Hot, Medium, Mild: Seahawks-Patriots

The best and worst players/coaches in Seahawks game against Patriots: Seaside Joe 2024

Seahawks fans used to have a lot of conversations about how hard it is to play on the east coast at 10 AM, but I didn’t see that mentioned going into Week 2’s game at New England. Maybe you did and I just didn’t come across those same mentions of how hard or unfair it is to play with a morning clock vs. an afternoon clock. My week went by without thinking about it at all.

Until roughly 9:30 AM this morning when it finally dawned on me that the Seahawks would have to beat the Patriots at home with a three hour time difference. That made me feel a little bit worried—I don’t think there’s anything wrong with acknowledging a disadavantage to play in these situations—but maybe Seattle is finally over the fear of playing east coast teams at 10 AM.

The Seahawks beat the Patriots 23-20 in overtime in Week 2, staying in control for most of the game, until eventually falling behind in the fourth quarter and needing clutch plays by Geno Smith, Jason Myers, Tyrel Dodson, Zach Charbonnet, Tyler Lockett, and DK Metcalf to tie the game, force a punt, and kick the game-winner.

These are the Hot, Medium, and Mild players and coaches from the team currently in first place in the NFC West.

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Hot

QB Geno Smith

As of the afternoon/evening games, Geno Smith leads all Week 2 passers with 327 yards. He went 33-of-44 with one touchdown, no interceptions, and no fumbles. He was good for the most of the game, but great in overtime.

Like him or not, Geno’s career earnings and general respect levels legitimately only suffer for one reason: Perception. With QBs like Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, and Deshaun Watson genuinely playing terrible football this season and making $50-$55 million for it, Geno has a legitimate gripe with his $25 million per year contract. And I mean that: Even if you think Geno is overrated, the only reason he’s not overpaid like those other QBs is that his reclamation project started too late.

Well, his loss is Seattle’s gain because the Seahawks are fortunate to pay half-price for sometimes adequate, sometimes good from Geno Smith through the first two weeks. I said last week that Geno could play better than he did against Denver and Sunday’s win over New England was one of his best starts since taking over in 2022.

Ryan Grubb took some heat for second half decisions, but keep in mind that Geno’s only touchdown was a wide open bomb to DK Metcalf, so I think that Seattle’s offensive success this week was a credit to both. When Grubb struggled, Geno made up for it, and when the Seahawks needed to call the right play, Grubb dialed one up more often than Shane Waldron seemed to do it in 2023.

K Jason Myers

I haven’t posted the special teams scores in the Close Your Eyes test yet, but sneak peek: I’m higher on Myers than most. He went 3-of-3 on field goals, including the game-tier and the game-winner. We can talk about the odd/even thing, but it doesn’t matter what the last number of the year is: Myers is as good as any kicker in those end-of-game situations.

WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba

The Seahawks only dailed up two throws to JSN last week, both early in the game against Denver, but Grubb made a statement against the Patriots: Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the receiver that Seattle probably trusts the most right now when they need to get the passing offense in gear. JSN finished with 12 catches on 16 targets, gaining 117 yards. That’s five more targets than his previous career-high and I would be surprised if JSN doesn’t get double-digit targets against the Dolphins in Week 3. He did have a crucial drop late in the game, but you take those with the incredible catches and ability to gain yards after the catch.

DL Leonard Williams

1.5 sacks. (I feel like Byron Murphy should get 0.5 of those.) Seems to impact the game against the run and the pass. Essentially the opposite of Dre’Mont Jones. Can you imagine if the Seahawks didn’t trade for Leonard Williams and Seattle’s best DE right now was supposed to be Jones?

(I know the Seahawks had to re-sign Williams, but trading for a player greatly increases the odds of your bid landing.)

DT Byron Murphy

As I said, he had his first sack (credited as 0.5) and I think we can start to have a conversation on how much he’s doing at the beginning of his career.

LT Charles Cross

I’m just going to go out on a limb again like I did last week and assume Cross was really good.

Medium

WR DK Metcalf

I know. But like I said, 56 of those yards, I think almost any starting receiver could have made that play if nobody’s going to cover him. On the other 13 targets, Metcalf had 9 catches for 73 yards. He also had more costly penalties after last week’s disaster and, you know, the career he’s had up to this point.

On top of the penalties, it feels like we were reminded again today the difference between Metcalf and true elite receivers: He got a deep bomb 50/50 go ball from Geno Smith and though he was blanketed by good cornerback defense, those are the types of catches I would expect A.J. Brown or Justin Jefferson to make. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve seen Metcalf make difficult catches before (Eagles last year) but at a lower rate than those upper echelon receivers. If he could improve on contested catches*, he’d be unstoppable.

*And penalties

C Connor Williams

He gave up a sack and I think that this is just a good time to open the conversation on how Connor Williams is doing with the Seahawks so far. It’s too soon to have a solid opinion because he is returning from ACL surgery and no offseason workouts, but observations are underway.

