How did Seahawks starters do against Browns in preseason finale?

Likely and unlikely heroes emerge in Seahawks preseason finale, 8/24/2024

We had expected the Browns to play their starters this week. Maybe I took it too seriously when Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was quoted as saying, “All of our starters should expect to play.”

I guess that was just a threat to his own players?

Instead, the Seahawks played most of their starters for one series on each side of the ball, while Cleveland sat almost every single player of importance. On offense, the Browns sat QB Deshaun Watson, WRs Amari Cooper and Jerry Jeudy, TE David Njoku, RB Nick Chubb, and OL starters Jedrick Wills, Jack Conklin, and Joel Bitonio. On defense, there would be no Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, and basically all the important ones.

Still, we got a glimpse of Seattle’s starters on both sides of the ball and in both cases, the Seahawks were dominant against the Browns. I had prepared myself ahead of time for what I would have to write if the Seahawks offense struggled against Cleveland’s backup defense, but luckily we never had to go there.

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As I write this, the game is not over, but as I wrote earlier on Saturday I planned to put the newsletter out after the starters were pulled from the game. It turns out that not only does it still take a long time to write an article about something like 7 minutes of football, but then other things started to happen as I was writing that will interest you too.

Like the confusing feelings that many fans are probably having right now after witnessing Dee Eskridge return a punt 79 yards into the end zone. (full play here):

It might even be easy to put Eskridge on the team as a return specialist, if not for the fact that undrafted rookie Dee Williams had a 16-yard return (much more impressive when not compared to 79 yards) and aplty handled kickoff duties.

I’ll go over standouts on offense and defense. You can add your thoughts in the comments and continue to talk about the second half of the game with your fellow Seahawks fans:

Defensive Starters

After D’Onta Foremen returned the ball to the 28 (as a reminder, touchbacks will start at the 30), the Browns had the usual first-and-10…

Julian Love

Now the safety that the Seahawks are most committed to long-term, Love starts the game off with a near-tackle for a loss by shooting the gap and tackling Jerome Ford for a one-yard gain. Seattle isn’t working with a lot of linebacker talent now, it might not get that much better in the regular season, so Macdonald’s amalgamation of all five traditional position groups into one could have a player like Love making a lot of run tackles.

Devon Witherspoon

Jameis Winston’s first pass of the game comes against pressure and just off of my memory wasn’t that close to being completed against Devon Witherspoon. There were not many replays in the first quarter, so I have to admit to mostly going off of my notes and the broadcast didn’t give us many second chances to see what happened. Regardless of the accuracy of the pass, forcing a throw at Witherspoon is almost always going to be a mistake.

Uchenna Nwosu

The most blatant example of how stingy the NFL Network is tonight, we didn’t get a replay of Uchenna Nwosu’s roughing the passer penalty. I don’t know how anyone could have seen what happened from the broadcast angle. One play layer, Nwosu was penalized on a chop block by Cleveland’s running back and left the game with a leg injury. We never even got a replay of the play that would have ended the drive if not for the penalty on Nwosu.

Tyrel Dodson

The broadcast confused Dodson for Coby Bryant at first, and so did I. The numbers 8 and 0 are almost identical, but they also apparently have the same body type because I was fooled when Winston almost threw an interception to Dodson while under pressure.

Byron Murphy II

Not much to say about Murphy tonight, but he and Boye Mafe were both pressuring Winston on the near-interception. Mafe was unblocked, but it appeared as though Murphy just ran right through another guy.

1st-and-25, nice coverage

Incomplete pass on first down after the penalty. I didn’t notice any Browns open during the entire first drive against the number one defense.

Artie Burns

Burns made a solid tackle on 2nd-and-19 to setup the final play of the drive. But Burns did leave later in the game with his own injury.

Jarran Reed

Reed gets a 10-yard sack on third down to force a punt. Leonard Williams was close by and might have gotten the sack if Reed didn’t. To my untrained but trustworthy eyes, Winston never touched the ground. If it was a regular season game, I would be quite upset if this happened to my team and the refs missed it, but the play was dead.

Dee Williams

By plenty of accounts, Dee Williams should make the 53-man roster as a returner. He returned the punt 16 yards and has been consistent throughout the preseason.

Offensive Starters

Geno Smith

All five plays of the drive were pass attempts by Geno and only the first one fell incomplete. Geno over-throw DK Metcalf on the sideline on the first play of the series, but pretty much everything else went great and finished with a 21-yard touchdown the next time he went to Metcalf. Geno finished 4-of-5 and 12 yards per attempt.

DK Metcalf

I saw some fake news on Twitter that this was against Denzel Ward, but actually this is Justin Hardee, Sr., but that shouldn’t stop DK Metcalf of getting this as a painting for his foyer:

To be fair, Hardee falling down really helped DK tower over him for the touchdown, but we’ve seen Metcalf be this dominant many times before.

Michael Robinson: “Great play design by Ryan Grubb. You can see Kenny McIntosh motions to the top which gives Geno Smith all the information he needs to see it’s zone and pushes the zones to the strong side.”

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Caught two passes for 32 yards, neither of them were easy plays (25-yard slot fade diving catch & 7-yard on a slant) but JSN showed again why he was the first receiver drafted last year. He can get open, he can find yards after the catch, he can make circus catches, and he can block. Feeding JSN at least two times per drive might not be a bad idea.

Kenny McIntosh

We heard his name before. McIntosh also caught a nine-yard pass from Geno, which was a great play by Geno to get the pass out while in the process of being sacked and to almost get a first down. McIntosh then had a 56-yard rushing touchdown as I was writing this article, and it is still Seattle’s only rush attempt of the game. We can officially guarantee that McIntosh is not on the bubble.

Laviska Shenault

In addition to Shenault getting two opportunities on the second drive (six-yard catch), he had a 12-yard catch on the second drive and helped spring McIntosh for a 56-yard touchdown run. He also had a nine-yard run. He’s smart about football business because Shenault could not make a roster strictly as a wide receiver, but he seems invaluable because of how many different things he does well.

Brady Russell

I guess at this point he goes without saying, but if Noah Fant and Pharaoh Brown are not available in Week 1, all signs point to Russell getting the start. A.J. Barner came in second, but Russell continued to rotate in and was involved a lot even without getting any targets (at the time of this post). It felt like you couldn’t watch the Seahawks offense without noticing where Russell is, maybe that’s just the hair. Maybe more players on the bubble should grow out their hair? It’s not the worst advice.

Christian Haynes vs. Anthony Bradford

Laken Tomlinson started on the left, Bradford on the right, with Charles Cross at left tackle, George Fant at right tackle, and Olu Oluwatimi at center. Cross and Fant appeared to leave after the first drive, while the other three stayed in with Sam Howell.

Though Haynes was called for a holding penalty that wiped out a 73-yard touchdown pass from Sam Howell to Cody White, I can’t speak to the quality of the decision by the refs. I wouldn’t be qualified to give an immediate grade to Haynes and Bradford (I’d need some sort of certificate of completion from PFF to get an unpaid internship) so I’ll leave that up to the coaching staff. Share your thoughts on the offensive line if you have any:

McClendon Curtis took over at left tackle, Stone Forsythe replaced George Fant at right tackle.

Sam Howell

It seems like the consistent theme is slow starts before settling into acceptable, if not good. It’s just kind of ridiculous to me to read too much into this because if the Seahawks need Howell, they won’t force him to bring the entire second team with him. He’s going to play with better players, maybe he will be better under those conditions.