Seahawks fans least-excited by position group that is most-important?

'Baugh 'Baugh Black Sheep: Special Teams preview

Post-Game article: Seahawks fans share their thoughts on Seahawks-Raiders preseason tie!

Here are links to every Seahawks position group preview that has been posted at Seaside Joe over the past week, as well as the results of the excited/worried polls of which there are two three really important findings:

• You had an exact split on how excited/worried you are about the quarterback position

• The only position that didn’t have most people voting 5/5 was edge rusher, which also happens to be by far the most important defensive position in football according to your votes on Wednesday

• You are most excited by the safeties, which was the least-important position according to votes

QB preview

Exact 48%/48% split on Excited and In the Middle

RB preview

64% Excited

WR preview

50% Excited

OL/TE preview

DL/LB preview

75% - Excited

EDGE preview

62% In the Middle

S preview

88% Excited

CB preview

The results of which defensive positions are the most important sort of shook out like this:

1. EDGE (undisputed)

2. DT (close, my interpretation)

3. CB (close, my interpretation)

4. LB

5. S (I think a somewhat distant 5th)

Results Analysis

1/5 on any poll were rare, so you were either “really excited” about a position group or just moderately excited. On that foundation, there are clear favorites for which positions you think are set (S, DT, LB) and those that you’re less sure about (WR, QB, RB…I forgot to add polls for OL and CB, but I think it’s fair to say OL would be low and CB would be high) and then there’s the edge rushers group:

• 62% of you voted 3/5

• 30% of you voted 5/5

• 8% of you voted 1/5

And yet edge rusher was by far the most important position on defense according to our polls: 50% of you voted that EDGE is the most important, while 32% voted that it was the second-most important. That’s 82% combined, whereas the next-closest combined number in the first two polls was 51% for defensive tackles.

According to US, not THEM, the Seahawks most concerning position group on defense is also the most important, whereas Seattle’s most exciting group is safeties, which is the least important. However, I don’t think that necessarily reflects how you feel about defensive line because I combined that group with linebackers…

If separated, I bet that defensive tackles would rank first and safeties would rank second, which is a number likely buoyed by the fact that Nick Emmanwori exists and I asked what you’re “excited” about. As a rookie, Emmanwori is likely more exciting than Buoy Boye Mafe.

But it’s too early to say that we should be concerned about the edge rushers because…

Remember Mike Macdonald’s edge group in Baltimore?

Going into the 2023 season, Macdonald’s second as the defensive coordinator, the Ravens were led by Jadeveon Clowney, third-year pro Odafe Oweh, Tavius Robinson, and David Ojabo, who had missed all of his 2022 rookie season. That is a worse-looking edge rushers group than what Seattle has going into 2025.

Oweh had been merely OK over his first two seasons (Derick Hall-esque) and Ojabo had never played and would continue to miss most games. Clowney was coming off of a 2-sack season Cleveland in 2022.

But a few weeks into the season, the Ravens signed Kyle Van Noy TO THE PRACTICE SQUAD and then activated him the same week. Van Noy finished with a career-high 9 sacks in 2023, Clowney had 9.5 (tying career-high), and Baltimore got a breakout 13 sacks from nose tackle Nnamdi Madubuike.

• DeMarcus Lawrence = Clowney

• Hall = Oweh

• Mafe = Oweh also?

• Uchenna Nwosu = Ojabo (but maybe Nwosu doesn’t miss that much time?)

• Leonard Williams = Madubuike

• Plus Jarran Reed and Byron Murphy II

You don’t see a comparison to Van Noy there because Van Noy was added after training camp and the Seahawks are probably poking around in every outhouse, treehouse, and boathouse looking for the next street free agent or waived veteran to add to the defense, especially if Nwosu continues to sit. Or Nwosu could be Van Noy.

Because Seattle has Macdonald, I’m less worried about the edge rushers who they don’t have. There are big seasons incoming from somewhere in that front-seven, we just can’t confirm from whom yet.

Special Teams Preview

Special Teams is a lot more important than I’m appearing to give it credit for by smashing it into the end of an article, but I don’t have much to say that either a) you don’t already know or b) is even predictable.

You already know that Michael Dickson has the ability to be a great, first-team All-Pro punter. I think he could be even better than he’s been, but Dickson has been solid for so long that fans (including me) forget what it’s like to have a mediocre punter, which the Seahawks don’t want to have and that’s why he’s been paid a little more than we might have expected.

Jason Myers went 9-of-12 on 50+ kicks last season, which was tied for the fifth-most in the NFL. I think every kicker by now should be expected to make over 90% of kicks inside the 50, so long range has become the most important stat. If you’re not hitting most of your 48-yard kicks, you’re probably not suited for the league anyway, and Myers was 17-of-18 inside 50.

Steven Sims is probably in the lead to return kicks and punts now that Kenny McIntosh is on IR and I don’t think that’s best for the team, but the Seahawks are going to prioritize the player who doesn’t fumble this time and avoid another Dee Williams/Laviska Shenault situation.

Longsnapper Chris Stoll has been out injured recently and Seattle added some insurance there but I haven’t put any thought into it.

Overall, I think Jay Harbaugh got treated unfairly at the start of his Seahawks career, which does feel weird to say about a coach who was born into this job but I don’t think fans should be publicly calling to fire a special teams coordinator weeks into his first season because players he didn’t sign were doing things he explicitly would have told them not to do.

Aside from that being an insanely short leash, wouldn’t we all want to get a full 17-game sample size to find out if Harbaugh’s coaching has improved the performances of Dickson, Myers, and the coverage units? Which, he did.

Dee Williams got to fumble away Harbaugh’s career? Hasn’t he done enough damage already?

This site has ranked the Seahawks 15th overall in special teams play in 2024, including these particular categories:

• 4th in net punt

• 11th in opponent net punt

• 25th in FG% (I already covered this and it was good enough for me)

• 17th in KO return

• 22nd in KO coverage

I think any serious concerns we have about Harbaugh would come down to making sure that Seattle doesn’t have game-winning field goal attempts blocked by the Giants. But in another instance, Harbaugh was praised by YouTube’s preeminent kicking expert for this kickoff return touchdown play call against the Niners.

It’s like having a rookie quarterback and cutting him because he threw an interception while ignoring any touchdowns he may have scored. It’s just one year! And Harbaugh has earned more time to prove what he has learned from being the nephew of arguably the best special teams coordinator in history (John) and the son of another NFL head coach.

By the way, in John Harbaugh’s first year as the Eagles special teams coordinator in 1998, kick returner Allen Rossum fumbled four times. If Twitter had existed at the time, maybe Harbaugh’s career wouldn’t have gone any further than that.

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