Pete Carroll is gone as Head Coach, and in is Mike McDonald, and with it, a new regime in Seattle. Former University of Washington offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb joins the staff, and he should bring with him an exciting brand of football that hasn’t been seen in the Pacific Northwest in a few years. The Seahawks added Sam Howell in the offseason, who is a potential understudy to Geno Smith, but the rest of the team stays primarily intact.
Many fantasy managers expected Smith to build on his successful 2022 performance, but it seemed like he had a bit of a regression in 2023. Seattle couldn’t get out of its own way on offense, and it felt like the magic that Smith had shown dissipated. This is a seminal year for him as he’s playing for a contract, and the Seahawks just brought in Sam Howell from Washington, who is not afraid to take chances downfield. At this point, Geno is no more than a Superflex play.
When Pete Carroll was the head coach, you could always count on the Seahawks being more of a running team. Now, with a new coaching staff in place, it’ll be interesting to see whether Walker will get his 20 to 25 touches per game. Walker is still going in the late fourth to early fifth round, but until we see more of what Seattle is going to do on offense in training camp and preseason, I’m a little hesitant to recommend him.
When the Seahawks drafted Charbonnet last year, many people thought that he was going to supplant Walker as the starting running back. However, he seemed more fit to be a backup than a starter. It’ll be interesting to see if Grubb uses Charbonnet like he used Dillon Johnson out of the backfield back at Washington. Charbonnet still has value in PPR formats, and I think there’s a bit of upside with him in the 10th round.
New head coach Mike McDonald has instructed Grubb to get Metcalf the ball. That seems like an easy thing to do, but the Seahawks just didn’t do it enough last season. I think Geno seemed to have lost some confidence in throwing the ball downfield and was more hesitant in taking big chances. The problem is when Metcalf doesn’t get the ball, he tends to pout, which is not a good thing for this offense. Much like what the Vikings tried to do with the Randy Moss ratio, Seattle may need to do a similar thing with Metcalf to keep him happy.
It took JSN some time to gain his footing at the professional level, but midway through last season, he started to pick it up and be an explosive part of the offense. It seems like JSN is Seattle’s WR2, and Tyler Lockett has moved to WR3. JSN is an undervalued play in PPR formats, especially if you think that the Seahawks are going to pass more than they have in the past few seasons.
It seems like age has caught up to Lockett. He’s more name than game, so be very careful about thinking he’s anything more than a WR5.
Mike McDonald was one of the more popular head coaching candidates this past offseason, and he seems to have this confidence about him, which is captivating the team and the Seahawk faithful. If the team can play solid defense and start to be more aggressive on offense they absolutely have a chance to make the playoffs once again in 2024.
