With the Seahawks bringing on so much talent through free agency and with 10 selections remaining for Seattle in the upcoming college football draft, who will be the odd men out?
The Seahawks ended the 2012 season with a few holes in their roster and some work to do in the off-season to determine where the replacements or improvements could be made. Seattle's first glaring weakness after losing to the Atlanta Falcons in their second postseason game in Georgia was focused on the pass rush. Playing without Chris Clemons on the right end shown to be a major weakness for the Seahawks. Seattle's defense tallied zero sacks on Atlanta's Matt Ryan and there were few hurries even made by the Seahawks. This is the primary reason that the Seahawks lost that game and no one knows it more than GM John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll.
So, the duo decided to bring in some defensive line help and they did it in incredible fashion. Their first signing for defensive line help was former Detroit Lion defensive end Cliff Avril, the number one rated defensive player in free agency. Schneider didn't waste much time signing Michael Bennett a day later, Bennett being another high-value defensive pass rushing lineman. A few days later, Schneider brought in defensive tackle from Miami, Tony McDaniel, a huge presence in the middle of the line at 6'7" and 300 pounds. The question is now, what will Seattle do in the draft and if they bring in a couple of hotshot defensive lineman as rookies, what will happen to some of them role players who either didn't play much last year or didn't play at all. Jaye Howard was a fourth-round selection in the 2012 draft, but showed a disturbing lack of effort and preparedness to play at the pro level. Motor problems had followed him through college at Florida State, but Seattle's front office thought his talent potential could be coached and honed to work at the pro level. So far, the jury's out on Howard. He has the talent, but not the motor… So far. Greg Scruggs, another 2012 draftee for Seattle and showed some real promise later in the season playing a large role while Red Bryant was nursing a sore injured foot and in the last postseason game of the season, Scruggs filled in for pass rushing phenom Chris Clemons. With as many great free-agent and the potential addition of more defensive line help from the draft, Scruggs and Howard are going to have to elevate their performance this off-season and through training camp to find a spot on the 53 man roster and it will be a daunting task considered the additions just through the free-agent period. shortly, they will be more competitors for the D line after draft selections are collected by Schneider and Carroll.
Seattle will also have to make decisions in the defensive backfield. The Seahawks have hands down the best defensive secondary in football. With Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor at the free and strong safety positions, Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman holding down the corners, that leaves; Jeremy Lane, Walter Thurmond, Byron Maxwell, Winston Guy, D'Shaun Shead and now the newly signed veteran, Antoine Winfield. Again, the Seahawks will draft for depth at the position and that means there will be cuts to players who have established themselves to a certain extent with the starters. Walter Thurmond is a great corner, but is also injury prone. Byron Maxwell is a young player, but also has struggled with some nagging injuries. In 2012, Jeremy Lane proved to be a godsend, holding down the right corner spot as Brandon Browner served his four-game suspension for testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug, Adderall. Toward the end of the year, Winston Guy got some playtime, but his performance was questionable, but he also missed part of the season for violating the league's substance abuse policy on performance-enhancing drugs. There are going to be some difficult cuts to be made for Pete Carroll this off-season. Some of the existing players on Seattle's roster are good enough to start, but injuries have caused them to play inconsistently. I think Jeremy Lane and Antoine Winfield are the most safe to make the 2013 roster, but for Maxwell, Thurmond, Guy, Shead and Jeron Johnson, they will have to fight and compete to stay around on a team with this much talent.
Linebacker will be a very competitive position for Seattle during training camp this season. KJ Wright and Bobby Wagner are both solid starters at the Sam and Mike positions, but the Will Linebacker well be very competitive. Last year Leroy Hill and Malcolm Smith split time on the right side. Leroy Hill will likely not be offered a contract after his brushes with the law and the fact that he doesn't fit the athleticism necessary to play on a Pete Carroll defense. Malcolm Smith played well, but was totally outshined by Wagner and Wright. The Seahawks will be addressing the outside linebacker position on the right immediately in the draft, I believe. There are several good linebackers in this draft class and I believe it is without a doubt the most glaring spot that needs to be filled with a stud linebacker like; Cornelius Washington or Khaseem Green who are both athletic freaks that totally falling to the Pete Carroll model of the great outside linebacker. There are others, but I think those two are definitely on the Seahawks radar as possible picks in the second round. If it looks like the player that the Seahawks want will be snatched up before they select at the 56th pick in the second round, don't be surprised if Schneider and Carol don't pull off some sort of way of moving up in the second round or even into the first round to get their man. Other linebackers who contribute on special teams might be able to make this roster based on their physical style of playing on kickoff and punt coverage. Health Farwell has made his living on special teams as has Mike Morgan, another linebacker who has also put in some time on the defense. All of these players are hard workers and won't give up their spots on the roster easily; Kyle Knox, Allen Bradford, and Korey Toomer will be battling it out to stick, also. Likely, the players who will likely remain are; Malcolm Smith, Mike Morgan and HeathFarwell as backups, before the draft. After the draft, who knows?
Wide receivers on this football team will have to struggle to stay around Carroll's roster this year. Percy Harvin will be a lock as well as Golden Tate and Sidney Rice. However, the slot position will be a fierce competition. If Doug Baldwin can return to his healthy body and his pass catching form of 2011, he will also stay on the roster, but the Seahawks fully intend to solve any pass receiving problems through the draft and shortly after the draft when some players may not make it on with other teams. Phil Bates, Brett Swain and Charly Martin will be hopeful backups and Stephen Williams, Brian Walters and Jermaine Kearse are also longshots to make the roster. This will be a very interesting position to watch during the draft and especially during training camp. Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell intend to open up the playbook more for Russell Wilson which means more of an aerial game. Not a ton of change, after all, this team makes its way down the field on the legs of Marshawn Lynch, combined with Russell's aerial attack. It's still going to be a physical team running the ball up the gut.
Running back is mostly set for the Seahawks, however I do look for them to pick up one or two more running backs in the draft or shortly after. There are a lot of quality running backs in college and therefore there will be a lot of undrafted ball carriers that have a lot of skill. Right now, it's Marshawn Lynch taking the bulk of the carries, but also look for Robert Turbin and Michael Robinson to get more touches than before. Beast Mode is still the man with the rock!
Finally, special-teams players. Clint Gresham is the teams only long snapper and well make the roster based on that niche skill. He's also a decent blocker and makes nice tight spiral snaps for the punter and holder for place kicking services. The punter, Jon Ryan, could have been the teams MVP a couple of years ago. He has a master and pinning teams inside the 10 yard line and has nothing to worry about losing his job, unless his hamstring injury last year persists. The placekicker position is not resolved as of now. Steven Haushcka, will likely not return to Seattle. A 50 yard field goal was an adventure for him and the Seahawks are going to need every point they can muster in the NFC West where games could be quite close and in those games a kicker is a coach's best friend, until after the game. Carson Wiggs was a rookie last year, but might be ready to take the next step with the Seahawks. He is a free agent and has the seal of approval from Pete Carroll and Jon Schneider, so far. If Seattle doesn't trade is picks, you could look for Seattle to take a kicker in the seventh round with perhaps their final selection. Seattle possesses three fourth-round selections.
So, you can see that the Seattle Seahawks have very few holes to fill and many players are going to find themselves out of work this coming August. It's a shame, but this is the business of which they have chosen… It is tough and it is competitive and not everyone will still have a job.
11 of 11 Seahawks offensive starters in 2012 are returning for the 2013 Season. Nine of 11 starters… This is a packed football team and with five new free-agent signings, this will only make it more difficult. Seattle Washington has become a destination for great football players
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