Future Plans for the Seahawks Depend on the Following

admin | December 5, 2023 | Other Clubs | No Comments

With five weeks left in the 2023 season, the Seattle Seahawks are currently projected to miss the postseason.

If a strong finish isn’t enough to propel the team back into contention, significant personnel and/or coaching changes are probably in store for the team.

With the Seahawks in the midst of a four-game losing streak going into their final home stretch of the 2023 season, December could have a significant impact on their 2024 and beyond game plan.

As we head into Week 14, Seattle trails two advancing teams in Green Bay and Los Angeles for the NFC’s final wild card spot. This comes after a tough 41-35 loss to Dallas on Thursday night. After defeating the Chiefs handily, the Packers are now in seventh place thanks to a head-to-head tiebreaker against the Rams, who earlier in the season swept the Seahawks in two divisional games.

The Seahawks have little room for error moving forward and, at the very least, need to find a way to earn a split against the NFC’s top two teams. The schedule only gets tougher with back-to-back games against the 49ers and Eagles in the next two weeks. If they lost both of those games, their record would fall to 6-8 for the season, guaranteeing they wouldn’t win more than ten games and putting them in danger of missing the playoffs.

It would be a huge disappointment for coach Pete Carroll’s team to miss the postseason after Seattle shocked everyone last season with a 9-8 finish that resulted in a wild card berth, especially after beginning with a promising 5-2 record. If they collapsed like they did last fall, losing five of six in the second half, it would probably mean significant changes to the coaching staff and/or personnel, with the team at a crossroads.

No player or coach could be under more pressure and scrutiny than Smith over the course of the next five weeks, as he has failed to repeat his impressive Comeback Player of the Year performance from 2022. The team may have to make a difficult decision at quarterback even though he signed a three-year extension back in March, with his cap hit expected to soar to $31 million in 2024 and his salary becoming guaranteed on the fifth day of the waiver period.

Smith can still throw for 334 yards and three touchdowns against the Cowboys, as he showed last week, but he’s still more than capable of being a top-10 quarterback. After finishing fourth in touchdown passes and first in the league in completion percentage just a year ago, he will only be the 12th-highest paid quarterback in the NFL next season despite his cap hit skyrocketing to $21 million over this season.

However, despite his occasional strong play, Smith’s second season as Seattle’s starter has been characterized by regression and inconsistency. He was in the top five in all three categories last season, but after 12 games, he has fallen to 18th in completion percentage, 16th in touchdown passes, and 19th in passer rating.

Although Smith only has five games in 2023 thus far, he tied Patrick Mahomes for the most individual touchdown passes (12) in the previous season. His QBR and passer rating have significantly declined, and he has almost equaled his interception total from the previous season after throwing his ninth pick of the year in Dallas.

Smith’s future in the Pacific Northwest may depend on how well he and Seattle’s offense perform over the course of the upcoming month. Smith is currently 33 years old and earns quarterback salary among the top 15. His chances of holding down the starting position the following season increase significantly if he can build on his performance from Thursday and lead the team back to the playoffs, even though selecting a quarterback is still a strong, if not certain, possibility.

Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron might also be playing for Smith’s job over the next five weeks, which is directly correlated with his output. The offense has mostly underperformed this season, scoring 20 points or less in half of the team’s games and mustering just three offensive touchdowns in a four-game stretch from Week 9 to Week 12. This coincides with the team’s 6-6 start.

As he enters his third season as coordinator, Waldron’s offense has declined in every area from the previous one. They have fallen from 19th to 27th in rushing yards and from 20th to 26th in third down conversion rate, in addition to falling from ninth in points per game to 14th.

Similar to Smith, Waldron is optimistic that a five-touchdown offensive explosion against a strong Cowboys defense will portend big things to come. However, Carroll might be forced to start over and look for a new coordinator at the end of the season if the team is unable to score points as they have for the majority of the campaign.

Looking ahead to 2023, the Seahawks’ defense will also have some job openings during the upcoming month, starting with a number of well-known players in the back seven.

Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks, the starting linebackers, are set to become unrestricted free agents in March. Despite his age and wear and tear, the 33-year-old Wagner has been a reliable presence in the middle and has continued to be productive with 127 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and three pass breakups. However, his return for a 13th season may be complicated. Regarding Brooks, Seattle wants him back for the long run after he tore his ACL, but cost will be a major consideration. He is approaching 100 tackles after the injury.

In the secondary, safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams—two of the highest-paid players at their position—will need to improve in the coming month to guarantee their futures with the team.

Even though Diggs has already racked up 67 tackles in 12 games during the second year of a three-year extension, his 16 missed tackles rank first among safeties, according to Pro Football Focus. Diggs has only recorded one interception and two pass breakups thus far. Adams, who recently suffered a torn quad tendon injury, has struggled to get ball carriers to the ground. He has missed 12 tackles, accounting for the highest percentage of missed tackles in the league at 22.2 percent.

In the event that Seattle isn’t getting enough value out of two of its most expensive players—both of whom have cap hits that exceed $21 million in 2024—general manager John Schneider might be inclined to cut losses by eating a sizable amount of dead money and reset at one or both safety spots in order to generate cap flexibility.

Similar to Waldron, defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt might sense an increase in heat in his coaching position. Although the Seahawks finished 30th in the previous season’s run-stopping rankings, they have improved their run-pass defense this year, going from 13th to 20th with significantly fewer turnovers. Because of this, the team’s point allowance ranking is once again 25th, and they have allowed 30 or more points in five of their games this season.

The NFL is still a business focused on making money, and Seattle hasn’t lived up to the high expectations set at the beginning of the season. Everyone on the team, including the coaches, has contributed to the disappointing results in the standings thus far. The team is ranked in the lower half of the league in both scoring offense and defense.

Thankfully, there is still time for the Seahawks to turn things around, reach their objectives of returning to the postseason, and heat up just in time to potentially cause some damage in January. Doing so would provide job security for a number of players and coaches. But in a profession where success and failure are the only metrics, major adjustments to Carroll’s staff and the roster may be in store if they can’t recover from a difficult November and miss out on the postseason.

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Future Plans for the Seahawks Depend on the Following

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