Seahawks safety Julian Love gets the disrespect 12s have come to expect

The offseason of hate continues for the Seattle Seahawks. In many power rankings, the team is low and not predicted to have a winning season. This is true even though Seattle still has a good amount of talent, and the defense should be better under new head coach Mike Macdonald. The disrespect of the team is nothing new, though. Seemingly, that happens each year.

While the early Legion of Boom days forced people to respect the Seahawks, there also seemed to be an expectation that Seattle would soon swoon and swiftly. That did not happen, though Seattle stopped being a real Super Bowl threat by late in the 2010s. The team was still good enough to mostly make the playoffs.

Seattle missed the postseason last year, even though they had the same 9-8 record as the season before when they did make the playoffs. Seattle was in a position to make the playoffs had they won their last two games, but bad defense and especially wretched tackling cost them their chance. The bad defense should not have been blamed on safety Julian Love, though.

Julian Love joins list of Seattle Seahawks getting disrespected this offseason

Love made the Pro Bowl even though he was underused in many games by former defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. Hurtt, whether he chose to or because former head coach Pete Carroll advised him to, preferred to play Jamal Adams over Love. The defense allowed a touchdown more a game on average in games when Love didn't get more than 44 percent of defensive snaps (of which there were four such games).

Even though Love made the Pro Bowl, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) doesn't believe Love is a top 20 safety. There were six safeties that made the Pro Bowl last year, and Love was one of them.

Of course, PFF bases their rankings on their own grades. That is fair, but it is also self-serving. While Love had an overall grade of 72.8 in 2023 - 23rd in the league - part of that grade included a pass-rush grade of 90.0. That grade is weird because Love only had two total pressures, and he was not used on blitzes very often. His run defense grade was a paltry 55.2 even though he missed 7.5 percent of his tackles, a solid number for a safety.

Love's 4 interceptions ranked third among safeties last season. His passer rating allowed was just 82.2.

Love will likely also be better for the Seahawks in 2024 under Mike Macdonald. He also has the motivating factor of being a free agent next offseason and can earn a big paycheck if he plays well this season. Maybe by then, PFF will do the right thing and rank him inside the top 20 of safeties.

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