We’ve had well over 24 hours to digest the Seattle Seahawks daring to lose a regular season football game for the first time in 10 months. They were not at their best against the Washington Commanders and paid a heavy price, losing 33-31 despite comfortably out-gaining Washington on the afternoon. Turnovers will kill you no matter how great you area.
Myself and Bryce Coutts dissected the game on The Hawks Eye podcast on Monday, and there were a few questions Bryce posed that I think we should pose or
at least repurpose to Field Gulls readers.
Did the Seahawks make a mistake by not keeping Cody White?
Dareke Young left as a free agent to the Las Vegas Raiders, while Jake Bobo had an unfortunate ACL tear in training camp. Cody White stayed on the Seahawks roster throughout preseason and lost out on a roster spot to Montorie Foster Jr, training camp and ‘Hard Knocks’ star.
As Mike Macdonald laments the lackluster special teams, Bryce and I wondered aloud (at 12:13 of the video) if the Seahawks should’ve kept one of their established special teams standouts. Foster has not played in the last two games, which means the Seahawks don’t have any reserve wide receivers on kick or punt coverage duties.
Bryce: “On specials, Cody White was a factor. You lost Dareke Young as a gunner, Irv Charles hasn’t been able to go, Montorie Foster hasn’t given you anything on specials, and your specials have been atrocious. I feel if Cody White was able to be on here, at least you would’ve gotten something out of him on specials because he was one of the better gunners and kick cover guys.”
Young, Bobo, and White all being gone is a lot of ST snaps to replace just at the WR position. If Foster isn’t providing anything right now, should Seattle have made more of a push to keep White and try and stash Foster on the practice squad? I think Emmanuel Henderson and Ricky White III should be considered special teams options as the season progresses, along with Irv Charles.
Should the Seahawks keep rotating at right guard?
Christian Haynes and Beau Stephens split snaps for the second week in a row. I outlined on the show (at 22:02 and 44:26) that I am not interested in a midseason competition for backup right guard. Either Haynes should get all the snaps or Stephens gets all the snaps. The fact that Haynes is once again in split duties like he was as a rookie is either a sign that they don’t trust his conditioning or there is something that is lacking in Haynes’ game that makes the coaching staff not want to play him a full game.
Bryce: “How much do the Seahawks in the run game miss Anthony Bradford right now? Because he can move people. This is where that rotation with Christian Haynes and Beau Stephens has to get solved. They got to find someone that can move somebody in the run game. They’re not getting as much push as they should off that right side.”
Mookie: “I think they had eight carries for -1 running on the right side. That tells you all you need to know, where [Abe] Lucas hasn’t been at his best, and even if Haynes and Stephens are playing to a draw, you want them to actually put people a couple of yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and that’s just not happening. I want them to drop the rotation. Either Haynes is ready for a full game or you start Beau Stephens. My hang-up with this is they did the same rotation thing with Haynes and Bradford when Haynes was a rookie. The fact that we’re still doing this: either Haynes has some sort of conditioning problem that they don’t want to talk about, or they really don’t want to commit to Haynes for a full game for what ever other reason.”
Until Anthony Bradford is back, I don’t think there’s any benefit to rotating your offensive line at any position.
Is Rashid Shaheed actually a good fit in the Seahawks offense?
We’re three weeks into the season and Rashid Shaheed has six catches for 53 yards on 12 targets. Not exactly dazzling numbers for a player who signed a $51 million contract in free agency. Tory Horton barely played on Sunday and had three catches on as many targets for 48 yards. The season is still young and Shaheed’s chemistry has been primarily with Sam Darnold, whom he’s only played with for barely over the equivalent of a full game this month, but does it look like Shaheed actually makes sense for Seattle’s receiver group?
It’s been a disappointing start to the season for Shaheed, who was on an 80+ catch pace with the New Orleans Saints before he was traded to Seattle. Perhaps there is a benefit to being a bigger fish in a small pond (albeit one where the biggest fish is Chris Olave), and Shaheed on a more stacked team could get lost in the shuffle. We get into this at 25:35.
Mookie: “So far it’s just JSN, it’s Kupp, and the fact that Horton had more catches than Shaheed in far fewer snaps is not great for Rashid. I’m wondering about his fit as a blocker, his ability to separate in certain route combinations—just because you’re fast doesn’t mean you can separate consistently at an NFL level. There’s a lot to think about here, it’s the only sour point for me in what was the most varied passing game to date under Brian Fleury.”
Watch the full episode below! We also review Sam Darnold’s performance, how the defense performed, and whether it was a good decision by the coaching staff to sit Jadarian Price for fumbling again.
