The Seattle Seahawks will have a lot of new pieces in different spots to begin 2024. The offensive line could have four new starters. Both inside linebackers will be new, and one of the safety positions. The team is going to take a bit of time to come together, and 12s clearly hope that happens before the regular season begins.
Seattle also has a new coaching staff as well, of course. That includes Mike Macdonald who is the new head coach and has never been a head coach before. There will be a bit of a learning curve this season.
All of this means that the Seahawks are going to have a smaller margin for error, especially at the beginning of the season. Players will still be getting used to what each of their teammates do in live action. Seattle can least afford to lose the following five players to injury, however.
Tyrel Dodson - Seattle Seahawks' green dot
Seattle is taking a huge chance on Dodson. Not only did the team sign him to replace Bobby Wagner, but Dodson did not come close to starting double-digit games with the Buffalo Bills until 2023. He was graded as the top linebacker in the NFL last year, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), but is that truly good enough to bring Dodson in and make him the green dot of the defense?
That last part means not only is Dodson going into a season for the first time in his career as a resumed starter, but he will also be tasked with being the on-field communicator of Macdonald's defensive play-calls. The grade part might be viewed as meaningless because in 2022, Ryan Neal was the highest-graded safety in the league when he was with the Seahawks, and Neal was awful for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023.
Seattle also has no real depth behind Dodson. He and Jerome Baker will be the new starters at inside linebacker. Seattle drafted Tyrice Knight in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL draft, but expecting the rookie to start successfully communicating the defense play-by-play would be a mistake. Dodson must stay healthy in 2024 for Seattle's defense to maintain any kind of cohesion.
DK Metcalf - Seahawks wide receiver
Seattle has a trio of good receivers and should get a lot more use out of Noah Fant with new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb calling the plays, but the offense would not be the same without Metcalf. Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba can go deep, but they are more slot receivers, and neither has the strength of Metcalf. He can compete for deep balls that Lockett and JSN simply cannot. Opposing defenses are going to scheme more for Metcalf than Lockett or JSN.
Metcalf has also become the alpha of Seattle's receivers room. He led the team - easily - in receiving yards in 2023 as well as yards per reception. Again, he easily led the team. Lockett became more of a possession receiver, but Metcalf was the go-to guy most of the time when games were tight in the fourth quarter.
Metcalf is also just 26 years old and will have a lot more years left to play. A horrific injury would not only affect Seattle's offense this season but could affect Metcalf's elite athletic ability and could reduce Seattle's offensive effectiveness in future seasons. Fortunately, Metcalf has only missed one game in his career due to injury so far. Let's hope 2024 is not the beginning of a different trend.
Leonard Williams - Seahawks defensive lineman
The hope after Seattle traded for Williams midway through the 2023 season was that he would augment the Seahawks bad run defense and help get the team back to the playoffs. Seattle was 5-3 when they made the move for Williams and the team gave up a second-round choice to acquire him. For the rest of the season, Williams did his job well, but the rest of the defense was terrible.
Williams had 4 sacks and 32 total pressures in a Seahawks uniform last year, which, over an entire season, would mean nearly 50 pressures and almost 7 sacks. He is still very good and is the most consistently good defensive lineman Seattle has. Byron Murphy II might be great eventually, but he is a rookie. Jarran Reed is more one-dimensional and more of a pass-rusher. Dre'Mont Jones has yet to have an explosive season in his career.
No defensive lineman on the Seattle roster is capable of the high-level and well-rounded game that Williams has. He will allow Mike Macdonald to keep his D-line more versatile and disguise his looks. Without Williams, Seattle's line becomes much more pedestrian.
Michael Dickson - Seahawks punter
No punter in the league has been as consistently good as Dickson has since Seattle chose him in the fifth round of the 2018 draft. He has not always ranked first in net yards per punt or punts inside the 20-yard line, but no punter over that time has consistently ranked in the top five of those categories as much as Dickson. He was chosen in the draft to become a defensive weapon, and he has been that.
The issue is that Dickson has had a number of bad defenses with the Seahawks ruining the field position that Dickson gives them. With a good defense, there would be lots of advantages to how well Dickson punts. Time of possession would flip, and Seattle's defense would be better rested, but one reason time of possession has been so against Seattle is that Dickson so routinely backs offenses up, and then they just take their time driving down the field against Seattle's defense.
The drop-off between Dickson and a replacement would be precipitous mostly due to Dickson's consistency. This is why Dickson is on this list as opposed to kicker Jason Myers. Myers has been good, but another kicker might come close to efficiency. The same cannot be said of Dickson.
Devon Witherspoon - Seahawks cornerback
Witherspoon is probably Seattle's best overall defensive player. Heck, he could be the Seahawks' best player overall. His diversity in skill is what sets him apart from most other defenders in the NFL. He covers receivers extremely well, he can chase down opposing quarterbacks on blitzes, and he can tackle very well for a player who weighs less than 200 pounds. His ability to play inside and out as a cornerback is only going to help hide Macdonald's alignments.
Witherspoon's only real concern is staying healthy as he is a bit slight and likes to hit ball carriers so hard. In 2023, he missed three games. Should he play consistently in 16-17 games each year, he has the physical skill to become a Hall of Fame player. This is especially true as Macdonald is going to find a way to put him in the best situations to succeed.