Seattle Seahawks: Surprising team MVP candidates

The Seattle Seahawks feature multiple future Hall of Famers, but a few surprising players could compete for the team MVPs in 2020.

Russell Wilson put the Seattle Seahawks on his back last year and carried them to the Divisional Round. After the season, the team’s official website selected Wilson as the offensive MVP. The future Hall of Fame quarterback came close to winning the league MVP as well. Bobby Wagner convincingly won the team’s defensive MVP. After years of consistency, a few new faces could throw their names into the team’s MVP conversations.

This article details players who could claim Seattle’s offensive and defensive MVPs, instead of picking one overall MVP. While the team’s website picked special teams MVPs after last season, we won’t touch on that topic today. Instead, our entire focus is on how newcomers and developmental prospects could alter Seattle’s season in 2020.

Anyone could easily predict Wilson as a repeat MVP winner in 2020 and select Jamal Adams or Wagner for the defense. Those are the team’s three All-Pros, making them the primary focus of the local and national media. Adams’ arrival after a trade with the New York Jets gives Wagner competition on the defense for the first time in years.

Since the Seahawks cut Richard Sherman ahead of the 2018 season and Earl Thomas went down with a season-ending injury the same year, Wagner hasn’t faced a real challenger. Even Frank Clark’s fantastic performance in 2018 didn’t get the Michigan product to a Pro Bowl, leaving Wagner as Seattle’s only defensive Pro Bowler that year.

However, Adams brings a level of versatility that not even Kam Chancellor touched during his prime. That makes him a frontrunner in Seattle’s defensive MVP race, but this article aims to flush out surprising candidates who could arise with little notice. Even a team with established, top-20 players in the NFL needs some surprises.

Despite their commanding leads, Adams, Wagner and Wilson won’t appear as predicted winners. Instead, the nominations go to developing prospects and well-positioned veterans.