Getting ready for 2022-(Secondary)

[tarlhawk]

Current review of existing Defensive groups and draft prospects:

Coaching

Associate Head Coach - Defense (Sean Desai) Experience: 9 years
Defensive Passing Game Coordinator / Defensive Backs (Karl Scott) Experience: 1 year
Assistant DB Coach (Deshawn Shead) Experience 1 year

Seahawk Secondary: Limited data points exist so projections are limited...Scheme and talent wise our Defensive "trust" (Pete/Clint Hurtt/Sean Desai) is looking toward a better ability for more man coverage.

Youth abounds as Tre Brown and three safeties (Jamal Adams/Quandre Diggs/Marquis Blair) return from injury...the "old man" of the group being Quandre Diggs at 29 (Justin Coleman also 29).

Sidney Jones overcame a serious pro day injury in 2019 that impacted his draft position and rookie year. Toward the end of last year he was solid displaying the pre-draft form that had many scouts ranking him as 3rd best corner available in 2019 draft.
With Sidney holding down one CB spot the "other" side is "open" with Tre Brown and Artie Burns (brought over from the Chicago Bears) leading the competition with possible draft help arriving in the forms of our 5th and 6th picks (Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen).

Coby won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2021 as best college DB (played opposite "Sauce" Gardner and probably more ready to help in 2022 while Woolen develops further.

With "Nickel" coverage becoming a norm our "slot coverage" is mainly a competition between Justin Coleman and Ugo Amadi with our "back-up" free safety Marquis Blair also available.

Both starting safeties are hammer style assassins Jamal Adams (SS) and Quandre Diggs (FS) returning from injury. Marquis Blair is also a very punishing hitter with excellent range in coverage. Like our breakout RB Rashaad Penny ...Blairs early career has been marred by injury.


Projected Starters
Three scouting superlatives with one detraction:

Sidney Jones
Excels at playing press man coverage
Good recovery burst of speed if beaten off the line in press
Tremendous footwork and balance allows him to play tight coverage off the line

One detraction:
Height is good for the position but he has a thin frame

Tre Brown
Very good lateral movement.
Has fluid hips, with ability to stop and go.
Has the long speed to run with receivers downfield.

One detraction:
Can be overly aggressive in press coverage, losing his original position and leverage.

Jamal Adams
Prototype strong safety
Covers a ton of ground
Fluid; can flip his hips and run

One detraction:
Timed speed isn't great, but he plays fast

Quandre Diggs
Instincts
Confident, has a man-corner mentality
Gritty, scrappy defender

One detraction:
Quick, but overly fast

[Aseahawkfan]

Secondary looks real interesting right now, especially given the move to a 3-4.

They'll likely being using Jamal as a 3rd pass rusher in the 3-4 schemes, which plays to his strengths. So we can come heavy on the rush to either side and have an OLB dropping into coverage rather than a D-line guy.

I like the Coby pick. Sounds like he is the most game ready and knows how to play in a quality secondary. If he can go quick, that will provide a solid starting or depth option.

If Diggs can get healthy quick, we can solidify coverage while hopefully using the 3-4 pass rush to generate much better pressure this year to create mistakes.

Secondary development in this new 3-4 scheme should be interesting.

[tarlhawk]

Saw an interesting Quandre Diggs interview where he said his recovery has gotten to the point where he would do a backflip as proof.

[RiverDog]

Despite what I think was a very good draft that has attempted to address some glaring weaknesses, the ugly truth is that last season, we had the 28th ranked defense in the league measured by total yards allowed. Our pass defense was even worse, ranked 31st. All 4 of those projected starters you're trumpeting were part of that defense.

Jamal Adams is a liability in coverage. He's a one trick pony that we have yet to find a defined role for. He's had more surgeries playing for us than he's had interceptions.

The biggest problem with our secondary has been our pass rush, or lack thereof. We ranked 26th in QB pressures, 24th in QB knock downs, 23rd in sacks, and until that improves, I don't see any significantly better results from our secondary, at least not enough to take us to the next level, a tier we haven't reached for the past 7 seasons, and compete for a SB. It's likely to take a couple of seasons.

That's the glass half empty part, and why I don't share your optimism for an overnight improvement on those results.

[NorthHawk]

We will see if Mafe can produce as expected. His college stats are up there with Hutchinson and his quickness is close to Thibodoux (sp), but he has shorter arms.
He did well at the Sr Bowl against the best Seniors so there might be some optimism for him to make a difference.
But, not all players make the required jump in production needed to be successful at the NFL level, so we will have to see if his talent translates well at this level.

