The Seattle Seahawks finished the 2019 season among the worst pass rushing teams in the NFL, an issue that impacted them all year long despite an 11-5 record.
While the team added a pair of veterans in Bruce Irvin and Benson Mayowa, they also lost Quinton Jefferson to free agency, and have yet to pull the trigger on any of the big name pass rushers on the market, including Jadeveon Clowney, Matthew Judon, Everson Griffen and Yannick Ngakoue.
The draft is almost certainly an avenue the Seahawks will explore to improve the team’s pass rush, but they also have some in-house options that could step up and contribute meaningful snaps in 2020 – including 2017 third round pick Nazair Jones.
Jones has steadily declined since his strong debut in 2017, which saw him appear in 11 games, making two starts, while recording 19 combined tackles, two sacks and an interception. He only appeared in nine games in 2018, making just seven combined tackles, and then missed the entire 2019 season with a knee injury.
Prior to going on the shelf, Jones was reportedly transitioning from three-tech to five-tech, a move that should give him added flexibility for a Seahawks defense that could use it. It also means he probably wasn’t getting the job done on the interior, which isn’t a great sign.
Jones will have to compete with Jarran Reed, Poona Ford, Bryan Mone and Demarcus Christmas for a job on the inside, and the Seahawks are almost certainly going to add to that mix via free agency and/or the NFL draft.
The five-tech spot is currently occupied by some combination of Benson Mayowa, Rasheem Green, L.J. Collier, Branden Jackson and Bruce Irvin – with more additions likely to come there as well.
Jones doesn’t have a clear path to a roster spot at the moment, but his 2017 performance was good enough to earn him another chance this summer – and if he looks healthy and displays some of that aggression and instinct we saw from him back then, he could be a dark horse candidate for rotational snaps in 2020.
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