An incredibly high standard has been set for the rest of the NFL. On Sunday evening Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in the last five years, officially making them the league’s latest dynasty – one that has no end in sight so long as Mahomes’ throwing arm remains attached to his shoulder.
How do the Seahawks and the other 30 teams around the league intend to catch up with Kansas City? The path to the Lombardi trophy is different for every team, of course. For Seattle it’s going to take a serious upgrade in coaching (check) and a couple offseasons of roster-building to even get into the Super Bowl conversation. Let’s begin with what needs to be done over the next few months, culminating with the 2024 NFL draft.
In honor of the team’s new defense-first head coach Mike Macdonald, we’ll begin on that side of the ball.
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In broad strokes, our strategy on defense is to keep mostly the same personnel and rely on Macdonald’s schematic genius for improvement – at least for now. After 2024 they can decide on whether or not to blow it up. The top priority for this franchise at the moment has to be re-signing star defensive lineman Leonard Williams. Seattle gave up two draft picks to get him and he was their best defender in the second half of the season after the trade. Signing Williams to a new multi-year contract won’t come cheap, but it’s the single-best move they can make to make sure their defense doesn’t fall off where it matters the most.
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While it’s true the Seahawks need to put more resources into their interior defensive line, the details matter. In the case of Dre’Mont Jones, they simply aren’t getting enough production to justify his Pro Bowl-sized contract, which comes with cap hits totaling over $41 million the next two seasons. Jones is still a solid defender who’s only 27 years old, so they should be able to find a trade partner somewhere around the league, assuming that they’re willing to eat some of his salary.
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After re-signing Leonard Williams odds are the front office will have to go bargain hunting for outside free agents. The best destination might be Baltimore, where several excellent defenders are about to hit the market and might want to follow Macdonald to Seattle. Last season outside linebackers Jadeveon…
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