Seahawks addition of veteran safety a much better fit than Quandre Diggs

There's now little chance the Seattle Seahawks will bring 12's favorite Quandre Diggs back on a new contract, now that they've moved on to a less expensive replacement, Rayshawn Jenkins. They're not the same kind of player, but in most respects, Jenkins is even better.

It isn't exactly the same as seeing Bobby Wagner leave the Seahawks, but there's little doubt that the release of Quandre Diggs still stings. Yeah, his performance dropped a bit in 2022, but he was still a legit Pro Bowler. Last year, his playing level dropped quite a bit more. Sadly, it reached the point where it made more sense to cut him and save $11 million against this year's salary cap than keep him. To be clear, Diggs could still return, but it would be for a vastly reduced contract.

Diggs wasn't just a good performer on the field, though. He was a team captain in Seattle, and the self-appointed social media captain as well. Who first broke the news that Bobby Wagner was coming back to the Hawks in 2023? Adam Schefter? Tom Pelissero? No, it wasn't one of the top reporters who've covered the NFL for years. It was none other than the irrepressible Nino, Quandre Diggs. And now he's gone. As for the man who's replacing him on the field, surprise. 12s. He's an upgrade.

The Seattle Seahawks pair safety Rayshawn Jenkins with Julian Love

Now I'm sure a lot of 12s are already metaphorically shredding this article in rage for the suggestion that Rayshawn Jenkins could possibly be better than Diggs. Let me save you the trouble; feel free to copy and paste your outrage. "Diggs is a three-time Pro Bowler! Quandre has 24 career picks, 18 for the Hawks alone! Rayshawn has how many? 10? Man, I don't even know who this cat played for!"

First, nice choice of the term cat, as Jenkins played for the Jacksonville Jaguars for the last three seasons. You are correct, Outraged 12; Quandre Diggs has a lot more career interceptions than Rayshawn Jenkins and infinitely more Pro Bowl selections.

But over the past two seasons, they both have five interceptions. Over the past two seasons, Diggs broke up 12 passes; Jenkins had 24 pass defenses. Diggs allowed six scores, while Jenkins allowed just one. Sounds like round one goes to Jenkins. All stats are from Pro Football Reference, as linked.

Take a deeper look at Diggs vs. Jenkins

If you think a two-season comparison unfairly assigns more weight to Diggs' relatively poor 2023, fine. Let's look at a three-year comparison. That gives Diggs two of his three Pro Bowl seasons versus all of Jenkins' games at Jacksonville. Happily, PFR does the work for us again with their Stat Head feature. Quandre's advantage as a ballhawk shows up, with 10 picks to Rayshawn's five. But that's it; that's his only advantage. Some of these numbers are a bit startling. Again, these are for the past three seasons combined.

Those five extra interceptions don't quite balance out against the five extra touchdowns allowed. Five possession changes are great, but it's not quite the same as five scores by the other team. For the record, those same numbers last year were overwhelmingly in favor of Jenkins. The dropoff in the level of play by Diggs is - well, it's no surprise to any of the 12s who were paying attention last year.

Ouch. Over the past three seasons, Jenkins may not have had the flashy stat - the interceptions - but in every other metric, he was either even with Diggs or ahead. That advantage grew when you compare just the past two years, and was - well, there's really no comparison last year. Oh, for those who love Pro Football Focus (subscription required), they agree. While they grade Jenkins far lower than he should be, regarding the actual stats, he's still ranked 17 spots ahead of Diggs.

Jenkins can line up anywhere for the Seahawks

We didn't even touch on the versatility of the players. Quandre Diggs is a free safety, maybe as pure a free safety as there is. Over the past three seasons, 3,055 of his 3,541 snaps came at the position. Compare that to Jenkins, who played everywhere for the Jaguars. Good grief, it's easier just to show you the numbers in another chart. All data regarding alignments is per Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

The first that pops out here is that Diggs played a hell of a lot more snaps. Jenkins missed three games in 2021, but that accounts for only about 192 snaps, based on his average. Part of that is that the Seahawks simply had more snaps on defense. Over the past three years, the Hawks had 3,611 snaps on defense while the Jags had just 3,383. That tends to happen when the defense can't get off the field.

That's another 228 snaps. So 420 of the 480 snaps aren't a matter of usage, just circumstance. Over the past two seasons, Jenkins played 97.8 percent of all defensive snaps, while Diggs played 98.6 percent of his. So, not a big difference. Especially when you consider that Diggs played seven snaps on special teams in the past three years and Jenkins took 382. Maybe, he simply needs an occasional rest, huh?

Jenkins is a better fit for the Hawks new defense

Let's get back to those alignments. Yes, Quandre lined up in the box some, but it was still on less than nine percent of his snaps. Meanwhile, Rayshawn was everywhere. He was on the line almost as much as Quandre played slot. Jenkins can be considered a strong safety, sure. Most of his snaps came in the box, just under 43 percent. But 32 percent of the time saw him lined up deep, and almost 17 percent in the slot. He even lined up at corner more often than Diggs did in the slot, per snap (4.28 to 3.95 percent).

And what new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks made a point of lining up his players in multiple looks to disguise his coverage? Congrats, 12s, you got it on the first try. Macdonald loves to move his chess pieces around the field. Last year, none of his three - yes, three - safeties got more than 22 percent of the snaps in the box. His schemes are a topic for another time, but Jenkins is a perfect match for the multiple sets Macdonald likes to throw at the opposition.

Yes, it would have been great if the Seahawks had signed Geno Stone. Sadly, he joined the Bengals instead, reportedly for two years and $15 million. The Hawks signed Jenkins for two years and $12 million. But that extra three mil can go a long way. Both center Nick Harris and tight end Pharoah Brown signed for $3 million deals.

As for Jenkins himself, no, he may not be the best safety in the league. But he's far more versatile than Diggs. At this point in their careers, he's a better player and a far better fit for what the Seahawks defense will run in 2024.

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