Seattle Seahawks: 3 Key factors for conquering the NFC West

Addition and subtraction

The Seahawks have actually had an interesting amount of turnover this offseason and it’s not getting a lot of attention. Previously key players such as Baldwin, Clark, Mike Davis, Thomas, and Justin Coleman are all gone. On the other hand, the team has signed Ezekiel Ansah, Mike Iupati, Cassius Marsh, Jason Myers and picked up 11 players in the draft.

Overall, the team seems to have drawn fairly even on paper, if you consider that Thomas played in just four games. Still, Baldwin, Clark and Thomas were major pieces of the team who, at least in the past, were leaders and stars.

While signing players like Ansah will mitigate the impact of all of those changes, the Seahawks are putting a lot of pressure on their rookies to step up and fill roles right away. While the team isn’t demanding anyone be a starter from day one, it’s pretty obvious that Carroll and his staff expect this rookie class to be contributing early on in 2019.

The rookies, not the free agent signings, might actually have the biggest impact on how Seattle performs this coming year. The Seahawks drafted players at wide receivers, defensive back, defensive end, and linebacker knowing that there were depth issues. If the rookies are able to be contributors and first-round pick L.J. Collier has a great rookie year, then the Seahawks will be more talented this year than in 2018. Of course, if things go poorly for the rookies, then the team could suffer from their own youth.

The Rams have also undergone some changes this offseason. The team signed Blake Bortles, Clay Matthews, Eric Weddle, and added eight rookies through the draft this offseason. However, the team also said goodbye to C.J. Anderson, Mark Barron, Lamarcus Joyner, Rodger Saffold, Sam Shields, Ndamukong Suh, John Sullivan and Ethan Westbrooks. With five of those players being starters, the Rams have a fair amount of turnover this year as well.

Los Angeles did a good job drafting for the future, but only a decent job drafting for position needs this season, adding players at safety, running back, cornerback, and offensive and defensive tackle. Whereas the Seahawks have players who are slated to see reps early and often, the Rams have rookies who are sitting behind aging veterans and who will see less action in 2019. Because of this, the Rams have not fully recovered from all of their offseason departures.

The Seahawks and Rams are going to be linked in 2019. One team’s success will be the other’s failure. While there are certainly other things the Seahawks could do to secure the NFC West, I felt it was better to frame their position with relation to the NFC champion Rams, especially since the two teams will be butting heads for the division title.

With all of the changes that have happened this offseason, it seems like one of these two teams will again be a dominant force in the league and the other one will be regulated to a Wild Card spot again or be pushed out of the playoffs entirely.