Football is an incredibly complex game and yet one part of it can be enough to sink your whole team. For the 2022 Seahawks, their biggest issue is their inability to stop the run. So far they have been gashed by their opponents on the ground – especially Cordarrelle Patterson, who won NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
Convincing former linebacker K.J. Wright to come out of retirement would help, but listening to his advice is probably more practical. Speaking on his new weekly ESPN radio show, Wright suggested a tweak to Seattle’s defense to help in this area. Specifically, he thinks their interior defensive linemen are not-suited for this scheme outside of Al Woods and a change is needed.
“When you look at (defensive tackle) Al Woods, he is in my opinion the only defensive lineman that fits this scheme… Poona Ford and Quinton Jefferson, they are very good at penetration, getting up field, getting in the backfield. If you go into a game saying, ‘Hey guys, I need you guys to go lateral, take up two blocks, mirror the offensive lineman,’ in my opinion that does not fit their skill set… you can keep the scheme but jiggy rig it a little bit to what the fellas are really good at, OK, if you see that we’re getting gashed, let me get this safety in the box way more to help stop the run. You gotta find a way to stop this stuff early because if you do not, it will continue to be 100-plus (rushing yards allowed) each and every week”
At this point allowing 100 rushing yards would be a dramatic improvement. Heading into Week 4, the Seahawks are allowing 157 a game on the ground, the second-most in the league.
Here’s the full audio from Wright’s show.
