Seattle pass D is currently Bottom 10 in the NFL

[gettlemanjack]

last game: on MNF, Kirk Cousins shredded the Seattle pass D for 283 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT, and a 102.0 QB rating. He also threw for 7.86 yards per attempt. Seahawks pass D is now:

4th-worst in NFL in fewest INTs (2)

5th-worst in NFL in most passing TDs allowed per game (2.0)

9th-worst in NFL in pass efficiency D (97.8 rating allowed)

9th-worst in NFL in completion pct allowed (66.5%)

10th-worst in NFL in pass plays of 40-plus yards allowed (3 short of being the worst)

11th-worst in NFL in passing yards per game allowed (255.5)

[Mr. Scot]

Didn't they assure us the new rule emphasis would have no effect on them?

[gettlemanjack]

meanwhile, the Seahawks rush D is:

#1 in NFL, fewest ypc allowed (2.6 ypc)

#1 in NFL, fewest ypg allowed (62.2)

#1 in NFL, fewest rushes of 20-plus yards allowed (zero)

#1 in NFL, fewest First Downs allowed by rushing (13)

#3 in NFL, fewest rushing TDs allowed with 1 (they are one of only 3 teams allowing 1 or less)

[gettlemanjack]

the new star of the Seattle D appears to be age 24 MLB Bobby Wagner, who PFF currently rates the #2 ILB in the NFL behind only Luke

Wagner

2012 - 140 tackles

2013 - 120 tackles (despite only playing 14 games)

2014 - on pace for 172 tackles

Wagner was a 2012 Top 50 overall pick after tallying 445 tackles in college and running a 4.46 forty and jumping a 39.5 vertical at his Pro Day

When he was a rookie in 2012 at age 22, PFF rated him higher than Luke:

2012 PFF All-Rookie Team

Inside Linebacker: Bobby Wagner, SEA ( +16.0 ) Not only is Wagner the top rookie inside linebacker, but he ranks second at the position in the entire league. His Run Stop Percentage of 14.4 is tops among inside linebackers as he’s shored up the middle of Seattle’s defense. We have to wonder if this race would have been closer had Luke Kuechly started the season in the middle rather than the outside. After struggling early, he really took to the middle linebacker spot where his 13.3 Run Stop Percentage ranked fourth. Wagner gets the nod this year, but Kuechly has already started to close the gap.

Honorable Mention: Luke Kuechly (CAR)

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/01/15/2012-pff-all-rookie-team/2/

First Runner-Up, 2012 Defensive Rookie of the Year

Bobby Wagner, Linebacker, Seattle Seahawks

It didn’t take the Seahawks long to realize that Bobby Wagner was ready to make an impact in the NFL. Initially playing base downs, Wagner would be an every-down player by Week 5, and it’s not hard to see why. When all was said and done, no 4-3 middle linebacker had a higher grade and it led to Wagner receiving second team All-Pro honors from our good selves. Only Lavonte David had a higher Run Stop Percentage than the 14.4 Wagner managed, while the Seahawk was also among the better tacklers in the league. He missed just one in every 20.1 attempted tackles, good enough for the sixth-highest Tackling Efficiency of any inside linebacker. The metrics merely give substance to the play of Wagner, the latest in a long line of Seahawks draft successes.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2013/01/03/2012-pff-rookies-of-the-year/

In 2013, Wagner finished No. 12 in the NFL in total tackles, and Pro Football Focus rated him as the No. 12 inside linebacker in football.

per Matt Hamilton of Football Educator, Wagner was one of only two players that averaged more than five impact tackles per game over the past two full seasons, 2012 and 2013 (Below is a chart of the league leaders in Impact Tackling for the past 2 seasons).

"Even a deservingly regarded upper-echelon LB like Luke Kuechley..has been vastly outperformed by rookie classmate and Super Bowl XLVIII Champion Bobby Wagner (5.07 per game), who hasn’t garnered anywhere near the attention or accolades."

http://www.thefootballeducator.com/impact-tackling-need-comprehensive-statistics-nfl/

#54 Bobby Wagner

[Boltergeist]

The Seahawks first 3 games were against Rodgers, Rivers, and Peyton. I'm willing to give them a pass on the early start. Now if they start giving up plays to Austin Davis, the Arizona pupu platter, or Derek Carr - then that might be reason for alarm

[gettlemanjack]

CBS Sports, Jason La Canfora, on Bobby Wagner after the last NFC Championship Game:

"Wagner will be one of many young standouts largely ignored this week leading up to the Super Bowl, an affable, humble, team-driven emerging star who will be trumped by the personalities demanding media attention [ahem, Richard "The Mouth" Sherman"]. That's all perfectly fine with him. What Wagner does, to the untrained eye, can go largely overlooked, but if the Seahawks are on defense and you make a point of focusing on their linebackers, you will find Wagner flowing to the ball, invariably, instructively, and making tackle after tackle.

Without the 15 tackles he provided in the NFC Championship Game , for instance, the Seahawks might not be here, with Wagner a driving force in Seattle's ability to thwart 49ers running back Frank Gore and reach the Super Bowl

...

A week ago, Wagner was one of the key cogs in a defense that limited Gore to only 14 yards on 11 carries, rendering him a complete non-factor in a close game between two bitter rivals that decided the NFC's Super Bowl representative.

