Keys to this unique Seahawks opener: Bruce Irvin’s new rush move, Chris Carson’s return
Landed in Atlanta for a Seahawks opener like no other. Never have seen Hartsfield Airport, usually one of the world’s busiest, so empty.
Saturday 6 p.m. looked like 3 a.m. in there.
Players and coaches are quarantining inside their team hotel in the Buckhead section of Atlanta. They are all wearing masks around the lobby and meeting rooms. Daily testing for the COVID-19 virus continue, as if the players were back at their team headquarters in Renton. There will be no fans inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday, as there won’t be in 26 of the NFL’s 32 stadiums these opening games.
All the result of the coronavirus pandemic that has made masks as prevalent as helmets in practices and team facilities this season.
“Everything feels a little bit different,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “There’s nothing that feels totally the same, to me.
“But we’ve adapted to everything that’s got this sort of overriding thought that we’ve got to take care of business here and there. ...The testing part of it. The locker room. How many people can be in the locker room. Where guys are on the sidelines—there are all kinds of stuff that we are going along with that will make it all a little bit different.
“I don’t think it’s going to change what it feels like to play the game and coach the game.”
Here are the key players to this unusual opener:
1. Bruce Irvin: The Atlanta native is starting his second go-round with the Seahawks. He turns 33 in November. Does he still have the quick edge-rush moves to pressure quarterbacks, as he did with a career-high 8½ sacks last year for Carolina?
He did in training camp. Seattle’s starting offensive linemen had big issues trying to block his newer, outside moves last month.
Irvin and defensive line coach Clint Hurtt say Irvin has developed a wider array of pass-rush tricks relatively recently. He began in the NFL with the Seahawks in 2012. He was a strongside linebacker only back then. Now, in his second go-around with the team, he’s also a defensive end in nickel, passing situations.
In his last few years as an edge-rushing end with the Panthers, Falcons and Raiders, Irvin has perfected a quick spin move off the snap.
“I’ve got a couple new things in my tool box,” Irvin said, grinning while trying not to divulge too much to opponents.
Hurtt said Irvin’s “gotten a lot better with his hands.”
The D-line coach wants Irvin to use the spin move more, to amplify his speed off the edge.
“He’s a special, special athlete,” Hurtt said this past week.
This Seahawks’ defense needs Irvin to be special. The team failed to sign back Jadeveon Clowney for this year. Top rookie pass rusher Darrell Taylor has yet to practice for Seattle coming off leg surgery. Coaches, teammates and fans will be looking at how Irvin, 51 in white, comes off the edge on passing downs Sunday.
Carroll said L.J. Collier will start as one of the ends in the Seahawks’ base 4-3 defense. They need him to show why they drafted him in the first round last year.
2. Chris Carson. Another native of the Atlanta area had another season altered by injury last year. But he did not need surgery for his cracked hip in December.
He’s rushed for almost 2,400 yards in his last two seasons combined. He is entering the final year of his contract, and seems surprised the team hasn’t approached him yet about an extension.
The Seahawks want to see if Carson is running with the same, punishing style--and can he hold up physically playing that way again. The reveal begins Sunday.
Carroll made it clear Carson won’t be going along. Carlos Hyde, signed this offseason off his 1,000-yard season with Houston, gained the trust of Seahawks coaches while Carson was gone for much of training camp last month because of deaths in his family. Carroll said Carson and Hyde will both carry the ball in Atlanta, with “the hot hand” getting more of the runs later in the game.
3. Matt Ryan. The 2016 NFL MVP was injured and did not play in October when the Seahawks raced to a huge early lead then hung on to beat the Falcons in Atlanta. Seattle isn’t getting Matt Schaub this time.
In his last three games against the Seahawks, Ryan has completed 68% of his passes (three points above his career average) with eight touchdown throws and just one interception. That’s been a passer rating of 114.0 against Seattle; his career rating is 94.6.
Atlanta has won two of the last three starts Ryan has made against the Seahawks. With Julio Jones still threatening defenses down the field, the Seahawks and Irvin need to pressure Ryan into quicker decisions than he wants to make.
And Ryan has a new asset to help him. Todd Gurley makes his debut as a Falcons running. The former franchise foundation of the Los Angeles Rams has not been the same the last couple seasons because of a chronic knee injury that led to the Rams releasing him from the mammoth contract they had given him. But Gurley has shredded the Seahawks throughout his career, with outside zone-read runs off tackles and pass receptions outside.
4. Quinton Dunbar. Sunday is the much-anticipated debut of Seattle’s new starting cornerback. Though Carroll has remained coy, all signs are Dunbar will start over Tre Flowers, the starter at right cornerback the last two seasons.
The coach said both are likely to play.
Dunbar’s aggressiveness on passes in the air is why Seattle traded for him in March then stuck by him through three months of facing armed-robbery charges prosecutors in Florida dropped against Dunbar last month. He is beginning the final year of his contract. Dunbar will give Ryan a new consideration when throwing away from Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin in this one.
5. Greg Olsen has been running routes into the Falcons’ defense for the last decade. He was Carolina’s main tight end in the NFC South from 2011 until last winter. His seven touchdowns catches in 16 regular-season games against Atlanta are his most scores against any team.
The Seahawks signed him in January to a $7 million deal for 2020. In training camp the part-time football commentator with a Fox Sports job waiting for him whenever he retires ran and caught passes more like he is 25, not 35, years old.
Olsen and Will Dissly, fully ready 11 months after rupturing his Achilles tendon, will likely be in more two tight-end formations that Seattle’s run in recent seasons.
Carroll mentioned again on Friday how fiendishly Dissly working over nine months in southern California to rehabilitate his Achilles. He has six touchdown catches in his first 11 games, establishing a noticeable trust with quarterback Russell Wilson.
“(Dissly) had a phenomenal offseason. He’s ready to go,” Carroll said.
“We can play him as we want to.”
