Seahawks unusual injury situation: What to know

Seahawks will essentially be without entire starting front-4 against Lions, who will step up? Seaside Joe 2036

I can’t recall if the Seattle Seahawks have ever played a game without their four best defensive linemen, but you could argue that’s the case in Week 4 against the Detroit Lions. For some reason, I’m taking the positive angle on this news—mostly due to confidence in Mike Macdonald—and focusing more on WHO’S IN rather than WHO’S OUT?

We should still talk about who’s out first.

No, I said “out”.

That would be Uchenna Nwosu for the fourth time, Boye Mafe, Leonard Williams, and Byron Murphy II for the first time. We don’t really talk about the Seahawks having a “front four” anymore, but when Seattle rushes four players I can’t imagine that there are four I’d rather have out there than Nwosu, Mafe, Williams, and Murphy. In my eyes, these are the Seahawks best four front-seven players, period. Feel free to tell me if you disagree:

In addition, linebacker Jerome Baker could miss a second straight game but hasn’t officially been ruled out yet. However, I’m sort of excited to see how certain other players do with more snaps and at different positions.

How injuries impact other Seahawks

NT Jarran Reed — Leads all Seahawks DL in snaps already at 65%, including a season-high 80% in Week 3 when Seattle lost Murphy and Williams. We could see increased playing time for Reed and it’s an opportune time for him to prove he can generate a pass rush on his own.

DT Myles Adams — Played one snap against the Patriots, that’s Adams’ entire season so far. He should be active this week and it will be his first chance to prove to Macdonald that all he needed to have a breakout was the right system.

DT Johnathan Hankins — Had his best game as a Seahawk in Week 3 and he’s going to see at least 50% snaps for the second week in a row. If you’re very into the lives of Seahawks, Hankins vlogged about it:

DE Mike Morris — A regular on special teams, Morris is active every week already. He played a season-high 14 snaps and had two tackles in Week 3. As a player with prior Macdonald experience, Morris is as well positioned as anybody to prove he’s ahead of the learning curve.

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DT Quinton Bohanna or DT Matt Gotel — As Bob Condotta noted in his article for The Seattle Times, the Seahawks could elevate one of these two players from the practice squad. I don’t know that anyone could predict exactly what Macdonald will do on Monday night so it wouldn’t be right of me to speculate and lead you astray. The reason I say so is that it seems unlikely Gotel would be active and play a lot of snaps, but given Seattle’s current injury situation there’s also a scenario where he plays 30+ snaps! It’s impossible to say right now from this side of the facility.

OLB Trevis Gipson — Macdonald didn’t sound concerned about Boye Mafe and this move to rule him out in Week 4 could be related to Seattle’s upcoming schedule with games on Monday, Sunday, and Thursday. I’m going to officially be “surprised” if Mafe doesn’t play in Week 5, while Nwosu’s return to limited practice this week indicates a potential debut coming up.

John Schneider quipped that he was after Gipson for a long time. It’s funny to think that a GM would ever have to be after Gipson for a long time without landing him. Which, of course, Schneider eventually did at a low cost. Nwosu being out is nothing new, but Mafe being out changes the math at outside linebacker considerably. Derick Hall should play his usual amount (though is anything “usual” for Hall yet?) and then the rest kind of falls on Dre’Mont Jones and Gipson.

That’s where things start to get interesting…

DL(?) Dre’Mont Jones — Condotta posits a potential move back to the defensive line for Jones as a way to offset the losses of Murphy and Williams. So if Jones plays defensive end this week, it could be Hall and Gipson playing the edges for most of the game. Could Jones find his footing again if he moves back to defensive end?

OLB(???) Tyrice Knight(?) — Condotta also tweeted that he wondered if the Seahawks “might try Knight some as an edge rusher against the Lions”. Condotta said he was just “spitballing”, so it doesn’t seem as though this is intel from the team, but it is such an unexpected idea to spitball that I wonder if it could have some traction.

If Baker plays, Knight’s availability becomes a lot more flexible. If Baker is out, I would assume that Knight fills that role alongside Tyrel Dodson and Drake Thomas. The Seahawks also have the following players on the practice squad: LB Patrick O’Connell, OLB Tyus Bowser, OLB Tyreke Smith, OLB Kenneth Odumegwu, OLB Jamie Sheriff

Seattle can elevate two players for Monday, so a combination like Gotel and Bowser could make the most sense. But that’s not information that Macdonald wants to get out until the Seahawks have no other choice.

I want to keep the non-negotiables articles going every week, so I’m going to jam 3 NON-NEGOTIABLES TO BEAT THE LIONS at the end of this article:

Do these three non-negotiables and I’m kind of thinking the Seahawks will be 4-0.

1. Force a turnover

Last week I wrote that the non-negotiable to beat the Dolphins was to win the turnover battle. Then the Seahawks lost the turnover battle 2-0 and won the game 24-3. So not all non-negotiables are necessarily guarantees to victory or failure.

The Seahawks have not forced a turnover since the Broncos game, although they did have a few fumble opportunities against the Dolphins. Jared Goff isn’t going to put the ball at risk very often, but he has four interceptions already this season and won’t have his Pro Bowl center Frank Ragnow.

Macdonald’s specialties in Baltimore were getting pressures and takeaways. Seattle’s doing a lot of the first thing, not a lot of the second thing.

2. Stop the run

The Seahawks are going to want to force the Lions to win the game because of Jared Goff, not with Jared Goff. How do you force the Lions to lean on their QB? Stop the run.

The Lions are fourth in rushing yards and fifth in rushing attempts this season, as both David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs have over 200 yards on the ground already plus five combined rushing touchdowns. As talented as Jameson Williams and Amon-Ra St. Brown are, I’d much rather have Goff throwing the ball than handing it off to Montgomery and Gibbs.

And if the Seahawks can defend the underneath stuff, force Goff to hit the intermediate and deep areas of the field, very good things could happen for Riq Woolen and Julian Love.

3. Avoid Brian Branch

I’m definitely not going to say that Stone Forsythe vs. Aidan Hutchinson is a “lost cause” because there are ways to mitigate those issues. There are heavily one-side matchups in the NFL every single week. But that’s a problem that Seattle can’t avoid because someone has to block Hutchinson.

It’s much, much easier to just decide ahead of time, “Hey, let’s not put the ball anywhere near Brian Branch.”

Quite possibly Detroit’s second best player on defense (or best?), the 6’, 200 lb defensive back will play all over the secondary but will mostly be in the slot. Last season, Branch had 624 snaps in the slot, 127 in the box, 34 at free safety, and 46 as a boundary corner. This season, he’s creating more big plays than any defensive player in the NFL:

I would assume this could be a slow week for Jaxon Smith-Njigba if he’s lined up in the slot. Could the Seahawks maybe try giving Jake Bobo extra time in the slot this week as more of a mismatch/unusual pairing with Branch, with JSN playing the Z and Tyler Lockett getting some rest before the busiest stretch of the schedule?

So I don’t give fantasy football advice, but I’d be leaning closer to DK Metcalf and Kenneth Walker’s side than JSN’s.