...

Wagner had everything to do with the outcome last week. The 49ers ran a mere 54 offensive plays and Wagner had a hand in stopping 15 of them via tackle. That's more than 25 percent of their stops, and when you take out a couple of the long runs by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the obvious outside passes which no linebacker would be a factor in defending, it becomes even more clear what a force Wagner (was in the NFC CG)"

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jason-la-canfora/24420961/seahawks-lb-wagners-low-profile-belies-big-play-in-super-bowl-run

[gettlemanjack]

Richard Sherman yesterday on Bobby Wagner:

"Bobby is having an incredible year," Sherman said. "So voters, everybody out there, Bobby Wagner is a Pro-Bowl player. He should be in the Defensive Player of the Year race as well."

"I felt like Bobby had a Pro Bowl season last year ... For him not to get the nod was kind of weird."

[gettlemanjack]

Wagner

2012 - 140 tackles

2013 - 120 tackles (despite only playing 14 games)

2014 - on pace for 172 tackles

those 140 tackles Wagner had as a rookie were the most by a Seahawks player since 2000 and the fifth-highest total in franchise history. Wagner also intercepted three passes, collected two sacks and finished second in voting for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year that year

[t96]

over 100 of those 283 yards came by 2 completions. And both to Jackson who outruns everybody. I'm not sure there aren't 32 Desean Jacksons in the in league. One of the completion was a miss-assignment where Sherman went to help because he's so bored on that Island of his. The Seahawks' D will be ok. Everyone's waiting for their demise. For me, I love watching them. Hope they're around for the next 10 years.

 

So go to their boards and discuss them there.

[Johnny Rockets]

Can't run on them = have to throw on them. 

 

 

But some of those stats are interesting. 

[Mr. Scot]

The Seahawks first 3 games were against Rodgers, Rivers, and Peyton. I'm willing to give them a pass on the early start. Now if they start giving up plays to Austin Davis, the Arizona pupu platter, or Derek Carr - then that might be reason for alarm

 

[gettlemanjack]

The Seahawks first 3 games were against Rodgers, Rivers, and Peyton. I'm willing to give them a pass on the early start. Now if they start giving up plays to Austin Davis, the Arizona pupu platter, or Derek Carr - then that might be reason for alarm

So you're saying that Seattle's pass D isn't very good when they have to face good QBs, but is only good when they face weak QBs?

Seattle didn’t play Rivers or Rodgers last year, which artificially inflated Seattle's stats relative to teams that did

last year the Seattle D was the #1 pass efficiency D in the NFL with a 63.4 passer rating allowed. But they didn't face many good QBs:

They faced:

Kaepernick (three times)

Carson Palmer (twice) - #20 in NFL in QB rating

Kellen Clemens (twice) - #26 in NFL in QB rating

Chad Henne - #31 in NFL in QB rating

Matt Schaub - #33 in NFL in QB rating

Ryan Fitzpatrick - #23 in NFL in QB rating

Mike Glennon - #21 in NFL in QB rating

Christian Ponder - #28 in NFL in QB rating

2013 version of Eli Manning - #35 in NFL in QB rating

Seattle only played 3 good QBs on the road last year and they weren't very good at stopping them:

-Andrew Luck - 104.9 rating v SEA (for season: 87.0)

-Cam Newton - 97.2 rating v SEA (for season: 88.8)

-Matt Ryan - 84.5 rating v SEA (for season: 89.6)

and Seattle only played one good QB at home last year, Brees on MNF when Seattle set the all-time noise record, then Brees again in the Divisional Round of the playoffs when Seattle had a bye and Saints didn't. Seattle did solid on MNF against him, but not good in the playoffs:

-Brees - 77.4 rating @SEA on MNF (Brees for season: 84.8 QB rating on road)

-Brees - 86.2 rating @SEA in playoffs (Brees for season: 84.8 QB rating on road)

The only other good QB Seattle faced last year was Manning in the Super Bowl and they did great against him:

Peyton Manning - 73.5 rating vs SEA (Manning for season: 115.1)

So yeah, one great game and one solid game by Seattle's pass D last year against good QBs

[gettlemanjack]

Richard Sherman yesterday on Bobby Wagner:

"Bobby is having an incredible year," Sherman said. "So voters, everybody out there, Bobby Wagner is a Pro-Bowl player. He should be in the Defensive Player of the Year race as well."

"I felt like Bobby had a Pro Bowl season last year ... For him not to get the nod was kind of weird."

Monday, SEA DE Michael Bennett said of Wagner:

“He’s always all over the place,” defensive lineman and sack-leader Michael Bennett offered, unsolicited, as he was leaving the locker room at FedEx Field on Monday night after the Seahawks’ 27-17 victory over the Washington Redskins.

“Y’all just don’t notice. Y’all take too much time noticing Luke Kuechly.”

[gettlemanjack]

former Panther LB Dan Morgan on Bobby Wagner vs. Luke Kuechly: “They’re both excellent football players. They’re both in the very top of their category. ... I’d say Bobby has a more all around game than Luke has ... That’s what makes Bobby special, he can do everything. He literally can do everything.”