Seattle Seahawks midseason report card
The Seahawks currently hold first place in the NFC West, but what areas do they need to improve in order to keep this standing?
Believe it or not, we are over halfway through the 2020 NFL season. This is the time of the year where we begin to see which teams are contenders, and which ones are pretenders.
Here in Seattle we are witnessing one of the best offenses in Seahawks history. However, this is unfortunately not the case for the defense, as we are witnessing one of the worst in Seahawks history.
It has been hard to watch this team at moments, yet at the time of writing this, they sit at 6-2 and are in first place in the NFC West. Looking at each position group, I will give my thoughts on their performance for my annual midseason report card.
Quarterback: A-
This may surprise some people since this grade is not an A+ for Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson. If the season ended today, he would undoubtedly be the front runner for league MVP and continue to make plays every Sunday.
However, turnovers have been an issue for Wilson in 2020 thus far. He already sits at eight interceptions after only throwing five in 2019. With how horrendous the defense has been, it makes it even more important that Wilson takes care of the ball. If the Seahawks want to get the ever so important top seed in the playoffs, then this will need to happen.
Running backs: B
This was a hard grade to give considering this position group has been affected by so many injuries throughout the season. When healthy, Chris Carson looks like an elite tier running back but the problem remains to be his lack of health.
The same goes for veteran running back Carlos Hyde who has shown flashes of the 1,000 yard rusher we saw in 2019 but has been recently banged up. Rookie Deejay Dallas, however, has been solid in an unexpected expanded role and will be a good piece looking forward to the future.
Defensive Line: D
If it weren’t for their stout run defense, this grade would be an F. The Seahawks are dead last in pass rush on the quarterback and are by far the biggest weakness on this team.
They had their best showing of the year against the 49ers where they recorded three sacks. I had previously thought this would be the momentum they needed to get them rolling, then after an awful outing versus the Buffalo Bills where the defense allowed 47 points, it’s clear that it may not get better.
The addition of veteran Carlos Dunlap along with the return of Jamal Adams should help as the season continues, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton will have to be extremely aggressive with blitzing if this defense wants to improve at all.
Defensive Backs: D
Although this is another position group where an F grade would be deserved, I blame a lot of the awful pass defense on the fact that the opposing quarterback usually has all day to throw. That being said, the pass defense still has been terrible for most of the year as we have continuously seen defensive backs being burnt by opposing wide receivers.
Coming into the year with the additions of Jamal Adams and Quinton Dunbar to go along with Quandre Diggs and pro bowl corner Shaquille Griffin, there was talk that this could be the best secondary in the league. But, injuries have limited this group to only playing together for a total of two games, so we have not seen the full potential of the secondary.
These injuries have brought out a huge weakness in our depth leaving teams to shred the backups week after week. Changes need to be made here or else the Seahawks season will be over a lot sooner than hoped.
