The Seattle Seahawks have ruled out both Julian Love and Ty Okada for Week 3’s matchup against the Washington Moons, meaning that Mike Macdonald will start Rodney Thomas II and AJ Finley as the two deep safeties on Sunday. Has there even been a season in franchise history that started this poorly in terms of secondary injuries?
Arguably the best safeties room in the NFL, the Seahawks have been through the following going into game three:
Ty Okada has played 0 snaps
Nick Emmanwori has played 9 snaps
Julian Love is ruled out for Week 3
Bud Clark broke his ankle in the preseason
Entering the season with Love, Okada, and Emmanwori, the Seahawks have turned to Thomas, a player who didn’t make the initial 53-man roster (but was signed to it this week because of injuries), and Finley, a former undrafted free agent about to make his first career start in his fourth NFL season.
We should also expect that at least one practice squad elevation will come from the safety position, either Maxen Hook or D’Anthony Bell, meaning Seattle is essentially down to their seventh and eighth-ranked safeties as of the start of training camp.
Yet I’ve never been more confident in the Seahawks defense?
Two months ago, we did our first 91-player stock report. Almost 100 Seaside Joe subscribers took the leap of faith with me to rank every player on the roster at that point, and did it so that down the line we could gauge the way certain players broke expectations after the season started.
And boy have they broken our expectations.
While we could not predict injuries, they have certainly had a major impact on our 91-player rankings:
QB Sam Darnold (3rd)
DB Nick Emmanwori (7th)
G Anthony Bradford (26th)
S Ty Okada (28th)
S Bud Clark (29th)
WR Tory Horton (30th)
FB Robbie Ouzts (33rd)
WR Jake Bobo (37th)
G Mason Richman (49th)
Now the team has added Love (12th) to the list, a player who would also qualify as perhaps the most improved veteran starter on the entire team, besides Drew Lock.
Elsewhere, there are players who have disappointed or didn’t make the roster at all, the highest-ranked being Noah Igbinoghene (46th) and Amari Kight (47th), followed by Jared Ivey (53rd).
Players not ranked because they weren’t on the team? All cornerbacks: Avery Smith (Not Ranked), Trevon Diggs (NR, practice squad), and Terrion Arnold (NR, commissioner’s exemption).
Also thanks to the mounting uncertainty in Seattle’s secondary. At least this has been an opportunity for other players to step up and prove themselves of a higher spot on the list the next time we do it, which I suspect will be after Week 4. This includes the best surprise of any player ranked outside of the top-50, someone who could start for the Seahawks for a very long time at this rate.
He’s first on this list of my 5 most improved “stock up” Seahawks so far: