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The Seattle Seahawks won their first preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings 24-13. While preseason game results don’t really mean anything, preseason performances often can. That’s why some players on the Seahawks roster who stepped up in this game could be in line to move up the depth chart, while other players, like edge rusher Boye Mafe, could be in danger of losing their starting jobs as the Seahawks training camp and preseason roll on.
OLB Boye Mafe
Last season, outside linebackers Uchenna Nwosu and Darrell Taylor led the Seahawks roster with 9.5 sacks each. Nwosu started all 17 games on one side while the now possibly retiring Bruce Irvin started 10 games, Taylor started three, rookie Boye Mafe started three, and Darryl Johnson started one on the other.
Heading into the Seahawks preseason, Mafe, the 2022 second-round pick (No. 40 overall) is listed as the starter on the Seahawks’ depth chart. That may not last for long.
The second edge-rusher spot is a full-blown completion in Seahawks training camp, and any one of three players could win the job ahead of the team’s Week 1 matchup with the Los Angeles Rams.
Mafe is absolutely in the running, as is Taylor and the franchise’s 2023 second-round pick (No. 37 overall), Derick Hall out of Auburn. Hall had 20.0 sacks in his college career and is getting rave reviews in Seahawks training camp.
“He’s doing really well,” head coach Pete Carroll told the media after the first Seahawks' first preseason game. “Give him the month that we need right here, he’s going to be in the midst of the rotations, I think, because he’s just too physical, runs too fast, has a great head on his shoulders about playing defensive football, and we really like the heck out of him. It’s just a matter of time, honing his game down.”
This competition will likely come down right to the end of camp, and Mafe, Taylor, or Hall could easily win the starting spot between now and then. It will likely come down to production in the Seahawks' preseason games and how they play in practices at training camp.
No matter who wins the job, Seattle will have four pass rushers under the age of 27 who will rotate in and give opposing quarterbacks fits.
S Julian Love
Another competition in Seahawks training camp is at the safety spot. Three-time Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs will likely hold down one of the starting positions while the other spot is up in the air.
The players who will fight for this position are Julian Love, who Seattle signed from the New York Giants this offseason, second-year converted cornerback Coby Bryant and veteran safety Jamal Adams.
Adams has the best resume of the three players. He is a three-time Pro Bowler and an All-Pro. However, the big-money defensive back suffered a season-ending torn quad tendon in the season-opener last season and is still on the physically unable to perform list. If Adams can get back for Week 1, he could easily find himself in the starting job. That is no guarantee, though, and recent reports have him missing early games this season.
Coby Bryant is a cornerback by trade, but with last season’s breakout star, Riq Woolen, and this year’s first-round pick, Devon Witherspoon, in the mix, the Seahawks are trying him out at safety to get the talented former Cincinnati Bearcat on the field.
Last season, Bryant filled up the stat sheet when he played, making 70 tackles, four for a loss, 2.0 sacks, four passes defended, four forced fumbles, and four QB hits. And at 6-foot-1, 193 pounds, Bryant is the type of big DB that Carroll loves in his secondary.
“Anybody who can take the ball away from the opponent, we are going to find ways for him to be on the field,” defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt told reporters, per the Spokesman-Review.
Because Love is a player that the Seahawks went out and purposefully signed ahead of training camp, he is the player on the Seahawks roster most likely to start the opening week. That said, this is still a fluid situation, and there is a good chance that when he, Bryant, and Adams are all healthy, Carroll finds a way to get all of them — and Diggs — on the field together against certain teams and personnel groupings.
This should be one of the most intriguing battles to watch on the Seahawks' depth chart, so make sure to keep an eye on it when the team next takes the field against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday.