OC Ryan Grubb/DC Mike Macdonald

Probably so-so games from both sides of the ball. I felt like the Seahawks defensive wouldn’t be as effective as they were against the Broncos if they continued to play at the same level against better competition; the Patriots aren’t even a good offense but they had a more capable quarterback, better running backs, and better run blocking than Denver.

Antonio Gibson ran for 96 yards on 11 carries, Rhamondre Stevenson had 81 yards on 21 carries, and Hunter Henry had eight catches for 109 yards. New England’s pass blocking is probably better than Denver’s, but Jacoby Brissett knew better than Bo Nix how to make a defense pay for not covering someone. (That someone was always Henry though: No other Patriots player had more than 12 receiving yards.)

Seattle’s run defense isn’t going to look so good after this one and next week the Seahawks play the most explosive rushing offense in the NFL last season: The Miami Dolphins. Seattle’s going need to cover DeVon Achane with Riq Woolen in order to be able to catch him.

I hated some of Grubb’s run calls late in the game given how poorly the Seahawks were doing on the ground, but I’m elated that Mike Macdonald didn’t actually go for it when Seattle was down 20-17. Kicking the field goal was the right decision, then the Seahawks did get the job done in overtime on both sides of the ball.

OLB Boye Mafe

On one hand, Mafe looks like Seattle’s best edge rusher through the first two weeks and maybe doesn’t have a close second (unless Uchenna Nwosu counts). Mafe had another sack, giving him two through two games, and he had a TON of pressures.

On the other hand, Mafe’s not going to be a complete player until he learns how to wrap, tackle, and finish. He could have had 3 or 4 sacks, at least. The sack he got was really more of a coverage sack. He could have prevented a 45-yard run, but he whiffed on a TFL in the backfield. He whiffs too often. Yet, what are the Seahawks to do when he’s so much better than Dre’Mont Jones? He has to play all game.

Mafe left the game with an injury but Macdonald called it a “knee contusion” and said he wasn’t too worried about it.

LB Tyrel Dodson

I couldn’t really say that I was watching Dodson for the entire game, so maybe he was great or maybe he was fine (his 8 tackles ranked second behind 9 for Rayshawn Jenkins), but Dodson made the game-winning tackle to stuff Rhamondre Stevenson for no yards on third-and-1 in overtime.

Mild

G Anthony Bradford

“Why isn’t Christian Haynes playing?” Well, he came in momentarily and was immediately beaten for a near-sack. The Seahawks have a huge weakness at right guard not because of Bradford, but because of their entire collection of options at guard. Otherwise, if they had any reinforcements, well, we wouldn’t be watching Bradford, right?

He has had 4 (more?) penalties through two weeks, all costly, and that’s just the half of the story. I don’t know if Bradford is going to get a whole lot better. He couldn’t be a whole lot worse. Laken Tomlinson also gave up at least one sack.

RB Zach Charbonnet/Run Game Blocking and Play Calling

I went into last season thinking that Kenneth Walker III was for sure a better running back than Zach Charbonnet. I went into this season probably 50% more convinced that Walker was better than Charbonnet. I finish Week 2 feeling no hesitation to say that Walker is a lot better than Charbonnet. He’s more dynamic, more athletic, has better vision, and possess improv skills that Charbonnet almost certainly won’t learn this late in his development and that’s even assuming he has the physical ability, which he doesn’t.

You know, if you keep Charbonnet as the “jab” next to Walker’s “uppercut”, the Seahawks will be fine and he’d be great. But if a boxer just jabs, jabs, jabs, he’s going to be too worn out to finish until his opponent is thinking, “I felt nothing and you’re exhausted”.

It’s not that Charbonnet isn’t a starter in the NFL somewhere, it’s that he isn’t the starter that best fits this offense with Ryan Grubb and a poor blocking offensive line. Yeah, he had nowhere to run, the low YPC isn’t necessarily his “fault”. But he also isn’t good enough to make something out of nothing like Walker. He has seven more days to heal before the Dolphins and the Seahawks need him.

TE Noah Fant

I don’t want to say “Fant’s terrible” because he’s not terrible. However, when there’s this perception that because he’s a former first round pick with incredible athleticism that he’s “good” and then he plays like he’s a magnet for small mistakes, I really want to say “Fant is terrible!”.

He had at least two dropped passes (one third down drop would have still been short of the sticks, as usual) and he’s just not a weapon like he should be a weapon. Fant finished with one catch for 14 yards. Through two games, Noah Fant has caught three passes for 25 yards and of course, no touchdowns.

“Oh but he’s, like, a blocking tight end, right?”

No, he’s not a blocking tight end.

OLB Dre’Mont Jones

Last week, I said Dre’Mont Jones didn’t show up “for good or bad reasons”. I think he showed up for bad reasons this week. He has two tackles through two games and that feels so true: Is he ever around the ball? Does he know where to go? Is he always being blocked out of the play? Just seems like a very zero-impact player through the first two games.

I will put the rest of my notes in the comments section of this article.