The Seattle Seahawks are 2-1 with one game left before their bye week. Maybe based on the last two games, if Seattle could replay Week 1 (when they were flat-out awful) they would be 3-0. But 2-1 with all the injuries the team has had is probably good enough at this point.
Seattle now plays one of the marquee games of the week in Week 4 versus the New York Giants. The game is in New York (well, New Jersey) and on Monday Night Football. That's great stuff.
The Giants aren't playing well, could be without running Saquon Barkley, and Seattle is beginning to get healthier. The Seahawks should win. And here are three players who should be ultra-motivated on Monday.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith
As part of Geno Smith's revenge tour, he defeated the New York Giants in 2022. Smith played for the Giants in 2017 and almost no one of importance for the Giants still remains from that team. Still, it is always nice to beat a team wearing a jersey that you used to wear and have a feeling that the organization didn't want you.
Therefore, Smith's want to beat the Giants might not ever go away. That kind of rage doesn't really digress. At least, for most people. But Geno Smith seems to be able to forget negative moments and move on more quickly than most humans. In 2022, Smith went 23 for 34 for 212 yards and 2 touchdowns against New York, so there is a likelihood that the Giants are much more worried about Smith in 2023 than he is wasting time trying to exact more revenge.
But Smith also played for the New York Jets, of course. Between the Jets and the Giants, Smith spent the first five years of his career in the New York area and probably heard a lot of hate directed at him from New York area sports fans. While the Seahawks beat both the Jets and Giants in 2022, neither game was in New York (or New Jersey, to be more accurate), so Geno Smith might want to ball out in front of New York area football fans and show them what they are missing.
Strong safety Julian Love
Love spent his previous four seasons in the NFL with the New York Giants. He didn't get a chance to start until last year when he started 16 games. He was pretty good too both against the run and pass. He had 2 interceptions, a sack, and had 80 tackles. But Love hasn't been quite as good through three games in 2023 with Seattle.
According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Love is graded at 74 among 85 safeties this year. That's bad. Of course, the problem is that Love is the highest-graded Seahawks safety as Coby Bryant is next-to-last and Quandre Diggs is the worst. Maybe this means that Seattle's secondary will be much better for the rest of the year, or maybe Love will get replaced soon.
There could be many reasons to replace Love as well. One is that he simply hasn't played that well, of course. Another is there is a returning player (more on that in a second) who might be the natural replacement for Love. Those last two points should also be motivational to Love in Week 4, especially as he might be looking at his replacement next to him on the field.
But Love, like Smith, might simply want to do well against his former team. There are few things more motivational than that. Maybe Love will even jump up the grades on Pro Football Focus with a fantastic performance on Monday Night Football.
Seattle safety Jamal Adams
Finally, Seattle will get Jamal Adams back! At least, that is the expectation ahead of Monday's game. Adams has slowly worked his way back, going from not practicing to partially practicing to fully practicing and then reverting back to being a partial participant before going back to full again. Whew. The expectation shouldn't be that Adams plays a full game against the Giants, but maybe about 40 percent of the snaps.
How Adams will be used in the Seattle defensive scheme remains to be seen. He might be a hybrid safety/linebacker and used to attack opposing quarterbacks. One thing he will need to control against the Giants is being so hyped up to help the team that he blows a coverage or two while trying to blitz.
But this is almost a perfect setting, other than playing his first game back at Lumen Field, for Adams to return. The game is in New York and Adams began his career with the Jets, of course. New York fans have been saying how much their team benefitted from the Jets trading Adams to Seattle in 2020. While it is true that the Jets got a lot of draft capital from the trade while Jamal Adams has been oft-injured with Seattle, Adams isn't done with the Seahawks so we can't fully talk about the value of the draft.
Adams returning to playing football and doing so in New York and on Monday Night Football is nearly perfect. Let's hope he shows the nation just how much of a great impact he can have on Seattle's defense.