The first week of the regular season is the time of the biggest hope in the NFL. Maybe, unless your team just won it all, this will be the year, right?
But if you’re a Seahawks fan in 2022, it’s impossible not to also feel a little angst — OK, a lot — with this being the first season without anyone from the Super Bowl team of 2013 still on the roster.
So, here are three reasons to hope and three more to mope as a new season begins.
Three reasons to hope
1. Maybe the defense and running game really can carry the Seahawks.
Before Russell Wilson arrived in 2012, it had already become evident Seattle had an emerging running attack based around Marshawn Lynch and a defense on the verge of greatness. That’s a hard recipe to replicate with a simple snap of the fingers. But Seattle hopes that Rashaad Penny can repeat his success of last season to give an identity to the offense and that some of the young talent on defense (MLB Jordyn Brooks, OLBs Darrell Taylor and Boye Mafe, CBs Tariq Woolen/Coby Bryant) forms the foundation of a unit that takes a giant step forward. Pete Carroll did it once so he can do it again, right?
2. Maybe Geno Smith will be better than everyone seems to think.
True, Smith’s basic preseason stats weren’t overwhelming, and his history as a mostly career backup is hard to overlook. But the analytic site Pro Football Focus gave him the third-best grade of any player in the NFL in the preseason, largely for decision-making and passing accuracy. And Smith seems willing to play in the style Carroll wants of avoiding turnovers and relying on his supporting cast. Maybe it can work …
3. Maybe all the young players will really begin to form the foundation of something special.
The real barometer of success for this season is whether all the young talent shows the promise the team hopes, not only the aforementioned defensive players, but also offensive players such as left tackle Charles Cross and right tackle Abraham Lucas, rookie running back Ken Walker III and second-year receiver Dee Eskridge. Can Cross become the next Walter Jones? Woolen the next Richard Sherman? Walker and Eskridge true playmakers? There will be fun in finding out.
Three reasons to mope
1. Hall of Fame QBs are really hard to replace.
For all the nuanced and forward-thinking reasons the Seahawks made the Wilson trade, there’s just no getting around that for the present the Seahawks appear to have taken a significant step back at the game’s most important position. The question is just how big that step is and whether the Seahawks can mitigate it with improvement elsewhere (let alone if the team’s unstated presumption that Wilson’s best days are behind him also proves to be true). Seattle was competitive last year in three games without Wilson, and that’s what the team is relying on for optimism heading into 2022. But to many NFL observers that sounds like a lot of wishful thinking.
2. The Seahawks are banking on a lot of things to go right.
The idea that the running game and defense can make up for whatever the team loses in Wilson is also based on Penny staying productive and healthy, Walker proving an immediate contributor, the young guys on the line making a quick transition, Jamal Adams staying healthy and proving he’s worth his contract, the defense quickly mastering the tweaks in Clint Hurtt’s new scheme and the young pass rushers and linebackers taking a significant leap in improvement, among other things. The margin for error feels slimmer than at any time in the past decade.
3. Yep, it is sort of hard to believe the Wilson/LOB era is over.
You can’t enter a new era without saying goodbye to the old one. And the backdrop for this season comes tinged with the melancholy that the most successful, entertaining and just darn fun period of Seahawks football feels over no matter how intriguing it is to see what happens now. Illustrating just how fast life comes at you in the NFL, the only two players from the 2013 team who are currently on rosters are Wilson and Wagner.