Seahawks lining up replacements for injured, struggling Quinton Dunbar on shredded defense
Bobby Wagner has gone from ticked off to frustrated, and back, already this half season.
The All-Pro leader of the Seahawks’ last-ranked, ransacked defense wasn’t any happier Wednesday, three days after Seattle gave up 44 points in its loss at Buffalo.
It was the most points Wagner had ever allowed in his nine-year career as the Seahawks’ middle linebacker and signal caller. It was the most in Pete Carroll’s 11 season as Seattle’s coach.
“Especially for myself, it is frustrating,” Wagner said. “Because, you know, you kind of felt like you were, you know, moving in the right direction and then (had) a setback.
“But, you allow the frustration to happen, and then you try to figure out ways to get to get better, you know. I mean, that’s really how you have to do it.
“We don’t have time to sit here and think about the past. We got to get right. And we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to figure out ways to get off the field, to make the plays that I know we’re capable of making.”
The players making those plays could be changing.
The shredded may be getting shuffled.
Carroll, defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and the Seahawks (6-2) are lining up options behind ailing, ineffective Quinton Dunbar at cornerback for Sunday’s NFC West game at the Los Angeles Rams (5-3).
“Quinton’s knee is bothering him, for some time now,” Carroll said before Dunbar missed practice Wednesday. “Bothered him last week, for sure.
“So we have to tend to that.”
Asked if Dunbar will be able to play against the Rams, Carroll said: “Have to wait and see. I don’t know that yet.”
Dunbar might not be playing Sunday even if he were healthy. The Seahawks are not getting from him what they traded for to acquire Dunbar this spring off a career year with Washington.
He was playing 10 and more yards off Bills receivers, even on third and 7. He repeatedly gave up swaths of space and big plays against the Bills, who wisely kept taking all that Dunbar was generously giving them.
On a second and 27 in the third quarter, Dunbar was playing 6 yards off Bills receiver Gabriel Davis at the snap. Yet he allowed Davis to catch Allen’s pass 7 yards behind him for a 39-yard gain before safety Quandre Diggs had to scramble over to prevent a touchdown with a tackle at the 1.
Dunbar wasn’t the lone culprit. All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, when he wasn’t blitzing, missed some assignments. Allen threw for 415 yards, 282 of those in the first half while he completed 24, mostly easy passes in 28 attempts and built a 24-7 lead.
Unsettling
Because of injuries to Adams, Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin and nickel back Ugo Amadi, the Seahawks have had six different starting combinations in the secondary in the first eight games.
“It’s a big challenge,” Norton said following Wednesday’s practice. “But that’s the state of the NFL this year. Guys are in, guys are out.”
The revolving doors at the four defensive-backs spots is another factor in Seattle allowed more yards passing through eight games (2,897) than any defense in NFL history.
“We just have to keep coming together and get this thing really cleaned up,” Carroll said. “Unfortunately the continuity has not been a positive factor for us yet. Hopefully we can find a way to fit together and get our new guys in there and get them playing really well and error free, to their nature, and utilize their talents and all that, and we’ll see a turn. ...
“We got to do better.”
Who replaces Dunbar at starting cornerback, if it happens against the Rams Sunday, hinges upon whether Griffin and Amadi return from hamstring injuries.
Griffin has missed the last two games, first getting over a concussion and now a lingering hamstring strain.
“The return for Shaquill now is about his hamstring and getting it right,” Carroll said. “He’s running some. We’ll see how he progressed through the week If he has a chance to get right. We won’t know until the end.”
Amadi practiced Wednesday on a limited basis for the first time since he strained his hamstring three games ago, Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona. D.J. Reed played nickel for Amadi at Buffalo, and two games ago against San Francisco.
Signs are Amadi will return against the Rams.
“Looking forward to him playing,” Carroll said.
That would leave Reed available to play cornerback, particularly if Griffin cannot again.
Seattle signed Reed in September, while he was still recovering from a torn pectoral muscle from the spring. He returned to health late last month. The Seahawks coaches like his quickness in making sudden moves on receivers and the ball, something Dunbar obviously lacked in Buffalo.
Two weeks ago against the 49ers Reed had an interception, two passes defensed and six tackles in his Seattle debut.
Carroll acknowledged Reed, a former safety with San Francisco, is an option at corner.
“He has played out there. I’ve watched him in film in games play outside,” the coach said. “He’s a candidate for that to help us out there.”
So is Ryan Neal. The practice-squad escapee almost quit football until talking with his understanding fiancee. Then he started at strong safety the four games Adams missed with a strained groin, ending with Adams’ return for the Bills game.
Neal impressed right away.
He got his first two interceptions in his first two quarters of playing in an NFL game. He picked off Dallas’ Dak Prescott in the end zone on the next-to-last play of the Seahawks’ 38-31 win over the Cowboys in week 3. The following week he intercepted Ryan Fitzpatrick to set up Seattle’s early touchdown and lead in its win at Miami.
“He is an option,” Carroll said of Neal at cornerback. “We’ve trained him there in years past, so he is available to us.”
Another option: Linden Stephens. The offseason addition off waivers from Miami played the fourth quarter in Buffalo for Dunbar, when coaches finally deemed him unfit on his knee to play against the Bills.
Norton said now may be the time for Stephens to step up.
Flowers’ surge
The only cornerback who is appears set to start again at Los Angeles is Tre Flowers. He’s the converted safety Carroll made Seattle’s starting cornerback as a rookie in 2018 and again in ‘19.
The team traded for Dunbar to replace Flowers as a starter. But Flowers is healthier and just plain better than Dunbar right now.
“He was ready to come in, confidence-wise, and have a really big season,” Carroll said of Flowers this summer. “The competition (with Dunbar) kind of took over and he got in the middle of it all.
“Now, for whatever the reason is, he’s come right back to the focus he intended to bring to camp. A couple of weeks back, it started. You could just see him click in. Technique-wise, he’s been really solid. You can see the confidence in everything that he’s doing.”
If Griffin gets healthy in time, it will be him and Flowers starting against the Rams
Norton said of Flowers: “He’s come back new and improved, and you really like what you see.
“He is going in the right direction.”
Wagner and the Seahawks’ defense needs all the confident, effective players it can find as a gauntlet schedule stretch within the NFC West continues. Four days after they play the Rams on Sunday, the Cardinals come to Seattle for a Thursday night game. Arizona and quarterback Kyler Murray lit up Seattle late last month in the Cards’ 37-34 overtime win.
“You have to move on and get better,” Wagner said. “We have a lot of a lot of the season still left and a lot of time to change. I’m confident in the guys in locker room and I’m confident as coaches.
“And, you know, I feel like it’s gonna get done.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
