This has not been an offseason where the Seattle Seahawks are getting a lot of love. Teams moving on from long-term coaches normally do not get improved chances of winning the following season. Seattle, though, should be different.
The head coach that was brought in should immediately fix some concerns about the team's defensive woes of the last several years. This includes being better on third down and getting a more consistent pass rush. The Seahawks offense should be better under the direction of Ryan Grubb as well.
Still, Seattle will have its skeptics. Of course, the way to eliminate uncertainty is to win games. The following members of the franchise might have the greatest number of doubters, though.
Mike Macdonald - Seattle Seahawks head coach
A first-time head coach taking over a roster in transition? Seattle is going to be worse in 2024, surely. That, at least, is what many national pundits expect. Since Macdonald has never been the guy in charge of the on-field product of a football team, he is probably going to make some key mistakes that hold his team back. That is seemingly the thinking of ESPN and others.
Maybe Macdonald will make mistakes, but every coach does. The difference between Macdonald and former head coach Pete Carroll should be that Macdonald brings a completely different perspective on how a defense should be run. Macdonald has also had a lot more recent success in defensive productivity than Carroll. Sure, Carroll was not the defensive coordinator with Seattle, but he was a defensive-minded head coach who should have been able to fix defensive struggles.
National pundits likely will not take long to be heavily critical of Macdonald and the Seahawks organization should Seattle start slowly and look sloppy. Pete Carroll was a big draw for many people because of his personality. His positivity somehow ended up being divisive. The easiest way for Macdonald to change the narrative is to win at the beginning of the season and have the team look cohesive.
Charles Cross - Seahawks left tackle
In a recent Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranking, Cross was not among the NFL's top 32 offensive tackles. He should have been. He has improved in both of his first two seasons, and his pass-block grade alone ranked in the top 32. PFF's ranking was likely just a bit more hate directed at the ignored Seahawks, as the team resides in the Pacific Northwest, far away from national media centers.
Cross does need to be even better in 2024, however. He was a top-ten pick in the 2022 NFL draft, and as such, he at least needs to perform like a top-20 tackle. Part of the issues he has had could be that he did not have great coaching in the NFL to begin his career. Former offensive line coach Andy Dickerson was not brought back this season, and he was replaced by Scott Huff.
Huff worked with new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb at the University of Washington, so he will know exactly what Grubb's offensive design is and what is expected of the offensive linemen. Huff also showed while at Washington that he can create blocking schemes that allow for elite pass protection. Cross has talent; he just needed the right teacher in the NFL, and Huff should be that.
There is no reason to believe that Cross cannot be a Pro Bowler eventually. That could be as early as 2024. He also has two years on his rookie contract to prove to the Seahawks that he deserves the team potentially picking up his fifth-year option.
Riq Woolen - Seahawks cornerback
From fifth-round rookie Pro Bowler to finding his way to Pete Carroll's dog house in year two, Woolen must prove to the new coaching staff that he is a good coverage cornerback who can also set a hard edge against the run. Woolen appears to have bulked up this offseason to get stronger and show he can help stop the run and cement his starting spot, but he needs to prove he can do that on the field.
Woolen is big enough to play a lot like Richard Sherman did. The third-year player can be physically imposing on the outside to ball-carriers. He did that to some degree in 2022. After suffering a knee injury in minicamp last year, though, he appeared to play scared, as if he thought he had suddenly become more fragile.
There were a couple of overall positives to Woolen's game last year, though. He allowed fewer yards per completion and fewer yards when targeted in 2023 compared to 2022. The happiness might stop there.
He allowed more passes to be completed when targeted, missed more tackles, had a much higher quarterback rating allowed, and had four fewer interceptions. Woolen obviously has the physical ability to be a great corner because he was so in his rookie year. He also has apparently re-committed himself to holding up against the run as he had added muscle. He and Devon Witherspoon are capable of forming one of the better cornerback duos in the league, but Woolen has to hold up his end.
Geno Smith - Seahawks quarterback
Geno Smith has had his doubters since the Seahawks gave him a chance to be QB1 before the 2022 season. No matter what Smith does, many doubters remain. One wonders if some simply refuse to look at statistics and weigh that with the overall team around Smith. For instance, he led the NFL in fourth quarer comebacks in 2023 while his defense was ranked 25th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed per play. A quarterback can only do so much.
Was Smith the reason Seattle lost eight games last year? Of course not. The fact that Smith had four fourth quarter comebacks and five game-winning drives (that number also led the league) makes it logical to think that Seattle would have been worse without Smith. But some people are going to doubt Smith anyway.
The people who matter - Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider - will decide what happens with Smith. The team acquired Sam Howell in a trade this offseason, and Howell is ten years younger than Smith and has a year of starting experience in the NFL. If Seattle does not see much difference between Smith and Howell, that could be the real problem for Smith.
Should Seattle release Smith next offseason, the team would save $25 million. Howell could then be the starter, and Seattle could draft a quarterback in 2025. Doubting Smith has proved to be a fool's errand, however, so the expectation should be that he plays well in 2024, and Seattle has no reason to think of releasing him next offseason.