Last season was a tale of two halves for the Seattle Seahawks. Prior to their Week 6 bye week, the Seahawks were 5-0 and playing exciting football. Pete Carroll had finally decided to move forward from his extreme run-first philosophy and “let Russ cook,” allowing the All-Pro quarterback to throw the ball all over the field, maximizing the offense’s explosiveness. After the bye week, however, opposing defenses began adjusting to this play-style, and the Seahawks were never the same. With a disappointing second half and an ugly home loss to the LA Rams in the Wild Card game, the Seahawks will enter the 2021 campaign determined to recover its early form from last season.
Seattle has all of the pieces offensively to be one of the highest-scoring teams in the NFL, yet they finished in the middle of the pack in points and total yards a year ago. Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf have the potential to be the most potent QB/WR connection in the league, but we just haven’t seen the two connecting at this level so far. Chris Carson remains one of the league’s reliable running backs. On paper, this offense should be a lot more effective than what we saw down the stretch in 2020. It is up to the Seattle coaching staff to unlock that potential, and much of that will rely on the offensive system of new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
The days of the Legion of Boom in Seattle have come to an end, and now the Seahawks’ largest vulnerability lies on the defensive side, more specifically in the secondary. This unit finished ahead of only the Falcons in defending the pass, yielding 285 yards per game through the air for opposing defenses. That area needs to be drastically improved if the Seahawks want a shot at repeating as NFC West champions.
Unfortunately, not much was done this past offseason to bolster the Seahawks’ roster on either side of the football. With just three draft picks (none in the first round) and limited spending in free agency, the Seahawks will bring back a very similar team in 2021. Although they won the NFC West a year ago, the division is expected to be one of the strongest and deepest in the league. Arizona, San Francisco, and Los Angeles all have extremely talented rosters that are capable of winning the division, so Seattle’s lack of urgency in the offseason leaves them more than vulnerable.
2021 Record Prediction: 9-8