“The Los Angeles Rams have won the NFC West.” The Seattle Seahawks have had to witness that become a reality in the past two seasons after reigning supreme in the division for years.
Since Sean McVay arrived in Los Angeles, the Rams have taken the torch as the best team in the NFC West. Although, Seattle and Pete Carroll believe they have the roster to regain control of what was once their's.
Last year, Seattle finished second in the NFC West and completed the season with a 10-6 record to clinch a playoff berth as a Wild Card team. Unfortunately, the Seahawks journey to the Super Bowl ended immediately as they were defeated by the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round.
This offseason, the Seahawks have focused on surrounding Russell Wilson with more aerial threats. Although, Carroll wants to get back to the brand of football that won the Seahawks a Super Bowl in 2013.
The two years that the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl, they were built to run it 30 times with Marshawn Lynch and to play lockdown defense. Even though Darrell Bevell opted not to hand it off to ” beast mode” at the one-yard line against the New England Patriots in 2014 (sorry Seahawks fans).
Coming into this season, the team wants to return to their roots that led them to fruitful results. On August 8th, Seattle will get their first chance to instill their style of play on the field as they take on the Denver Broncos in Week 1 of the preseason.
Here are a few things to look out for as the Seahawks take on the Broncos at CenturyLink Field.
3. The Tight End Situation
This season, the Seahawks are expecting to get Will Dissly back after he suffered a season-ending injury in 2018. Before getting hurt in 2018, Dissly showcased his potential in the offense as a rookie, catching six passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns in the first two games.
Dissly is expected to be the starter, but Seattle has a few guys behind him who are battling for spots on the depth chart. Nick Vannett, Jacob Hollister, George Fant, and Ed Dickson are competing for roster spots.
Dickson has a knee injury that has held him out of practice recently. For the other guys, they could climb up the depth chart by kicking off the preseason with an impressive performance against the Broncos.
2. The Young Wide Receivers
As mentioned before, the Seahawks realized that they needed to improve their wide receiver position this offseason. Therefore, they used three of their draft picks in this year's draft to help their passing attack.
Most notably, the team drafted D.K Metcalf with the 64th overall pick and Gary Jennings with the 120th overall selection. Both of them figure to carve out roles in the offense this year. The Seahawks would also use their seventh-round pick on John Ursua.
As it stands now, Tyler Lockett is the only receiver who is currently locked into their position on offense. The young receivers like David Moore, Metcalf, Jennings, and Ursua will need to earn their roles in the offense.
It remains to be seen how Carroll will deploy the wideouts but on Thursday, but we could see how they plan on utilizing each one in the offense.
1. Paxton Lynch/Geno Smith
There's a feasible chance that we see little to none of Russell Wilson in Week 1 of the preseason. Thus, that would allow Paxton Lynch and Geno Smith to showcase their development this offseason.
So far, the most important battle in training camp has been between Lynch and Smith. One of them will backup Wilson while the other will likely be searching for a new team after the preseason concludes.
Both quarterbacks come from similar backgrounds where they were starters at one point in their careers. Lynch will actually be taking on his former team on Thursday.
Maybe that will motivate him to separate himself in the race for the backup quarterback job. If Wilson sits this game out, it's likely that Carroll allows each quarterback to start for two quarters to get a decent look at both of them.
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