4 Seattle Seahawks whose jobs are in danger ahead of preseason Week 2

No. 3 - Seahawks edge rusher Darrell Taylor

Taylor is another guy we have written a bunch about on this website. For the record, I have nothing against Taylor. He played at the University of Tennessee and I lived near the school for years and I hope they do well. Taylor was good in college and was versatile on enough bad Vols teams (the Vols have a different coach now and are a much better team) to be among the best players on his teams. In fact, he deserved to be on better teams in college.

But he has yet to truly develop his game in the NFL. Players know the drill. You come into the league, find your niche, perfect that, and then do the best you can in other areas. But Taylor hasn't truly perfected his pass rush moves, and rushing the passer is what he does best. And he doesn't seem to focus at all on getting better at his run defense technique, so he is basically a player who is only decent on obvious passing downs.

Seattle has drafted two promising edge rushers over the last couple of years. Derick Hall (2023) and Boye Mafe (2022) weren't taken with the singular idea that they would replace Taylor atop the Seahawks pass rush rotation, but because Mafe and Hall appear to be much better at stopping the run (Hall hasn't played a down in a real game, of course, but he is bigger and stronger than Taylor) so they could get more reps based on that alone.

Taylor is going to make the team, of course. I am not trying to imply that the Seahawks release him. That would be silly. But as far as Taylor's spot on the depth chart, that could definitely be in question. He's also dealing with an injured shoulder currently, but even if he was healthy, Hall and Mafe, especially, would be pushing him.