Finally, real Seahawks football: Jordyn Brooks, K.J. Wright may both be starting in 2020
Russell Wilson is playing pitch. Tyler Lockett is playing catch.
On a real field, the Seahawks’ actual practice field.
Greg Olsen is there. So is Will Dissly, well on his way to coming back from a torn Achilles tendon. Fellow tight end Luke Willson is there, too—with his shorts hiked up characteristically short.
The Seahawks are back on the field for the first time since January, for the conditioning week of their COVID-19 training camp.
And they are all wearing masks.
“I am hoping in our program here that we can set an example,” coach Pete Carroll said of his team trying to start and complete an NFL season amid the nation’s fight against the coronavirus. “I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I hope we set a great example on what it takes to do this.
“In six months from now we are still going to be involved. So this season, as we play it out, maybe we learn something. Maybe we can help some other people. Maybe we can inspire somebody if we are fortunate enough to do well and do right, to beat this thing that’s disrupting everything.”
There is more football finally happening this week at Seahawks headquarters in Renton than just Wilson throwing to receivers.
Jordyn Brooks is going for what’s been Pro Bowl veteran linebacker K.J. Wright’s job.
Carroll and general manager John Schneider drafted Brooks in the first round in April’s draft. They love his speed, instincts, tackling and ability to cover multiple types of receivers in the open field. Brooks showed that while the leading tackler at Texas Tech—beginning in his freshman season.
And he did it as both an outside linebacker and, last season after Texas Tech hired a new coaching staff, at middle linebacker.
So where will Brooks play this season with Seattle—provided the Seahawks and NFL pull off a this season amid the coronavirus pandemic?
The Seahawks have a decent middle linebacker: Bobby Wagner. You may have heard of him.
Wagner is signed through 2022 on the three-year, $54 million contract extension he signed last summer. It made him the league’s highest-paid inside linebacker.
Seattle let veteran strongside linebacker Mychal Kendricks leave when his contract ended at the end of last season, which for him ended a month early because of injury. He remains unsigned.
Seattle signed Bruce Irvin to a one-year, $3-million contract this offseason. He won a Super Bowl and became a $37-million linebacker at the start of his career playing strongside linebacker for the Seahawks next to Wagner through the 2015 season. Irvin then signed with Oakland.
Cody Barton, Seattle’s versatile third-round pick out of Utah in 2019, filled in for Kendricks late last season. He is an option again for 2020, at what Carroll calls the “Sam” linebacker in his base 4-3 defense.
Wright, Seattle’s rock at weakside, “Will” linebacker for most of the last decade, is entering the final year of his contract. He turned 31 two weeks ago. He is the longest-tenured Seahawk; Carroll and Schneider drafted him in 2011.
Monday, Carroll was asked: What is Brooks’ clearest path to starting this season?
“Well, I think the spot that makes sense for us at this point—he can play either outside or inside, he can play all three spots at linebacker,” the coach said, in advance of the team’s first fuller, team practices without pads that begin Aug. 12.
“I think his clearest path, what might be his most obvious path, is at the ‘Will’ linebacker spot. We’ll see how that goes. We will start him there, and see how fast he grasps it and how soon he can become comfortable. And we’ll see.”
Wright carries an $11 million salary-cap charge for 2020. That has led to speculation Brooks is poised to take not just Wright’s weakside job but also his place on Seattle’s roster this season.
There would be a revolt in the locker room Carroll has spent years reuniting in the wake of messy exits by outspoken superstars Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett and Earl Thomas if the Seahawks were to release Wright now. He earned this second year of his two-year contract by coming back from knee surgery in 2018 and playing one of his best seasons last year.
“Yeah,” he said in front of his locker at Lambeau Field Jan. 12 after the Seahawk’s season-ending playoff loss in Green Bay.
Wright’s laugh that night in Wisconsin revealed he was satisfied with a job well done.
“I can’t lie,” he said. “It was a team effort, and I can’t take all the credit. But coming back the way I did, I’m proud of myself.
“I give myself a pat on the back for that.
“And, so, got to do it again.”
The weakside linebacker in a 4-3 is often the speed guy. Carroll has talked since drafting Brooks how when plays go away from his side, Seattle’s ‘Will’ linebacker follows Wagner across the formation in sliding in the play’s direction. On such plays, the weakside linebacker takes on middle-linebacker duties. He sheds reach blocks by backside offensive linemen. He fills a runner’s cut-back lane in the center of the field.
He does what Brooks did while starring for a fourth consecutive year at Texas Tech last season.
Wright has been one of the league’s best at diagnosing plays, particularly screen passes, on the edge as the weakside linebacker. He also has played some strongside—and middle linebacker, for that matter—in all his years mastering Carroll’s defensive schemes and calls.
It would make sense to have Brooks go straight to the role this year that he’s likely to be in after Wright’s contract ends following the 2020 season, and have Wright do what he can do and has done some, play the strongside.
Irvin turns 33 in November. At this point in his career he is likely to be a situational edge rusher with his hand on the ground as more of an end on passing downs than as an early-down linebacker at strongside like it’s 2014 again. The Seahawks’ pass rush needs him more than the every-down linebacking unit does. Seattle had just 28 sacks in 16 games last season, the second-fewest in the NFL.
Carroll hinted Monday that may be Seattle’s move in 2020, Wright moving to strongside with Brooks taking over at weakside.
The coach did that while describing how interchangeable Wagner and Wright have been while starting in Seattle’s defense for the last eight years. Plus, Irvin is back inside the Seahawks’ defense he knows so well.
“We have tremendous flexibility in our guys. Our guys have been in here for a long time, in our program,” the coach said. “Bruce coming back. K.J. Bobby. It’s a fantastic group of guys.
“We’ve got a lot of options in plan here to weigh out. But we’ve got to see how it goes, and that’s why it’s going down to competition. We’ve got to see how it all plays itself out.
“K.J. has been a fantastic player, might have had his best year for us last year. Bobby is at the top of his game. And we are thrilled to have Bruce back.”
Carroll said it’s possible Wagner, Wright, Irvin and Brooks all may be on the field together, at times.
“That doesn’t mean that all those guys don’t play at the same time, and all four of those guys are on the field at the same time. There’s options for how we can do that that we’ve worked out.
“The competition will settle it. I’m not concerned about it, at all. The competition will tell us what we need to do here. Because the options are all there for us.”
