Who needs to be a breakout player for the Seahawks in 2024?

During Friday’s Bump and Stacy on Seattle Sports, Stacy Rost asked her co-host Michael Bumpus, a former NFL receiver, a simple but difficult question about the Seattle Seahawks.

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“Who needs to be a breakout player for the Seahawks this year?”

There are plenty to choose from on both sides of the ball and at quite a few positions. Ultimately, Bumpus pointed to a 2023 rookie who he needs to see more production from in 2024.

“It’s all about investments. When you draft guys, you are banking on their potential. Can they be the guy you want them to be?” he said. “I look at this defense and I go Derick Hall has to be a dude this year.”

Hall was one of two second-round picks the Seahawks made in 2023. He’s an outside linebacker/edge rusher from Auburn who is one of the more physically-gifted Seahawks players, but that didn’t translate to stats in his rookie season.

Hall appeared in all 17 games, but he had no sacks and just three tackles for loss and five quarterback hits while playing 26% of Seattle’s defensive snaps. But Hall did play a lot on special teams, appearing in 62% of those snaps for the Seahawks in 2023.

“What the Hawks did a good job of doing is getting this young man on the field on special teams and allowing him to feel the game. Now it’s like, OK, go ahead and get your money young fella,” Bumpus said.

Hall gets a fresh start of sorts in his second season as the Seahawks have an entirely new coaching staff. New head coach Mike Macdonald will call Seattle’s plays, and the Hawks also have a new defensive coordinator in Aden Durde.

“They’re not looking at you with the same eyes as (former Seattle defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt) looked at you last year. Go ahead and start all over,” Bumpus said. “If Derick Hall can be a contributor, if he can get five to six sacks this year, if he can be on the field 50% of the time, I think he has the opportunity to be a good football player. He’s one of the more athletic guys on this team … If he has a breakout season. I like what this defense can do because they’re not done adding to it.”

Rost pointed out another reason why Hall emerging as a great player would be a big deal.

“Derick Hall is also one of those pieces that was the result of the Russell Wilson trade, right?” she said. “They used one of the draft picks they had on him, on (fellow edge rusher) Boye Mafe … I know Seattle definitely won that trade, but that deal gets even sweeter if you have it pay off with a franchise left tackle (in Charles Cross) and oh by the way, two really good outside linebackers.”

Listen to the full second hour of Friday’s Bump and Stacy at this link or in the player near the top of this story.

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