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The Seattle Seahawks are coming off of a 2018 campaign in which they won 10 games, notched a Wild Card berth and then lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs.
They didn't really do themselves any favors this offseason, trading away Frank Clark and not really doing much to address their problematic receiving corps outside of drafting D.K. Metcalf in the second round.
As a result, the Seahawks seem to be a fringe playoff team heading into 2019, and it would probably take some surprise performances from a few players on the roster for them to make a serious run.
Nevertheless, Seattle will open up its preseason against the Denver Broncos on Thursday night, so here are three areas of focus for the Seahawks going into their first exhibition game.
3. Building Up Rashaad Penny
The Seahawks ran the ball an awful lot in 2018, but the center of their ground attack was Chris Carson, who racked up 1,151 yards and nine touchdowns on the season.
Rashaad Penny, who was a rookie at the time, finished with 419 yards and a couple of scores, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Now entering his second year, Seattle seems prepared to utilize him more, so the Seahawks will certainly be using him quite a bit during the preseason.
He isn't going to pass Carson as the No. 1 back, but Penny will almost surely have a larger role in the offense this year provided that he has an impressive showing in preseason and shows he can handle a bigger workload.
2. Finding Some Type of Pass Rush
Clark led the Seahawks with 13 sacks in 2018, but Seattle traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs, opening up a rather gaping hole along its defensive front that is going to be difficult to patch up.
The Seahawks drafted L.J. Collier in the first round to help with that, but he sprained his ankle in training camp and won't be playing in the preseason. They signed Ziggy Ansah, but he is recovering from shoulder surgery.
Oh, and Jarran Reed, who tallied 10.5 sacks this past year? He will be suspended for the first six games of the regular season.
Obviously, the Seahawks have quite a few issues with their defensive line, so someone is going to have to step up and surprise Pete Carroll as a pass-rushing threat.
1. Establishing a No. 2 Receiver
We know that Tyler Lockett is the unquestioned No. 1 receiver for the Seahawks heading into 2019, and he may very well be one of the most underrated players in the league, period. But what about the No. 2 spot?
Third-year wide out David Moore is probably the favorite to win the job at the moment, as he is coming off of a decent season in which he caught 26 passes for 445 yards and five touchdowns, but Metcalf is also a physical freak who has the potential to develop into a truly dominant receiver, so perhaps he will end up winning the role?
Regardless, those two will likely be duking it out for the No. 2 slot behind Lockett, and it's a battle that may very well go through the final week of preseason before Carroll and Seattle's coaching staff decide what to do.
