Grading the Seattle Seahawks offseason

It’s late June and the Seattle Seahawks are resting and relaxing in advance of the start of training camp at the end of July. The offseason has slowly morphed from a flurry of activity during the NFL Combine, free agency and the 2019 NFL Draft to a slow lull of inactivity for the next five weeks.

That said, fans now have a very good idea of what the majority of their favorite team’s roster will look like for the 2019 season. Obviously, training camp roster surprises and injuries can happen at any time, however, for the most part teams know what they’re working with. That means it’s now time to start taking inventory of the roster and seeing what kind of impressions the new additions make.

For the Seahawks, this means that questions surrounding the team’s pass rush, specifically the loss of Frank Clark and the addition of Ziggy Ansah and L.J. Collier can begin to be addressed. Will Ansah’s surgically repaired shoulder stay healthy enough to make an impact on the field, and will L.J. Collier’s rookie season be more like that of Darren Howard or Danielle Hunter?

The questions surrounding the Seahawks abound, and so ESPN took a stab attempting to assign a grade to the offseason moves for every team. Using four categories to grade the offseason for each of the 32 teams in the NFL, ESPN assigned every team to one of the following four categories:

• Elite
• Above Average
• Average
• Too Soon to Tell

Interestingly, the Hawks did not fall in the Elite category. Nor did the team fall into the Above Average category. In fact, the Seahawks couldn’t even get into the Average category, as they fell all the way into the Too Soon to Tell category. (Author’s note: Yes, basically, every team in the NFL should be in the “Too Soon to Tell” category because we won’t know until November or December how the offseason for these teams truly played out. However, as far as assigning grades at the end of the offseason, it seems like it’s a cop out trying to avoid a low grade by hoping to see how the youngsters on the roster develop and perform.)

In any case, regardless of the offseason grade you give the Hawks, the team will have its work cut out for it during 2019. As they look to take on improved division rivals and a tougher non-division schedule, the team will need to find replacements for their top wide receiver (Doug Baldwin), its best pass rusher (Frank Clark) and best defensive back (Justin Coleman). On top of that, while father time remains undefeated, Seahawks fans will hope that whatever fountain of youth Duane Brown uses at left tackle that he shares with left guard Mike Iupati.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Hawks will need to figure out which of the youngsters will be manning the safety positions, while the defensive line also has the potential to be one of the youngest defensive lines in the entire NFL.

So, while the team has the ability to have a great season, they may need things to come together at multiple positions on both sides of the ball.

How do you grade the offseason for the Seahawks?