The Day Before Discourse: How will Seahawks keep all 3 of these tight ends?
Seaside Joe 1349
The Seattle Seahawks usually start playing games after 1 PM Pacific Standard Time, which likely means that most of the players aren’t even awake at 6:30 AM. With an early kickoff on Sunday in Munich against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, those same players will have to be prepared to throw their bodies around the field at a time when they’re usually just tossing and turning in bed.
No time to make any excuses though. With a bye week to follow, Seahawks have plenty of opportunity in the days after the Bucs game to get their bodies back to local standards.
As Germany’s favorite American football team, the Seattle Seahawks also can’t blame Munich if they stolpern (stumble) without their morning cup of kaffee (coffee).
The QB Survivor posts on Saturday need to take a quick break until I get a better idea of where the Seahawks are set to pick in the first and second rounds. I believe that will give us even more insight into Seattle’s QB draft plans than how the prospects do over the next month or even by how well Geno Smith plays in the coming weeks.
The Seahawks should draft a quarterback next year. But they might not have to pull the trigger as early as I had expected.
Instead, here are a few thoughts on the Seahawks on the tag (day) vor (before) the grobes spiel (big game).
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Is Colby Parkinson the true heir apparent at tight end?
“In the most recent Cardinals game, Colby Parkinson pushed Noah Fant in bounds to keep the clock going, and he pushed K9 into the end zone. I think Colby won the Cardinals game. How do I prove this to the world?” - Andy
I recieved this message from Seasider Andy this week and I think it is deserving of a highlight.
Indeed, Parkinson was helpful in more plays than one:
Pete Carroll did more than hint in the offseason that Seattle would heavily feature their three tight ends this season:
“They’re going to be a big part of what we’re doing,” Carroll concluded.
One of my lucky finds as the former managing editor at Field Gulls, Matty F. Brown, broke down what 12 personnel could mean for the Seahawks offense in 2022:
The real key to living out of 12 personnel, however, is having a second tight end who is a mismatch for the base coverage personnel on a top of a star first-stringer. This then forces defensive coordinators into a horrid dilemma of how to stop the grouping that run blocks at a base-demanding level, yet cannot be guarded in the air by base looks.
If a defense decides to add an extra defensive back to try and cope in the passing game, then more problems can arise. Your standard nickel is likely to be at a significant size disadvantage. This therefore calls for more a specialized, big nickel grouping and game plan specific tight end killer. The move to sub-package football then leads to concerns over whether the defense can still stop the 12 personnel run game.
The NFL’s 12 personnel superlative is the New England Patriots’ duo of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Watching this cut-up of their passing game targets illustrates the aerial mismatch the pair posed for defenses. Moreover, it emphasizes how rare - and difficult - acquiring two talented-enough tight ends for heavy 12 personnel usage is.
Drew Lock called Will Dissly “super savvy” and Carroll called him “an all-around guy” who can do everything. Noah Fant had “maybe the most spectacular camp of anybody,” this year, according to Carroll. Geno Smith said that Fant “would do a bunch of great things.”
But “maybe the most exciting guy is Colby,” said Carroll this offseason. “He’s worked so diligently to build himself up,” he added. Lock noted that Colby Parkinson impressed him more than any other player and said he’s going to be a great red zone threat.
Through the first nine games, the Seahawks have been lucky to have all three tight ends available to them for the entire season. Dissly has played in 66% of the snaps, followed by Fant at 62%, and Parkinson at 35%. That would imply that Parkinson is “in third place,” but as Carroll said, he could have the most all-around potential of any tight end on the roster.
The 23-year-old (yes, Parkinson started his career at 21 and is still younger than some rookies) has caught 12 of 13 passes this season for 165 yards, with only 50 yards in the last five games, but he has made his impact felt for all 20-30 snaps that he gets each week. The only question for the Seahawks is… How do they approach the respective contract situations for each player in the future?
Luckily, that’s not something that we need to try to answer today or next year. Dissly is signed through 2024, while Fant and Parkinson stay on the books through 2023.
Seattle only has to worry about how to utilize their tight ends on Sunday. The rest, as we’ve seen, will eventually fall in place. If not, we’ve seen that Colby will push, pull, and force players to where they’re supposed to be.
Shelby Harris not to be outdone
For a while there, it seemed like maybe Drew Lock would be the best veteran player acquired in the Broncos trade. Yes, he was also the most likely to not even play, but Lock was perhaps one COVID diagnosis away from becoming the starting quarterback.
Fant has usually seemed to be the most valuable player acquired because he was a 2019 first round pick and guaranteed to get a lot of playing time. Now he’s coming off of a 96-yard performance.
But Harris—who always had the clearest path towards a consistent role on Seattle’s roster, as well as a restructured contract that pays him well this season and next (if he stays on the roster)—has long been the afterthought of the deal for many. Try to find praise for Harris from Broncos fans and you would just as easily run into complaints, similar to Fant. Harris had six sacks last season, but so did Rasheem Green, and the Seahawks were in no rush to retain Green.
Harris came to Seattle as a player with seven seasons under his belt in the NFL but relative anonymity. Now? He could be the Seahawks’ second-best pass rusher.
Harris has three QB hits, two sacks, two batted passes over the last four games. But it’s how much he’s helping others, like Uchenna Nwosu, get pressure and disruption that seems to be his greatest value in Clint Hurtt’s defense. This Seahawks defense has found a perfect role for Harris, one that not even Vic Fangio could quite get right, and he will be difficult to let go in 2023 if Seattle finds themselves having to answer that question.
Harris has a $12.2 million cap hit in 2023 on his current deal, with $9 million in savings if let go. That’s as much as Nwosu and it puts him near some of the best interior defensive linemen in the NFL. But if he keeps playing as he has in the last month, he will be worth it.
What’s on your mind, “The day before"? Let me know in the Seaside comments!
I can't find it, and already posted a quote by Pete on my last post, but there's a quote from Iowa when Noah showed up from George Kittles that Noah was going to be the best...or something like that.
All three are so important. Gotta find a way to keep them, but, more importantly, gotta keep them involved and getting better each week.
They're a key to our Super Bowl run...lol.
There were a lot of complaints about the Dissley signing this summer. Thankfully, ALL that stuff has calmed down.
Harris sling with the Woods resigning was when I started looking at the Seahawks as a threat. I thought if they could get interior pressure, allowing their Edges to get after it, and Penny and Walker running, that either Smith or Lock could make the necessary throws.
I watched film on Harris in Denver, and he showed up as much as anyone. Machines is glad he's gone.
The formula's working. Can't imagine how good Seattle would be with a healthy Penny.
I’m not so sure that they’ll draft a QB at all. I’ll look to whether the Hawks keep Lock. We don’t have a window into Lock’s continuing development--resigning him may well signal that PCJS don’t think they can improve on Lock in the draft.