Is this okay? Defense
Assessing Seahawks defensive positions and asking "Is this okay?" or does it need talent in the draft: Seaside Joe 1878
It’s been one week since Seaside Joe’s “Is this okay?” article for the offense, now it is time to turn our attention to the side of the ball that I expect the Seahawks to address with their first pick.
This is how things stand with the Seattle Seahawk at each defensive position, which prospects might be best fits in the draft (and where in the draft) to fill those gaps, and ultimately what I expect to happen after the last 3-4 months of covering the change, needs, and prospects ahead of Thursday’s main event.
And at the end, I will announce the fifth and final winner of the “W” glasses! All winners should receive their packages soon now that we have our complete list, and there’s also now a Seaside Joe P.O. Box if you want to send something back our way. If you want to upgrade to premium today, do this:
Here are the defensive positions, in an order and manner you’re not accustomed to:
S - Julian Love, Rayshawn Jenkins, K’Von Wallace, Coby Bryant, Jerrick Reed II, Ty Okada, Jonathan Sutherland
“Is this okay?” I’m fine, I’m not okay
When a position becomes devalued, then certain players at that position start to become overvalued. Look at Xavier McKinney, once a secondary brother to Julian Love on the Giants, who signed a $17 million per year contract with the Packers last month even though most wouldn’t have put him in the “elite” category a year ago. McKinney has been in the NFL for four seasons and in two of those years he missed half-to-most of the campaign with injury. I’m not saying McKinney isn’t deserving, but it seems like he got overpaid in Green Bay based on the perception that there just aren’t many safeties worth paying anymore.
The Seahawks found this out the hard way by spending top-of-market deals for Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams only to have to cut both of them after the season. Now Seattle’s onto Jenkins (2 years, $12m) and Wallace (1 year, $1.5m) to fortify the position for one season (Love will be a 2025 free agent) so technically the Seahawks are “fine” here…but they’re not okay.
After seven seasons, we know who Jenkins is and he isn’t the future of the position at age 30. Wallace is a journeyman, like the Artie Burns of safeties, he’s probably not in it for a starting role. Love is a good player but a) he’s not going to be a free safety roaming the deep and protecting Seattle from allowing explosive plays so they still need “that guy” and b) his role could probably be replaced by a cheap player on a rookie contract…
And that’s a process I do expect to start in the 2024 draft. CBS Sports’ Chris Trapasso cites USC’s Calen Bullock as arguably the best free safety in the draft in terms of his range:
Safeties had such integral roles on Mike Macdonald’s Ravens defense (Marcus Williams is one of the highest-paid already, Kyle Hamilton would sign a record-setting deal at the position if he was up for an extension right now) that I don’t expect this group to be finalized yet. For one, Okada and Sutherland are likely practice squad players at best. Two, Wallace, Bryant, and Reed are hopefuls, nothing more. Bryant could be moved back to corner. Love and Jenkins are bridge safeties, which is not a term we use often even though “bridge safety” should be a priority for anyone who lives near Tacoma Narrows.
If the Seahawks miss the opportunity to draft a potential field-tilting safety prospect, then they have the parts to survive the position in 2024 and come back to it in 2025. But I would put a safety or a corner-turned-safety (Cooper DeJean write-up is here, Ennis Rakestraw thoughts are here if the team trades down first) near the top of my predictions list in the first three rounds.
End result: Seahawks will address the safety position either with an early pick or taking a shot later in attempt to get lucky again as they did once with Kam Chancellor.
CB - Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Tre Brown, Artie Burns, Lance Boykin, Andrew Whitaker
“Is this okay?” I could use a talent injection, but I’m not a priority
There’s this version of Seattle’s cornerback room, the one that would make the average Seahawks fan think, “That’s a potential superstar and at least three names capable of starting and playing well enough to win” and probably trick us into believe it’s good.
