We’re virtually at the moment of yr the place we are able to watch precise soccer and never create offseason NFL rankings articles, however the operative phrase is sort of. Within the meantime, let’s see how a lot you’re emotionally affected by an unflattering rating for the Seattle Seahawks.
ESPN’s Invoice Barnwell ranked groups from worst to first by way of their offensive supporting solid, aka vast receivers, operating backs, and tight ends. His standards concerned 2025 on-field efficiency and never credit score for previous work, looming suspensions and/or injury-related absences, higher weight towards vast receivers over RBs and TEs, and an emphasis on the top-end of the depth chart and never RB3s and WR5s.
Over the previous two seasons, the Seahawks have been eighth in 2024 and 4th in 2023. With DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett outta right here, Barnwell positioned Seattle on the backside of the NFC West and within the backside half of the general rankings at No. 19.
A big overhaul means the Seahawks drop in these rankings. Even whereas acknowledging that DK Metcalf’s 2020 season appears to be like like an outlier and Tyler Lockett’s decline has change into obvious, Seattle may need downgraded at each spots (whereas getting cheaper) by changing them with Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Like Metcalf, Kupp is a number of years faraway from what appears to be like like an outlier year-plus as an elite receiver. He was the league’s finest receiver when serving to push the Rams to a Tremendous Bowl within the 2021 season, and he stayed at that stage in the course of the first half of 2022. He hasn’t been the identical since struggling an ankle damage and lacking the remainder of 2022, nonetheless.
The emergence of Puka Nacua in Los Angeles may need taken targets away from the previous Offensive Participant of the 12 months, however Kupp has averaged 2.2 yards per route run with out Nacua on the sector and a pair of.0 YPRR in whole over the previous two seasons. These are strong numbers, however they’re a methods away from the two.9 yards per route run he averaged in 2021-22. Factoring in Kupp’s age (32) and the fact that he has missed eight video games over the previous two seasons with accidents, he tasks extra like a strong No. 2 receiver than one with elite upside.
Valdes-Scantling was good in a small pattern for the Saints final season, however the 30-year-old was minimize by the Payments and joined New Orleans without cost. The passing recreation ought to run by way of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose 2024 breakout helped hold the Seahawks from falling additional. He averaged practically 83 receiving yards per recreation from Week 9 onward, a 1,402-yard tempo over a full season.
We’re nonetheless ready for the breakout from different Seahawks. Noah Fant continues to be a high-floor, low-ceiling tight finish, combining catch charges north of 74% with a scarcity of constant big-play capacity or any form of menace within the purple zone. He has one rating over the previous two seasons. Kenneth Walker III has the fourth-worst success charge (37%) and is tied for third-last in first downs over expectation amongst operating backs with a minimum of 500 carries previously three seasons. It’s one factor to mix that profile with spectacular huge performs, as Walker did in 2022, however after breaking off three 60-plus yard runs as a rookie, he hasn’t posted one since.
Is your blood boiling but? Have you ever famous the disrespect? Are you already considering of the 2013 season when the Seahawks receivers have been referred to as pedestrian?
My takeaway is that I believe the Seahawks may’ve been ranked a bit greater (a minimum of greater than Arizona at No. 15 and subsequently a minimum of within the high half), however it’s additionally not an injustice that they dropped this far. I believe Lockett’s decline in productiveness would’ve been grounds to drop Seattle down a number of slots anyway.
Can anybody earnestly argue the Seahawks have any gamers within the high 10 (and, in some circumstances, high 15) within the addressed positions? You could love Kenneth Walker and acknowledge how terrible the offensive line has been, however the stats are the stats and so they’re not that of a high 10 again. Cooper Kupp was as soon as an elite receiver however accidents have been killer and though he’s nonetheless good, we ain’t getting 2021 Kupp anymore. Jaxon Smith-Njigba has actual high 10 potential and he tore it up within the back-end of 2024, however it’s important to be an actual homer to insert him there proper now. Barnwell uncared for Jake Bobo however that’s as a result of he’s past rating. We received’t contact tight finish as a result of there’s nothing to debate there.
Tory Horton and Elijah Arroyo are rookies and until the Seahawks have caught lightning in a bottle with a minimum of considered one of them, often you don’t anticipate grand manufacturing out of rookies. Arroyo has a greater probability to be immediately impactful due to the competitors at tight finish.
This doesn’t imply the Seahawks can’t nonetheless handle an excellent, if not nice offense the place the untapped potential is uh, tapped and/or the entire is larger than the sum of its components. A whole lot of it’s depending on the standard of the offensive line and whether or not or not Sam Darnold can replicate even 80% of what he managed with the Minnesota Vikings. There’s additionally how Klint Kubiak will fare as offensive coordinator when, it have to be harassed, he’s had a grand whole of two seasons as a play-caller and final season was virtually a write-off attributable to a comically excessive variety of accidents.
From the second they step onto Lumen Area in Week 1 towards the San Francisco 49ers, the Seahawks offense could be very a lot in “show it” mode to silence the skeptics after making main offseason modifications to the roster and training employees. If we’re to imagine the protection will construct on final yr’s success, any state of affairs during which the Seahawks even have an offensive supporting solid and/or an offense within the high 10-12 ought to end in a minimum of a playoff look, if not Tremendous Bowl darkish horse contender standing.
