What makes Seahawks under-the-radar candidates for big season

Sep 4, 2024, 6:15 PM

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald on Aug. 24, 2024. (Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

(Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

The expectations for the Seattle Seahawks’ 2024 season seem low when you sift through the plethora of NFL power rankings and win predictions floating around out there. Seattle is consistently being ranked 20th or below in the 32-team league, and predictions are typically somewhere between seven and eight total wins.

Perhaps the Seahawks will have more of an up-and-down season as they adjust to an almost entirely new coaching staff, but what if they don’t? For as many sites and articles as you can find predicting a mediocre season for the Seahawks, you can find almost as many NFL analysts and media personalities picking the Seahawks as a sleeper or under-the-radar team in 2024.

One of those is NFL Network host Rich Eisen.

Eisen recently had the Seahawks at No. 2 on his list of under-the-radar burning questions for the 2024 NFL season, asking the question, “Is everyone sleeping on Seattle?”

“Ryan Grubb is their new offensive coordinator. If he can bring Washington’s stuff and scheme to Seattle, just imagine DK Metcalf in the Rome Odunze role,” Eisen said. “Defensively, there’s a bunch of guys you really haven’t heard of that (new Seahawks head coach) Mike Macdonald can get to play as one unit and start hitting people in the mouth.”

Last year, the Houston Texans surprised everyone with a breakout season under new head coach DeMeco Ryans. It resulted in a 10-7 record and a wild-card playoff win. Could the Seahawks pull off a similar feat this year? That was a topic of discussion Tuesday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“What are the ingredients you need to have in order to come out of nowhere?”co-host Mike Salk asked. “You have to have a lot of unknowns, which they have. You have to have a potentially game-changing coach, which I think they have. You’ve got to have a lot of depth, which I think they have. But if you really want to have out-of-nowhere success, you 100% absolutely need young talent that becomes superstar talent during the season.”

Do the Seahawks have Salk’s final ingredient to the recipe for a sleeper success story? FOX football analyst and former NFL quarterback Brock Huard thinks so.

“Off the top of my head, I just wrote down five names: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker III, Devon Witherspoon, Boye Mafe and Charles Cross,” Huard said. “There’s five guys right there, and that’s not including a rookie defensive tackle in Byron Murphy II who everybody wanted. You can put him as kind of the rookie component to that.”

The Seahawks used top-20 NFL Draft selections on Cross, Witherspoon, Smith-Njigba and Murphy over the last three years, so it’s not unreasonable to expect that leap into superstar territory. Can Macdonald and his staff help them reach their full potential? CBS Sports’ Spero Dedes, who will be on the call for the Seahawks’ season opener Sunday against the Broncos, said that after talking to Macdonald, he’s convinced the answer is yes.

“There are certain coaches, guys that elevate players,” Dedes said Wednesday to Brock and Salk. “I think we’ve seen that with obviously (Rams head coach) Sean McVay. We’ve seen that with so many talented offensive coaches. Defensively, Macdonald seems to be part of this new breed. You see it in the way the players react to him, and (Dedes’ broadcast partner Adam Archuleta) loved playing for coaches who had a simple scheme. You always felt like you were prepared. They would have you in the right spot and give you an opportunity to make plays, and Mike is one of those coaches.”

Macdonald’s Seahawks will have their first opportunity to show that they should be on everyone’s radar Sunday.