John Gilbert of SB Nation’s Field Gulls gives us the lowdown
The New York Giants face the Seattle Seahawks for the third straight season on Sunday. Out ‘five questions’ segment this week is with John Gilbert of SB Nation’s Field Gulls fills us in on things we should know about the Seahawks.
Ed: What are the Seahawks four games into the season? Three victories over teams that, honestly, are probably not very good. A loss against an excellent Detroit team in which Seattle gave up 42 points. What is your assessment?
John: You pretty much nailed my assessment. They’ve beaten the three bad teams they’ve played and they gave up 42 and lost by double digits to the serious contender they faced off against.
Most Seattle fans will argue that the defense is better than they played on Monday against the Lions because of injuries to several key players, including Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, Boye Mafe, Uchenna Nwosu and Jerome Baker. However, even before injuries knocked Mafe, Williams and Murphy out the Hawks struggled at times to stop the run game of the Patriots. With that said, in terms of overall metrics, while the defense has been good, they’ve done it against one of the easiest schedules in the NFL, and obviously the rest of the schedule won’t be nearly as friendly, but hopefully it won’t be as rough as it was against the Lions.
Ed: Leonard Williams was a very good player for the Giants. How has he done for Seattle? How important is he to the Seahawks’ defense?
John: Williams has been phenomenal for the Seahawks, and easily one of the best players on the defense both in the back half of the 2023 season and before getting injured in Week 3.
He was second on the defense in total pressures before getting hurt, and is still tied for the team lead in quarterback hits even though he’s only played five snaps in the last two games. He was limited in practice on Thursday, but that’s a lot better than not practicing like last week when he was inactive for the matchup against Detroit, so hopefully he’ll be back in action this weekend.
Ed: If you could take one player off the Giants’ roster and put him in the Seattle lineup who would it be? Why?
John: Last season when you asked me this my answer was Leonard Williams and then a month later the Seahawks traded for Williams and the rest is history.
Thus, with the knowledge that Seahawks general manager John Schneider is going to trade for whoever I answer, I’d like to go ahead and advise Giants fans to enjoy Malik Nabers for the last few weeks he’ll be wearing a Giants uniform before Joe Schoen ships him off to Seattle.
The reason to grab Nabers is not just that he’s a phenomenal young talent, but also he brings a factor to the Seattle offense that is currently lacking outside of DK Metcalf. Metcalf’s speed is no secret, but the Seahawks have a lack of other receivers who can take the top off a defense. Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are good, but they aren’t burners who scare defenses deep. The only speedy receiver on the roster outside of Metcalf is Dareke Young, a key member of the special teams who has played just 11 offensive snaps through the first four games.
Long story short, offenses need receivers whose skill sets complement one another, and the Seahawks have Metcalf and a bunch of possession receivers. It’s a great group of receivers, but there is a decided lack of a receiver who can challenge a defense deep and pull the safeties back when they want to target Metcalf in the underneath and intermediate areas.
Ed: Tell us about a couple of under-the-radar Seattle players we should be aware of on Sunday.
John: On the offensive side of the ball, it’s got to be the guards. Laken Tomlinson is the starting left guard and he’s been bad. Anthony Bradford is the starting right guard and he’s been bad and heavily penalized. Christian Haynes is the backup who has struggled when he’s played, but he’s the rookie third round draft pick, so he’s the lifeblood and savior for many fans who have been calling for him to see increased snaps. He saw his most extensive playing time in Week 4 against the Lions rotating with Bradford at right guard, and the porousness of the line at both guard positions to this point in the season means watching the interior of the offensive line is crucial every game.
On the defensive side of the ball, the outside linebackers are an exciting group. Uchenna Nwosu is the veteran of the bunch, but he has yet to play this season after suffering a knee injury in the preseason. There is hope he could see his first action against the Giants, but even if he doesn’t go Boye Mafe and Derick Hall are a couple of exciting young players who have shown flashes at times of having the ability to develop into players who can make a serious impact on a game.
Ed: The Seahawks are significant favorites on Sunday. Is there anything about this game that concerns you? Is there a path to victory for the Giants?
John: It’s the NFL so it’s always any given Sunday, so there’s always concern that a team can pull an upset.
In this instance the biggest concern is Seattle either coming out flat after the Monday night letdown to the Lions, or looking ahead to the Week 6 Thursday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers.
