Hot, Medium, Mild: Broncos, Week 1

Recap of Seahawks-Broncos with the 'best' and 'worst' of Seattle's opener: Seaside Joe 2017

How much does Week 1 matter? Well, if you reversed the outcome of the Seahawks first game of 2023, a 30-13 loss to the Rams at home, then Seattle would have made the playoffs. The Rams finished 10-7 and earned the final wild card berth, the Seahawks finished 9-8, it’s really that simple: The Seahawks would have had the better record and been the 7-seed.

So that’s how important Sunday could be in the grand scheme of the season and by their record after beating the Broncos 26-20, Mike Macdonald’s first Seahawks team is off to the 1-0 start that Pete Carroll would have loved last year.

Hot, Medium, and Mild will spell out the best, worst, and middest performances by the Seahawks in Week 1. This series is brought to you by Wendy’s spicy chicken nuggets*…When your team is off to a hot start, kick it to a Wendy’s.

*just kidding, we don’t have any sponsors, we need your support by subscribing to the paid membership!

Hot

RB Kenneth Walker

The universe must also love Survivor like I do because you’re going to find out that it was an amazing week for Seaside Joe’s vision board: The request was 100 rushing yards and a 35-yard TD. Walker had 103 rushing yards and a 23-yard touchdown run.

My only request after the first half was to run the ball more and give it to Kenneth Walker. Even behind a shaky offensive line (not to discredit some of the lanes they opened up), Walker was able to come up with play after play when he got opportunities in the second half, including on his scoring drive. On the first drive of the third quarter, Walker ran for 5, ran for 6, ran for 15, ran for 4, and then ran for a 23-yard touchdown.

Read: Kenneth Walker is key for Seahawks offense

After an abysmal first half for the offense and the offensive line, Geno Smith need only throw one pass on the drive, a 13-yard completion to Tyler Lockett.

From there, the Seahawks took a 16-13 lead and didn’t look back.

WR Tyler Lockett

The vision board asked for a game-winning touchdown from Lockett and instead he delivered this one-handed game-winning first down catch:

Not only was Lockett clutch in the second half, he also really needed to be clutch because Seattle didn’t end up getting much from their other receivers or tight ends.

Read: Do Seahawks have best WR corps in the NFL?

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S Julian Love

I haven’t posted pre-season grades for Seattle’s safeties yet, but I wrote most of it and Julian Love came out with a score of 4.0/5.0, one of the highest on the team. That surprised me, but then Love was one of the most valuable players on the Seahawks on Sunday, including an interception in the second quarter.

Vision Board shout out one more time: I asked for Bo Nix to throw two interceptions and get sacked four times. He threw two interceptions and was sacked two times.

Love also led the team with 12 tackles. Safeties do sometimes go from “role players” to legitimate stars in the latter half of their twenties and that could be the case with Love after switching teams in 2023.

CB Riq Woolen

I don’t know when the right time is to get into the fact that I think Bo Nix had one of the worst games by a quarterback against the Seahawks that I’ve seen in a while, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to dock Seattle’s defense for it. I really don’t see it necessary to say that the Broncos “played well” in order to believe that the Seahawks played well…

BOTH THINGS CAN BE TRUE! AND THEY ARE!

Bo Nix reminded me of Justin Fields without the legs. Though he was decisive and showed off a strong intermediate arm, he was so inaccurate that there was almost nothing the Broncos could do in the first three quarters to get into scoring position…other than get safeties against Seattle’s offensive line.

When Woolen got his interception, he was just one of THREE Seahawks in position to make the pick. He was lucky enough to be standing in front of the other two.

All credit to Riq Woolen for getting one early in the year though, his first interception since Week 11. He’s had some close calls and no matter who was throwing the ball or who he was covering (including Tom Brady), it’s going to build the confidence that Mike Macdonald’s secondary can force as many turnovers in Seattle as it did in Baltimore.

