The Seattle Seahawks have added more talent this offseason. Sure, a lot of the rookies are banged up right now, but most should be able to play the majority of the season and hopefully be good. A Seattle team that exceeded expectations in 2022 should be expected to be better in 2023.
But Seattle still has a lot of questions to answer that cannot be answered right now. Once the real games begin we are going to learn a lot more about how good the team will be. Schemes are so vanilla in the preseason that all we are seeing now in the preseason are just glorified scrimmages.
What are some of the more important questions the team still needs to answer? Maybe the three that follow.
Is the Seattle Seahawks offensive line any better in 2023?
Seattle is replacing 40 percent of its offensive line from 2022. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? But two-fifths of the Week 1 starters in 2022 are gone. Center Austin Blythe has been replaced by Evan Brown. Phil Haynes ended up rotating out with Gabe Jackson for the second half of last year at right guard, but now right guard completely belongs to Haynes. For now.
Last season, tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas were rookies and were fine. Lucas was probably even a little better than Cross. But in 2023, both players need to take big steps forward to being top-20 tackles. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Lucas was the 39th-best offensive tackle and Cross was 54th. Those rankings aren't bad for rookies but shouldn't be accepted by second-year pros.
Left guard Damien Lewis was really good last season. He is also entering the final year of his rookie deal and that should motivate him to be even better in 2023. He is currently the one offensive lineman a 12 can likely count on to be excellent. The reason is that Lewis has proven he can be excellent in previous seasons.
Overall, the offensive line has better talent, especially as Brown is so much bigger and stronger than Blythe. But will Lucas and Cross be much better than last year? Is Haynes truly a good right guard? The offensive line is still very much a question mark.
Is the talent in the Seattle Seahawks secondary really that good?
The Seahawks secondary is stacked, right? Or is it? We know cornerback Riq Woolen was excellent through most of 2022, but he seemed to slip a bit late in the year. He also had a bad game against the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs last season. Will Woolen, who is one of the players 12s really hope to count on for the foreseeable future, be even better than 2022 or did he reach his ceiling early last year?
Quandre Diggs is good. We can count on him. But fellow safety Julian Love only has been a full-time starter for one year and is new to the Seahawks. Will he be a good fit in Seattle's system and will he be excellent with more expectations? Plus, Woolen, Diggs, and Love are three of the guys we can assume will be productive.
But we don't know how good a healthy Devon Witherspoon can be as a rookie and we do not know if he can stay consistently healthy. He hasn't so far in training camp. Mike Jackson was solid last year, but after a year of being on tape opposing offensive coordinators might know better how to attack him. Jackson was also awful against the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle cannot afford that kind of play when the real games begin.
Tre Brown is battling Jackson for one starting outside corner spot and Brown has been consistently better in the preseason than Jackson. But Brown hasn't been mostly healthy in his two-year career and we don't know if he can ever stay healthy. As far as depth at safety, there is a lot of unknown behind Love and Diggs. Coby Bryant appears to be a safety now, but as Witherspoon has missed so much time this preseason, Bryant might have to start Week 1 in the slot.
And this is not including Jamal Adams at all. He might be a linebacker/safety hybrid whenever he is available to play. He is expected to be activated from the PUP list this week, but we don't yet know when he will actually be ready to play in real games.
What are some remaining position battles the Seahawks need to settle?
The offensive line is likely set and that has sometimes been a position group that wasn't always settled heading into a Week 1. So that is good. The defensive line is probably set as well with Dre'Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, and Mario Edwards being the starters. But at other spots where there might be even more depth, some spots remain open.
Going back to the last subject, what exactly is the cornerback group going to look like? Woolen is at one spot. In the slot Week 1 is probably going to be Coby Bryant. Expecting Devon Witherspoon, who has missed a ton of practices, to go up against Cooper Kupp and be successful is not a safe bet. And Jackson and Brown is still an open battle.
At linebacker, what should happen at inside linebacker? The team paid Devin Bush a pretty decent contract this offseason, but now Bush looks like he might just be a backup. Or does Bush jump a returning Jordyn Brooks somehow? Or does Seattle go with three linebackers a bunch on the field and how does that affect other positions?
As the receiving group is just a mess. Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf are healthy. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is out for likely Week 1. Even if Smith-Njigba was healthy, who is WR4? Now Jake Bobo might be WR3 and he might not be any good against starters in the NFL. Seattle likely still has at least two receiver spots to figure out before Week 1.