Seattle Seahawks: Biggest remaining needs after 2018 NFL Draft
By Samuel Teets
The Seattle Seahawks were a great team a few years ago, but now, even after the draft, their offense and defense still have major spots that need to be filled.
The Seattle Seahawks are experiencing their first major shortage of talent since the beginning of the Russell Wilson era. With major departures this offseason through free agency, trades and releases, the team has become exposed on both sides of the ball.
The major departures of tight end Jimmy Graham and cornerback Richard Sherman this offseason left enormous holes in Seattle’s depth chart that have yet to be adequately filled. Backup tight end Luke Willson also departed from the team.
The top tight ends on the Seahawks roster before the draft were Ed Dickson and Nick Vannett. Vannett has fewer than 200 receiving yards in his two years in the league and Dickson has only averaged more than 20 receiving yards per game twice, despite playing in the league for eight seasons.
In the fourth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, the team drafted tight end Will Dissly from Washington. While Dissly does add depth to the weak position, he is by no means an NFL starter. This leaves the Seahawks without a true No. 1 tight end to utilize in their offensive game plan.
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Frankly, rooking running back Rashaad Penny won’t have much help at all this year besides from his quarterback. The Seahawks offensive line is subpar and have allowed Wilson to be hit far to many times over the last few years. Left tackle Duane Brown is a Pro Bowl caliber player, but the rest of the line is in need of a complete rebuild.
Granted most of the players are young and inexperienced, but they’ve now had several seasons to prove their worth and just haven’t. If anything, some of them regressed last season.
In the fifth round of the draft, the Seahawks took tackle Jamarco Jones from Ohio State. Jones is a good addition for the future since Brown is going to be turning 33 years old soon. Still, he does nothing to help the team immediately and is a long term project, not a guaranteed solution.
The Seahawks once had the undisputed best secondary in the NFL with the Legion of Boom. Now they have a severe lack of talent and depth at their cornerback positions. Right now their top corners are Shaquill Griffin, Justin Coleman, veteran Byron Maxwell, Neiko Thorpe and Dontae Johnson. The team did not address the cornerback position during the draft.
Griffin is just entering his second year in the league. Coleman showed potential in 2017, but only started five games. Maxwell is slow and seems to be nearing the end of his career despite only being 29. Thorpe has started just two out of his 66 games in five NFL seasons. And Johnson did not become a starter for the San Francisco 49ers until last year.
None of these players have displayed Pro Bowl potential or even the ability to develop into that kind of player. This year, expect the Seahawks to finish in the bottom half of the league in pass defense.
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The Seahawks seem to be in for a rough year in 2018. They didn’t draft as well as they could have and that left issues with their depth chart. Too be fair, they had way to many holes to fill in the draft alone. But for now they are missing a true starting tight end, need to add at least one starting cornerback, and will have to spend significant time over the next few years trying to stabilize their offensive line.