4 fourth-year Seattle Seahawks who desperately need to prove themselves

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Jordyn Brooks

Jordyn Brooks was a first-round draft pick in 2020 and in his first couple of seasons, he proved to be a great tackler with excellent speed who could chase down ball carriers from sideline to sideline. But he wasn't overly productive in pass rush, however, and he only has 6 quarterback hits in his career - 3 in each of the last two seasons. And Brooks was pretty horrible in coverage.

In fact, in 2021, Brooks allowed 77 receptions when he was targeted 96 times in coverage for a ridiculous 865 yards. Last year, he allowed 54 catches on 75 targets which was a slightly better completion percentage against (though a still bad 72.0 percent), but he allowed more yards per completion (12.8), and more touchdowns (5).

Brooks simply seems like a one-note linebacker at this point: He can tackle well. But he can't cover receivers and hasn't shown the versatility to pressure opposing quarterbacks. He is also injured, of course, to begin the season as he suffered a knee injury late in the 2022 season. He might be ready sooner than expected, but how much of his speed returns right away remains to be seen.

The positive is that if Brooks is ready to play at some point in 2023, he won't have the duty of setting the defensive alignments as Bobby Wagner has returned after a one year absence and Wagner will take on the responsibility of giving out the defensive play-calls. Maybe this will free Brooks to do what he does best, but he also needs to be a lot more versatile to earn a huge next contract.

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