The Seattle Seahawks already had a decently talented roster prior to the 2022 NFL draft. Then the team seemed to strike gold with its rookie class last year. The 2023 class also appears to be very good, but they haven't yet proven it on the field, of course.
On this list of most important Seahawks for this year, I do have a player from last year's class. If all goes well, I could have one or two from the 2023 class if I do this same list next year. That's the hope anyway.
But while Seattle has a lot of young talent, several veterans are still the most important pieces on the team. If all of the five players that follow have excellent seasons, so will the team overall. But if a couple of them fail, the team won't make the playoffs. Here are the five most important players in 2023 for Seattle.
Number 5 - Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf
As great as Metcalf, or teammates Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, can potentially be in 2023, he is still reliant on a quarterback to get him the ball. Metcalf has to get himself open on every passing down, and constantly work throughout the game to create news ways of creating space, and yet still, per 2022 numbers, he will only be targeted 24.7 percent of the time his quarterback gets a pass off.
That's why DK Metcalf ranks fifth on this list. But other than all that was previously said, DK Metcalf ranks higher than Lockett and Smith-Njigba because of his ability to consistently use his size and speed to make explosive plays. The problem is that Metcalf hasn't had any more explosive plays than Lockett. That's no slight to Lockett, either. He has found a way to make himself into one of the best receivers in the league through his route-running and immense ability to catch the ball.
Metcalf should have a huge year this coming season, though. The reason is that defenses will still have to focus on Lockett, of course, but if Smith-Njigba is as good as advertised, his ability to get open underneath is going to create more opportunities deep for Metcalf. Metcalf also caught fewer red zone targets in 2022 compared to his career average, so if he bounces back a bit in 2023 he could have 14 touchdown passes.
Number 4 - Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen
The Seattle Seahawks secondary should be excellent in 2023, but a lot of that is determined by second-year player Tariq Woolen. Woolen far exceed most national pundit's expectations in 2022 and made the Pro Bowl after having 6 interceptions and becoming the kind of shutdown corner the Seahawks had missed for some time.
But Woolen also wasn't as good late in the season as he was early and he was pretty awful in the Seattle Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers in last year's playoffs. San Francisco had no fear in targeting him 8 times. 49ers receivers had 4 catches on those 8 targets for 88 yards with a long of 33. That number of yards was the most Woolen gave up last year.
One of the biggest questions about Woolen entering this year is was he truly as good as he showed for much of 2022 or was it more a matter of teams just weren't prepared for his ability after not truly having enough tape on him? The hope is that he is obviously even better this year after getting a year of experience. He has the raw ability to be fantastic, of course, and now he just needs to apply the mental side.
There is also the assumption that Woolen will be good this year as much of the talk of a cornerback battle is between veteran Mike Jackson and Devon Witherspoon for the player that starts opposite Woolen. But what if Woolen digresses quite a bit and the starters become Witherspoon and Jackson? Plus, Woolen suffered a knee injury in minicamp and is still trying to get back healthy for Week 1 and has missed training camp so far.
Number 3 - Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman Dre'Mont Jones
Dre'Mont Jones is by far the most money general manager John Schneider has ever spent on a free agent. Before Jones, Uchenna Nwosu in 2022 was but the difference in the contracts is about $7 million a season. It goes without saying, the Seahawks expect Jones to have a huge impact beginning in the 2023 season, but can he do that?
Jones didn't become a full-time starter with his former team, the Denver Broncos, until last year. In his first three years in the NFL, Jones started 16 of a possible 43 games. Did that say more about how Denver was using Jones or that they thought Jones wasn't trustworthy enough to expect him to give a ton of consistent production.
Jones did have a slight uptick in number of tackles last year. But he missed four games because of an injury, and he still played 100 more snaps than he did in 2021. His number of sacks didn't increase over his 2020 season (he had 6.5 sacks in 2020 and 2022), but he played 156 more snaps last year than he did two years ago. He also had fewer quarterback hits (10) than he did in fewer snaps in 2021 (11).
My point in all of that isn't to be a downer. It is simply to maybe put some pause on any Jones hype. 6.5 sacks is still solid, but it's not defense-altering. Jones might just be a cog in the overall machine, but not a transformative force. If that's the case, that's a lot to pay for a player who will have a cap number of $10,056,666 in 2023.
Number 2 - Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner
I am not psyched Bobby Wagner is back with the Seattle Seahawks. Did I think Seattle had to do something about Wagner's contract in the 2022 offseason before he left and signed with the Los Angeles Rams? Absolutely. But that had nothing to do with Wagner the player and more about the $20 million cap hit he had entering last year.
I wish Seattle had gone to Bobby Wagner and reworked his deal. They didn't. And it appears that Seattle didn't contact Wagner at all until after it was reported on social media that he had been released. Wagner is a better person than I am because I would have had some hard feelings about basically being fired that way, but then he decided coming back to the Seahawks this offseason was an OK thing to do.
And no offense to linebacker Jordyn Brooks, but Seattle massively missed Wagner's ability to comminicate on the field last season. Seattle seemed to miss a lot of assignments, especially very early in 2022. Brooks didn't truly seem ready to take Wagner's role of not only being an excellent tackler, but also being a verbal leader.
Wagner should improve the Seahawks defense in 2023 simply from a skillset alone, but he will also make sure the defense is set better before the ball is snapped by the opposing offense. A half-second faster reaction from the defense helps in pass defense but especially helps against the run as a team can get aligned more quickly for whichever run play is developing in front of them.
Number 1 - Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith
There are likely a ton of arguments that have a title such as, "Most important Seahawks not counting the quarterback." There's nothing wrong with that subject, of course, but I am going to make things more simple here. The most important position on nearly every football team is the quarterback. Therefore, Geno Smith is the most important player for Seattle.
And Smith isn't simply important because he is the quarterback. Or more specifically, Smith could make sure the QB spot for the Seahawks in 2023 is a huge positive. Or a massive negative. If I were writing this article about the Kansas City Chiefs, for instance, I would likely still have Patrick Mahomes number one on the list, but I'd also be very sure Mahomes was going to play brilliant football. I am not as sure about Smith.
I think Smith will be even better than he was last year. He has more weapons to work with and probably will have a better offensive line in front of him, but last year Smith did an excellent job, especially in the first half of the season, of not turning the ball over. He only had 15 combined turnovers (11 interceptions and 4 fumbles lost) in 2022, but he had 9 of those in the final seven games.
As long as Smith stays efficient and doesn't have a lot of picks and/or fumbles, the offense should be fine and one of the top-ten best in the league. But if he forces more passes this year, then Smith isn't going to be the quarterback in 2024 and that's going to set the franchise back. Let's hope Smith is great in 2023 and the team makes a deep playoff run.