The Seattle Seahawks are now 6-5 with three extremely tough games in a row ahead of them. On Thanksgiving Day, Seattle was destroyed by the San Francisco 49ers in a game that never got closer than 11 points early in the second quarter. San Francisco was the better team, of course, but Seattle looked worse than they did in 2022.
There appear to be no easy fixes for the Seahawks. Most of the post-game comments focused on people doing their jobs and working harder. But if a team doesn't have the right game plan ahead of a game, what difference does working harder make?
Plus, why would a team need to work harder? Shouldn't they already be maximizing their effort? The team needs better preparation ahead of games and then needs to execute the plan. But here are some winners and losers from Week 12.
Loser No. 1 - Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll
We have always heard a lot of the same kinds of things each week from Pete Carroll bundled with a good amount of positivity. And to be fair, most coaches are not going to do interviews where they break down specifically the plays that did not work and Carroll isn't going to throw any player under the proverbial bus. But honestly what we hear from Carroll doesn't matter, but what his team hears in the days leading up to a game does.
Carroll, like most NFL head coaches, works with his offensive and defensive coordinators to build a game plan for the upcoming game. Then the coordinators put the plan into action during practices and hopefully by game time the team has rehearsed what they are going to do so much that there is not much thinking during the game, but simply aggressiveness and reaction.
But the game plans that Carroll and OC Shane Waldron and DC Clint Hurtt have come up with against most of the good teams they have faced in 2023 has not worked at all. Seattle got blown out against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 and then slammed by the 49ers in Week 12. Seattle did somehow beat the Detroit Lions in Week 2 and also defeated a Cleveland Browns team in Week 8 that did not have a good quarterback at the helm.
But expecting Seattle to even come close to beating the Dallas Cowboys, 49ers, and Philadelphia Eagles in the next three weeks seems foolish. The Seahawks simply won't be prepared to beat those teams.
Winner No. 1 - Receiver/returner Dee Eskridge
Who saw this coming? Dee Eskridge had literally done nothing for his entire career to make a 12 think, "Oh, this guy could really help the team!" But after Week 12 that might be a logical thought in terms of Eskridge. Seattle might have found his special skill. Or maybe they knew the skill and Eskridge simply hasn't been available to prove he could be good at anything.
But while he still hasn't shown he can be a decent receiver, he looks like a potentially very good kick returner. On his first kick return of Week 12, he returned the ball 66 yards. Over the course of four kick returns, Eskridge averaged 35 yards a return. That is excellent. And while I have certainly written many times that Eskridge should not be a part of the roster, he does deserve praise for being one of the very few bright spots against San Francisco.
Of course, doing one thing, even if he does that one thing really well, does not mean Eskridge should stick on the team in 2024, but if he can repeat his kick return performance most weeks, he surely makes an argument he should stick around. Of course, with Eskridge, you can never be sure he will do another good thing for the Seahawks.
Loser No. 2 - Edge rusher Derick Hall
Hopefully, in 2024 Hall will make the same kind of jump that Boye Mafe took from 2022 to 2023 because so far as a rookie Hall simply has not been very good. He was spectacularly bad in Week 12 against the San Francisco 49ers. Hall only played 16 snaps because he was so ineffective against the 49ers running the ball and Hall's only productivity this year has been in run defense.
Hall was simply unprepared for the change of direction that the 49ers like to do. He was often run out of position and had no impact. He missed one of his four tackle attempts so an edge rusher missing 25 percent of his tackles can cause an explosive play and cause a team to get beat. Several times the 49ers exposed Hall and gained runs of 10-plus yards running toward his side.
So far this year, Hall has just 1 tackle for loss, 4 quarterback hits, 0 sacks in 222 snaps. That is certainly enough snaps to have created more productivty than what we have seen from Hall so far. I am not going to call him a draft bust because he is a rookie, but he definitely needs to be better beginning in 2024. Otherwise, there is a decent chance Hall might not ever been a productive part of the edge rush group for the Seahawks.
Loser No. 3 - Seattle's tight ends
I think the Seahawks are foolish not to use their tight ends more, and the focus on getting the ball even more to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett has greatly hurt the efficiency of the offense. Through the first four games, Geno Smith targeted his tight ends about 7 times per game, and that has fallen to just 5 times since. Tight ends Noah Fant, Will Dissly, and Colby Parkinson have proven capable of catching most passes thrown their way. Plus, Fant and Parkinson are pretty nimble after they have the ball in their hands.
Against the 49ers, Fant, Dissly, and Parkinson were targeted only 4 times. Metcalf had more than twice that many targets by himself. Zach Charbonnet was the checkdown option many times, but his number of targets equaled the combined number for the tight ends. A good tight end can affect the outcome of a game, obviously, and Fant would be a very good option in an offense that knew how to use him.
Fant and Parkinson are both free agents after this season. If were either one of them, I certainly wouldn't come back to the Seahawks (unless they just rightfully love the city of Seattle) as the way the offense is schemed currently is hurting their potential income. It is hard to sell yourself to another team if you are not getting the ball much.
Seattle's offense is greatly struggling, especially in the red zone. There need to be a number of fixes. But getting the ball to the tight ends more would certainly help.