The opening game of the Mike Macdonald era had enough talking points to fill a month of discussion. There were extreme positives and negatives, reasons for optimism and concern. The Seahawks threatened to blow a winnable game, then threatened to blow out their opponents. It ended up being closer than necessary.
The big talking point is the offensive line. It crippled the Seahawks in the first half, destroying the offense and diminishing a strong effort by the defense. We’ve all seen bad lines before but this was something else. Nothing worked. Worse still, they initially weren’t finding ways to mitigate the problem.
By the time they’d given up two safeties it had reached a point of embarrassment. A serious looking injury to George Fant added insult to injury.
I had bad thoughts at half-time. How on earth do you fix this in-season? Is Ryan Grubb’s conversion to the NFL just not going to work? Are we really going to have to watch 17 games of this?
Thankfully, they found solutions at half-time. The move to a run-heavy offense settled things down. They leaned on Ken Walker, who was sensational, and suddenly were the team dominating physically. As much as a terrible O-line can derail anything, the second half was a great example of strong play in the trenches driving a team forwards.
Kudos to Grubb for fixing things. We haven’t seen much in the way of adjustments over the last few years, especially not to this effect. It’s encouraging.
They have to play the way they did in the second half next weekend in New England. The concern has to be though, it will become predictable very quickly. While they can lean on the run for now, they’ve got to find a way to improve the performance of this line pronto to expand their options.
There has to be concern about the interior. Laken Tomlinson struggled badly, as did Anthony Bradford. Perhaps playing next to a returning-from-injury Connor Williams didn’t help, along with the lack of familiarity that comes with four new starters up front? Nevertheless, their ability to improve the offensive line will likely dictate Seattle’s ceiling in 2024.
Back to Walker, I sincerely hope he can stay healthy. Playing like this — and if the Seahawks have to lean on the run a lot — he has the talent to contend to be the NFL rushing leader. As a card-carrying fan of violent defense paired with a productive, physical ground attack — I’d love to see that. I’m sure you would too.
I think it’s difficult to form much of an opinion on Geno Smith’s display because of the issues up front. I don’t think the line is an excuse for the bad interception at the start but it certainly was for the rest of a difficult first half. Yet he still made the one great play on offense, rushing for a touchdown in spectacular fashion. Once the running game had settled things down after half-time, he found a far better rhythm and made some accurate, vital throws.
Tyler Lockett’s catch to clinch the game was further evidence of his underrated brilliance. What a critical moment from a player who is a lock to be in the Ring of Honor one day.
Defensively, it was a great performance with the slight caveat that the Seahawks benefitted from playing against Bo Nix and the Broncos. Sean Payton was always going to be conservative with his rookie QB but he went too far — or Nix simply isn’t capable of starting in the NFL at this point.
Clearly they wanted to take the pass rush out of the game with quick passes and by bailing on the pocket quickly. It worked and Seattle’s D-line never had much of a chance to impact things. Everyone else, though, was able to fly around and tee-off on telegraphed dump-offs and short passes.
The defense won’t get this luxury when they face teams like Miami and Detroit in the coming weeks. They will give up some plays because that’s the NFL. They’ll need a lot more support from the offense. Let’s not forget — Macdonald’s Baltimore defense benefitted more than anyone last season from playing with a lead. They’ll need to be comfortable playing in games like the ones we saw on Thursday and Friday night if they want to be really good — trading blows on offense and relying on complementary defense. Here, it was the defense carrying things until the running game caught up. Other teams won’t let Seattle catch up.
Tyrel Dodson was superb and the standout defender for me. Combined with Jerome Baker, I thought Seattle’s linebackers played as well as any pairing since the peak Wagner/Wright days. On top of this, all of the starting defensive backs excelled. Julian Love looks quick and physical and almost like a different player. Rayshawn Jenkins had a strong debut. Tariq Woolen and Devin Witherspoon were very good as expected.
We’ll see more from the pass rushers when they play an opponent less inclined to play the way Denver did today.
This was a really encouraging start for the unit and it was good to see screen passes stopped, completed open-field tackles and players getting off second-level blocks. Apparently, these things weren’t banned after all. The Seahawks pretty much eliminated any yards after contact. It was a smothering, physical performance — exactly what everyone hoped for.
Dee Williams is on the roster to handle kick returns, so it’s a bad sign for him to fumble in week one. A suggestion from me — give him a new number. There’s clearly bad juju attached to #33.
A final thought on Bo Nix in relation to the Seahawks. It’s a warning for what we should be looking for as fans and draft enthusiasts when studying quarterbacks. Nix produced big numbers at Oregon and they won a lot of games. However, when you studied the tape it became apparent that the system and environment was conducive with production, more so than QB inspiration.
We’re seeing that in Oregon now. Dillon Gabriel has 623 passing yards in two games, five total touchdowns, zero turnovers and the Ducks are 2-0. Yet nobody thinks Gabriel has actually played that well and there’s a relatively decent chance he won’t be drafted next year.
Nix never felt like a special player to me and that was emphasised during Senior Bowl practises. I gave him a third round grade, which basically means competent backup for the NFL in quarterback terms.
Unless you possess a fantastically productive scheme that has shown it can transplant different quarterbacks in, I don’t think you can look to players like Nix. Sean Payton clearly thinks he can do this but the jury’s out. He’s had one big success story in Drew Brees, not a string of successes. Kyle Shanahan is a better example of someone having a scheme with interchangeable QB success. Most teams need brilliance. They need extreme physical quality and talent.
There are ways of finding it without owning a top-five pick, as we’ve seen in Seattle with Russell Wilson. Yet you’ve got to look for those standout qualities. That isn’t easy to find — and it’s probably why John Schneider hasn’t drafted QB’s. If he is looking for special, he will wait until it’s there. The evidence so far is that he hasn’t whiffed on anyone since trading Wilson.
It’s also worth noting that while searching for special, you will find it in terms of traits and it won’t always be obvious that it can/will translate to NFL success. Caleb Williams has special qualities galore and he endured an inauspicious start in Chicago on Sunday. Anthony Richardson has more physical talent than maybe anyone else in the NFL, regardless of position, and yet he’s still learning how to be a quarterback. It took Josh Allen two years of strife to become the player he is in Buffalo and he still has some doubters now. Looking for it is important but it carries no guarantee.
I do think today shows us it’s worth waiting for ‘special’ qualities, though. Reaching on a player like Nix will not provide solutions. The Seahawks will need to draft a quarterback sooner rather than later, even if Geno Smith succeeds. He is not a young player and very few make it to their late 30’s, even if they’ve had an unusual career with a lower number of starts. We all get old and that comes with consequences, regardless of your tally of NFL appearances.
Making an ill-advised draft reach on a QB will not be wise. It might only be one game but I don’t see Nix providing the solution Broncos fans hoped for. The Seahawks need to avoid an error like this in the future — and that will require patience and fortune.
