The Seattle Seahawks have endured an offseason of hate. National pundits think that even though Seattle has hired boy genius Mike Macdonald as the team’s new head coach and gotten younger and faster, it will somehow be worse. Many talking heads and sites are predicting Seattle could go 7-10 or worse in 2024.
Pro Football Focus is apparently going through publishing lists of best-ofs. In most cases, a Seattle player does not make the list of top-32 anything. PFF didn’t have an edge rusher ranked in PFF’s top 32 or an offensive tackle. Tight end Noah Fant clung onto number 27 in his group. Maybe Geno Smith or DK Metcalf will get close to the top ten, but even that seems unlikely.
Yet, finally! And yes, somewhat unexpectedly, Seattle got a bit of love from PFF (who requires your subscription because they are so special) in terms of rankings of interior defensive linemen. Leaving Leonard Williams off the list would have been wretched and wrong, and he was listed as PFF’s 17th-best interior defender for 2024. Too low? Probably.
Pro Football Focus finally gives the Seattle Seahawks some love
Byron Murphy II, though, made the list, too. He was listed as the 25th-best interior defender, but he has not even played a down in the NFL yet. PFF based much of what Murphy might be capable of on his college statistics, which, to be fair, were ridiculously impressive. At Texas, Murphy had a pass-rush win rate of 19.6 percent last season. The question is whether he can transpose his college success to professional excellence.
12s should simply accept whatever positivity they can find this offseason. One might think, based on most of what has been written about the Seahawks this offseason, that the team won five games in 2023 and was going to be worse this year. Seattle has had back-to-back 9-8 seasons and should see an improved defense in 2024.
One aspect of the defense we can assume to be better, and even Pro Football Focus appears to agree about, is the interior of Seattle’s defense line. This should mean better rush defense and a more consistent interior pass rush. A better Seattle defense, along with an already solid Seattle offense, could mean 11 wins and a couple of wins in the playoffs.
Just do not expect most of the national media to believe that. They seem to want to watch Seattle burn for some reason. Thankfully, games are won on the football field instead of in analysts’ heads.
