Tag: Seahawks defense

Seahawks defense ranks at or near the bottom in these 12 categories

Here are 12 categories where they rank at or near the bottom of the NFL.

The Seahawks defense is desperate. Yesterday, the team tried to ignite a spark by bringing back Bruce Irvin, who’s been signed to their practice squad. At the rate this unit has been playing Irvin will be promoted to the active roster, named defensive captain for life and the new starting outside linebacker all by 12-noon local time today.

Here are 12 categories where they rank at or near the bottom of the NFL.

The All-22: Taysom Hill revealed and exploited Seattle’s broken defense

Taysom Hill of the New Orleans Saints made history on Sunday against a Seattle Seahawks defense that had no answer for any of it.

Before Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks, there had been 11 instances in pro football history in which a player had at least three rushing touchdowns and at least one passing touchdown in the same game. After Sunday’s game between the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks, 12 players had achieved that impressive feat.

In New Orleans’ 39-32 win over Seattle, backup quarterback/Wildcat star/tight end Taysom Hill ran nine times for 111 yards, three touchdowns, 86 yards after contact, two forced missed tackles, and a supreme housing of the Seahawks’ problematic defense. Hill also attempted one pass, completing it for a 22-yard touchdown to tight end Adam Troutman.

As Hill had rushed 12 times for 116 yards and two touchdowns in the first four weeks of the 2022 season, that rushing ability should not have come as a surprise to a Seahawks defense that has been bailing water out of the boat all season long.

Still, the Seahawks seemed uniquely unprepared to deal with any of it.

“Taysom Hill had a great football game against us; we did not stop him,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said after the fact. “Our plan for the Wildcat did not work, obviously. He ran for over 100 yards, and that was really the difference for them in a lot of crucial situations. He came through in a big way for them. It wasn’t new, they had done it, but the things we tried to do didn’t get us off the field.”

So, was this about Hill’s greatness as a package runner and passer, or did the Seahawks just blow it? As is generally true, it was a mixture of the things. Let’s get into how it turned out the way it did.

Pete Carroll comments on potential personnel changes on defense

On Monday coach Pete Carroll was asked about potential personnel changes on defense.

Good news: the Seahawks had a secret superstar in QB Geno Smith and are among the top offenses in the NFL this year. Bad news: they also have one of the worst defensive units. After four weeks only the Lions are allowing more points and yards per game and Seattle ranks last in defensive DVOA.

On Monday coach Pete Carroll was asked about potential personnel changes on defense. Here’s what he said, per Gregg Bell at the News Tribune.

“We’re still competing. We’ve still got some competition that’s why we’re rolling guys around to see who’s starting. All of our guys are going to keep playing. The guys that have been in there, I think Mafe played 30-something, 34 plays or something like that. That’s getting going. We need more and we’ll keep rolling the guys and making sure that we are trying to keep our guys fresh… I think we just need time to keep working and keep finding our way and making sure we are getting all the right info so we can make the right choices. But now, most everybody that you have seen rotate are going to continue to do so.”

Odds are this defense would look pretty awful no matter what, but injuries have of course played a role in their struggles. The biggest issue has been the absence of Jamal Adams, who suffered a torn quad in Week 1 and is likely done of the season. He’s been replaced by Josh Jones, who thrived during the preseason but has become the weakest link for the secondary.

Another major hole is on the edge, where Darrell Taylor might be the most disappointing player of the season so far. He’s graded out as their worst defender by PFF and had been replaced by Darryl Johnson. However, he’s suffered a significant foot injury so the Seahawks will have to improvise again. Getting Boye Mafe more snaps is the right idea, but it won’t be enough to turn around such an atrocious unit.

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Al Woods offers a solution for Seahawks’ run defense problems

The Seahawks may not be the worst run defense team in the NFL, but they’re not far from the bottom.

The Seahawks may not be the worst run defense team in the NFL, but they’re not far from the bottom.

Heading into their Week 4 matchup with the Lions, everyone is offering ideas to stop the bleeding. On his radio show, K.J. Wright suggested some schematic adjustments. Defensive tackle Al Woods offered a more direct solution, though.

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K.J. Wright suggests a tweak to improve Seahawks’ run defense

For the 2022 Seahawks, their biggest issue is their inability to stop the run.

