They might be favorites

Unheralded Seahawks who could become fan favorites very soon: Seaside Joe 2008

Two years ago after the draft, when there was a contingent of “smarter than you about football” fans complaining that the Seahawks used a second round pick on a running back, I wrote a newsletter called “Root against Kenneth Walker III at your own peril”. The point of the article was that even if those people were right about the draft value of a second round running back, it wasn’t important enough to lose sight of the fact that Walker had exceptionally good odds to become a Seahawks fan favorite.

Walker and Breece Hall were heads and shoulders above any other running back in the 2022 class and Seattle’s been as good of a landing spot for that position as any franchise in the NFL. Should Walker rush for 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns this season, fans aren’t going to care where he was picked in the draft and “how much better this feeling would be if only the Seahawks had used a third round pick on him instead of a second!”

Of course, Walker is already a Seahawks fan favorite through two seasons even without a huge year under his belt yet, but there’s a whole other level to what he could become. Not even Marshawn Lynch took off in his career until his fifth season in the league, which was his second season and first full season in Seattle.

Several players have become new fan favorites before the 2024 season has started, just based on camp reports and preseason play, including Laviska Shenault and Brady Russell. They could even have immediate roles this season and similar to Jake Bobo scoring in the third game last year, it only takes one play for that adoration to be solidified for a long time to come.

These are some less heralded players on the Seahawks who could be new fan favorites very soon.

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PR/KR Dee Williams

It’s very, very easy to picture Williams having a return touchdown early in his career and becoming a fan favorite just based on a single play.

I would not like to imagine a world in which the Seahawks take three years to become a force at the start of Mike Macdonald’s tenure as it was at the start of Pete Carroll’s, but I’m reminded of the impact that Leon Washington had on the team when Seattle had little else to look forward to. In 2010, Washington had three kickoff return touchdowns (the second time in his career that Washington led the NFL in return TDs) and fans will always associate that team with him.

It took “Beast Quake” for Marshawn Lynch to become the most popular running back with the most memorable play on the ‘10 Seahawks.

Dee Williams is in the NFL right now for one reason only: He transferred from East Central Community College to Tennessee in 2022 as a corner, but would have washed out immediately were it not for averaging 18.7 yards per punt return in his first season there; the Vols even moved him from defense to offense in 2023, but he only caught two passes for 10 yards. There are not many players in the NFL (other than kickers and punters) who didn’t play offense or defense above the community college level.

The Seahawks didn’t have a seventh round pick this year to secure Williams, but pushed hard to sign him after the draft specifically because they expect him to excel under the new kickoff rules. The team had a wide open competition to find out who the two best players would be for the NFL’s new kickoff format (Laviska Shenault, Dee Eskridge, Tre Brown, Dareke Young, and Easop Winston all got a shot), as well as a new punt returner to replace the departed DeeJay Dallas (Jaxon Smith-Njigba was tested here too), and despite strong competition from Eskridge, Williams and Shenault were selected as Seattle’s returners to open the 2024 season.

It might end up proving to be very difficult to get a touchdown under the new rules (if it’s easy, teams will just start kicking the ball into the end zone to prevent returns), so I don’t know how unlikely it is for Williams to score on special teams as a rookie. But it only takes one to become a fan favorite and when your only reason for being in the NFL is return ability, that’s giving Williams the motivation to find the end zone. And fast.

TE Brady Russell

I mentioned him at the top and I wrote about Russell’s history this week in anticpation of him becoming a fan favorite.

Players like Russell do not tend to rise above being special teamers. Not only because he went undrafted in 2023, or because he was cut by the Eagles at the conclusion of his first training camp, but also just based on how little he played on offense last year (16 snaps). That’s not an insult, Russell was buried behind three good tight ends and still made Seattle’s roster, I’m just saying that not a lot of “receivers” have zero targets in their first season and then become valuable members of an offense. Even the undrafted ones.

