Seattle Seahawks always win, no matter their flaws

Every offseason we see major turnover on the Seattle Seahawks as a sign of weakness. Yet they always win and make the playoffs, so perhaps now the doubters are truly dead.

The Seattle Seahawks are entering an offseason of potentially massive upheaval, especially in the trenches. As the cliche goes, games are won through the offensive and defensive lines. That could pose a huge issue for this Seattle club moving forward. Or it could be an opportunity to improve in a significant way.

As many as five offensive line backups or starters are hitting free agency. That is quite a turnover. Yet Seattle ranked just league-average in adjusted line yards, per Football Outsiders, when running and well below-average in sack rate allowed.

On the defensive front, the changes could be even starker because of who is potentially heading out. Three starters, including Jadeveon Clowney, are all free agents. As is linebacker Mychal Kendricks. Yet, again, the Seahawks’ line wasn’t that great a season ago. It ranked just 21st in adjusted line yards allowed and a putrid 30th in sack rate.

More from NFL Spin Zone

• Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
• Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
• Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
• Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
• Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens

No matter their flaws, the Seattle Seahawks keep on winning. They win a lot and make the playoffs even more often. Perhaps its time to celebrate change, because we know the outcome will be favorable.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Seattle Seahawks in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem

A lot of pieces are going out the door in Seattle but those units didn’t perform up to the Seahawks’ standards last year anyway. The keys to the team are all still sticking around. It will be up to the front office to fill in those numerous holes and help stars like Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner and Tyler Lockett.

To refill holes, the team has upwards of $50 million in cap space already. An easy $3 million could be had by cutting Ed Dickson, which seems likely after the team added Greg Olsen at tight end. Another $8.5 million could be opened up with the release of Duane Brown and nearly $4 million by cutting D.J. Fluker. Justin Britt also has $8.5 million in potential cap savings tied to his name.

All would create more offensive line holes, which perhaps speaks to the poor execution of the build of this team in the first place. Building through the line is ideal, but this group wasn’t good enough.

There is a good core here to work with. Lockett and DK Metcalf look like a great pair, along with now three useful tight ends. Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny have superb upside. Wagner, K.J. Wright, and Shaq Griffin are difference-makers on defense. Wilson gives any team a great starting point, even if his contract is hard to build around.

Besides offensive and defensive lines, Seattle may want to address depth at running back, wide receiver and the secondary as well. The draft can help but this team should be very active in free agency, either by bringing back some of their own men or churning out a new, more interesting roster.

There is a lot of work to do for this team just to keep pace with where it was in 2019. Considering their proclivity for winning one-score games and a point differential that was more representative of a team three wins worse than what they were, 2020 was already going to be a fight against regression. With the roster churn, it will be a fight to not get worse talent-wise as well.

Dan Salem:

We seem to write off the Seattle Seahawks every offseason, expecting them to regress or become the team their numbers say they should be. Yet Seattle keeps winning and doing better than most everyone expects. They continue to throw numbers in our faces and win anyways.

One might assume that a team with a league-average offensive line and below-average defensive line might have had a bad year. Not true in Seattle. They won eleven games and made the playoffs.

Pete Carroll began coaching the Seahawks in 2010. To say he completely transformed this franchise is an understatement, so I’m not about to claim the sky is falling this offseason. It never falls with Carroll. His first two seasons with the Seahawks were losing efforts, yet he still managed to win the division with a record of 7-9 in his first year on the job.

Since the start of the 2012 season, his teams have never finished with a losing record. Hell, they only missed the playoffs once in 2017 with a 9-7 record. That’s eight playoff appearances in ten seasons, as well as eight of ten seasons with a winning record.

One could argue that Carroll’s playoff record is suspect. They made back to back Super Bowls in 2013 and 2014, yet failed to advance beyond the divisional round in all six other postseasons. But that playoff record has zero barring on my belief in their offseason execution and regular season domination. This is a winning team year in and year out. That will not change in 2020.

Seattle can expect significant turnover this offseason, but that’s a good thing. The players leaving are those that underperformed last year, with very few exceptions. Despite those weaknesses, the Seahawks remained one of the top teams in the NFC.

We saw the Rams shoot up the standings, only to take a solid step back. San Francisco shot up in their place, but through all the NFC West turnover, Seattle has remained up top. I have high expectations for this team in 2020, no matter what moves they make in the offseason.