Football is an incredibly complex game and yet one part of it can be enough to sink your whole team. For the 2022 Seahawks, their biggest issue is their inability to stop the run. So far they have been gashed by their opponents on the ground – especially Cordarrelle Patterson, who won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

Convincing former linebacker K.J. Wright to come out of retirement would help, but listening to his advice is probably more practical. Speaking on his new weekly ESPN radio show, Wright suggested a tweak to Seattle’s defense to help in this area. Specifically, he thinks their interior defensive linemen are not-suited for this scheme outside of Al Woods and a change is needed.

“When you look at (defensive tackle) Al Woods, he is in my opinion the only defensive lineman that fits this scheme… Poona Ford and Quinton Jefferson, they are very good at penetration, getting up field, getting in the backfield. If you go into a game saying, ‘Hey guys, I need you guys to go lateral, take up two blocks, mirror the offensive lineman,’ in my opinion that does not fit their skill set… you can keep the scheme but jiggy rig it a little bit to what the fellas are really good at, OK, if you see that we’re getting gashed, let me get this safety in the box way more to help stop the run. You gotta find a way to stop this stuff early because if you do not, it will continue to be 100-plus (rushing yards allowed) each and every week”

At this point allowing 100 rushing yards would be a dramatic improvement. Heading into Week 4, the Seahawks are allowing 157 a game on the ground, the second-most in the league.

Here’s the full audio from Wright’s show.

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Uchenna Nwosu calls latest Seahawks effort ‘unacceptable’

Improvement has to begin at Nwosu’s position, where he’s the only guy that’s made any kind of positive impact this season.

The Seahawks only made one remotely aggressive move in free agency this season. Following a breakout year with the Chargers, Uchenna Nwosu signed a two-year, $20 million deal with Seattle that somehow qualifies as their most-expensive signing in the Pete Carroll and John Schneider era.

Nwosu has been one of the precious few bright spots on defense, but overall this unit has a serious dearth of talent and is well on the way to being one of the worst groups in the NFL. After Sunday’s sobering four-point loss at home to the Falcons, Nwosu went on Twitter and called the effort unacceptable and promised they’ll be better.

Improvement has to begin at Nwosu’s position, where he’s the only guy that’s made any kind of positive impact this season. Opponents have targeted Darrell Taylor as a soft touch and have had a ton of success running in his direction. With both Alton Robinson and Tyreke Smith on IR, there’s not a lot of depth to go around and they didn’t come in with much to begin with.

Truth be told, this was an easy problem to see coming. The Seahawks simply didn’t invest enough resources at this spot to stay competitive. Signing Von Miller or Chandler Jones was probably never in the cards, but putting more chips on the edge might have helped prevent this current disaster.

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Pete Carroll on flailing Seahawks defense: ‘We’ve all got to do a better job’

The big story is a defensive unit that’s completely gone to pot with poor showings rampant at all three levels and on the sidelines.

If you were expecting to see a lot of championship football from the Seahawks this season, you weren’t paying attention during the offseason. While Russell Wilson isn’t doing any better in Denver, Seattle definitively hit the reset button this year – and that usually means some hard times are ahead.

Geno Smith has done an admirable job at quarterback in Wilson’s absence and the run game finally showed signs of life in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta. However, the big story of the 2022 season to date is a defensive unit that’s completely gone to pot with poor showings rampant at all three levels and on the sidelines.

After the game, coach Pete Carroll admitted everyone has to do better.

Clint Hurtt and Sean Desai haven’t been given an all-star defense, but they have to figure out how to employ their pieces better – because they keep getting beat in the same ways.

At the top of the list is a run defense that was one of the league’s best last season but has suddenly became the worst. Through three weeks only the Texans are allowing more rushing yards per game – and Houston doesn’t count.

It’s been a poor all-around effort, but teams are honing in on Seattle’s edge defenders in particular. Both the 49ers and the Falcons went wild running wide zones and the Seahawks were totally unable to adjust and make stops.

As for the passing game, they’re once again not getting enough pressure. Yesterday Marcus Mariota felt comfortable enough to complete his first eight passes, all going for 14 yards or more.

It’s tough to stay competitive when you’re making Mariota look good and couldn’t stop the run if your life depended on it.

So, what’s the solution?

