The Seattle Seahawks offense has undergone one of the most significant overhauls in the NFL. Beyond the trading of starting quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders and signing Sam Darnold in free agency, the Seahawks also departed with two franchise cornerstones at wide receiver. DK Metcalf’s trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the release of Tyler Lockett. The team in 2025 will look different from the one in 2024, and for some, that unknown is cause for concern.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell ranked every wide receiver, tight end, and running back group in the NFL, and the Seahawks landed at number 19 on the list. In 2024, on the same list, the Seahawks ranked number eight.
Potential Downgrade at Receiver
One of the reasons Barnwell has dropped the Seahawks’ offensive ranking this steeply is due to uncertainty at the receiver position. Barnwell says, “Even while acknowledging that DK Metcalf’s 2020 season looks like an outlier and Tyler Lockett’s decline has become apparent, Seattle might have downgraded at both spots (while getting cheaper) by replacing them with Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.”
Kupp is coming off his third straight season of playing only 12 games or fewer, has not had a 1,000-yard season since 2021, and is 32 years old. Kupp may still be a productive receiver, but likely gone is the Triple Crown-winning receiver who won the Super Bowl MVP.
Valdes-Scantling is a receiver with a championship pedigree, as a two-time Super Bowl champion with the Chiefs, but he’s another receiver on the wrong side of 30. Valdes-Scantling has never had over 700 receiving yards in a season. Last season, between the Bills and the Saints, he had 19 receptions for 411 yards and four touchdowns.
The most prominent bright spot in the Seahawks’ passing game is Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Entering his third year in the league, Smith-Njigba had a breakout season. He reeled in 100 receptions for 1,130 yards and six touchdowns as the number two option. Smith-Njigba’s performance last year likely gave the Seahawks confidence that they can build the passing game around him if they moved on from Metcalf, which they have done. Now, Smith-Njigba will get the chance to show he is the number one receiver in the Seahawks’ offense.
Lack of Big Play Ability From Walker
Kenneth Walker III is coming off a down season at running back. Walker only played in 11 games this past season and only averaged 3.7 yards per carry, which is down from the 4.1 yards per carry Walker averaged in 2023. Bill Barnwell brings up a concerning trend regarding Walker’s production.
“Kenneth Walker III has the fourth-worst success rate (37%) and is tied for third-last in first downs over expectation among running backs with at least 500 carries in the past three seasons,” Barnwell says. “It’s one thing to combine that profile with spectacular big plays, as Walker did in 2022, but after breaking off three 60-plus-yard runs as a rookie, he hasn’t posted one since.”
For the Seahawks’ offense to have an effective running game, they will need more big-play ability out of Walker. Zach Charbonnet stepped into the lead running role to end the season, averaging 4.2 yards per carry and scoring eight rushing touchdowns. In 2025, Charbonnet could take the mantle as the lead running back in Seattle.
Emphasis on the Run Game
Seahawks right tackle Abraham Lucas spoke with John Boyle via the Seahawks website back in June about how there will be more of an emphasis on the ground game under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
“It’s entirely new, so pretty much everything,” Lucas said when asked about the differences, noting the new staff’s emphasis on “just downhill, running off the ball, establishing the run. I know we got a lot of criticism for that, so moving into this year, we’re looking to really get after it in the run game, specifically.”
The Seahawks’ offense is coming into the 2025 season with doubts after an eventful offseason with lots of turnover. However, different does not always equal worse, and the team hopes the changes they have made raise the bar instead of lowering it.
