The Seattle Seahawks stunned a lot of people when they chose to sign linebacker Mychal Kendricks. From a talent perspective, sure it made sense. He’s 26-years old and a quality starter from Philadelphia. That wasn’t the issue. It’s the fact that Kendrick is facing potential time in prison for insider trading, something he plead guilty to a couple weeks ago. So why in the world would they willingly sign him to play against the Chicago Bears?
Desperation. That’s all there is to it. Seattle is in dire straits at the linebacker position after just one week. It started with longtime starter K.J. Wright going down with a knee injury. That was bad enough. Yet the bigger loss was still to come as star middle linebacker Bobby Wagner suffered a significant groin pull.
Both men have already been declared out for Monday night. Kendricks, despite the status as a felon and zero experience in their system, was signed to stop the bleeding. Was it warranted though? Yes, and there’s a key reason for it. The simple fact is the Seahawks defense is completely different without Wagner against the run.
Chicago Bears and Jordan Howard could dominate and Seattle knows it
So many players have gotten the attention on that Seattle defense for year. Most of the time it was Richard Sherman or Michael Bennett or Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas. Not nearly enough people talked about how great and how important Wagner was to their success. One key they never addressed was his presence against the run.
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He’s been an outstanding run defender since he got to the NFL. Not only has he averaged well over 100 tackles every year, but also has 368 career stops for no gain or a loss. That averages out to 61.33 each season. That ranks him among the best at the linebacker position in football. Seattle has certainly felt what life is like without him.
Since 2014, the Seahawks defense has averaged 92.48 yards allowed on the ground each game. However, in the six games Wagner has missed with various injuries? That number spikes to 120.8 yards. Considering Bennett, Chancellor and others aren’t there anymore to pick up the slack, Jordan Howard must be licking his chops.
Howard is one of the most underrated backs in football. He’s particularly good at Soldier Field where he has 1,364 yards and 12 touchdowns in 16 games played there since 2016. Even with Kendricks in the lineup, the situation is looking rough for the Seahawks. They wilted quite a bit last year against big, strong running backs. Derrick Henry, Todd Gurley, Leonard Fournette, and Ezekiel Elliott all had big games against them.
That was with Wagner in the lineup. So try to imagine what it could be like without him.