Bo Nix finished 26-of-42 for 138 yards with two interceptions and one rushing touchdown, and I feel like even those bad numbers are still generous. I know he completed one pass that was thrown more than 10 air yards (a whiff by Tre Brown, I believe), but I don’t remember if he completed TWO. He really can’t throw the ball deep and I wonder how long Sean Payton would live with that if Nix doesn’t improve in the next 3-4 weeks. He plays the Steelers defense next week…

Again, I don’t really know what Bo Nix being bad has to do with the Seahawks defense being good. Seattle’s defense will have a hard time getting a serious grade against the pass until they face a quarterback and a supporting cast that will prove to be more dangerous in the intermediate and deep part of the field…Surely we do all agree that the Seahawks will face better offenses than this one, right?

LT Charles Cross

To be candid, I don’t even know if Cross was that great. But I feel like this will help offset what I have to say about the other offensive linemen later in the article. I didn’t hear his name though, so he couldn’t have been that bad.

Run Defense

It seemed like Denver’s offensive line outplayed Seattle’s defensive line (to me), but the Seahawks still held the Broncos two running backs (Jaleel McLaughlin and Javonte Williams) to only 50 yards on 18 carries with one fumble. That’s GREAT.

Medium

(This isn’t bad. It’s medium! Again, it’s NOT Bad!)

QB Geno Smith

To open the game with a trip, followed by an interception directly to the other team, and to still finish at “MEDIUM”, that shows what the Seahawks can eventually accomplish if they give Geno a running game and some defense. “That was about as ugly as you could start a game,” said Geno afterwards.

Surely nobody can be mad at me for this Geno assessment, right?

Smith finished 18-of-25 for 171 yards with one touchdown, one interception, and a 34-yard touchdown run, the longest of his career. He had some bad plays and he also had a lot of those plays that Nix can’t even come close to making so that’s why Seattle is comfortable sticking with Geno for as long as they can. I mean, if you think Geno is the best that Geno can possibly play, then maybe he does belong in “HOT” for somebody. But I think he can definitely play better than this.

Mike Macdonald’s Defensive Debut

I can give MM the head coach a “HOT”, but I give the defense a very fair “MEDIUM”.

Very rarely did I notice anyone on the defensive line getting pressure on Bo Nix. Of course, Seattle cleaned up their tackling compared to last season (I still noticed a few missed tackles, maybe multiple by Rayshawn Jenkins and Tyrel Dodson) and help an NFL offense to 16 points.

Without the aid of two safeties, the Broncos scored 16, including a 3-yard field goal drive to open the game and a 26-yard field goal drive. So six points were gifted to them. That’s 10 points to an NFL offense coordinated by Sean Payton!

This was a good debut, don’t get me wrong. The Seahawks forced three turnovers, matching their season-high from 2023, when they did it three times.

But Week 3 against the Dolphins. Week 4 against the Lions. Week 6 against the 49ers. The Seahawks are about to play three of the five best offenses from last season and that’s where I want to see Macdonald’s defense earn its stripes—especially this revamped front-seven because I don’t think the Seahawks are going to end up ranking high in QB pressures this week.

(Medium isn’t bad!)

OC Ryan Grubb

He schemed up a 100-yard, 5.2 YPC day for Walker and a beautiful wheel (wheel-ish?) route touchdown for Zach Charbonnet. Walker had one 100-yard game in all of 2023.

I am already liking this offense more than the last iteration and it could STILL be a lot better than it was this week. I’m not so sure that getting 171 passing yards against Denver’s defense won’t end up being one of the Broncos best efforts of the entire season. It’s only been one game and teams do evolve over the course of a season…but IF the Broncos played like this for two months, it could lead to talks about getting the number one pick in 2025.

If the Broncos end up being a lot better than they were today, great good for them. It doesn’t matter to me or the Seahawks. All the Seahawks are focused on now is being better next week and against the next opponent, so they did end up getting the job done in Week 1 and that’s all that matters.

Dareke Young shout out

Hey, if your one shot is to make a tackle on special teams, then Dareke Young capitalized on his one shot.

