Pete Carroll and John Schneider have assembled a roster unlike any other.
No, seriously, several position groups this year contain decisions that the Seattle Seahawks have never made in the Carroll / Schneider era.
Here are the primary differences:
Offense
Quarterbacks – the Seahawks have never kept three QBs on the initial 53-man roster. This one is weird and penultimately useless, so the reasonable expectation is Geno Smith is a trade target from somewhere, or they’ll simply cut Sean Mannion at a later date. Right now, no scenario makes sense to keep two QBs behind the most durable passer of his generation in Russell Wilson.
On the other side, the team has never kept only four wide receivers. It’s always been five or more, the most often number is six, and in 2014 they kept seven. For some reason. And then ran the ball. Penny Hart was the biggest surprise here, and there is again no way even in this economy the plan is to journey the entire season with four receivers.
Five running backs is not a first for Carroll. He’s had five a few times. In 2018, they kept six, if we include FB Tre Madden.
This may come as no great surprise, but Seattle has never kept this many linemen. We’re not entirely sure what they’re doing, but 11 OL – and five tackles! – feels like temporary overkill. Duane Brown is a formidable player in all aspects of the game it seems, and this uncertainty about his future has got to go.
Defense
On defense, this is unusual for Pete Carroll teams. Five linebackers ties a low for any Carroll team, back in 2014. Generally it’s been six, and in 2017 and 2019 they kept seven.
When we factor in that one of the linebackers this year is Darrell Taylor, presumably primarily as a pass rusher, and the other is converted-and-reconverted Nick Bellore, it’s especially interesting.
Nine defensive linemen is pretty standard, but we’re certainly not as used to six of them being designated as defensive end. It sure seems like L.J. Collier and Kerry Hyder Jr. have inside versatility, and this will factor into what looks to be a revised defensive front scheme so far through camp. It’s at the very least quite different than the 2014 days when the Seahawks held six interior defensive linemen.
Nothing of interest to report in the backfield or special teams.
We’ll see how fast a few of these change in the coming days.
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