By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
We’re finally to the end of our Seahawks player countdown as the team readies for its first training camp practice Thursday.
10. Defensive tackle Jarran Reed
Potential role in 2019: Starting defensive tackle beginning with week seven after he serves a six-game suspension.
Main competition: None.
Why he’s ranked here: Well, it’s hard to know where to rank Reed now after the news earlier this week that he will be suspended for the first six games of the 2018 season. Seattle will have to get through a tough slate of games without their best interior defender. How they manage that stretch could play into what they decide concerning Reed’s future.
9. Punter Michael Dickson
Potential role in 2019: Starting punter and holder.
Main competition: None.
Why he’s ranked here: Too high for a punter? Not the way the Seahawks want to play — controlling field position, forcing opponents into back-breaking mistakes somewhere along the way. He may not be able to improve on his nine yards per carry rushing average this year, though.
8. Linebacker K.J. Wright
Potential role in 2019: Starting weakside inebacker.
Main competition: Shaquem Griffin, Ben Burr-Kirven.
Why he’s ranked here: Even Wright figured he was on his way out following the 2018 season. But Seattle made an aggressive move to keep him, realizing that the linebacker tandem of Wright and Bobby Wagner can go a long way toward cleaning up issues created by the youth that will have to play at other spots.
7. Center Justin Britt
Potential role in 2019: Starting center.
Main competition: None.
Why he’s ranked here: Britt is another player whose future beyond this season is far from guaranteed — the Seahawks could save $8.75 million against the cap releasing him before the 2020 season taking a $2.9 million dead cap hit. But that’s for down the road. For 2019 Britt is entrenched as the starting center for the fourth year since making the move there in 2016.
6. Safety Bradley McDougald
Potential role in 2019: Starter somewhere at safety
Main competition: Waiting to see how the competition unfolds around him to see where he willl line up.
Why he’s ranked here: Assuming there are no issues with his knee following offseason surgery, then McDougald will be asked to anchor a young secondary that enters a season without any founding members of the Legion of Boom for the first time since 2009. McDougald says he prefers strong safety — which was his primary spot last season, as well — and the stats seem to show he’s a better fit there, as well. Football Outsiders ranked him far better against the run (23rd) than the pass (63rd) of 79 total safeties last season.
5. Running back Chris Carson
Potential role in 2019: Starting tailback.
Main competition: Rashaad Penny.
Why he’s ranked here: Expect Carson to be the starter even if the team will look for ways to get Rashaad Penny into things as much as possible, as well. Carson proved his worth last season when he rushed for 1,151 yards and also, according to Sports Info Solutions, had 58 broken tackles, the most in the NFL, two ahead of Saquon Barkley (and maybe further reinforcing the thoughts of those who question teams taking running backs high in the draft).
4. Receiver Tyler Lockett
Potential role in 2019: Starter in the slot, but used in other spots, as well.
Main competition: Nope.
Why he’s ranked here: With Doug Baldwin retired, the task of carrying the receiving corps — especially while the younger players progress — falls on Lockett. He could hardly have been better last season with Russell Wilson charting a perfect passer rating of 158.3 when throwing his way in 2018. But Lockett will get used more in the slot this season and likely asked to come up with a few more of the dirty-work type of third-down and red-zone catches that Wilson so often in the past threw Baldwin’s way. Expect opponents to give him a bit more attention while they see how the rest of the receiving corps responds.
3. Left tackle Duane Brown
Potential role in 2019: Starting left tackle.
Main competition: Nada.
Why he’s ranked here: The straining to find reasons for Seattle’s improved offensive line play a year ago seemed at times to overlook Brown, who had been acquired at midseason the year before and promptly suffered a high ankle sprain. Healthy and available all of last season, Brown gave Seattle its best left tackle play in a long time, allowing just 2.5 sacks with just one penalty in a team-high 1,067 snaps, according to Football Outsiders. He also provided a steadying influence on other players, notably Germain Ifedi.
2. Linebacker Bobby Wagner
Potential role in 2019: Starting middle linebacker.
Main competition: None.
Why he’s ranked here: The unquestioned leader of the defense and as good of a defensive player as there is in the NFL, the big story entering camp is when Wagner will get a new deal. You hardly need more proof of how good Wagner is. But it may have gone under the radar last season that Wagner led the Seahawks with 11 passes defended, also second-most of any linebacker in the NFL.
1. Quarterback Russell Wilson
Potential role in 2019: Starting QB.
Main competition: Are you kidding?
Why he’s ranked here: That he is now the highest-paid player in NFL history means the expectations for Wilson are as high as ever. He had maybe his best season a year ago, with a 35-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio that spoke as loudly as any stat in why Seattle won a surprising 10 games. It also caused many to wonder if the Seahawks use Wilson enough, a critique that might underestimate the impact of Wilson — and his ability to operate the zone read — on Seattle’s running game. Regardless, what we know for sure is that at age 30, Wilson is smack in the prime of his career, and the biggest reason for optimism that Seattle can again win double digit games and get back to the postseason.