It’s over our paygrade to suggest schematic adjustments. However, personnel-wise we can think of a few guys who could have helped this defense. Re-signing Carlos Dunlap, K.J. Wright and D.J. Reed wouldn’t have solved all their problems, but it’s guaranteed they’d look a lot better than this.

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Seahawks OLB Uchenna Nwosu eager for 2022 season to start: ‘I’m ready’

For his part, No. 10 can’t wait to get started.

The Seattle Seahawks are either going to be an unmitigated dumpster fire or a pleasant surprise this coming season, depending on who you ask. While nobody is expecting them to make a deep playoff run, there’s not much consensus on just how good (or bad) they’re going to be without Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner serving as their two centerpieces.

Many analysts are predicting a poor 2022 campaign – with some projections having them only winning four games. Others see this as a sleeper team that will be more competitive than most people believe. If Seattle is going to prove the latter right, the x-factor will likely be how effective their new defensive scheme is. There’s cause to believe it’ll be sneaky-tough.

For one thing, this group is headed in the right direction. The first half of the 2021 season was dismal for this unit – at one point early in the season they were on pace to allow more yards than any team in NFL history. However, the defense got on solid footing in the second half of the season – thanks in part to adjustments by former defensive coordinator Ken Norton. While it wasn’t enough to save his job, Norton deserves credit for turning the unit around and setting a stable foundation for this coming campaign.

New defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt and associate head coach Sean Desai are tasked with continuing the transition away from what had become an outdated zone-heavy, cover 3 model to more of a two-high, aggressive scheme inspired more by Vic Fangio than Pete Carroll.

One of the major changes they’ve implemented is a switch from a 4-3 base up front to a 3-4 base. Coinciding with that, the front office turned over the top of the edge rotation in a significant way, cutting ties with traditional 4-3 defensive ends Carlos Dunlap and Rasheem Green, who combined for 15 of the team’s 34 sacks last year. Replacing their pass-rush disruption for what was already a lackluster area of the game will be critical, to say the lesat.

While he’s not a double-digit-sacks kind of threat, a major component of this new front line will be outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu – a free agent pickup coming off a breakout year with the Chargers.

Nwosu will be at the top of the team’s new-look depth chart at the EDGE position and will likely be employed in a variety of ways befitting his well-rounded skillset. Seattle fans who are unfamiliar with Nwosu’s talents are likely in for a nice surprise when they see all the different ways he impacts the game.

Nwosu is one of the most important individual pieces in determining where this team ranks defensively and was the team’s biggest salary cap investment of the offseason outside of DK Metcalf’s contract extension. They’ll need him to live up to that investment if they’re going to have any hope of fielding anything close to a dominant unit.

For his part, No. 10 can’t wait to get started. Here’s what Nwosu tweeted last night about the start of the season:

A well-rounded defender is always welcome, but what decides Nwosu’s success will be what he does on third down.

Nwosu has proven he can consistently make plays around the ball. However, his pass rushing production to date hasn’t exactly stood out. Last season he totaled five sacks, 17 quarterback hits and 30 pressures. Pro Football Focus gave him a solid 68.5 pass rush grade for the year.

Nwosu has the gifts he needs to blossom into a real QB threat, including plus closing speed. Unlocking this element should be a high priority for Hurtt. If it works, this unit’s ceiling could rise dramatically.

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Seahawks Highlights: Rookie OLB Boye Mafe strip sacks Mason Rudolph

Watch rookie outside linebacker Boye Mafe get to Steelers QB Mason Rudolph for a strip sack.

Seattle’s defense started the preseason on sloppy footing. Their first drive against Pittsburgh went about as poorly as it gets, with missed tackles and a blown coverage leading to a touchdown. The Seahawks got their first flash of hope on the third drive of the game for their defense.

Watch rookie outside linebacker Boye Mafe get to QB Mason Rudolph for a strip sack.

Unfortunately, Pittsburgh recovered and Rudolph threw a touchdown a few plays later. The Steelers lead the Seahawks 14-0 late in the first quarter.

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Seahawks 2022 training camp: One question for each defensive position

Now, lets do the same for Seattle’s defense.

The Seahawks report to training camp today, bringing us one big step closer to the start of the 2022 NFL season.

Yesterday we looked at questions for each position on offense. Now, lets do the same for Seattle’s defense.