Bump: Who needs to be Seahawks’ own comeback player of the year
Jul 20, 2024, 10:01 PM | Updated: Jul 21, 2024, 9:10 pm
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The Seattle Seahawks brought in new head coach Mike Macdonald this offseason, which means he’s bringing the concepts he used as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator with him.
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There’s one player who may be going under the radar that Seattle Sports’ Michael Bumpus can’t wait to see play in the Macdonald defense that was so dominant with the Ravens: edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu.
In fact, Bumpus thinks how Nwosu’s performance in 2024 is perceived will be telling about the Seahawks’ defense as a whole.
“Our comeback player of the year has to be Uchenna,” said Bumpus, who is a former Seahawks wide receiver and currently hosts the team’s radio pregame and postgame shows. “Even if he isn’t even considered for this award when it comes to the NFL, if he is a comeback player of the year for this team, I like where this defense is going.”
Nwosu turned heads in 2022, his first season with Seattle after joining the team as a free agent. But he was unable to follow up in 2023, as he appeared in just six games before suffering a season-ending pectoral injury.
Now 27, Nwosu could be a big part of the Seahawks’ defense if he’s healthy.
“You match him up with (pass rushers) Boye Mafe and Darrell Taylor on the other side, and they can do some things,” Bumpus said. “He has to be the emotional leader. Can you imagine him and (second-year cornerback Devon Witherspoon) on the field at the same time consistently? All the barking and head movement you’re gonna see, getting all hyped up and stuff. It’s gonna be crazy. … Uchenna, man, when he was in there, the defense just felt different.”
Stacy Rost, Bumpus’ co-host on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, mentioned that Nwosu can be a bit of a forgotten man on Seattle’s roster.
“Maybe it’s because he wasn’t a Seahawks draft pick, obviously he was a free-agent acquisition who was with the Chargers – so an AFC team that we weren’t watching a ton. I feel like he gets overlooked,” Rost said.
Responded Bumpus: “Yeah, he does get overlooked a bit. He’s been overlooked his whole career. He was over there with the Chargers and played behind some guys, got an opportunity here and showed he can get ‘er done. Last year was just so unfortunate. I’m so excited to see him play in this defense, and I think if he does what he’s capable of doing, he’ll be our comeback player of the year.”
UCHENNA NWOSU. 🇳🇬@UchennaN_42 x @Seahawks #SackCity #Naija pic.twitter.com/FoJYX3jcMp
— NFL Africa (@NFLAfrica) October 16, 2022
Hear the full discussion in Four-Down Territory, the second segment of the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Bump and Stacy is live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports, and Four-Down Territory, where Bumpus answers four football questions, airs at 11:15 a.m. during each edition of the show.
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