2023 Seattle Seahawks final 53-man roster breakdown and grades
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks initial 53-man roster is set. But did general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll and the rest of the coaching staff make the correct choices in who to keep and who to let go? We may not know until a few weeks into the season. Maybe some stock should be taken of the team in the Week 5 bye week.
The teammight also change a little between now and Week 1 as well. While Seattle has set the roster, a player or two might be moved to IR on Wednesday. This allows the player to only miss four games at a minimum but not the entire season. Jamal Adams could be a candidate for this.
One piece of good news came out the day before full roster cuts were made, though. Rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba recently had wrist surgery, of course, but NFL.com's Ian Rapoport tweeted (X'd?) on Monday that Smith-Njigba is expected to remain on the active roster and not go on IR, so he might only miss a game or two at most.
But how well is the overall team put together? Who made the team and how does each position grade? Here are my best guesses.
Seattle Seahawks set initial 53-man roster for 2023
Quarterbacks (2) - Geno Smith and Drew Lock
There is zero surprise here. Geno Smith is rightfully QB1 and Lock is a solid QB2. I am still a little hesitant to be totally OK with Lock coming in for long stretches of time is Smith were to get hurt. Lock has been pretty good in both of the last preseasons, but he hasn't played a down of real football. Plus, he hasn't gotten any time with most of Seattle's ones on offense even in the preseason. The timing might be off.
But Smith was good last year. The statistics back that up and they don't lie. Now there is no guarantee that Smith will be as good in 2023, but the expectation should be that he is even better. Over the course of the season, Smith will have better offensive weapons than last year and should have better blocking. The defense should help the offense more as well. Seattle might have positions of need stil, but quarterback isn't one of them.
Grade: A