Seahawks midseason awards: Who’s the MVP? Biggest disappointment?
SEATTLE – As the Seahawks turn the page on the first half of the first season under rookie coach Mike Macdonald, let’s hand out a few awards and make some guesses about what may come.
Most valuable player
QB Geno Smith: Yes, I know about the interceptions and the red-zone failures of the past few weeks.
Here’s an interesting stat: the Seahawks have scored touchdowns on 52.17% of their trips inside the 20-yard line. In 2013, when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and had prime Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, they scored TDs on 53.23% of trips inside the 20. In 2014, when they went back to the Super Bowl with Lynch and crew, it was 51.52%.
Point being, there might be some recency bias – and frustration over the team’s losses – influencing opinions on how Smith has played.
Most of the time, Smith has given the Seahawks quarterback play good enough to win with at the game’s most important position.
Most valuable defensive players
Lineman Leonard Williams and safety Julian Love: The two veterans have been the stabilizing forces on the front and back end of the Seattle defense. Love also chipped in a blocked field-goal attempt that proved critical to a victory at New England.
Most underrated player
Punter Michael Dickson: It’s not that Seahawks fans don’t realize how good Dickson is, he’s just easy to overlook. This is a golden age of punting and Dickson’s 49.5-yard average – just off his team record 50.0 of last season – ranks “just” 11th in the NFL. But his continued ability to place punts and pin opponents deep in his seventh NFL season makes it clear that the Seahawks did the right thing by drafting him in the fifth round in 2018.
Most pleasant surprise
Safety Coby Bryant: Bryant looked like a long-term secondary fixture as a rookie in 2022 before suffering through injuries in 2023, and then it seemed like he could get lost in the shuffle with a position switch to safety this season. But injuries opened the door for Bryant’s return to the lineup, and he has taken full advantage. He might be hard to dislodge for the rest of this season and looks like a player the Seahawks might keep for the long haul.
Most disappointing development
Lack of progress/production from young offensive linemen: What shouldn’t be lost in the discussion of the Seahawks’ offensive-line issues is they have tried to fix them. They had 11 picks 108th or higher in the past three drafts, and four were used on offensive linemen.
But of those four, two are not playing – right tackle Abraham Lucas (72nd) and guard Christian Hayes (81). If Lucas were healthy and Haynes had shown he could be a steady contributor, the line might look a lot different. The other two are playing: left tackle Charles Cross (nine) and guard Anthony Bradford (108).
The Seahawks drafted three other offensive linemen in the past two drafts (Michael Jerrell, Sataoa Laumea, Olu Oluwatimi). Jerrell has shown promise in starting two games due to injury, but none has emerged to outright win jobs. Had one done so, that also might have changed the outlook.
Biggest reason for optimism
Defense vs. Rams: The Seahawks have improved the defense, notably adding middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV via trade to remake the inside-linebacker duo, and trying different combinations in the back end.
It seemed to pay off against the Rams, despite the loss, as the Seahawks held L.A. to 13 offensive points on 11 full possessions in regulation. A game at San Francisco on Nov. 17 is a tough way to to restart the season and will be a more accurate gauge of whether the defense is back on course.
Biggest reason for pessimism
The schedule: The Seahawks played four of their past five at home and lost all the home games. Now they play five of the final eight on the road, starting with the game against the 49ers. The Seahawks are already listed as much as an 81/2-point underdog. Losing that one to fall to 4-6 could be a tough hole to climb out of.
Three things to watch in second half
Will DK Metcalf miss more time? Metcalf sat out the past two games because of a sprained knee. As of last Monday the Seahawks were hopeful he’d return for the 49ers game, but Macdonald said he wasn’t sure it would happen. Metcalf at less than 100%, though, would be better than not having him at all in trying to defeat the 49ers on the road.
Can Seattle make the playoffs?
The odds don’t look good – most models have the Seahawks at 10% or less to qualify in a parity-ridden NFC. It doesn’t help that they have an 0-2 division record and are 1-4 in conference play.
The Seahawks must go 5-3 the rest of the way to get to 9-8 in a conference that has six teams with six wins or more, all with records of 6-3 or better.
The smart money to the question above would say no.
The Pete Carroll-era ‘Hawks, though, were famous for defying the odds. We’ll see if Macdonald can pull off his own upset in Year 1.