[tarlhawk]

Despite what I think was a very good draft that has attempted to address some glaring weaknesses, the ugly truth is that last season, we had the 28th ranked defense in the league measured by total yards allowed. Our pass defense was even worse, ranked 31st. All 4 of those projected starters you're trumpeting were part of that defense.

"All 4" did not play those 17 games...over a third of the season was gone before Flowers lost his starting position and DJ Reed settled in at his favored CB side. Sidney Jones shared 11 starts with Tre Brown's 3. Stat wise our defense was in a hole it couldn't dig its way out of with almost half the season gone. Tre Brown was just beginning to claim a role then fell injured. Jamal Adams was just starting to string some impact games together when he went down and Diggs put in an all-pro season.

By the latter half of the season when our team surged finally...Sidney Jones was locked in and Diggs was running hot. Our early pass defense woes helped seal the doom of our pass rush...without the ability to mix in an effective man coverage our porous zone coverage was making it easy for the opponent's QB to unload pass after pass...before our pass rush had any realistic time to deliver any sacks.

Pass rush needs time to pressure the QB and pass coverage needs to blanket/mirror the receivers enough to make a QB at least hesitate. Pass rush and pass coverage feed off of each other...if one part is poor the other part becomes average at best.

Our secondary has good reason for optimism ...right now its a projected optimism but anyone should expect a better start than we saw in the beginning of 2021. If nothing else the infusion of new defensive coaches who are respected by their peers is a resolving toward this hope of a better secondary and pass rush. Go Hawks

[RiverDog]

Despite what I think was a very good draft that has attempted to address some glaring weaknesses, the ugly truth is that last season, we had the 28th ranked defense in the league measured by total yards allowed. Our pass defense was even worse, ranked 31st. All 4 of those projected starters you're trumpeting were part of that defense.

"All 4" did not play those 17 games...over a third of the season was gone before Flowers lost his starting position and DJ Reed settled in at his favored CB side. Sidney Jones shared 11 starts with Tre Brown's 3. Stat wise our defense was in a hole it couldn't dig its way out of with almost half the season gone. Tre Brown was just beginning to claim a role then fell injured. Jamal Adams was just starting to string some impact games together when he went down and Diggs put in an all-pro season.

By the latter half of the season when our team surged finally...Sidney Jones was locked in and Diggs was running hot. Our early pass defense woes helped seal the doom of our pass rush...without the ability to mix in an effective man coverage our porous zone coverage was making it easy for the opponent's QB to unload pass after pass...before our pass rush had any realistic time to deliver any sacks.

Pass rush needs time to pressure the QB and pass coverage needs to blanket/mirror the receivers enough to make a QB at least hesitate. Pass rush and pass coverage feed off of each other...if one part is poor the other part becomes average at best.

Our secondary has good reason for optimism ...right now its a projected optimism but anyone should expect a better start than we saw in the beginning of 2021. If nothing else the infusion of new defensive coaches who are respected by their peers is a resolving toward this hope of a better secondary and pass rush. Go Hawks

Of course, there's good cause for optimism. There's not many teams that can't find some very good reasons to be optimistic this time of year. I was merely putting things in perspective, balance things out a tad. I'm pessimistic by nature as I don't like getting my hopes up only to get a cold slap in the face when reality sets in. I'd rather be surprised at an unexpected win than let down by an unexpected loss.

I want to see how our schedule falls before I start commenting on the likelihood of a fast start.

[Hawktawk]

Between Brady coming back and the game being banished to Germany that got as lot harder . I love the defense we will put on the field . They played extremely poorly at times particularly early . But when the now departed QB completed a league worst 42% completion on 3rd and 4th down its not helpful. It’s no surprise the 3rd down completion % was also league worst till the last few weeks . To be fair I recall the defense started games on the field and gave up some long drives . But Seattle went 3 and out 4 times in a row in 3 games and in one they followed up with a 4 and out . 5 punts in 16 snaps . No other team I am aware of had such a bad record . We lost games our defense gave up 15,17 to Green Bay . I like a lot of our young guys , our draft picks. Adams was too expensive and injury prone but not too many complaints about him with 9.5 sacks . I think the new DC will have him back as a heat seeking missile . Love Diggs . Barton looked good , Brooks is a beast . I hate to say it but Bobby being replaced by a crash downhill backer will be an improvement on tackles 8-10 yards down field . Our D will be significantly better in TOP and points .