We’ve had over 24 hours to digest the Seattle Seahawks daring to lose a regular season football game for the first time in 10 months. They weren’t at their best against the Washington Commanders and paid a heavy price, losing 33-31 despite comfortably out-gaining Washington earlier in the afternoon. Turnovers will kill you no matter how good your spot is.
Myself and Bryce Coutts dissected the game on The Hawks Eye podcast on Monday, and there were a few questions Bryce posed that I think we should pose or at least repurpose to Field Gulls readers.
Did the Seahawks make a mistake by not keeping Cody White?
Dareke Young left as a free agent with the Las Vegas Raiders, while Jake Bobo suffered an unfortunate ACL tear in training camp. Cody White remained on the Seahawks roster throughout the preseason and lost the roster spot to Montorie Foster Jr, training camp and ‘Hard Knocks’ star.
While Mike Macdonald bemoaned lackluster special teams, Bryce and I wondered out loud (at 12:13 of the video) if the Seahawks should retain one of their established special teams standouts. Foster hasn’t played in the last two games, which means the Seahawks don’t have any backup wide receivers in kick or punt coverage duties.
Bryce: “On specials, Cody White was a factor. You lost Dareke Young as a gunner, Irv Charles didn’t go, Montorie Foster didn’t give you anything on specials, and your specials have been atrocious. I feel like if Cody White is going to be here, at least you got something from him on specials because he’s one of the better guns.”
The kids, Gobo, and White are gone so many ST snaps will only be replaced at the WR position. If Foster isn’t giving anything right now, should Seattle make more of an effort to keep White and try to keep Foster on the practice squad? I think Emmanuel Henderson and Ricky White III should be considered special team options as the season progresses, along with Irv Charles.
Should the Seahawks keep rotating at right guard?
Christian Haynes and Beau Stephens split snaps for the second straight week. I outlined on the show (in 22:02 and 44:26) that I’m not interested in a midseason competition for backup right guard. Either Haynes should get all the snaps or Stephens will get all the snaps. The fact that Haynes is once again in split duties like he was as a rookie is either a sign that they don’t trust his conditioning or that there is something lacking in Haynes’ game so the coaching staff doesn’t want to play him a full game.
Bryce: “How much do the Seahawks miss Anthony Bradford in the run game right now? Because he can move people around. That’s where that rotation needs to be solved with Christian Haynes and Beau Stephens. They need to find someone who can move someone around in the run game. They’re not getting as much push as they should on the right side.”
Mookie: “I think they have eight carries for -1 running down the right side. That tells you all you need to know, where [Abe] Lucas isn’t at his best, and even when Haynes and Stephens are playing to a draw, you really want them to put people a few yards past the line of scrimmage, and that’s not happening. I want them to drop the rotation. Either Haynes is ready for a full game or you start Beau Stephens. My hang-up here is they did the same rotation thing with Haynes and Bradford when Haynes was a rookie. The fact that we’re still doing this: either Haynes has some kind of conditioning problem they don’t want to talk about, or they really don’t want to commit to Haynes for a full game for any other reason.
Until Anthony Bradford returns, I don’t think there’s any benefit to rotating your offensive line at any position.
Does Rashid Shaheed really fit the Seahawks offense?
We’re three weeks into the season and Rashid Shaheed has six catches for 53 yards on 12 targets. Not exactly dazzling numbers for a player who signed a $51 million contract in free agency. Tory Horton barely played Sunday and had three catches on as many targets for 48 yards. The season is still young and Shaheed’s chemistry is primarily with Sam Darnold, who he’s barely played with for the equivalent of a full game this month, but does Shaheed really seem to make sense for Seattle’s receiver group?
It’s been a disappointing start to the season for Shaheed, who was on an 80+ catch pace with the New Orleans Saints before he was traded to Seattle. Perhaps there is an advantage to being a bigger fish in a small pond (at least one where the biggest fish is Chris Olave), and Shaheed on a more stacked team could get lost in the shuffle. Let’s go in here 25:35.
Mookie: “Right now it’s just JSN, it’s Kupp, and the fact that Horton has more catches than Shaheed in fewer snaps doesn’t bode well for Rashid. I wonder about his fit as a blocker, his ability to break away on certain route combinations—just because you’re fast doesn’t mean you can break away consistently at an NFL level. I just think a lot about it, the most I think about it, what I think. game up now under Brian Fleury.”
Watch the full episode below! We also examine Sam Darnold’s performance, how the defense performed, and whether it was a good decision by the coaching staff to sit Jadarian Price for another scrimmage.