Other Medium-ish performances could be Boye Mafe and Derick Hall (finished with one sack each), Leonard Williams, Jerome Baker, Dodson, K’Von Wallace (forced fumble!), Tre Brown, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Zach Charbonnet. You know, it’s like, Devon Witherspoon or most of these guys could be “HOT”, right? We’ll figure out as the season goes.

Ultimately the first game showed us that Lockett led the team with seven targets, followed by DK Metcalf and Noah Fant at 4, Charbonnet and Walker at 3 each, and JSN with only 2, both of which came early.

Mild

Offensive Line

“Should the Seahawks be worried about their Week 1 offensive line?”, I wrote last week.

“Yes,” I say.

This is one of the pet peeves I might have about the line, “Well, Geno doesn’t have any time to throw…” And it has nothing to do with Geno….

Just to be 100% clear: This is the same offensive line performance I’ve been expecting all offseason long. So if you’ve been saying for the last two months that the passing offense would struggle because of the offensive line, then you’re not surprised. If you said that Geno/passing would be better this year, well, you should not be surprised that this was the level of protection he got on Sunday. It was as bad as advertised, not worse.

Laken Tomlinson gave us no reason to think he’d be good and he wasn’t. Anthony Bradford didn’t give us a reason to think he’d be good and he wasn’t. Maybe Christian Haynes will take over soon, I’m not sure, but it’s telling that he’s on the bench right now behind players doing this poorly. George Fant left the game early with a knee injury that doesn't sound good, but I don’t really think that he’s that much better than Stone Forsythe anyway.

Seattle’s hope is that Connor Williams (who allowed the pressure on Geno’s INT) gets better with a few weeks of play after a long offseason without playing, and Cross, and a swift return from Abe Lucas by Week 5. That’s their best hope really. However, I wouldn’t really expect it to get a lot better than this by next week.

Fortunately, it seems like Grubb found a way to somewhat overcome this weakness in the second half!

WR DK Metcalf

He had 29 yards receiving and I think 25 yards of penalties, wiping a Kenneth Walker touchdown off of the board and forcing Seattle to settle for a field goal. He also essentially let the Broncos back in it because of his holding penalty that set Seattle back on what should have been a game-ending drive.

PR Dee Williams

The muff was far more forgivable than trying to pick up the ball instead of falling on it. Still, this was the first play of Williams’ entire NFL career if I’m not mistaken, we and the Seahawks have to move past it.

OLB Dre’Mont Jones

I’m mostly just picking on him, to be honest, because this is really about Seattle’s ability to win the edge in general. Jones is the easiest person to pick on for that because he made no plays (finished with one tackle) and I think he was forgettable. There’s also that feeling that he doesn’t “look like” an edge rusher out there, so I wonder how this expirement will play out over a longer sample size. Jones has never been praised for his run defense, so has that improved enough under Macdonald to keep him afloat as a starter? Or will he need to start getting to the QB?

Must wait to find out.

Overall, this game made me feel like the Son of Baconator…Somewhat satisfied but hungry for more. Brought to you by Wendy’s. Snap it to a Frosty.

Final Notes:

• Anthony Bradford was called for holding on the first safety

• I would rather have QB School do a film study on Bo Nix than Geno, I want to find out more about what people think about that side of the game than the other way around…

• Derick Hall might have been the best edge defender out there? It’s encouraging also that the Seahawks did good without their best outside linebacker

• Devon Witherspoon was really active out there, just didn’t finish with any turnovers but had seven tackles and one PBU; Brown had the best PBU of the day

• Didn’t notice Byron Murphy II

• Geno’s TD run was like “Yes, finally” because he actually saw the yards in front of him and took it instead of forcing a pass

• Dodson had a nice shoestring tackle, but also dropped an “easy” INT

• Going to probably see Stone Forsythe for a while…again

• Yes, the tackling was way, way better this week than last season; the Seahawks defense actually got off the field!