Three big surprises on the latest Seattle Seahawks unofficial depth chart

The Seattle Seahawks PR team has released its second unofficial depth chart of the 2023 preseason ahead of Seattle's second preseason game on Saturday versus the Dallas Cowboys. While the depth chart doesn't mean the players listed as starters are still going to be starters when the real games begin, it does give an indication of who the team might be thinking of keeping on the 53-man active roster. Roster cuts have to be made from 90 to 53 on August 29th.

We are going to learn, of course, more about some other players not on the list that follows. Running back Bryant Koback, for instance, was pretty good against the Minnesota Vikings in preseason Week 1, but can he back it up by playing well against the Dallas Cowboys this week? He and other players could climb the depth chart.

The unofficial depth chart currently does have some weirdness. Why are some players ranked over others, for instance? The three that follow in detail are a few of those oddities.

Seattle Seahawks CB Arquon Bush listed over Artie Burns

By most accounts, Artie Burns is having an excellent offseason and has been good in training camp as well. He even graded well, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), against the Minnesota Vikings in preseason Week 1. He did allow a completion the only time he was targeted in the Vikings game, but he allowed only 2 yards and made an immediate tackle. Burns has been in the NFL since 2016.

Arquon Bush is a rookie who played in college with Coby Bryant (and the New York Jets' Sauce Gardner). Maybe Bryant was able to give him some tips on what it was like to play with the Seahawks and how to prepare for camp after Seattle signed Bush as an undrafted free agent this year. Bush has also been good in camp and he also graded well, per PFF, against the Vikings.

But in the second unofficial depth chart for Seattle this preseason, Bush is listed over Burns. Both players are expected to be backups, of course, but likely whoever makes the team, assuming one of them does make the roster, will see some valuable reps. Maybe Seattle sees more upside with Bush on special teams and that little bit of an edge is enough to make him more valuable than Burns currently.

Seattle Seahawks RB Kenny McIntosh listed over Zach Charbonnet

This might simply be a procedural matter. At some other spots on the unofficial depth chart one can see why the Seahawks PR department had some guys listed over others. For instance, linebacker Ben Burr-Kirvan is currently second on the depth chart while Vi Jones is third. Jones is dealing with an ankle injury, though, so it makes sense he would be third.

In other places, like tight end, Colby Parkinson is still listed as the fourth tight end while Tyler Mabry is tied at second, but we know that when Week 1 comes around, Parkinson is going to be on the roster, if he is healthy, while Mabry will probably be on the practice squad. But McIntosh over Charbonnet? That's just weird.

McIntosh is currently out for a couple of weeks - at least - with a knee injury. The team hopes he can be back before preseason Week 3, but there is no guarantee of this. Even when he does return, why would he be higher on the depth chart than Charbonnet? Zach Charbonnet is going to be RB2 in 2023 as long as he is healthy. And against Minnesota, Charbonnet ran as if he wanted to inflict pain on any would-be tackler.

Once McIntosh gets healthy, he probably can help the team. He is a three-down back so he shouldn't be relegated to just coming in on passing downs. But McIntosh should also only get a ton of reps if Kenny Walker and Charbonnet are hurt. Even then DeeJay Dallas might become RB1, while McIntosh spells him.

Seattle Seahawks WR Matt Landers listed over Dareke Young

Matt Landers looks like a receiver capable of doing great things at times. He is 6'4" and 200 pounds and ran a 4.37 40 before the 2023 NFL draft. Yet, he still went undrafted. Did teams just whiff completely on him, even Seattle during the draft, simply because he bounced around to a couple of colleges and didn't have a great quarterback in his last year at the University of Arkansas?

To reference a point made previously in this article, Landers listed above Young might just be a matter of Young being banged up recently. Young injured his hip, but he did return to practice this week. Hopefully he will be able to play in preseason Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys and get a chance to catch a few passes. Young flashed in the two passes he caught in 2022 that maybe he could be a capable WR4.

But Landers is faster than Young and is two inches taller. Young, however, has had to work his entire football life to reach the NFL so maybe his drive to be a good player is higher than Landers' as Landers has always had better physical skill than most of the players he played with. That is just a guess, though, and I cannot say that is true with any conviction.

Though Landers was playing against backups of backups when he caught his touchdown pass against the Vikings, he still showed a bunch of wiggle after he caught the ball. But he only caught one of his three targets and he played on 23 pass snaps. If Young can play versus the Cowboys, hopefully, he can play a lot. If he has a good game, he should jump Landers on the depth chart.

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