Seahawks News: Geno Smith, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, DeeJay Dallas and power rankings
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks get an extra day of rest this week as they do not play until Monday. This is great as Seattle has been a banged-up group and the extra day might allow them to get players such as cornerback Riq Woolen back. Let's hope anyway.
We will post injury updates daily when we know what we know and will try to give an indication of who we think will play for Seattle on Monday against the New York Giants. But one player expected to return is safety Jamal Adams. He hasn't played since Week 1 of 2022.
Beyond injuries, however. There are some news and notes while we are in between games. Let's start with a slightly surprising one.
Seattle Seahawks are getting more from DeeJay Dallas than maybe they anticipated
In previous seasons, DeeJay Dallas had returned punts and kicks some but he seemed more of a safety net than a player Seattle expected to get much from in terms of return yardage. Last season, Seattle added kick returner Godwin Igwebuike midway through the season and he was explosive on some kick returns. But Seattle chose not to try to bring him back in 2023.
Instead, Seattle gave both the kick return and punt return jobs to Dallas. And Dallas has been surprisingly good at both. One possible reason for this is that DeeJay Dallas is in a contract year and wants to show the entire NFL what he is capable of in case Seattle doesn't re-sign him. But based on his special teams prowess alone, Dallas has made himself more valuable to the Seahawks moving forward.
Dallas currently ranks sixth in the NFL in punt returns (14.8 yards a return on 4 returns) and third in kick returns (26.0 on 6 returns). Plus, it's the little things that Dallas does on returns that are making the biggest difference. In Week 3, he caught a punt on the four-yard line and got two Panthers ot miss and got the ball out to the 19. That's a win. And almost all of his kick returns have gotten out beyond the 25-yard line where the team would have started if he had fair caught the kick.