Tag: Leonard Williams

Seahawks DL Leonard Williams turned 30 years old on Thursday

Seahawks DL Leonard Williams turned 30 years old on Thursday

The Seattle Seahawks did not technically have a second round pick in the 2024 NFL draft. I qualify it with “technically” because technically the Seahawks used their second rounder to acquire defensive tackle Leonard Williams  Considering how dominant he was in the trenches, even in a unit that struggled mightily last season, I believe it is safe to say the 12th Man is happy the second rounder was used in this capacity.

Now, Williams is here to say, after he inked a lucractive extension with Seattle. It has been a big offseason for Williams, and the celebrations for Big Cat continue, as he turned 30 years old yesterday!

Williams was a considerable problem for offensive lines last season. The monstrous defensive tackle was practically unblockable. His highlights from the 2023 season can be seen here.

The Seahawks defensive line will need Williams back in action for 2024, as the unit will look to improve under the leadership of new head coach Mike Macdonald. Considering how suffocating Baltimore’s defense was for the last two seasons under Macdonald, one can only hope Williams can help replicate the success in the Emerald City.

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Leonard Williams says Devon Witherspoon reminds him of a defensive lineman

Spoon has a believer in defensive end Leonard Williams.

The Seattle Seahawks may have drafted themselves a fully-formed superstar last year in former Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon. While most rookies in the NFL take time to get adjusted to the speed of the pro game Witherspoon hit the ground running, immediately making an impact in his first several starts for Seattle and at times looking like the best player on the field.

Witherspoon continued to play at a high level for the rest of the season, but only finished fourth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. That slight and the influence of new head coach Mike Macdonald has us believing that Witherspoon is ready for a serious breakout 2024 campaign. Spoon has a believer in defensive end Leonard Williams, who says he has outrageous energy and reminds him of a defensive lineman.

Here’s what Big Cat had to say when he was asked by reporters at mandatory minicamp.

“Spoon is a great player… He has this outrageous energy in a great way. For a small guy, he is very physical and rowdy; it reminds me of a defensive lineman.”

Spoon was drafted for his skills as a cover cornerback, which he did well in his first year. His prowess as a pass rusher from the slot came as a very pleasant surprise, though. He finished the year with three sacks and a 90.8 pass rush grade from PFF, the third-best at his position last season behind Marlon Humphrey and Trent McDuffie.

If Macdonald is truly as good as advertised, there’s a decent chance Witherspoon will be an All-Pro in 2024 and might even be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.

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Devon Witherspoon describes Mike Macdonald’s unique coaching style

Devon Witherspoon told reporters before yesterday’s practice that Macdonald’s approach is nerdy but in a good way.

The Seahawks were supposed to be a dominant defensive team under former head coach Pete Carroll. For a while, they were definitely that, fielding the best unit in the league for four straight seasons when they were at their very best (2012-2015). However, after that fateful 2015 season this group started to fall off and they were never able to regain their footing or even come close to being an elite defense again in the Carroll era. In fact, the last few years they had become one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

That’s just one of the many good reasons why the team moved on from Carroll this offseason and went in a different direction, albeit with another defense-first kind of coach. Mike Macdonald did a brilliant job leading the Ravens defense over the last two years, quickly transforming what had been an average unit into the top defense in the league in every meaningful way.

Heading into his first year coaching the Seahawks, defensive players are raving about the unique way he sees the field. Star cornerback Devon Witherspoon told reporters before yesterday’s practice that Macdonald’s approach is nerdy but in a good way.

In the past Bobby Wagner and Quandre Diggs were arguably the most important players for this unit – moving forward that responsibility will now be carried by Witherspoon and defensive end Leonard Williams. Getting those two playing their best ball will be a big factor in finally turning this defense around.

Witherspoon will need to improve his tackling but he’s already a superb cover corner and arguably the best pass rushing defensive back in football. We’re thrilled to see what he does in Year 2 under Mike Macdonald.

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Leonard Williams says Seahawks have him playing 6 positions up front

Williams told the media that the Seahawks have him lining up at six different positions along the defensive line at practice.

Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams spoke with reporters yesterday at the VMAC before what turned out to be the team’s last practice of mandatory minicamp. Williams will be one of the most important members of the team going into the 2024 season and getting the best out of him will be critical in turning around a defense that ranked No. 30 in yards allowed last season.

One way to do that is to embrace Williams’ versatility and it sounds like head coach Mike Macdonald is going forward full throttle with that. Williams told the media that the Seahawks have him lining up at six different positions along the defensive line at practice.

Good stuff. The more we hear from defensive players about Macdonald and his plans for this unit, the more excited we are to see it in action. Macdonald’s unique and creative approach definitely got the most out of many defensive players for the Ravens last year.

If he can manage a similar boost in Seattle, it will go a long way towards making this team a Super Bowl contenders again.

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Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde on rotating his DL

Here’s what Durde had to say after yesterday’s OTAs practice about shifting his DL around.

While the Seahawks offensive line is by far the team’s biggest liability, the defensive line should be one of their greatest assets in the first year under new head coach Mike Macdonald. While Macdonald will be calling the defensive plays at first, he’ll eventually be handing those duties over to the relatively unknown Aden Durde, who’s his defensive coordinator.

Durde spent the last three years as the defensive line coach for Dallas, where he frequently rotated and moved his pieces around. Fans should expect more of the same this season in Seattle, where he has several versatile, powerful pieces to use up front. Here’s what Durde had to say after yesterday’s OTAs practice about shifting his DL around, per Brady Henderson at ESPN:

“That’s what good defensive lines are. Obviously where I can from… Right now, it’s kind of hard because we can’t go full-gas, but it’s what are people good at? What are their individual roles? How do they fit into the picture? What down and distance would they be good at and where do they excel? I really believe up front, it’s about creative a way of playing that enhances peoples’ ability in certain situations. There’s a couple of guys that really just flourish in every situation. There’s other guys like [NT Johnathan Hankins] or those guys that flourish in certain situations, and then how do you rotate them? We’ve got so much versatility.”

We won’t know for sure what the depth chart looks like until September, but for now we are projecting Leonard Williams and rookie Byron Murphy II to start at defensive end, flanking Jarran Reed at nose tackle. Hankins should be considered the next man up there, with Myles Adams and Mike Morris backing up Williams and Murphy.

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The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Why defensive tackles matter more than ever

Why are defensive tackles more important in today’s NFL than they’ve ever been before? Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar are here with the answers.

In today’s NFL, with as much quick game as teams are using, it’s more important than ever to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible. Often, the shortest distance between the line of scrimmage and the quarterback is a straight line, and when your edge-rushers don’t have time to get home, it’s up to your interior defensive linemen to make those sacks and pressures happen.

It’s why the NFL has placed an increasing importance on those inside guys, and the money has gone up accordingly.

In 2019, there were 15 interior defensive linemen with in-season cap hits of more than $10 million, led by Aaron Donald at $17,108,000. In 2024, there are 22 such players. Now, a lot of those contracts are ones in which the cap hit happens to explode in this league year, but the point still stands – the NFL is placing an increased financial priority on interior defensive linemen. 

It’s also why NFL is paying more centers and guards more money and selecting more higher in the draft, as well.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys get into all the reasons why interior defensive linemen are of such crucial importance, the techniques they use to pester enemy quarterbacks, and the best players at creating pressure in the shortest possible time.

You can watch this week’s “Xs and Os” right here:

You can also listen to and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

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With Aaron Donald out of the picture, who will become the new king at this position?

After 10 years of dominating the Seattle Seahawks and just about everybody else in the NFL, the best interior defensive lineman in the league has mercifully hung up his spurs and called it a career. Having won three Defensive Player of the Year awards, making 10 Pro Bowl teams and earning eight All-Pro honors, Aaron Donald went out on top – leading all interior linemen in tackles for a loss (16) last season.

With Aaron Donald out of the picture, who will become the new king of the iDL? Let’s find out. Here’s how we rank the top 30 interior defensive linemen in the NFL going into the 2024 season, beginning with a few rookies who will take the league by storm once they get up to speed.

