There are few football fans in the country who would argue that the Seattle Seahawks aren’t one of the best teams in the NFL right now.
Russell Wilson is showing us with his play that he is long overdue for an MVP season, assuming he continues the fevered nature of his game thus far. And by overdue I mean over-deserving and underappreciated.
But the glaring fault with this team lies on the other side of the ball.
Numbers-wise, the Seattle defense has been utterly deficient. If the offense weren’t holding them up by scoring 35 points a game, the five-hundred or so passing yards they give up per game would probably hurt a lot more. Not that Matt Ryan, Dak Prescott, and Cam Newton aren’t good quarterbacks, but they usually aren’t 450, 472 and 397 yards-good, respectively.
The Seahawks have given up almost 1,300 passing yards through three games. Overall, they are giving up over six yards per play on defense.
The major reason for their deficiencies right now are injuries. Strong safety Jamal Adams, not only the centerpiece of the Seattle off-season transactions but perhaps one of the best acquisitions of the year, tops the list. He’s quickly followed by cornerbacks Quintin Dunbar and Shaquill Griffin. To add injury to injury to injury to injury, backup Lano Hill is also sidelined for medical reasons.
These concerns aside, Seattle is still sitting in the catbird seat with the star quarterback, the rock star coach, the rabid fanbase and the cool factor they have maintained for the better part of a decade now.
Forget about the ways that COVID has upended our lives and we still have it pretty good in the Pacific Northwest, at least when it comes to sports.
If a 12th man should happen to see the Seahawks’ schedule for the rest of the year, they could see reason for winning every single game. Not that they will, but still. This is a team to believe in, to support, to feel as confident about as any in recent memory.
Sure, the 2013 season was the absolute pinnacle, but let’s not compare the present to the past. Like two fine wines or two different but amazing beaches, as adults we can have our cake and eat it too.
If there were some earthly way to read the minds of all football fans in America without them knowing it, most would likely choose the Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson coach-quarterback combo over any other.
And should any questions come up around the proverbial water cooler about the Seahawks’ arsenal or batterie as it were, direct your interlocutor’s attention no further than Tyler Lockett’s three-touchdown, 100-yard performance last Sunday. Or the fact that DK Metcalf is currently third in the NFL for receiving yards on the season, which puts him in company with Calvin Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins.
This team, because of this amazing quarterback, has fourteen touchdowns to only one pick. Good teams start good and stay good or get better. There’s no reason that should not be the assumed trajectory of this team either.
At this point, staying healthy from injuries and also from contagious respiratory viruses should be top of mind. And though those are major concerns for any organization, they are also held by every organization. Things could be a lot worse. For many teams, for many reasons, they are.
So for right now, plan your life ahead for the fall and winter as if everything is going to fall into place. In a perfect world, we all stay healthy, sheltered, fed and happy. If the Seahawks can continue to win, life could get really good around here. And in 2020, we will all take it any way we can get it.
