With the Mariners being who they are, it’s not easy to want to write about sports in Seattle during these lean summer months. So, here’s a contrived excuse to write about the Seahawks! You’ve seen these everywhere else, and now I’m doing it as well: let’s rank the most important Seahawks as we head into the 2019 season!
It’s all subjective, so take my rankings with a grain of salt. The idea is: I’m not ranking them by who’s BEST, but rather who needs to be healthy and on top of his game for this team to exceed expectations. Obviously, if I were simply ranking the best Seahawks, Bobby Wagner would be listed in the top 2, instead of where he ended up (spoiler alert: the Seahawks are more stacked at the linebacker position than any other, so it’s not necessarily a must that he be in there at all times, though obviously I would never wish ill on our defensive captain).
And, since I’m doing this as a countdown, there would be no suspense whatsoever if I didn’t get Russell Wilson out of the way from the jump. We all know what the quarterback means to the game of football, and we all know how much Russ in particular means to the success of this team.
But, in case you didn’t, I’ll get into it here.
Russell Wilson isn’t just the most important Seahawks player, but he might be more important to our team than any player is to his respective team in the entire league. I know that wouldn’t make a lot of sense to fans outside of our Seattle bubble, when you factor in how little he actually throws the ball. But, as we ’round these parts know, that makes Wilson’s accuracy and big play ability all the more vital. If he weren’t as efficient as he is, this offense would be a total disaster!
Now, once you take into account the holes on this roster – primarily in the pass rush – I’m firmly of the belief that the offense will need to carry a bigger share of the burden. And, while we’re still talking about a run-first game plan, Wilson will still be the one running the show. After all, we’re going to need SOMEONE to convert all those third downs after we run it on first & second down!
We, as Seahawks fans, have some hard truths to swallow as we head into the 2019 season. First and foremost, the fact that this isn’t a championship team. Even in our best case scenario, we’re probably a year away (at least). I just feel like there’s too much to overcome, which really isn’t what we’re supposed to be thinking. After 2017 was such a disaster (relatively speaking), the Seahawks overcame expectations to make it back to the playoffs last year; as such, you’d think things are trending in the right direction! But, there are lots of arguments indicating the Seahawks overachieved last year, and if regression rears its ugly head, we could be looking at somewhat of a step back. I don’t think this team is any worse than 8-8, but I also worry that a 9-7 or even a 10-6 team might get blocked out of a Wild Card berth with a pretty stacked NFC.
It’s with that frame of mind that I return to the subject of Russell Wilson. For this team to remain good, we’ll need all the magic he’s got. And, who knows? Maybe the Seahawks will shock me again and really take a huge step forward! I mean, we never saw that stretch run in 2012 coming, until all of a sudden we were blessed with the best team in football for about 5-6 weeks. If Wilson plays at an MVP level, then I do think there’s an outside shot at this team vying for another Super Bowl appearance. He’s just that good, and he makes those around him that much better.
So, going forward, I’ll have 12 more posts about the 12 Most Important Seahawks After Russell Wilson. Except, it’s a total cop-out, because I have two players tied for 12th, which means – including Russell Wilson – I’ll have written about the 14 Most Important Seahawks. But, 14 has no relevance whatsoever to our Seahawks fandom (unless you’re a big Rick Tuten fan), so you get what you get. Feel free to bookmark this page, as I’ll update it with links below as those posts are written: