3 things Seattle Seahawks need to improve on for the rest of 2023
- Third down defense is still an issue
- Unfortunately, so is third down offense
- Penalties are going to cost the team eventually
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks are about to restart their season and they will have a non-stop string of games until Week 18. Seattle's only bye week of 2023 was this past weekend in Week 5. But while normally having such an early bye might not be a great thing, this year the bye was likely needed.
Seattle has already had to deal with multiple injuries in multiple position groups, especially the offensive line and at cornerback, and some rest is only going to help the team. Seattle should get left tackle Charles Cross back for Week 6, for instance. By Week 7, right tackle Abraham Lucas could return as well.
The Seahawks are 3-1 and if the season were to end right now (which would be weird to have an NFL season end after most teams have played just five games), Seattle would be in the playoffs. But Seattle still has 13 games to play and anything can happen, of course. But to increase their chances of making the playoffs yet again, Seattle needs to fix a few things.
Seattle Seahawks have a penalty issue but it's not just the amount
Seattle might just be 13th in the number of penalties picked up in 2023 (and by the way, that is still near the top-third of the NFL), but they are sixth in terms of yards when penalized. And worse, seven of their 32 penalties have been 15 yards or longer, second worst in the league (I have no idea what the Detroit Lions are doing, though as the referees seem to hate them as they have 10 15-yard penalties that were accepted).
Offensive holding and false starts are the kinds of penalties that are simply going to happen. But the Seahawks do not rank in the top half of the league in either of those. Instead, Seattle is near the top of the league in roughing the passer and taunting, both penalties that are corrected, sure, but mostly shouldn't happen. A roughing the passer penalty here or there will occur, but when you have a player like Darrell Taylor hit a quarterback about 3 seconds after the quarterback no longer has the ball - this happened in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions - then that is pretty unacceptable.
Seattle has to correct the penalty concerns. The team has been lucky that they haven't been hurt too much by silly penalties, but eventually in an important game they will.