Then there’s another version of this room that has, say, Seattle’s classic version of Richard Sherman starting on the outside and allowing Witherspoon to create havoc all over the defense as Mike Macdonald’s highest-graded weapon. There was a time in 2022 when we all fell for Woolen’s comparisons to Sherman, but I couldn’t be any further from believing that to be the case anymore: Woolen did have arthroscopic knee surgery in 2023 that may have impacted his season, however that doesn’t excuse his lack of effort, his poor tackling (as in REALLY BAD TACKLING), his liabilities in run defense, and the fact is he was much slower on the field than his combine or rookie season had indicated.
Essentially, the Seahawks are bringing back the same corners that they had last season and aside from Witherspoon, these corners were not very good last season. Woolen was benched, Brown and Jackson are too inconsistent, Burns is merely insurance.
And we can say “Maybe Macdonald will make them better” and maybe he will but he’s replacing arguably the best defensive backs coach in the history of the NFL. Pete Carroll’s work with corners doesn’t go back to Sherman, it goes back to the 80s Vikings. Macdonald has big shoes to fill and his best course of action to upgrade the position would be through the draft.
Now, do the Seahawks need to upgrade LCB and RCB (Pete had his corners locked to one side of the field but Macdonald is expected to have them follow certain receivers) as badly as they need help at other defensive positions? Probably not.
However, as noted in the safeties second there are “defensive backs” who could help in a number of areas and ultimately find that there home is on the outside like DeJean or Rakestraw. There could also be a potential upset brewing of players we haven’t considered at all, like Clemson’s Nate Wiggins (The Athletic’s Randy Mueller has him as CB1 even though the consensus is closer to CB4 so he could be on the board at 16, if not later) or Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold from Alabama. We have spoken at length about Quinyon Mitchell and DeJean, and there are expected day two picks like Michigan’s Mike Sainristil (probably a slot player like DeJean), Iowa State’s T.J. Tampa (who has the requisite length for outside), and Rutgers’ Max Melton.
On Wiggins, he’s a 6’1, 173 lbs corner out of Clemson who may have solidified a first round grade by posting a 4.28 in the 40-yard dash at the combine who was compared to Tyson Campbell by Lance Zierlein. He has “rare recovery speed” and is “a defensive coordinator’s dream” per Zierlein. He’s CB2 for Chris Simms:
We haven’t done any talk on Nate Wiggins at Seaside Joe until now, but I’ll go back to the original framework of this section:
There’s the version of Seattle’s cornerback room without a Nate Wiggins and a version with Nate Wiggins. The version without him could be good, the version with him could be great. But is he going to be rated as “must-have” player to stick at 16 or would the Seahawks be just as happy to have a different player at a priority position or to trade back and miss out on the chance to pick him?
End result: I actually would rank CB higher than OL as far as Seattle’s draft priorities, I just think that charging up the defense will take precedent unless the prospect grades are just that much different between say OL Troy Fautanu/OL Graham Barton for example and the highest-ranked defensive player. A CB like Mitchell or Wiggins, maybe that’s a really great value at pick 16, or maybe the team addresses it on day two, but I think that corner is ON the table.
Pass Rushers - Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Darrell Taylor, Jarran Reed, Derick Hall, Levi Bell, Josh Onujuogu
“Is this okay?” Like Mario, I could use a star
I decided to split up players as “pass rushers” and “run stuffers” instead of the traditional position differentiations because we know what Seattle needs to work on: They need to go from bottom-5 to top-5 in terms of their run defense. That’s a bigger priority to me than getting to the quarterback and it was reflected in the Seahawks’ free agency decisions by spending $21 million per season on Leonard Williams, who isn’t much of a pass rusher but takes up a lot of space for his teammates to get free.
As Bruce Irvin once told me after a game (I’m not bragging, I was in the Seahawks locker room twice in my career, that’s all): “It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.”
Seattle’s best pass rusher is Mafe but even he disappeared after Nwosu’s season-ending pectoral injury. After recording a sack in seven straight games, Mafe went without a sack in seven of his final eight games. Sacks aren’t everything but he wasn’t even credited with many pressures in the second half of the season. For the most part, I think we all forgot that Boye Mafe—and all of Seattle’s pass rushers—were on the field.
