3 Seattle Seahawks who could become household names in 2023

Seattle Seahawks edge rusher Boye Mafe

There could be a reason, other than working on an extension with a player before the last season of a player's contract begins is not the Seattle way, that the Seahawks haven't tried working out a new deal with Uchenna Nwosu. Nwosu was easily Seattle's best edge rusher in 2022 and he is still only 26 years old. But he is going to want to make a buch of money in 2024 and beyond. But the Seahawks have Hall and also Boye Mafe.

Seattle might be waiting to see how Hall and Mafe work out prior to thinking of extending Nwosu because Hall and Mafe are under rookie contracts for four and three more years, respectively. Mafe looked fantastic in preseason games last season but when the real games began he didn't produce a lot. This was likely just due to him acclimating to the NFL.

But Mafe also wasn't terrible last season. Per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Mafe had a run defense grade of 72.6 in 2022. That ranked second on Seattle's roster among edge rushers. His overall grade of 64.6 was also second on the team.

Mafe also missed only 3 tackles in 2022, a year in which it seemed at times the rest of the Seahawks defense forgot how to tackle. He finished with 3 sacks and 10 total quarterback pressures and still played better against the run. Now that Mafe has gotten his feet wet, he could explode in number of sacks in 2023 and get closer to 10 or more. NFL fans tend to notice when players reach double-digit sack totals.