Why these may be the most important Seahawks to watch in camp on the changed defense
When will Earl Thomas show up?
If only that was the lone question for the Seahawks’ defense entering training camp.
The unit that was the reason Seattle went to consecutive Super Bowls and won the franchise’s only NFL title four years ago is gone, changed by age, money, injuries and performance. The “Legion of Boom” secondary, the swarming linebackers and the relentless pass rush that made it all work is down to Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright—and a list of questions for key players as long as it is concerning entering training camp.
The top three queries entering camp that begins Thursday at team headquarters:
- With Pro Bowl ends Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril gone, will recovering Dion Jordan prove ready for a prime pass-rush role opposite Frank Clark?
- How is rookie second-round pick Raheem Green picking up the inside-outside pass-rushing roles Bennett used to have, for a transitioning defense that must generate pressure on quarterbacks to get back to where it wants to be in 2018?
- With Sherman gone, Byron Maxwell is just a short-term option at starting cornerback opposite Shaquill Griffin. How is the potential long-term one, rookie Tre Flowers, progressing in his conversion from college safety to learning Seattle’s step-kick technique and other fundamentals essential to playing the position for the Seahawks?
Thomas’ imminent holdout will begin officially on Thursday. That is, unless he unexpectedly drops his vow to stay away from “any team activities until my contract situation is resolved,” unless he backs down in the next three days from his principled stand for a new, rich contract from Seattle. He hasn’t shown up since the team’s last game. That was on New Year’s Eve.
The three-time All-Pro safety remained on the official camp roster the team issued Monday, with no sign he will report with his teammates on time Wednesday.
Thomas’ drama, Sherman’s exit to San Francisco this spring and Kam Chancellor’s departure forced by his neck injury are getting all the attention for how it affects the secondary and the Seahawks’ defense.
But there is a more pressing, fundamental concern to the Seahawks’ overhauled unit, and in fact, to their entire 2018 season: from where is the pass rush going to come?
When Seattle was its best from 2013 through ‘15 at the top of the NFC and playing in those two Super Bowls, Thomas, Sherman and Chancellor were the “Legion of Boom” largely because of the Seahawks’ defensive front. Bennett, Avril, Clark, Bruce Irvin, Chris Clemons, Brandon Mebane, Red Bryant, Tony McDaniel, Clinton McDonald, Ahtyba Rubin and Jordan Hill gave Seattle an eight- and nine-man rotation of defensive linemen. Those guys wore down opposing offensive lines as games went on. The Seahawks got leads in games with ball-control running and Russell Wilson’s exquisite play-making. Then they ransacked teams that had to throw while behind late, sending in fresh swarms of accomplished pass rushers to clinch wins and playoff berths.
Sherman, Thomas, Chancellor and the Seahawks defensive backs did not have to cover receivers for a long time in those heyday seasons because the front was pressuring QBs to throw before they wanted to.
In today’s NFL full of rules favoring the offense in the passing game, the best defenses are the ones that have to cover down the field for the least amount of time, because of effective pass rushers up front.
It is a passer and get-to-the-passer league.
Where are all those great Seahawks get-to-the-passers now?
Bennett is in Philadelphia, traded. Irvin is in Oakland. Avril is a Seattle sports-radio host because of a serious neck injury. Mebane is with the Los Angeles Chargers. Clemons, Mebane, Bryant, McDaniel, McDonald, Rubin, Hill...they are all gone, too.
The only contributor to those deep pass-rush units that remains is Clark. He’s had 19 sacks the last two season, while benefiting from being on the same front as Bennett and Avril and often getting single-teamed on passing downs. Now he gets a starring role for the first time. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
The Seahawks re-invested in Jordan this spring by giving him a first-round tender offer and $1,907,000 to bring him back, after they were impressed with his five games for them last season. But those are the only five games the Dolphins’ former first-round pick has played in the last three years, because of a knee injury and suspensions.
