The Seattle Seahawks are 3-1 through four games of 2023. They are just about where many thought (or hoped) they would be. Seattle sits second in the NFC West, but firmly in the playoff picture a quarter of the way through the season.
Seattle's schedule gets a lot tougher in the third-quarter of the season, but we have a bit before we get there. The Seahawks need to take advantage of all their winnable games now. If Seattle can get to 7-3 before a four game stretch beginning in Week 12 that goes 49ers, Cowboys, 49ers (again), and Eagles, Seattle should be OK.
But several players have helped Seattle get to 3-1, of course. Some of these players also are in contract seasons. Here are three guys who need to come back in 2024 if not beyond.
Seattle Seahawks left guard Damien Lewis
Hopefully by this time most 12s have bought in to the excellence that is Damien Lewis. The fourth-year pro was a top 15 offensive guard in the league in 2022, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required) and is ranked 27 so far in 2023 even though he is playing next to mostly backups. Through four games, Lewis has allowed 7 quarterback pressures, but zero QB hits, just 1 sack, and has had just one penalty called against him.
In 2022, Lewis allowed just 3 sacks in 634 pass block snaps. Yes, he had a bad Wild Card game last year against the San Francisco 49ers when in the second half he kept getting called for illegal man downfield, but it honestly felt like the referees were picking on him a bit. The truth is, Lewis is one of the best left guards in the NFL and has been for several years now.
Lewis will be just 27 years old when 2024 begins and plays a position where he can be really good for at least four more years after the current one. The highest-paid 19 guards in the league in 2023 all make at least $10 million. Somebody is going to pay Lewis a lot of money beginning in 2024 and that should be Seattle. Maybe negotiations will begin soon before Lewis hits the open market. The Seahawks don't really have a ready-made replacement for Lewis.
Running back DeeJay Dallas
DeeJay Dallas needs to be in Seattle for at least three more years. What stinks for him and works out well for Seattle is that overall the running back group in the NFL is heavily underpaid. Sure, Jonathan Taylor just signed a huge extension with the Indianapolis Colts (up to $42 million for three seasons), but Dallas simply isn't Taylor as few running backs are. Compared to the pay offensive guards get, only the top nine running backs make as much as $10,091,000. The number 19 highest-paid running back only gets $4.5 million.
Dallas has a cap hit of only $1,133,600 in 2023. If Seattle is to re-sign him, they likely would still pay him less than $2 million a season (likely much less). But to be sure Seattle has done Dallas a favor in terms of negotiating power. Besides getting the ball from Geno Smith and trying to grind out yards, Dallas has been a productive kickoff and punt returner.
Dallas is never going to be a number one back in the rotation unless the backs above him on the depth chart have all gotten injured (not out of the question with the luck Seattle has had at running back the last many years), but he can run a bit and can also catch the ball well. Dallas has caught 57 of his 65 career pass targets.
This year, though, Dallas is averaging 16.4 yards a return on five punt returns (this would rank fourth in the league had Dallas met the minimum for number of punt returns) and Dallas is averaging 26.6 yards per kick return and this leads the NFL. Dallas has also made very smart decisions on when to return punts and kicks and that is a statistic that cannot be measured but is nearly as valuable as the yards picked up.
Linebacker Bobby Wagner
Maybe Bobby Wagner is too old? That was the thinking after the 2021 season when the Seahawks basically had to release Wagner or pay him $20 million for the 2022 season. But then Wagner signed with the Los Angeles Rams and he was a monster last year. He earned second-team All-Pro honors last year, the ninth-straight season Wagner has been named first- or second-team All-Pro.
Thankfully, the Rams thought maybe Wagner was too old to be good in 2023 and Wagner chose to re-sign with the Seahawks. And while he will be 34 years old when the 2024 season begins, Wagner just seems like a different breed of cat. He might have lost half a step but that is likely a couple of steps more than most linebackers ever have. Per Pro Football Focus, Wagner is the fourth-highest-graded linebacker in the league through Week 5.
Wagner is by far the highest-graded LB in run defense. His return is a massive reason why Seattle has gone from atrocious run defense last year to being one of the best in 2023. Wagner has never been great in coverage and he isn't fantastic at coverage this year, but when a team has Bobby Wagner the greatness he brings outweighs a bit of coverage concerns.
Wagner currently ranks eighth in combined tackles in the NFL but every player above him has played one more game than he has. The same goes for solo tackles where Wagner is 10th. Wagner's cap hit is a criminally low $5.5 million this year and due to his age that might not rise in 2024. But due to his leadership abilities and play on the field, Seattle must bring him back next year.