We are just days away, 12s, from another Seattle Seahawks football game. After months of lead-up to the 2023 season, we got a glimpse of how good (and heck, in Week 1...bad) Seattle can be in 2023. And so far, we mostly like what we see.
And Seattle has gotten to a 3-1 record without the help of many key players. Not because those players didn't want to help, of course, but because they simply couldn't. They were injured, see. But soon they will return.
Among those not mentioned in what follows are Tre Brown and Phil Haynes. Both players practiced and hopefully will be good to play against the Bengals. Brown's return could make a bigger impact than Haynes, though, and that's a good thing. No offense to Haynes, but Seattle needs all the high-quality secondary help it can get against Joe Burrow and his friends.
Seattle Seahawks left tackle Charles Cross seems ready to return
Of course, I am not a doctor and I didn't sleep in a hotel last night (thankfully!), but reading between head coach Pete Carroll's words of Cross looked "nifty" early in the week, I am going to assume Cross is going to be back in Week 6. That is if his toe injury can hold up the rest of the week. For most of us, a toe injury might not be a terrible thing, but for someone over 300 pounds and is a quality athlete trying to get push off to block beasts trying to chase down your quarterback, the toe might be a major concern.
So let's assume that Cross is back. What does Seattle's offensive line look like against the Bengals? We might question whether left guard Damien Lewis will return against Cincinnati as Lewis didn't practice on Wednesday after getting getting his ankle hurt in Week 4. A toe is bad enough, but an ankle? Yeah, that's worse.
So assuming Cross is in at LT, then maybe Jason Peters actually gets the start at left guard (Peters was signed a few weeks ago and is a future Hall of Fame tackle who can also play guard), Evan Brown will be at center, potentially rookie Anthony Bradford at right guard, and Jake Curhan at right tackle. That might not be the best Seattle could field in 2023 as far as the offensive line goes, but it's a decent group that could open holes for Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet against Cincinnati's bad rush defense.
Jamal Adams in but Kenny McIntosh still out
Kenny McIntosh, please come back! After a brilliant training camp and just ahead of preseason Week 1, McIntosh hurt his leg in the team's mock game. He hasn't been heard from since. According to Pete Carroll this week, McIntosh won't practice or (obviously) play this week. The shame is that McIntosh was showing explosiveness in practice and proved he could be a three-down back if given the chance as he can run and catch.
But McIntosh seems more likely to miss the entire season than play. Seattle is so far fairly deep at running back and as long as Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet stay healthy then McIntosh isn't needed. Perhaps he could sit out this year, get healthy, see what happens with DeeJay Dallas after the season (Dallas will be a free agent in 2024), and then make his case to be RB3.
Of course, in better news, Jamal Adams seems ready to come back once again. After making a brief appearance in Week 4 before he suffered a concussion, Adams is expected to be fully healthy for Week 6. He did have 2 tackles and a QB hurry in just nine snaps against the New York Giants and that's while Adams was having to shake off some rust.
Once Jamal Adams gets his full bearings he is going to disrupt opposing teams. That's just what he does and what the Seahawks need him to do. He is very likely to help Seattle's pass rush and keep them more consistently aggressive. But that might just be with Adams being a hybrid linebacker/safety and that's OK.
What will happen in Week 6?
OK, so what's going to happen when the Seahawks play the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday? Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and their buddies seemed to get things right against a bad but hard-playing Arizona Cardinals team in Week 5 and that's a scary thing for the Seahawks in Week 6. Cincinnati is simply too talented and too experienced to be playing poorly for too long. Plus, they normally start seasons slowly and then catch fire.
Chase last week had like 123 catches for 1,286 yards 800 touchdowns. Maybe those aren't the real statistics, of course, but they are relatively close in NFL-speak and Chase is capable of getting open early and often. Plus, Chase will get his buddy Tee Higgins back this week (probably!) and that causes even more issues for Seattle.
Still, the Seahawks are going to be about as healthy as they possibly can in the secondary for once in 2023. Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon, Tre Brown, Adams, Julian Love and Quandre Diggs should all be playing and that means the Week 6 matchup could simply come down to the Bengals receivers versus the Seahawks secondary in a battle to the, well...not death. But maybe football Week 6 death.
Or maybe the game could be decided on how well Seattle gets to Joe Burrow. My guess is that Burrow gets sacked a few times, but not enough to make a real difference and the Bengals win 27-21. Sadly.