Seahawks Film Review: Analyzing 3 big plays on offense made by Seattle rookies

On both the scoreboard and in terms of the teams overall play, the Seattle Seahawks second preseason game was extremely encouraging. Seattle’s starting and backup signal callers in Geno Smith and Drew Lock combined to go 10 of 12 passing for 165 yards, and as a whole the rushing attack averaged 4.5 yards per carry. But, perhaps the most exciting sign from this offense was the overall play of the rookies, mainly Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Zach Charbonnet, and Jake Bobo. Down below we will review key plays made by all three players.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 48-yard catch

JSN is getting the lion share of the attention for this play, but can we for a second take a step back and appreciate just how good of a ball this was from Drew Lock? There was one spot that he could put it that would allow the former Ohio State Buckeye the chance to pick up yards after the catch and he put it exactly there. But now to the 20th overall pick, this is a fantastic route; he navigates traffic in the early part of the route, getting closer to the line of scrimmage than he likely wanted to. Once he clears the traffic he gains depth, which effectively stacks defensive back Eric Scott Jr and gives Lock a presentable target.

His ability to trace the ball into his hands and rip off a chunk of yards after the catch also should not be ignored on this play.

Zach Charbonnet’s 29-yard run

There is not a whole lot that Charbonnet has to do here, as it is a really well blocked outside zone play. Right guard Phil Haynes doubles rookie Mazi Smith with center Evan Brown off of the snap, before coming off and climbing to the second level to take the linebacker, which sealed him off from getting to Charbonnet.

Evan Brown impresses here with a beautiful reach block which completely seals off Smith from the gap. This run was intended to go wide with the B gap so Charbonnet does deserve some credit in finding the hole and turning it up field for a huge gain, but this play was largely created by the offensive line, in particular Seattle’s projected starting center.

Jake Bobo’s double move and 28-yard catch

The Jake Bobo hype train just continues to build steam as the rookie is coming off of another strong preseason showing, which has only strengthened his bid to become Seattle’s fourth receiver. The sluggo that he runs on this route is near perfection. He sells the slant and the second the Cowboys DB DaRon Bland comes up to play the slant, he snaps it off and goes up field. He created a ton of natural separation and likely would have beaten the majority of corners across the league.

As I said last week when covering another Bobo highlight, he is never a player who is going to create separation from athleticism. However, he is going to be able to win plenty of routes because of how good of a route runner he is.