muse got 80 snaps; Vi Jones got 20.

As for Barton, he got 189 snaps on defense in 2021. Yes, most of those were in the last two games when he stepped in for Wagner, but he still had 51 snaps before that at the start of the season. He had 114 defensive snaps in 2020 when BWagz took 99 percent of the snaps in the middle. 59 of those were in a start, another 24 as an injury sub, but he had 31 as a rotational backup. Even as a rookie, Barton had 151 snaps.

Again, two were as a starter, but he had 37 defensive snaps as a sub. So please, don't think that Barton and Rhattigan had comparable experience. Rhattigan had just as many opportunities, and the Hawks saw better options on literally hundreds of plays.

Yes, Rhattigan has been great on special teams. Yes, there's a whole crowd of new sheriffs in town, and they may see more in Barton than the previous coaching staff saw. But that seems awfully doubtful. As I wrote earlier, paying a special teams guy over $3 million is questionable.

As Condotta wrote, they could keep him under a reworked contract. But trust him or O'Connell as the first man up seems insane. I'd much rather they bring in someone with at least a modicum of experience, and keep O'Connell and Knight. Both have been playing the weak side in practice, but they deserve a full opportunity. Jon Rhattigan has had his chances.

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