However, injuries to Noah Fant and Pharaoh Brown have catapulted Russell into a potential starting role against the Broncos in Week 1. Should just one of those two tight ends miss the first game, it appears that Russell has the nod over rookie A.J. Barner and he could more than double his career snap total.

Ultimately, we know that Fant is the starter and we assume that Brown’s blocking prowess (with a bit of receiving ability) is enough to keep him situated as the TE2. But in the early going, Russell could have an opportunity to get a couple of targets and put his name in to the brains of fans right from the jump. And really it shouldn’t even take a touchdown or 70 yards to become a fan favorite: Last season, Noah Fant only averaged two catches per game, never scored a single touchdown, and had a season-best of 63 yards, and that’s been enough to make him seem like an untouchable to many fans.

I mean, one 15-yard catch and Brady Russell’s name is going to be going off in the chat.

WR/RB/KR Laviska Shenault

It’s not easy for a receiver to come off of a season in which he had 60 yards, joining a room that has three stars already, and to already have a battalion of fans wondering when (and how) he’s going to get the ball in Ryan Grubb’s offense. But we’ve also seen how Shenault can contribute without the ball, helping spring Williams for a 41-yard return and later doing the same on offense for Kenny McIntosh.

The Seahawks aren’t going to play five receivers at a time though, so how many situations will call for Shenault to be on the field instead of Jake Bobo, instead of JSN, instead of Tyler Lockett?

Since snaps won’t come easy at receiver, Shenault’s skills have transcended beyond that position to also have a role as a running back, a kick returner, a punt returner, and a blocker. Although Shenault specifically said that it’s not time to be a running back and that he went to Seattle over Washington because the Moons wanted him to move to the backfield full time.

Still, sometimes being buried on a depth chart can be good for a player’s chances to become a fan favorite: “Why isn’t he playing more often?” is something that all 32 teams hear for somebody every year. Shenault could be that guy for the Seahawks in 2024, just as it was Bobo in 2023.

S Rayshawn Jenkins

Was Quandre Diggs a better safety on the Lions before the Seahawks than what Rayshawn Jenkins has been for the Chargers and Jaguars? Was Julian Love a better safety on the Giants than Jenkins has been to this point? Though the Seahawks don’t have Pete Carroll as a figurehead watching over the defensive backs anymore, Seattle’s been a home for safeties to take their game to the next level and it’s not as though Mike Macdonald is unqualified to make defensive players better through scheme and coaching.

Also, the one coach that the Seahawks retained was defensive backs coach Karl Scott.

I wrote about Jenkins as a player who could see his stock up by the end of the year. Seattle gave him the classic two-year contract reserved for outside free agents who they have a lot of conviction for as steals; they did this recently with players like Love and Uchenna Nwosu, both of whom were extended after one season with the team.

Though Jenkins turns 31 in January, I’m not going to think more than three years ahead. Safeties have proven to stay valuable after turning 30 at a higher rate than most defensive positions, that’s one reason why some corners move to safety in their 30s and not the other way around. Speed isn’t going to be as big of a factor in success and Macdonald’s Ravens defenses heavily utilized at least three safeties every week. Between Jenkins, Love, K’Von Wallace, and Coby Bryant, the Seahawks should be able to use all four and could keep them together through 2025. (Wallace is the only free agent.)

On the downside, Jenkins is in danger of missing the first game with a calf injury. We don’t have any designations yet so I’m not going to say he’s “questionable”, but he could end up being something like questionable. It would be ideal if Seattle’s breakout safety this year was Coby Bryant because he’s much younger (25) and therefore a more comfortable player to extend to a new contract when the time comes, and we might even see Bryant start in Week 1 if Jenkins can’t go; maybe we’ll see Bryant’s first regular season interception this year.

But the long overlooked safety is sure to be the starter when healthy, probable to play over 90% of the snaps, and guaranteed to be involved in a lot of plays (over 200 tackles, five interceptions, two sacks, three forced fumbles in the past two seasons combined) this year, so I’m calling Rayshawn Jenkins out as the safety most likely to go from barely discussed to a fan favorite.

Who would be your picks?

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