The Seattle Seahawks are heading into the 2020 season with their two longest tenured defensive players, Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, reprising their roles as starting linebackers.
With Mychal Kendricks no longer in the fold, the SAM linebacker position is up for grabs in a competition between rookie Jordyn Brooks, a first round pick in 2020, as well as Cody Barton, a third rounder in 2019 who looked good in brief action last season.
Of course, with coach Pete Carroll, it’s never that simple. Bruce Irvin, who the team signed early on in free agency, is expected to play some SAM on early downs, before transitioning to a defensive end/pass rushing role in third down situations.
Seattle could also slide Wright, who is expected to be fully recovered from offseason shoulder surgery by Week 1, over to the SAM role, allowing Brooks to play his more natural WILL position in his first NFL season.
Plus, after staying in their 4-3 base defense nearly 70% of the time last year, often leading to poor results, the Seahawks could opt to play nickel a lot more in 2020, especially if they like what they see out of Ugo Amadi in training camp.
All this leads to a myriad of questions about Seattle’s defensive setup, including what will happen to the team’s other linebacker, Ben Burr-Kirven, a fifth round pick in 2019 out of the University of Washington.
Burr-Kirven joined the Seahawks as a tackling machine, having led the entire NCAA in tackles in 2018 with the Huskies. He was always seen as a developmental linebacker who would cut his teeth on the special teams in year one, and that’s exactly how things went down.
BBK appeared in all 16 games for the Seahawks in 2019, racking up eight combined tackles and forcing one fumble on 310 total snaps – 306 which occurred on special teams.
The odds of him stepping into a bigger role on defense in year two got a lot slimmer with the additions of Irvin and Brooks.
And, since he’s unlikely to go the route of Shaquem Griffin and develop into an undersized pass rusher – that’s just not his game – he is currently on the outside looking in for regular snaps on defense.
Of course, coach Pete Carroll loves his core special teamers, and while there’s not room for many on the active roster, it does seem hard to imagine the team cutting someone who appeared in all 16 games last year, and was a part of 66% of the team’s special teams snaps.
BBK will have to prove he’s one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable, special teamer on the roster if he wants to find himself in a Seahawks uniform for the duration of the 2020 campaign.
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