Top-5 Seahawks who raised their stock the most this offseason

The Seahawks who have given us more reason to believe that they are important, necessary, and more valuable than ever: Seaside Joe 1639

The Seahawks concluded their preseason on Saturday and even if the final drive didn’t go as they hoped, Seattle can hang their hats on the fact that the team played well as a whole throughout their three exhibition contests. There are issues to clean up, especially on defense, but that’s something I sense could work itself out after five or six games of developing chemistry in a unit that could have at least 11 new key players who were added this year alone.

Even if Clint Hurtt’s defense isn’t top-10 in the first month of the season, I wouldn’t panic. Offensive lines aren’t the only position group that benefits from continuity and time to develop chemistry.

It got me wondering about which players on the roster may have needed more time to develop, or ones who were simply overlooked by other teams and have now proved immeasurably valuable to the Seahawks as the team prepares for final cuts on Tuesday. This is a new format that I haven’t tested before on Seaside Joe, but hopefully it creates an interesting discussion or thoughts you can have among yourselves.

The five players who raised their stock the most from the end of the 2023 draft until now

HM: NT Matt Gotel, LB Patrick O’Connell, DE Jacob Sykes, C Evan Brown, RB SaRodorick Thompson, RT Abe Lucas, LT Charles Cross, CB Devon Witherspoon, K Jason Myers, S Jonathan Sutherland

I won’t touch on all these names—it’s honorable mention, not honorable full article—but I’ll explain for the ones that need explaining.

I’m kind of going on instinct and faith with the two offensive tackles, just taking Pete Carroll at his word that they’ve made the second-year leap. Pete has said several times recently that he doesn’t understand where the term “sophomore slump” comes from because he’s used to guys getting better in year two, not worse. So let’s say that Seattle’s 2022 rookie class is on the “sophomore slope” and they’re going up the mountain, not down it.

I know that Witherspoon hasn’t practiced or played much. I think he’s benefited from gaining position versatility by practicing more in the slot, he’s gained from the offseason with the Seahawks coaches, and he’s added value from the fact that Seattle didn’t see what they wanted to see out of Michael Jackson. Nobody took Witherspoon’s starting spot from him while he was out.

As good as Justin Tucker is—and he’s literally the best of all-time—I feel like this could be Myers’ year. He’s on it and he doesn’t get enough respect for his ability to connect from deep.

5. CB Tre Brown

Whether Brown starts in Week 1 or not, he will have a much larger role on the defense than any he’s had before. Brown played in 255 snaps as a fourth round rookie out of Oklahoma in 2021, but missed 11 games. He actually appeared in more games (6) but far fewer snaps (21) in 2022.

Brown has been competing against Michael Jackson and Artie Burns to essentially start alongside Riq Woolen and Witherspoon, although the end result could be that all of these corners get their moment. It’s tough to rotate more than three or four cornerbacks, but it would be heavily opposed to what we’ve seen in the last two preseason games if Brown wasn’t favored over Jackson.

Don’t Miss It: 53-man roster projection, plus 16-man practice squad projection following Seahawks preseason finale vs. Packers! Read it now!

Should that matter as much as practices? Pete called Jackson the “standout player” of OTAs. That’s just not what we’ve seen recently and even Burns has looked better.

Six months ago, Tre Brown’s goal was merely to stay on the field so that he could prove himself. He accomplished the staying healthy part and that alone should get him more opportunities on the field than he’s ever had before.

4. DE Mario Edwards, Jr.

There are many angles and methods of analysis to use when you evaluate draft prospects, but this one is probably the most underrated: Just hear the man talk for five minutes. You will learn a lot of what you need to know about a person from having that conversation. I think it was probably “the conversation” that caused the Seahawks (and other teams) to pass on Jalen Carter in the draft this year. A player will sometimes also tell you more with his eyes than he will with what he says.

Since he signed with the Seahawks, I just like hearing Mario Edwards talk.

He’s got some unexplainable leadership quality and I was not expecting to be so drawn into Edwards because I just judged him as this journeyman who couldn’t stick with a team. It’s usually a red flag when a player can’t stick with a team. Maybe for Edwards it’s a durability, conditioning, or endurance issue. He has only been about a 25% player in his career.

But in a short period of time, and even getting signed after the draft ended, Edwards has become a pivotal part of Seattle’s defensive line. Most likely a full-time starter for the first time since he was with the Raiders in 2017. After playing for five different teams prior to 2023, I get the sense that Edwards has come to the place he was always meant to be.

3. QB Drew Lock

My article on Lock last week turned out to be a very popular post, one of the most-”hearted” and commented on from the entire month. I don’t take credit. Give the credit to Lock and the interest in the quarterback position.

I stand by what I said only two days ago, which is that I have no reason to believe yet that Lock is any better than he was with the Broncos. He was really bad with the Broncos. I think the much improved perception of Drew Lock is somewhat due to the fact that he hasn’t played in a regular season game with the Seahawks yet. He was good in the preseason too.

Why the improved value then? Looking good in the preseason and also having a lot of experience and having a good college career, these are actually rare traits to have rolled into one backup. Eliminate all the starting QBs in the NFL and I believe Lock would be top-5. Who is really better? Jacoby Brissett? Taylor Heinicke? Sam Darnold? Andy Dalton? Lock might actually be the best backup in the NFL and that’s why I don’t rule out the possibility of a trade.

2. OLB Boye Mafe

Found an article I wrote from last year in which Brett Kollmann said that Mafe was “a better natural talent than Kayvon Thibodeaux”. (And bonus in there: A tweet from the “Hawkblogger” saying Mafe was just an “old pass rusher” that he “absolutely hated” picking at 40.)

Going into Mafe’s rookie year, fans weren’t sure what to expect, but “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” is usually a good mantra with these picks. What we got was something in between.

But after a rookie season, almost any possibility remains on the table for Mafe. Including being one of the best edge defenders in the NFL. Not just pass rushers, but all-around outside linebackers. It’s mostly accepted now that Mafe is the second-best edge player on Seattle’s defense. However, he could also be better than Uchenna Nwosu by the end of the year.

Mafe’s rookie year ended without a lot of fanfare, for understandable reasons, and yet there was enough on film to think he could be a lot better if he was given a chance to grow in the same system for a few years. (His career at Minnesota involved a lot of coaching and scheme changes on defense.) When you take into account how he’s played in the preseason, how he’s been praised by coaches, how he seems to look on just about every play—it seems that sophomore slope is happening.

1. WR Jake Bobo

I typically loathe mentions of the annual “standout receiver of the preseason” because it’s always someone who won’t end up having a significant NFL career and that’s usually very obvious. With Bobo, nothing that usually makes sense actually makes any sense this time.

Being timed at 4.99 in the 40-yard dash and even being signed by an NFL team doesn’t make sense for a receiver. I would bet that Bobo truly runs more like a 4.65-4.70, which is in the range of a handful of NFL receivers. But only a a handful and those guys usually also have stellar college careers that got them opportunities in the draft. Bobo wasn’t bad at Duke and UCLA over the last two seasons. He was good. He got strong endorsements from the head coaches at Duke and UCLA for being the hardest worker on those teams.

But he was hardly a standout in college. He has, however, been a standout since the day he first practiced with the Seahawks.

That doesn’t make sense.

In just the last few weeks, Bobo has gone from “maybe practice squad” to “definitely 53-man roster” and he might even be called on to start in Week 1 against the Rams because of Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s injury.

One of the commenters here said it best: Be Ordinary, Be Open. That’s Bobo.

Don’t Miss It: 53-man roster projection, plus 16-man practice squad projection following Seahawks preseason finale vs. Packers! Read it now!