Seahawks-Eagles: Vision Board for Monday Night

How Bobby Wagner, Ken Walker, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba will lead Seahawks to upset victory: Seaside Joe 1749

As I wrote on Friday’s bonus post, give the Seahawks just one win over the Eagles this week and I guarantee that talk of Pete Carroll’s trip towards the sunset will die faster than my dreams of raising the 12th Man flag. (Along with a Seaside Joe banner.)

Seattle needs our help—no, Seattle needs the universe’s help—this Monday night against the Eagles. What can we put on our vision boards to make it happen?

In last week’s vision board for the 49ers, I envisioned:

Shane Waldron calls Seahawks to 30 points, 400 yards

Boye Mafe sack

Tyler Lockett’s first 100-yard game of the season

Though Waldron was credited for maybe his best play call of the season on the double-take touchdown to Colby Parkinson, Seattle was held to 324 yards (not horrible) and 16 points. Mafe’s most recent sack came on November 12 and he has only one QB hit, no tackles for a loss, seven tackles in the last four games. But Lockett was great, catching all six targets and gaining 89 yards.

I’m taking a point, putting me just under 50%.

Season Total: 19/39

This week, I will get a case of the Mondays and reference as many “Monday clip” for the visions as I can.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba finds Office Space

I could do a whole season of vision boards with just Office Space quotes that could relate to football: “I can’t believe what a bunch of nerds we are.” “We find it’s always better to fire people on a Friday.” “I’d say in a given week, I probably only do about 15 minutes of real, actual work.”

Well, we know the one about having a case of the Mondays…I like the one about people “work just hard enough not to get fired.”

How true.

Has the Seahawks coaching staff and specifically the coordinators done just the bare minimum to not get fired? Or are they coming close to that line? Obviously we know both sides of the ball are performing below expectations, but if even one thing was working hard—offense or defense—at least Seattle could hang its hat on that and have some balance.

Instead, the defense is on the field too long and the offense isn’t out there long enough. The player who I most want to see working weekends—or in the case of a football player, weekdays—is Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Whether Geno Smith or Drew Lock is starting, JSN should be utilized more.

The Vision: Jaxon Smith-Njigba has 10 catches

Something that JSN will get better and better at throughout his career is improvising and finding where the holes in the defense are, and then the quarterbacks will need to do a better job of having that chemistry with him to get Smith-Njigba the ball when he’s open. Lock never works with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett in practice, maybe he sometimes has worked with JSN?

JSN had a not-very-good 25 yards on seven targets last week. Darius Slay, the Eagles top cornerback, is ruled out for this game. Slay may not have been the one to cover JSN anyway, I’m just trying to get him the ball and Philadelphia has allowed the most “fantasy points” to all receivers (and second-most to slot receivers) of any team this season. Smith-Njigba’s season-high is seven catches, which he had against the Cowboys. I am putting 10 on my vision board—yes, 10.

Instead of 9 to 5, we see ‘9 for 6’

I wrote about the importance of running and run blocking against the Eagles this week, as well as why Ken Walker and Zach Charbonnet have great opportunities to stand out against Philly’s defense. For all the investments that the Eagles have made on defense in the last two years, they rank 30th in points allowed per drive and are 17th in yards per carry allowed.

They’ve been especially bad against the run lately, giving up over 130 rushing yards in each of the last four games. We will probably always talk about the decision to pass on Jalen Carter, at least in some capacity, and he’s been one of the most effective pass rushing defensive tackles in the NFL. Philadelphia picked Jordan Davis in the first round in 2022. They also picked two other Georgia front-7 players (Nakobe Dean, 3rd round, 2022 and Nolan Smith, 1st round, 2023) but Dean is on IR and Smith barely plays.

Maybe the Eagles have the best defense in the NFL next year. Right now, it’s a weakness. What does that mean for Walker and Charbonnet?

The Vision: Ken Walker has 100 yards, 1 TD

Walker hasn’t been himself lately, rushing for 118 yards on 40 carries in his last four, but both he and Charbonnet are off the injury report this week. He hasn’t scored a rushing touchdown since Week 5. Parton the interruption, but I’m sensing both 100 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles on Monday.

Bobby Wagner, you can work here as long as you want

Not a movie, but maybe my favorite Michael Scott quote: “If I had a catch phrase, it would be you’re hired and you can work here as long as you want.”

Who else could that apply to but Bobby Wagner?

Despite taking more lumps from criticism for his defense than usual this season, including from former teammate K.J. Wright, Wagner is on pace for a career-high in tackles and has contributed eight tackles for a loss, 2.5 sacks, and three batted down passes. Now, numbers are only numbers, a linebacker can accumulate a lot of tackles and still be a net negative…

But Wagner wasn’t just brought back for run defense and pass coverage. Seattle was looking to get back its leader and unfortunately that has not resulted in a better defense. One definite way to help your team on defense is to create turnovers and Wagner doesn’t have a pick or a forced fumble yet this season.

The Vision: Bobby Wagner forces a turnover

Wagner has 13 career interceptions, six career forced fumbles, 10 career fumble recoveries, and four career touchdowns.

Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has fumbled in SEVEN STRAIGHT GAMES. He has 11 turnovers in his last nine starts. I like Hurts just fine, I just think that the tush push is a REMARKABLE play that leads to more touchdowns for the quarterback than he’d get in another offense: Philadelphia is 3rd on third downs (47.7%) and first on fourth downs (71.4%).

By comparison, the Seahawks are converting 37.5% of fourth downs, which is tied for 30th.

How many more Eagles drives have reached the red zone/end zone because they converted third-and-short or fourth-and-short? On third-and-Short, the Eagles have 23 first downs on 29 rushing attempts, while on fourth-and-Short, it’s 10 first downs on 12 attempts. That’s 33 of 41 and their short-yardage passing conversion rate is almost as good.

If you took only five touchdowns away from the Eagles, Hurts’ turnover rate would be a much bigger story.

The Seahawks told Wagner, “You’re re-hired”. Now if he can pay Seattle back with a turnover forced against Hurts, all the more reason to work here as long as he wants to.