Seattle Seahawks: How the defense will return to dominance

In recent years, 12s have become accustomed to great defense from the Seattle Seahawks, buoyed by the Legion of Boom’s success. Joel Carpenter explains how this new group of defenders can excel as well.

Heading into the 2018 season, the Seattle Seahawks had a slew of questions. Would they be able to run effectively? Would the line improve? Would coaching changes improve or hurt the quality of play on the field? So many questions, so much angst. Perhaps the biggest of these questions was, how would the defense perform?

Over half of the starting defense, six of 11, that were starters at the beginning of the 2017 season were no longer with the team. Either, traded, cut, let walk, or retired. In no particular order, departed are Richard Sherman, Cliff

Avril,

Michael Bennett, Kam Chancellor, Sheldon Richardson, and Michael Wilhoite. Gone also is longtime contributor Jeremy Lane, and even late season additions such as Byron Maxwell. That question, “how would the defense perform?” was at the forefront of many 12s minds, and at the very least, was a concern for most.

Throughout the offseason and preseason, we heard about how excited the staff was about the Seahawks young talent. Reports surfaced about how they were competing every day and were also, learning and growing.

While hearing comments like that is always encouraging, for the most part, it should be expected by an organization. No staff is going to destroy their player’s confidence, least of all Seattle. Those of us familiar with the team took the comments with a grain of salt and waited patiently to see for ourselves.