The Seattle Seahawks are entering a new era under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald. He has been an awesome coach in Baltimore and is one of the reasons why their defense has been so productive. There are high hopes in Seattle that the Seahawks can regain some of their Legion of Boom glory.
It is easy to see why Seahawks fans are excited. Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen are a wonderful pair of starting cornerbacks. Seattle's front seven is taking shape, with young players like Byron Murphy II, Tyrel Dodson, and Jerome Baker stepping into prominent roles. Add in Macdonald's impressive defensive mind and things are suddenly looking up for the Seahawks.
Expectations will be higher for Seattle in 2024, despite having a first-year head coach. The Seahawks finished 2023 with a 9-8 record that was not good enough to earn a Wild Card playoff spot. Can they realistically surpass that record this fall?
If Seattle is going to live up to the hype, they will need some new players to step up and become big contributors. The 2023 Seahawks felt like they were one or two good starters away from getting over the hump. They can make that a reality this year.
Let's explore two sleepers could have a huge impact on Seattle's chances to make the playoffs in 2024.
Will second-year wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba break out in 2024?
The expectation is that JSN has a massive season in 2024.
The Seattle Seahawks drafted Jaxon Smith-Njigba with the 20th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He is expected to become a top target in Seattle moving forward.
JSN had a rough rookie season. Seattle's offense still had major influences from Pete Carroll in 2023. The team focused on running the football and setting up play action passes off those runs. The 2023 Seahawks loved to deploy multiple tight ends to present bigger personnel, which is ideal for running the football. This was a problem for JSN as wide receiver three.
Smith-Njigba was also dealt an unfortunate injury early during his rookie season, which kept him from getting off to a hot start.
One thing holding JSN back in 2023 was his usage. For a large part of the season, Seattle used JSN very close to the line of scrimmage. This limited his ability to put up big plays and thereby harmed his production numbers. In fact, according to PFF, JSN had the fourth worst average depth of target (6.4) of all wide receivers with at least 50 targets.
Adam Levitan also notes that JSN only had a 13.6% target share in 2023.
Here's hoping that JSN can play a massive role in the Seahawks' offense this season.
Noah Fant could set career highs for production
Noah Fant could be in for a massive production increase in 2024.
Fant has struggled to produce eye-popping stats in Seattle because he has had to fight off competition at tight end. All of the competition in Seattle's tight end room is long gone.
Throughout Fant's tenure in Seattle, he has had to fight with Colby Parkinson and Will Dissly for snaps and targets. Both players left in free agency — Parkinson plays for the division rival Rams and Dissly joined the Chargers.
Meanwhile, Fant received a two-year, $21 million extension this offseason and will become the team's unopposed tight end one. His only competition will be Pharaoh Brown and AJ Barner.
Fant has never reached the production levels he had during his best years with the Broncos. Fant topped 670 receiving yards for two seasons in a row and was a consistent part of Denver's offense before he was traded to Seattle. Fant has continued to be an efficient receiver in Seattle, but he has not received anywhere close to the same target volume.
2024 has a chance to be different.
Admittedly, we don't know exactly what Seattle's new offense will look like under offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. However, Grubb's offenses have a history of putting up a lot of passing yards. In fact, his 2022 Washington Huskies offense led the nation in passing yards per game. If Grubb brings similar concepts with him to Seattle, it will be great news for the entire Seahawks offense. Particularly Noah Fant.
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