Seahawks fans know FOMO. They have endured the Lawrence Jackson, Aaron Curry, Malik McDowell, L.J. Collier, and Dee Eskridge selections. They have seen the stars blossom elsewhere, on other teams, who could have been here lighting up Lumen Field. They have even had to put up with watching Jalen Carter get showered with accolades through the first four weeks of this season, and annoying bloggers shining a light on those accomplishments. The script flipped last night. Devin Witherspoon announced his presence to the NFL, leaving every fanbase outside of Seattle gripped with envy, and the only FOMO Seahawks fans feeling was the fear of missing his next play.
Championship teams are built with elite players. It is not enough to have good players, even Pro Bowl players. You need blue chip, All-Pro, players who are the best at what they do in the NFL. It is a sport that is ultimately decided by which team has the most unstoppable force. Great offensive or defensive schemes can often be overcome, especially with a full season of film and two weeks to prep before the Super Bowl. Dominant players are much harder to stifle.
Many fans are happy when their team is good. My focus is always on whether they are great. Your franchise is ultimately judged by the rings and trophies it wins. It took a rare collection of blue chip talent on both offense and defense to win their first ring.
This Seahawks roster largely started from scratch last season, and had a great draft class. Even then, one could argue none of the rookies had clearly established themselves as blue chip players. Riq Woolen and Kenneth Walker had great seasons, but neither is in the conversation for best players at their respective positions yet. Charles Cross and Abe Lucas were solid rookie starters, but were not even Pro Bowl level performers yet.
The persistent question facing this team as they play more first and second year players than all but a couple teams in the NFL is, “are any of these players elite?” Like a mother hen watching her eggs for signs of hatching, we wait. Like an obsessed collector opening a pack of cards hoping to see that incredibly valuable rare find, we wait. And then Witherspoon walks in.
The 5th overall pick in this draft may very well be the best player on this roster. He may soon enter the conversation for best corner in football. And dare I say it, but if Monday night was any indication of the type of impact he can have, he may ultimately be good enough to battle for Defensive Player of the Year at some point in his career.
Hyperbole? Overreaction? Small sample size? Those are fair questions. They are also misguided. Witherspoon demonstrated a level of play that raises his ceiling to the heights just mentioned. His floor is still far from that level. We will see, in time, whether he fan fulfill his potential. What matters now is that he has that potential.
I am not convinced any other young player on the roster has flashed that type of ceiling, so yes, doing it once matters. And let’s not pretend like he was not making eye-opening plays in his first two games as well.
This was the first chance he got to play nickel, and boy, did that role suit him. The vision for him was to place him closer to the line of scrimmage so that he could play a bigger part in defending the run, rushing the passer, and reading quarterbacks in zones so he could jump routes. Check, check, and check.
It was bizarre how much hand wringing there was about the coaches playing him there during training camp, as if it was an admission they had blown the pick. It was never about whether he could play outside. It was about accentuating the special skills of an uber-talented player instead of just following convention. Many coaches in the league would have been unwilling to even try this with a top five pick for fear of what critics, ownership, and others might say. Pete Carroll is the honey badger of coaches. He don’t give a shit.
Yes, there are other players to talk about with this game. We will get there shortly. What Witherspoon did on Monday night merits all this attention and more. People will talk about his pick six. They will talk about his two sacks. Those were terrific plays. They were not his best.
The most shocking highlight of Witherspoon’s night came when he met a running back in the hole and sent him flailing backwards. This is a 180 pound cornerback, standing amongst the trees in the trenches, squaring up a running back who was charging with full force, and stopping him cold without giving up a single centimeter.
You will not see another player of Witherspoon’s size make that play the rest of the season, except for perhaps, Devin Witherspoon.
Carroll has compared Witherspoon to former Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. He means that both from an instincts perspective, and from a physical hitting perspective. Polamalu was nearly 210 pounds. It is mind-boggling how Witherspoon can generate so much leverage with such little weight.
Yes, we need to see if he can hold up physically. Save your worries for another day. If being big was protection from being injured, the entire Seahawks offensive line would not be on the sidelines. It is football. People will get hurt. The rest of the NFL might be more at risk of injury from Witherspoon than the other way around.