Jordan missed all offseason practices and last month’s mandatory minicamp. He had his third knee surgery in 13 months. Coach Pete Carroll described the latest procedure as minor.
“He had a surgery, kind of an after surgery to correct a little something,” Carroll said June 7. “Everything went really well, and we’re hoping that by camp time he’ll be ready to rip and all that. But (it is a) knee thing that, he’s had some complications over time, and so it was worth it to go ahead and clean this thing up. It was a really small issue, but it was one that was going to sit him down for six to eight weeks, so we went ahead and did it.”
Carroll said Jordan may be limited in his participation to begin training camp. It’s not unfathomable Jordan may begin camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list, until he can practice. That would delay the work needed to make the new defensive front effective enough to give that changed secondary a better chance to succeed.
The Seahawks drafted Green second in April as a do-over for Malik McDowell. McDowell, Seattle’s top draft choice in 2017, was supposed to be Bennett’s heir as an outside pass rusher on early downs and a quicker, inside rusher on passing ones. Then he sustained major head injuries in an ATV accident. He has yet to practice let alone play for the Seahawks, and likely never will.
Green was primarily a tackle at USC. So it will be new on top of new for him in his first NFL training camp.
Knowing pass rush was an issue, the Seahawks also this spring signed Barkevious Mingo, another former first-round pick. He got a two-year deal that with incentives could be worth up to $10 million. Mingo, 27, had five sacks in his rookie season with Cleveland. He has just four total in the last four seasons combined, for the Browns, New England (2016) and Indianapolis (’17). This spring he got more time as the first-team strong-side linebacker dropping into pass coverage in Seattle’s base defense than he did as an edge pass rusher.
The Seahawks have a third former first-round pick on defense, Marcus Smith. He entered the league as a top college pass rusher at defensive end. But after four sacks in three, failed years with Philadelphia and 2 1/2 more last season debuting for Seattle, Smith was officially listed as a linebacker in the training-camp roster the Seahawks issued Monday. He was playing linebacker with Wagner, Wright and Mingo during OTAs and the minicamp last month.
So, yes, pass-rushing defensive linemen remain a need. Don’t be surprised if the Seahawks sign a veteran one before the season begins Sept. 9 at Denver. Especially if Jordan hasn’t shown through camp the team can depend on him to be ready by then.
Maxwell re-signed in May. He will enter camp the starter at right cornerback with Griffin moving from the right side where he started as a rookie last year to Sherman’s old left-cornerback job. But Maxwell is 30. And he is signed only for this year.
Flowers is the long-term answer the Seahawks want. They drafted him in April out of Oklahoma State in the fifth round, the same round they found another tall, long-armed former college player at another position to make a starting cornerback seven years ago: Sherman, out of Stanford.
This training camp will be a pivotal test of whether Flowers, who fits the Carroll prototype for long cornerbacks, can do what Sherman did for Seattle in 2011: get down the footwork and patience Carroll demands from Seattle’s cornerbacks in his press, man coverage. For Flowers, it will be an adjustment he won’t master overnight, after a football lifetime of being a safety.
If he can do it eventually, Flowers can push Maxwell for time.
Don’t judge him by any short throws Flowers may give up in August, in camp practices and the four preseason games that begin Aug. 9 against Indianapolis. Flowers staying smooth on his feet and on the upfield shoulder of his assigned receiver, protecting against the deep pass, would fulfill the first rule of Seahawks’ coverage: stay over the top. That’s how Griffin won the starting job as a rookie last summer.
What does Flowers see as the key to mastering the step-kick technique, and thus possibly competing for a starting job, in training camp?
“Staying patient,” he said, “and being coachable.
“I’m a sponge, I’m going to soak it all in and put my twist to it.”
No one is talking about him now, but that’s how the physically gifted, 6-foot-3, 203-pound Flowers can be a surprise of this training camp.
After the offseason this changed Seahawks’ defense had, it could use a pleasant surprise.
This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 4:29 PM.