Jaxon Smith-Njigba is now questionable!

A surprise addition to the Seahawks injury report on Saturday

Jaxon Smith-Njigba has come down with something and the Seahawks are now listing the receiver as “questionable” against the Saints because of an illness. For Seattle to add JSN to the injury report less than 24 hours from kickoff, there has to be some anxiety inside the building that the offense will need to be prepared to pivot and go without him on Sunday.

If the Seahawks don’t have JSN, it should mean more targets for Cooper Kupp and Tory Horton. Seattle released Cody White this week to make room for replacements at other positions, leaving Jake Bobo and Dareke Young as the rest of the depth at receiver. This could also mean increased targets for A.J. Barner and Elijah Arroyo.

The preview section I was planning before this breaking news:

The Seahawks can’t look past the Saints on Sunday, but we are allowed to: Seattle plays 2 games in 5 days and barring ties there are 4 potential outcomes, 2 of which are bad, 1 should make us uneasy, and 1 is great.

1. Beat both teams, 3-1 (1-1 NFC West)

2. Split, lose to Saints, 2-2 (1-1 NFC West)

3. Split, lost to Cardinals, 2-2 (0-2 NFC West)

4. Lose both games, 1-3 (0-2 NFC West)

It does not matter if it is early in the season because the Seahawks started 0-2 in the NFC West last year and despite WINNING THEIR NEXT 4 DIVISION GAMES, still lost a tiebreaker to the Rams and missed the playoffs. We can’t go back and “What if?” the 2024 season, but a Week 5 loss to the terrible Giants and a Week 9 overtime loss to the Rams were as important as anything else that happened.

These mid-September games count just as much as late December so the Seahawks can’t overlook an 0-2 Saints team that could be terrible or underestimate a 2-0 Cardinals team that is out to prove that they belong in the conversation; Arizona plays the 49ers tomorrow so if they win their next two games, they’ll be 4-0 in the conference and 2-0 in the division.

That’s the exact deficit that Seattle couldn’t overcome in 2024 because of starting 3-0 against the AFC and then stumbling to an 0-3 start against the NFC.

Obviously 0-2 is the worst case scenario, but a win over the Saints won’t feel as meaningful in five days if the Seahawks turnaround and lose another NFC West game. Any scenario that involves beating the Cardinals is good because the Seahawks avoid an 0-2 start in division, but losing to the Saints tomorrow will cement the narrative that Seattle has misplaced its homefield advantage to a dizzyingly stupid degree.

We, the fans, can underestimate the Saints; the Seahawks can’t.

We, the fans, can look past Sunday; the Seahawks can’t.

We, the fans, can panic in September; the Seahawks can’t.

Is this a trap game? It really SHOULD be: Bad team before good team on a short week and Thursday could have huge playoff implications. That’s practically the dictionary definition of a trap game.

But as long as the Seahawks are prepared to play their best football in the next five days, they should come out of Week 4 with the best case scenario.

Final Thoughts: Week 3.

Seahawks sign Jerrick Reed and elevate Jacardia Wright, D’Anthony Bell

The Seahawks have chosen Wright over Damien Martinez and Bell, Reed over Shaquill Griffin/someone else.

After releasing Cody White on Friday, Seattle signed Reed to the 53-man roster and replaced him with veteran guard Shane Lemieux on the practice squad. Lemieux, a native of Yakima, Washington, spent last season with the Saints where I assume he met Klint Kubiak. Prior to that, Lemieux was a fifth round pick of the Giants in 2020 and started 12 games in four years.

Bell was called up last week and played 12 snaps on defense, 14 snaps on special teams. He’s the replacement for Nick Emmanwori, who is doubtful.

Reed will be making his 2025 debut. The 2023 sixth round pick has appeared in 15 games but only played five spans on defense last season. He’s probably not going to be the replacement for Julian Love, who is also doubtful, but Mike Macdonald didn’t confirm to the media that Ty Okada would start. Okada has played 15 snaps on defense this season.

Jacardia Wright looked much better than Martinez in the preseason. Macdonald has said that George Holani will be the number two back if Zach Charbonnet can’t go. Here are some college highlights of Wright, who went undrafted out of Missouri State:

Wright is a 25 year old rookie and despite seeming explosive in the preseason he only ran a 4.65 40-yard dash and 1.69 10-yard split at his pro day. Those are Jake Bobo-esque for a RB and most likely the reason he went undrafted.

George Holani should get significant snaps

The fantasy community thinks that Charbonnet’s injury means a full workload for Kenneth Walker, but I doubt it.

I could be wrong, but did the Seahawks really have a plan going into the season to keep Walker fresh and now they’re going to throw that away because Charbonnet is injured? Do they want two running backs injured instead of one? Especially with another game on Thursday?

Walker snaps:

• Week 1: 21

• Week 2: 23

Let’s say that Seattle gets 60 offensive snaps against the Saints. Even if Walker only gets 65% of the offensive snaps, that’s still almost as many snaps as he had in Week 1/2 COMBINED.

If you take the 5 highest snap count games of his career, Walker has kind of struggled and the Seahawks are 2-3 (4 of these games against NFC West):

Total: 113 rush attempts, 400 yards, 3.53 YPC, 4 TD, 18 catches, 118 yards, 0 TD

And in the only two career games with 60 snaps, Seattle had to go to OT.

Let’s look at the games after these games:

• Week 10, 2022: 10 carries for 17 yards (1.7 YPC)

• Wild card, 2022: 15 carries for 63 yards (4.2 YPC)

• Week 7, 2023: 26 carries for 105 yards (4 YPC)

• Week 5, 2024: 5 carries for 19 yards (3.8 YPC)

• Week 11, 2024: 14 carries for 54 yards (3.9 YPC)

Do we really want to see more Walker if it means seeing less Walker on Thursday? In two career TNF appearances, Walker has 26 carries for 79 yards, 3.04 YPC. Seattle lost both times.

Holani might not get all of Charbonnet’s snaps, but he has to be more than just a guy who stands on the sidelines in case Walker gets hurt.

The Seahawks HAVE TO be better than the Saints

Let Seattle take New Orleans seriously, but I don’t have to and I won’t. You will hear/read/see a lot about Spencer Rattler being underrated and yet I watched this clip of every throw by him this season over 10+ air yards and I am not impressed. PFF’s “Grade” of Rattler as the 9th-best QB of the young season should get their license taken away, if there is even a license for that sort of thing.

I’m not saying every throw is bad, some are obviously good, but there’s a lot of this:

Even when he completes a pass, it’s a lot of receivers:

• Going to the ground to make the catch

• Stopping to make the catch

• Not leading receivers to make the catch and gain yards

• Putting the ball in the wrong spot entirely

• Hospital balls

• Giving defenders opportunities to break up the pass

I’m anything but an expert on making the right read, but I would take the risk of saying that’s a probably a problem too.

Yeah, I see Rattler under some duress. What do we expect to happen against the number one pressure defense through two weeks?

The Seahawks have to take Rattler seriously, but I don’t and I can’t buy yet that New Orleans has a quarterback. If Seattle ends up having a bad game against Rattler, I’d be shocked and probably think it’s just a fluke related to all the injuries in the secondary, but then I’d also have to let a little bit of doubt creep in about the defense. I’m still expecting the Saints to have a very high draft pick in 2026.

This game is already weird with all of the injuries on Seattle’s side. They just have to trust that they picked the right players as depth and not let this game sneak past them if they’re looking ahead to Thursday.

Seaside Joe 2392