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ESPN: Seahawks have improved most along their defensive line

Mike Macdonald seems aware of that and is determined to turn around the team’s culture to one that’s more physically dominant in the trenches.

As we have seen play out several times over the last two seasons, Seattle is lacking at the line of scrimmage compared to true NFL heavyweights. New Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald seems aware of that and is determined to turn around the team’s culture to one that’s more physically dominant in the trenches.

It will take a while before they’re ready to compete with the 49ers at the line of scrimmage, but so far the work has been productive. According to Brady Henderson at ESPN, the team has improved most along its defensive line. The boost is thanks mostly to the selection of Byron Murphy in Round 1 and the addition of Johnathan Hankings in free agency.

“The Seahawks used the 16th pick to draft Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, whom they considered the best defender in this year’s draft. They previously signed veteran nose tackle Johnathan Hankins on a one-year deal to be an early-down run-stuffer. Murphy is a three-down player, but between his addition and that of Hankins, as well as a full season of Leonard Williams and new coach Mike Macdonald’s scheme, Seattle should be better against the run after allowing the most rushing yards (4,906) of any team over the past two seasons.”

Seattle also retained Leonard Williams and re-signing him to a three-year deal was the most important move the franchise made this offseason, aside from firing Pete Carroll and replacing him with Mike Macdonald.

If Macdonald can carry over the pass-rush whisperer dynamic he brought to Baltimore’s defense, then we should see a dramatic improvement in this unit over the next couple of years. By the time he left the Ravens they had the best defense in the NFL by a wide margin. It will be very interesting to see if he can engineer a similar surge in Seattle. If he can, this team may be a contender again as soon as 2025.

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Mike Macdonald raves about flexibility of Seahawks defensive line

Mike Macdonald raves about flexibility of Seahawks defensive line

The Seattle Seahawks have been trying to field a formidable defensive line for several years now. Unfortunately, their efforts have not been as fruitful as they’ve hoped, as the group up front has been bullied by opposing offenses for the better part of two full seasons now.

Hopefully, this is about to change. Seattle has slowly assembled a talented position group, headlined by Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Dre’Mont Jones and now Byron Murphy – the team’s first pick from the 2024 NFL draft. So far, new head coach Mike Macdonald is thrilled with what he has to work with. Macdonald recently raved about the flexibility he has at the position, per Brady Henderson at ESPN:

“We have a lot of guys… That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about it, is you’re not going to know where guys are necessarily going to be all the time. We’ll have some really sweet ways to move guys around and have them in different spots based on the teams we’re going to play. A lot of flexibility going in, a lot of pass-rush opportunities, matchups, things we can manipulate. So all that’s on the table. It’ll be fun to see how it shakes out.”

Usually, when teams have openings at the head coach position, they are teams starting from the bottom. A team that cratered and is looking for a fresh start. The Seahawks were not of this typical mold. The cupboard is not bare, which is why they were probably able to land the best coaching candidate available in Macdonald.

There is no doubt this roster will likely undergo major changes this year, and in following seasons, as Macdonald molds it to his image. But for now, he is not starting from the ground up. There are legitimate building blocks in place for a solid foundation.

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Seahawks tried trading back up into the second round ‘multiple times’

To occupy themselves Schneider says the team thought about Leonard Williams.

If you were bored to tears and anxious for the Seattle Seahawks to finally get back on the clock last night as Round 2 unfolded you weren’t alone. According to Seattle general manager John Schneider, the team tried to move back up into the second round multiple times. However, they were unable to swing a deal as everyone they talked to wanted to make a pick.

To occupy themselves Schneider says the team thought about Leonard Williams, who they gave up their second-round pick for to the Giants.

Fortunately the Seahawks won’t need to move up on Day 3. After the Panthers make the first pick in Round 4 Seattle will be on the clock at No. 102.

Our best guess for that first pick is they will be targeting Boston College guard Christian Mahogany, setting themselves up for two potential long-term starters at those guard spots along with UConn’s Christian Haynes.

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