The Seattle Seahawks are falling on hard times. Injuries are wreaking some serious havoc on the Legion of Boom. As such, the 12s won’t have much to cheer about unless Russell Wilson can elevate his magical repertoire to Merlin-esque levels of awe-inspiring greatness.
Richard Sherman had season-ending surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon last week, and now we’re learning All-Pro safety Kam Chancellor is likely out the rest of the year with a neck injury, per Mike Garafolo of NFL.com.
Earl Thomas has been banged up all year, too, after missing the tail end of last year’s campaign with an awful broken leg that had him considering retirement.
The Seahawks’ championship window is starting to slam shut in a big way as these key injuries pile up.
https://twitter.com/billbarnwell/status/931917693753741314
In addition to the injuries that have cut the heart out of the Legion of Boom, Seattle has no rushing attack. Wilson is also still under constant pressure and actually took a hit so hard to his jaw last Thursday that it was nearly broken.
Seattle has managed to scrape and claw its way to a 6-3 record so far this season and is just one game behind the Los Angeles Rams for the NFC West lead. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this team, which has for so long been founded on elite defense, is now without many of its top defenders.
The losses of Sherman and Chancellor cannot be overstated. Those two guys are as key to what Seattle does on the defensive side of the ball as anyone. Chancellor is the hammer and enforcer in the middle, and Sherman has been as good as anyone the past decade at shutting down outside receivers.
We fully expect to see the Seahawks suffer on the defensive side of the ball the rest of the way in 2017. Their scheme is fantastic, but it’s only as good as the players executing it.
This means that Russell Wilson has to ascend. He must take another step in his evolution. Seattle will need more games like the ones we saw against Houston and Arizona, where he puts the team on his back by utilizing his arm with the game on the line.
And he’ll have to continue doing it without protection up front, like he’s done throughout his tenure as a professional in Seattle.
In conclusion, if the Seahawks are going to avoid a late-season skid to make the playoffs and potentially make any noise in the postseason, it’s all on Wilson’s shoulders. If he doesn’t perform at an MVP level, then Seattle is doomed.