🩼4 Seahawks listed as DOUBTFUL vs. Saints

Which Seahawks are missing? Plus A.J. Barner appreciation day

The Seahawks listed three members of the secondary as doubtful to play against the Saints and another player’s useage just went up based on Friday’s injury report.

Nick Emmanwori (ankle) and Devon Witherspoon (knee) are both doubtful and unlikely to suit up against the Saints, which would be the second straight missed game for both of them, and they are joined unfortunately by Julian Love (hamstring) and Zach Charbonnet (foot). As bad as this sounds, and certainly as bad as it is, the Seahawks know that this is business as usual when you play in a tackling industry.

Almost any week when a team has its quarterback and its entire starting offensive line is considered a positive injury outcome, especially these days.

3 down in the secondary

As I noted last week, being listed as doubtful is almost the same as being ruled out: only 6% of doubtful players suit up and play. That’s just the ones who play…even less than 6% are fully available for the entire game.

If Love and Emmanwori are both out, that leaves Coby Bryant and Ty Okada as the starting safeties with a probable practice squad elevation for either Jerrick Reed, D’Anthony Bell, or both. However, Mike Macdonald might need to call up Shaq Griffin too since Witherspoon is probably going to miss his second game in a row.

The Seahawks have Josh Jobe, Tariq Woolen, Nehemiah Pritchett, and Derion Kendrick left at corner.

It could be overconfident to say “luckily the Seahawks are playing against the Saints this week” but…kind of luckily the Seahawks are playing against the Saints.

Spencer Rattler is 32nd in yards per pass attempt (5.3) and New Orleans has struggled to pass the ball deep to receivers Rashid Shaheed and Chris Olave, both of whom are under 9.0 yards per catch, in Kellen Moore’s first go as the head coach. Maybe that will change in the future but is this the week for Seattle push players who are not 100%? It’s absolutely not because:

The Seahawks face the Cardinals next Thursday on four days rest.

We know what they call it when a team is preparing for the next game — a “trap” — but this is not exactly that. This is being smart when you’ve got banged up starters who may not be ready to play football on both September 21st and September 25th.

Either Witherspoon, Love, and/or Emmanwori will be ready to start in Week 4 or they could return in Week 5, which would be October 5th and mean another 10 days of rehab, warmup, and preparation to return.

Do you think it’s smart to save these players for Week 4/5?

Kenneth Walker useage increase

After getting out-snapped by Zach Charbonnet in the first two games, Walker has only played in 38% of Seattle’s offensive plays through two weeks. Despite that low number of plays (44), Walker has 27 touches, 142 yards, 5.3 yards per touch, and a touchdown.

Kenneth Walker yards per touch career:

• 2022: 4.8

• 2023: 4.7

• 2024: 4.4

• 2025: 5.3

When does a foot force a hand? When Charbonnet’s absence means that Walker has to get more snaps against the Saints.

It’s too early to say what anybody or any team is right now, but the Saints struggled against the run in the first two weeks and they have the sixth-worst Rush Yards Over Expectation per Attempt in the NFL at +0.85.

The Seahawks are at -0.57, which is the tenth-best.

Charbonnet’s probable absence also means that George Holani is likely to get his first offensive snaps of the season. Holani had 5 snaps in 2024, which resulted in three carries for 10 yards and one catch for -1. He is probably the only running back in the NFL who has more touchdowns than offensive snaps.

Seattle has Damien Martinez and Jacardia Wright on the practice squad, either of whom could get a call-up.

A.J. Barner appreciation

Before this injury news, I was going to do a write-up on A.J. Barner but instead I’ll make it quick. What a steal!

I noticed that Barner has the most snaps of any player on offense who isn’t a quarterback or offensive lineman:

• 102/117 snaps played (87%)

But he’s also played a lot on special teams:

• 20 snaps (39.2%)

Think about it: A.J. Barner was a fourth round pick in 2024 and he played 46% of the snaps on offense as a rookie who many people called a “blocking tight end” who wouldn’t have much value outside of that role.

Without much fanfare, Barner has almost doubled his playing time on offense and actually increased his snap count on special teams. But again, that’s also not all: Barner is the primary ball-carrier for short yardage sneak attempts (2 runs for 2 first downs), he caught arguably the most important ball of the game in Week 2 (third-and-14 conversion), and he scored a touchdown.

Barner has the eighth-highest snap count rate of any tight end in the NFL so far this season and he’s the only one in the top-20 who regularly plays on special teams:

Maybe Barner will never have more than 500 receiving yards in a season, maybe he won’t even have more than 400. (He’s currently on pace for about 200.) Pairing him with Elijah Arroyo kind of reminds me of what Mike Macdonald’s former colleagues have in Baltimore with Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely. But he is far, far more than “just” a blocking tight end.

Seaside Joe 2391