The Seahawks have a lot of work to do this offseason if they plan on winning a playoff game in the foreseeable future. After they take care of their own pending free agents – most notably quarterback Geno Smith – the first order of business should be improving their defensive line. Fortunately, the 2023 draft class is deep with defensive line talent and there are also a lot of quality free agents to consider, so they have a good shot at a serious upgrade.
Let’s begin with a relatively loaded class of free agents. Here are seven quality defensive line options for Seattle.
1
DE Yannick Ngakoue
Seattle has two double-digit sack threats in Uchenna Nwosu and Darrell Taylor. However, they could use another true edge rusher to disrupt the QB. Enter Ngakoue, who already has 65 sacks and 135 quarterback hits in his career despite being just 27 years old. While he wouldn’t come cheap, the chances of finding a better young pass rusher in the draft aren’t great – even in a deep class.
2
DT DaRon Payne
The Seahawks also have to boost their interior rotation, which looks strong on paper but didn’t produce good results last season. Payne can help their issues against the run and he’s also becoming more of an inside pass-rush threat as time goes on. Last year he posted career highs in sacks (11.5), QB hits (20) and tackles for a loss (18).
3
DT Javon Hargrave
Ngakoue and Payne are both in their prime though and won’t be easy to pry away from their respective teams. Seattle stands a better chance of landing a veteran from a team that can no longer afford him. The Eagles fit the bill better than anybody and practically their entire defensive line is about to hit the market. The best of them is Hargrave, who has also developed big-time as a pass rusher. He is coming off a career-best year with 11 sacks and 10 TFL.
4
DE Jadeveon Clowney
Since he was traded from Houston to Seattle in 2019 Clowney hasn’t been able to stick around long in any one place. However, on tape he’s still clearly capable of being disruptive as hell in the right situation. As it happens, head coach Pete Carroll excels at taking problematic players and getting the best out of them. Clowney’s career sack numbers may not live up to the hype, but his game goes a lot deeper than that and he could still be a high-impact defender with a change of scenery.
5
DT Fletcher Cox
Now 11 years removed since Philadelphia drafted him in the first round out of Mississippi State, Cox is still performing at a pretty high level despite having turned 32 in December. This past season the six-time Pro Bowler managed to post seven sacks, 14 QB hits and seven tackles for a loss.
6
DT Akiem Hicks
Hicks is another veteran defensive tackle who is still going strong despite having been in the NFL for a long time. Taken in the same class as Cox, Hicks has appeared in a remarkable 149 career games, totaling 41.5 sacks, 115 QB hits and 75 tackles for a loss. He also has previous experience working with associate head coach Sean Desai in Chicago.
7
DT Poona Ford
If there’s one guy the Seahawks should retain inside it’s Ford, even though he had the worst season among the starters. While Shelby Harris and Al Woods are both candidates to get cut given their age and the structure of their contracts Ford is worth a little more faith. He may have struggled in 2022, but it’s important to remember that he was also arguably the team’s most-consistent defender the previous four seasons. Coach Carroll has admitted that Ford was misused this year, so with some adjustments there’s no reason to believe he can’t get back to where he was before.
