Seattle Seahawks most overrated player deserves one more chance
A season of promise followed by a season of performance
So, here's the data for Taylor's first season. His first season on the field, as we all know his rookie season was lost to injury before it ever started. The headings should be self-explanatory. You'll note that a half sack is indicated in the negative yardage column. I could have BSd my way to some goofy mathy formula for the importance of each sack, but I think the data speaks for itself. This may sound crazy, but as I scanned the play-by-play accounts for each game, I actually found a tackle by L.J. Collier. I thought they were a myth.
Date | Opponent | Qtr/Time | Down/Distance | Field Position | - Yardage | Drive Stopped | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9-12-2021 | IND Wentz | 4th 10:00 | 4th 2 | SEA 18 | -9 | Yes/downs | W 28-16 |
9-26-2021 | MIN Cousins | 3rd 7:21 | 3rd 11 | SEA 15 | -10 FF MIN | No/FG | L 17-30 |
10-03-2021 | SF Lance | 4th 11:19 | 3rd 7 | SF 18 | -1 | Yes/punt | W 28-21 |
10-07-2021 | LAR Stafford | 1st 1:59 | 1st 10 | SEA 43 | -7 | No/INT | L 17-26 |
11-29-2021 | WAS Heinicke | 2nd 1:37 | 2nd 5 | SEA 44 | -4 | No/TD | L 15-17 |
12-12-2021 | HOU Mills | 4th 13:15 | 2nd 14 | HOU 48 | -5 | Yes/punt | W 33-13 |
1-09-2022 | ARI Murray | 2nd 1:21 | 1st 10 | ARI 25 | -8 (half) | No/time | W 38-30 |
3/4 | 4-3 |
Taylor had two stops in the red zone in his first season, although both were in double-digit games. Only one of his sacks was at a particularly critical stage of the game, that being the early fourth-quarter sack in a seven-point win over the Niners. There was a strong correlation between the drives he stopped and the Seahawks wins; three stops, three wins. The Hawks were just 1-3 in games where his sacks didn't kill the drive. But it's a very small sample size. It's also worth noting that four of his six-and-a-half sacks came in the first five games of the season. That proved to be typical of Taylor, as you'll see in 2022.
Date | Opponent | Qtr/Time | Down/Distance | Field Position | - Yardage | Drive Stopped | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9-25-2022 | ATL Mariota | 3rd 10:55 | 3rd 11 | SEA 29 | -7 FF ATL | No/FG | L 23-27 |
10-16-2022 | ARI Murray | 2nd 1:12 | 3rd 6 | ARI 36 | -10 FF ARI | Yes/Punt | W 19-9 |
10-23-2022 | LAC Herbert | 1st 2:43 | 3rd 10 | LAC 49 | -9 FF SEA | Yes/TO | W 37-23 |
12-04-2022 | LAR Wolford | 4th 0:36 | 1st 10 | LAR 25 | -5 | Yes/INT | W 27-23 |
12-11-2022 | CAR Darnold | 2nd 8:40 | 3rd 7 | CAR 28 | -10 | Yes/punt | L 24-30 |
4/1 | 3/2 |
Rather than cram all the info into one long table, I split the 2022 season in two. The table above is the "yeah, I guess I could sack the guy" part of the year. Taylor registered his first five sacks in ten games. That's not terrible by any means, but if that's all you're doing - and as we saw in the opening section of this article, it was - it simply isn't enough. but some interesting patterns start to emerge here. For one, four of his five sacks stopped the opposition's drive. For another, three forced fumbles are a lot, even if the Seahawks recovered just one of those.
Date | Opponent | Qtr/Time | Down/Distance | Field Position | - Yardage | Drive stopped | W/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12-24-2022 | KC Mahomes | 3rd 5:36 | 2nd 11 | KC 45 | -4 | Yes/punt | L 10-24 |
1-01-2023 | NYJ White | 2nd 8:47 | 3rd 16 | SEA 19 | -7 (half) | No/FG | W 23-6 |
1-01-2023 | NYJ White | 2nd 0:06 | 1st 10 | NYJ 44 | -10 FF SEA | Yes/TO | |
1-01-2023 | NYJ White | 4th 0:06 | 2nd 10 | SEA 29 | -11 | Yes/time | |
1-08-2023 | LAR Mayfield | 3rd 12:10 | 3rd 10 | LAR 38 | -4 | Yes/punt | W 19-16 |
4/1 | 2/1 |
Taylor cranked it up here with 4.5 sacks in just three games. As in the first segment of the 2022 data, four of his sacks killed drives, and even the one that didn't result in just a field goal. He forced another fumble, this time resulting in a direct turnover. Overall, six of his eight drive-killers coincided with Seattle wins, while the Hawks split the two games in which he failed to stop the drive.
Clearly, 2022 provided Taylor's best performance. The 9.5 sacks in 2022 make that obvious. In all, eight of his 9.5 sacks stopped drives, six of those on third down. I gave him credit if a drive stalls, even if his sack was on first down. It may not have the direct result of forcing a punt, but forcing the opposition into a second-and-20 situation can't exactly be ignored, either.