The Seahawks are counting on a) Macdonald’s influence to upgrade these players as he did for Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy in Baltimore, b) healthy seasons and c) Rapid development from Mafe and Hall.
There’s a “d” answer too: d) The Seahawks need a tone-setting pass rusher, whether that’s from the edge or the interior, who finally unlocks this defense’s talent for everything its worth. Did you know that Seattle hasn’t drafted a single player in the 21st century who has had more than 35 career sacks with the Seahawks?
Frank Clark had 35 sacks with the Seahawks. Undrafted/free agent returnee Michael Bennett had 39 sacks with the Seahawks. Now compare that to Jacob Green, Seattle’s first round pick in 1980: 115.5 career sacks with the Seahawks. Nick Bosa has only been with the 49ers for five years (and he missed one of those seasons with injury) and he has 53.5 sacks. Has it been over 40 years since Seattle drafted any edge rusher like that?
The Seahawks can get by with these players but they probably can’t thrive. Who is the superstar in this group? Probably none of them. That doesn’t mean that they can’t have value or they’re not good players, it’s just playing the odds here to say that none of them are very likely to be top-10 pass rushers in the NFL. Maybe that’s not Seattle’s priority until after Macdonald fixes the run defense and that’s fine, but are the Seahawks considering draft edge rushers like Dallas Turner, Laiatu Latu, Jared Verse, and Chop Robinson? Of course: They flew in Verse to Seattle and met with Turner at the combine. Edge rushers are a definite possibility.
End result: The Seahawks will draft more help at this position and that could come in any round, including the first. Laiatu has been called an “elite” edge rusher prospect by some if teams completely clear him of medical red flags, so perhaps he’s the real sleeper at 16.
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Now back to “Is this okay?”
Run Stuffers - Leonard Williams, Dre’Mont Jones, Johnathan Hankins, Cameron Young, Mike Morris, Myles Adams, Matt Gotel
“Is this okay?” If I’m not okay, that’s not okay
There is no lack of speculation that the Seahawks would target a first round defensive tackle such as Byron Murphy (I wrote about Murphy in “perfect pairs” mock drafts) or Johnny Newton, if not working their way into opportunities for day two prospects such as Michigan’s Kris Jenkins or Murphy’s Texas teammate T’Vondre Sweat. That’s all well and fine because a team wouldn’t pass on “Chris Jones” (Kansas City’s All-Pro defensive tackle picked in the second round of the 2016 draft) for any other reason besides they had the chance to draft an even better player.
(Jones maybe not the ideal example because he’s more of a pass rusher than a run stuffer but you get the idea. Perhaps former Ravens defensive tackle Brandon Williams is a better fit for the comparison.)
However, there’s a question of just how many defensive linemen Mike Macdonald is going to carry on the 53-man roster after investing in two last month (Williams, Hankins) and drafting two last year (Young, Morris), in addition to the financial commitment to Jones. Macdonald’s 2023 Ravens carried five defensive linemen. In 2024, the Ravens carried six into the season.
If the Seahawks value Murphy of being worth a top-10 pick and he’s available to Seattle at pick 16, perhaps Schneider says the value is too good and drafts him. Williams and Hankins aren’t going anywhere. Jarran Reed is a bargain, he’s not going anywhere. Jones’ contract is basically untouchable, he’s not going anywhere (getting a team to trade for his contract is just as unlikely). Young and Morris are just pups on rookie contracts, what would be the point to part with them unless they just tanked behind-the-scenes? Macdonald personally knows Morris from his time at Michigan, so he’s probably even more incentivized to make that work, right? Even Adams is an intriguing defensive tackle to keep developing.