Seahawks fans have every reason to feel optimistic that this secondary is finally starting to take shape the way we imagined during the offseason. Tre Brown will return after the bye. Riq Woolen will heal up more. Michael Jackson played well last night, and makes for a very solid backup. Artie Burns will heal up and be available for dime. This is a very promising, young, corner room.
The bummer of the night was that Jamal Adams suffered a concussion so soon after returning to the field. He had already made his presence felt with a near-sack, a big hit in zone coverage, and then an open-field tackle on Daniel Jones. It is worth feeling happy that he looked like an impact player, which I did not expect after this long rehab, and that the injury is unlikely to keep him out of future games. But, it was a real shame.
Julian Love has had a resurgence. After being one of the worst players in the secondary the first two weeks of the season, he has put together back-to-back solid performances. This is the heady, solid, player I thought the Seahawks added this offseason.
Of course, the pass rush was a ton of fun as well. You will not see your team sack the quarterback 11 times very often.
If Witherspoon was the story of the night for bursting onto the scene as a fresh face, Bobby Wagner deserves some love for what he did so many years removed from his rookie season.
Wagner finished with 17 tackles (his second game of 17+ tackles this season) and 2 sacks. He was fantastic, and is quietly putting together one of his best seasons, even at the age of 33.
His return to Seattle was realistically a little about sentiment and a little about run defense. There was plenty of talk about limiting his snaps, and focusing him on early down run plays. No longer. Wagner is out there all game, and he is making play after play.
He can be victimized in coverage, but he is just a rock in the middle of that defense, and is a huge part of why that unit feels more solid than it did last season.
His partner at linebacker, Jordyn Brooks, had arguably his best game of the season. He also had two sacks, along with 10 tackles. Devin Bush even got some run and looked good.
What a difference a year makes for that inside linebacker group. No Cody Barton anywhere to be found.
But wait! There’s more. The outside linebackers flashed as well. Uchenna Nwosu had two sacks. Boye Mafe had a sack. Derick Hall had 5 pressures in just 15 pass rush snaps.
The defensive line flashed. Mario Edwards Jr. had a crucial strip sack that led to the first Seahawks touchdown. Dre’Mont Jones had 4 pressures and was in the backfield multiple times. Myles Adams had a sack. A sneaky player to watch is Cameron Young. The rookie missed most of training camp with a calf injury, but has quietly come on the last couple of weeks, and he had his best game while playing his most snaps (21) versus the Giants.
Yes, the Giants offensive line is atrocious. Yes, Daniel Jones constantly looks confused about where he is and what he is doing. Yes, Saquon Barkley was out. Say all the things about the Giants offense you want. Seattle sacked them 11 times, turned them over multiple times, scored on defense, and the only points they gave up were on a 55-yard field goal. They played well. They played really well.
The question is not whether we believe this game is representative of what the Seahawks defense can do. The question is whether the arrow is pointing up, and it very clearly is. We do not yet know how good this defense can be, but we do know it should be better than the a bottom five unit.
It is not out of the question that this group could gain momentum as the year goes on and be a strength of this team by the end of the year. There is a long way to go, and they are starting at the bottom, but the pieces are there.
The offense does not really need much discussion this week. Seattle entered without either starting tackle. Then they lost both starting guards. Then their starting center had to switch to guard. Most teams wilt at the thought of their left tackle being out. Seattle literally had no starters playing their designated spot on the offensive line.
Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams are game-wreckers inside. They finished with zero sacks. The offense did enough to win the game, and they did not lose the game with turnovers. That was the bar this week.
Nobody would have confidently predicted this Seahawks team would be 3-1 after how awful they were in week one and the injuries they suffered. There is reason to hope Charles Cross will get back after the bye, and Abe Lucas a week later. The offense will have a game like the defense had tonight at some point this season. They may do it multiple times. They can be very good if the offensive line is healthy.
Credit to Carroll and the team for regaining their footing and rescuing Seahawks fans from what looked like a lost season. Now, we watch to see how close they can be to the elite. Having a silver Spoon certainly will not hurt.