Seattle Seahawks: Predicting team leaders in statistics for 2019

Sacks

Frank Clark led the Seahawks in sacks last season with a career-high 13. Clark isn’t with the team anymore though and that leaves the sack crown vacant. The obvious choice to replace him is defensive tackle Jarran Reed who recorded 10.5 sacks in 2018.

Reed’s sudden breakout in his third season was a huge boost to the Seahawks, but would it have been possible without Clark acting as the team’s primary pass rusher? Now that Reed will be the player every offense will be game-planning to face, he’ll face the challenge of being a team’s top pass rusher for the first time in his career.

Outside of Reed, there are a few other options for players who are long shots, but possibilities to lead the team in sacks next season. First, there’s the team’s top draft pick from this year, L.J. Collier. The TCU product seems like a stretch to lead the team though. His single-season high for sacks in college was only six and, although he’ll probably take Quinton Jefferson‘s job easily, we can’t be sure how soon he’ll see starting snaps.

The next best shot to lead the team in sacks is the pass rusher who the team just signed, Ezekiel Ansah. Ansah made the Pro Bowl in 2015 when he recorded a career-high 14.5 sacks. He also recorded 12 a little while later, in 2017.

My final candidate is a dark-horse pick. Second-year linebacker/defensive end Jacob Martin recorded three sacks and eight quarterback hits last year despite only seeing limited action on the defense. In his final year at Temple, Martin recorded eight sacks, which is his single-season high in both college and the pros.

Ultimately, I think Reed will be the man to lead the Seahawks in sacks this season, but it’s fun to think of all of the possibilities for Seattle. There are so many paths the team can take as far as pass rushers this year. Going off of his 10.5 sacks last year and the reduced talent along the line, Reed will finish 2019 with roughly eight sacks.