That’s already seven players on the defensive line, 1-2 more than the expected number to make it out of camp. If the team believes they’re getting a future superstar defensive tackle, then they will pick him unless there’s a better prospect at a different position available in the same spot. At that point, maybe Seattle does explore August/September trade options or a difficult cut because it’s hard to believe the team is going to carry eight defensive linemen into the season.
But signing Hankins felt like a finishing move to be "Okay” with the defensive line in 2024 and then to re-address in 2025 when Reed is a free agent, Jones is a cap casualty candidate (or proves as a mainstay), and the team has a lot more information on Morris, Young, and Adams.
End result: The numbers do not seem to favor the Seahawks picking a defensive tackle at all because rounds 1-5 would have bigger priorities and rounds 6-7 would be for needs. If a superstar drops to them, all bets are off, clearly Seattle has some interest in this from their pre-draft visits, but I think the odds are against it.
Linebackers - Jerome Baker, Tyrel Dodson, Jon Rhattigan, Drake Thomas, Patrick O’Connell
“Is this okay?” I wish I could tell you
I mean, there’s probably no way that this unit is good enough given that modern football’s defensive unicorn seems to be a linebacker who can thump against the run and cover an onslaught passing attack in the middle of the field similar to classic Bobby Wagner, and that Macdonald had arguably the best linebacker duo in the NFL last season.
But Seattle is so unlikely to find answers in the draft (the linebacker class is considered one of the weakest positions of the year) that I’m not sure the Seahawks plan isn’t to let these five (and probably 2-3 more additions) battle it out for two spots. We know that Baker is likely to start and that Dodson is capable, but these are placeholders who at age 27 and 25 respectively might have some upside in the tank to be answers beyond 2024. There just isn’t going to be a “Roquan Smith” (Baltimore’s All-Pro linebacker who was the eighth pick of the 2018 draft) in this first round, so what else can Schneider and Macdonald do?
I wrote some on linebackers in the past but recently watch a scathing negative review of Payton Wilson that turned me off (I don’t remember that exact source, but generally people are worried by his injury history and lack of physicality which probably keeps him off Seattle’s board), while Michigan man Junior Colson could be a target in the third round if he even makes it that far. Should the Seahawks trade down far enough in the first round, they might get the ammunition for a linebacker on day two or they could wait it out longer for a player like UTEP’s Tyrice Knight on day three.
End result: The Seahawks do draft a linebacker, but perhaps the best value for them relative to other prospects in the draft pushes this down to the sixth round and another shot-in-the-dark prospect who can play special teams instead of an attempted home run. This could be a position that Seattle tries to improve in 2025 free agency or a trade similar to Baltimore dealing for Roquan in 2022.
When’s okay?
In my offense post, I wrote that I believe defense is a priority over offense in the first round and that Seattle’s potential targets could be a OL/WR in rounds 3-4, with maybe a QB/RB/TE in rounds 5-UDFA. So I’ll obviously say that I see a defensive player on day one, probably a DB or EDGE RUSHER, and then LB, DT having a look on day three. I think the Seahawks would like to trade down far enough to get at least one additional day two draft pick—It sounds as though the draft is very weak after the fourth round, so I think Schneider wants to increase his top-100 draft capital by adding one or two picks in that range and I believe we’ll see 2 defensive prospects for every 1 offensive addition.
5th and final winner of “W” sunglasses: Shaymus McFamous!
Congrats to Shaymus and a thank you to everyone who submitted their name to win the giveaway. I wish I could give out pairs to all of you but Seaside Jay’s hands would literally fall off if she had to carefully place gems and rhinestones on that many pairs of shades. Seriously, everyone please send a big “Thank you!” to her for doing that even if you didn’t win! Shaymus, please contact me directly with your information to send these out, and the previous winner Mike R., please also send me your shipping info!
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I've been waiting for this one since the O version. It did not disappoint. Busy last several days and I'm behind on SSJ articles, but this was the one I was hoping for! I'll comment more when I get caught up. Missing 4 days of this Substack is like Lucille Ball working the chocolate factory assembly lime!
If it lets me. Idk how to upload a pic