The Seattle Seahawks should - "should" being an important word there - be a playoff team in 2023. Why not? They surprisingly made the postseason in 2022 and have added more talent, via free agency and through the NFL draft, this offseason so they should (there's that word again) be better this year than last.
But nothing is set, of course. Many games every year, even for the best teams in the league, are decided by a few plays in a game. So, yeah, there's some luck in being successful as well. But luck isn't really a trait one can adopt. Luck is more of something that happens to a person or a team than something a person or team can create.
But teams can play well enough to put themselves into more positions to be lucky. What can teams do to be successful besides relying on luck? They can develop the traits of greatness and here are three Seattle must adopt in 2023.
Seattle Seahawks adopt consistency
While the Seahawks offense was overall quite good in 2022 and a whole lot better than anyone thought they'd be before the season started, they were massively inconsistent at the same time. In weeks four through nine, Seattle averaged 32 points a game. Seattle went 5-1 in these games. In the final six games of the season, including the playoff game against the 49ers, Seattle averaged just 19 points per game. Seattle went 2-4 in these six.
The defense was even more inconsistent than the offense. In the final five games before the bye week in 2022, Seattle's defense gave up an average of 17 points a game and then in the five games after the bye week, the Seahawks allowed 28 points per game. This included giving up 40 points to the Las Vegas Raiders in an overtime loss where Seattle gave up 283 rushing yards. Two weeks later Seattle gave up 223 rushing yards in a 30-24 loss to the Panthers. Those 30 points would be the third-highest total for Carolina in 2022.
Now that Seattle has more depth and more talent on the roster, there should be little reason for such inconsistency. Plus, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt will be in his second full season in his job. If there is such inconsistency this season, some coaches might need to worry about their positions.
Seattle Seahawks must adopt an aggressive defense
Ever since the Legion of Boom began to age and break apart in the late 2010s, the Seahawks defense has been more reactive than proactive. Seattle has never been a blitzing team and if their base defense is sound they don't need to blitz much. But they do need to do something other than lay back and allow teams to pick up third downs and control the clock. Much of this has happened because opponents know Seattle isn't going to come after them on obvious passing downs.
This wasn't always the case when Jamal Adams was healthy in 2020 and had 9.5 sacks in 12 games, but Adams didn't have much help. Now Seattle is deeper at edge rusher with Uchenna Nwosu, Darrell Taylor, Derick Hall, and Boye Mafe. If teams are having to account for all the base players, that should free up an occassional blitzer.
Ideally on passing downs Seattle could play three safeties but have Adams play a hybrid linebacker role. This would leave Quandre Diggs and Julian Love (a good combo to have at safety even if Adams isn't on the roster) on the backend. If a team turns out to run the ball then Adams would still be solid crunching the offensive line. And Adams wouldn't need to blitz all the time; That would be too obvious.
Let's assume Adams isn't healthy for a lot of 2023. Seattle still has the ability to be more aggressive. Tariq Woolen is a good corner and the Seahawks have more corner help in 2023 after drafting Devon Witherspoon. Mike Jackson likely provides depth and he is solid in coverage as well. If Seattle knows the secondary is going to cover well, they can be more free to rush offside guys. Keeping a team off-balance in knowing what's coming will go a long way toward making Seattle's defense better in 2023.
Seattle Seahawks have to adopt trust
Head coach Pete Carroll knows talent when he sees it. There's no way a coach would have been as successful as he has over his 13 seasons in Seattle if he didn't know who to put on the field. But even if players are on the field, there could be trust issues. Take Geno Smith in 2021 when he came in after Russell Wilson got injured. In the three games Geno played, he was OK but Seattle was afraid to ask him to do too much. This was the trend to begin 2023 as well until Geno proved he could successfully guide the offense.
But now Seattle has drafted potentially another great class in 2023 and many of those players will play early in their careers. There was a hint in minicamp that maybe Seattle wasn't completely going to trust Devon Witherspoon to start in Week 1 because they had Witherspoon playing quite a bit in the slot in some practices. This would leave Mike Jackson to begin the season at one corner spot opposite Tariq Woolen.
Seattle needs to learn to trust Witherspoon quickly, however. His ceiling is likely much higher than Jackson's and the only way for Witherspoon to be great sooner than later is to play him early and let him make mistakes. Witherspoon probably won't make too many and could help offset any by taking the ball away from the opposing offense.
Seattle probably needs to trust Geno Smith even more in 2023, too. Smith has more weapons at his disposal - receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and running back Zach Charbonnet - so let Smith be even more control of the offense. Is he a perfect quarterback? No. Few QBs are anywhere close to perfect. But Smith might be a perfect fit for the Seahawks offense.