The tip of the offseason program is rapidly approaching for the Seattle Seahawks of their first offseason beneath new head coach Mike Macdonald, and which means the slowest of sluggish seasons of June is simply across the nook. Fortunately for Hawks followers, with the teaching overhaul comes new coaches, new techniques and a whole lot of new gamers, which means there shall be lots to debate and debate within the coming weeks and months earlier than the beginning of the common season in September.
Within the feedback part of the latest roster projection for the offensive facet of the ball of the Seahawks 53 man roster, there was no scarcity of shock that receiver Jake Bobo was predicted to fail to make the roster. There’s little question that Bobo is a fan favourite, and there’s little question he brings one thing to the workforce, however the query is whether or not he brings sufficient to the desk to warrant maintaining round.
Particularly, listed here are the highest ten main receivers for Seattle in 2023:
DK Metcalf: 1,114 yards
Tyler Lockett: 894 yards
Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 628 yards
Noah Fant: 414 yards
Ken Walker: 259 yards
Colby Parkinson: 247 yards
Zach Charbonnet: 209 yards
Jake Bobo: 196 yards
Will Dissly: 172 yards
DeeJay Dallas: 26 yards
Of the names on that listing, the one ones who left the Seahawks within the offseason have been Parkinson, Dissly and Dallas, which suggests six of the seven members of the workforce who had extra receiving yards than Bobo are set to reprise the function wherein they generated extra manufacturing. The one member of the workforce who had extra receiving yards than Bobo who left within the offseason is Parkinson, and the addition of Laviska Shenault seemingly greater than offsets the manufacturing Parkinson misplaced.
Which brings the dialogue to the straightforward query of whose manufacturing does Bobo take? Is he adequate to take targets away from Lockett or Smith-Njigba? In Week 1 Fant, Metcalf and Bobo will all be 26 years previous in Week 1 when the Seahawks face the Broncos, and Bobo (196 profession receiving yards) has a fraction of the profession manufacturing of both Fant (2,805 profession receiving yards) or Metcalf (5,332 profession receiving yards), so displacing both of these two appears unlikely.
Bobo isn’t a operating again, although he did line up within the backfield for all of 10 offensive snaps throughout the 2023 season, in addition to a pair of snaps as an inline tight finish. Maybe that units him up for a task just like what Ben Skowronek crammed for the Los Angeles Rams as a receiver/particular teamer/fullback who didn’t actually have an outlined place and is now a member of the Houston Texans after being traded in a decide swap earlier this offseason.
There are actually examples of huge receivers coming into the NFL as 25 yr previous rookies and occurring to have profitable careers, together with Anthony Carter, Rod Smith, Patrick Crayton, John Taylor, Don Beebe and others. Nevertheless, there are much more like Kevin Norwood, Tony Hargain, Brittan Golden, Carl Aikens, Kevin Bowman and numerous others who flashed one thing as rookies after which by no means did a lot once more.
From there the dialogue turns to particular groups contributions, the place Bobo logged 139 snaps throughout his rookie season. These 139 snaps have been good for thirteenth on the workforce, however based on PFF, 91 of them got here on kickoff returns. That’s related as a result of with the brand new kickoff guidelines in place, new particular groups coordinator Jay Harbaugh has hypothesized that greater gamers might wind up on the kick return models. Bobo, whereas tall, will not be a much bigger participant on the 207 kilos at which he’s listed by the workforce, with guys like AJ Barner (251), Pharaoh Brown (246), Shenault (224) all weighing in heavier.
Placing it collectively, it turns into a matter of what Bobo does properly sufficient to make an impression on the sphere in 2024. Can he pry targets away from a gaggle of receiving targets that outproduced him in 2023? Can he work his manner into a task on particular groups within the wake of the Seahawks including particular groups monsters within the likes of Barner, Brown and Okay’Von Wallace?
Sure, Bobo runs nice routes and has nice palms and is a keen and succesful blocker, however will that mixture of abilities be sufficient to get him on the sphere for a enough variety of snaps to make an impression? And if he’s seeing snaps, who precisely is he taking these snaps from?
