Yeah, it’s a copout, but what are you gonna do?

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I can’t really rank one of these guys above the other, and I don’t want to bump anyone else out of my “top 12”, so this is the compromise (for what it’s worth, L.J. Collier is next in my Also Receiving Votes list, but I couldn’t justify putting any rookies on here, as my expectations are pretty low for this class, when it comes to just the 2019 season).

From a talent and production standpoint, I thought Griffin & Flowers were pretty even in 2018. While Flowers was a rookie – with Griffin in his second season – I believe that spells good things for Flowers going forward, as he could ultimately find himself as the superior player when it’s all said and done. Not knowing what we have in store, however, I have to rank these two equally and just see what happens.

The Seahawks need to see improvement from these guys. I would argue they were just okay last year, and given their ages that’s fine. But, that also (ideally) means there’s room for growth. The Greats will show a spike from their first year to the next. If we don’t start reading about some awesome things from these two in Training Camp, I’ll start to be worried. If they’re already as good as they’re gonna get, then this defense is in some trouble.

Scheme can only take you so far. The way the Seahawks play defense will always mitigate a lot of risk and hide the trouble spots. Preventing big plays, forcing teams to dink and dunk down the field, is a great way to keep your team in the game and give your offense time to get back into it. But, with no more Earl Thomas, and with the pass rush what it’s devolved into, there’s going to be more pressure on these corners to do their jobs. If a repeat of last year is what we’ve got in store, then I’m concerned about our chances to compete for a playoff spot.

The good news is, again, they’re young. On top of that, 2018 was Griffin’s first year on the left side of the field in our scheme, so hopefully there were some growing pains to get over. Regardless, he sounds pretty motivated to take his game to another level, which I guess beats the alternative.

The bad news is, we’re pretty lean at the cornerback spot after these two guys. Akeem King seems to be the next man up, and after that I don’t know. There’s a lot left to shake out, depthwise, but none of it is all that inspiring if Griffin or Flowers get hurt.