Coinciding with steep regression by the defense as a whole over the past five years, the Seattle Seahawks have struggled to rebuild a consistently formidable front line in the aftermath of the “Legion of Boom” years.
But with the arrival of new coach Mike Macdonald, hope spring eternal in the trenches for the Seahawks heading towards the 2024 season thanks to a revamped, versatile defensive line featuring proven star power as well as high-upside youth. After several years of constructing a patchwork front with cheap one-year vets, the franchise has made several significant investments to correct the problem, starting with a massive three-year contract for Dre’Mont Jones in free agency and trading for veteran Leonard Williams last October.
Since then, Seattle has continued to prioritize the defensive line, handing Williams a three-year, $64.5 million extension and selecting talented Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II with the 16th overall pick in April’s NFL Draft. Pairing those two players with Jones, returning veteran Jarran Reed, and several other intriguing youngsters such as Mike Morris and Cameron Young has created lofty expectations for a deep, versatile front line in Macdonald’s scheme.
“We have a lot of guys up front, which I really love. We have a lot of dogs up front on the D-line, outside linebacker,” Williams said prior to Seattle’s final mandatory minicamp practice. “So that’s even harder in a way because we’re all being able to play multiple positions. At the same time of learning the defense, we’re not just learning one position, we have to learn multiple positions at the same time. It’s kind of a lot of a load on us right now, but I think it’ll pay off in the long run.”
As Williams indicated, the complexities of Macdonald’s defense aren’t simply limited to coverages and disguises on the back end. Engineering the Ravens top-ranked scoring defense a year ago, he mastered the art of moving chess pieces all over the line of scrimmage up front, and the Seahawks have assembled a defensive line unit that should allow him to have the same type of success keeping opponents on their heels.
Starting with Williams, who told reporters he has been learning six different positions in Macdonald’s defense thus far, Seattle has a plethora of defenders up front who offer positional flexibility. Jones has been working with outside linebackers along with still playing inside, Murphy, Morris, and Myles Adams have the versatility to play everywhere from nose tackle to big 5-tech defensive end, and even massive nose tackle Johnathan Hankins can line up as a 3-tech and perform at a high level.
From Macdonald’s perspective, having so many players who can slide up and down the line opens up the playbook, leaving no limitations to how the Seahawks can deploy their defensive front from alignments to personnel groupings.
“It does open things up,” Macdonald said after Seattle’s first minicamp practice. “When you have guys who can do multiple things, play different gaps in the run game, rush at different levels in the pass game, it opens up more personnel groups, more looks you can generate. Overall, it’s good for us.”
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