The Seattle Seahawks are 6-3 going into a Monday Night matchup against the 5-4 Atlanta Falcons at home. They have a semi-bye week this week because of their last game being on Thursday, they get a week and a half of time to prepare for the Falcons, and recover from the Cardinals game.
However, there are some recoveries that will not be able to happen even in that amount of time, headlined by defensive end Cliff Avril, and more recently, star cornerback, Richard Sherman.
Sherman ruptured his Achilles that had been bothering him throughout recent weeks. This injury will end Sherman’s season and send him into surgery to recover in hopes of returning for next year's opener. This obviously hurts the already injured Seahawks defense quite a bit.
Sherman has been a major part of the “Legion of Boom” that has kept Seattle’s defense one of the top defenses in the league for the past five years. His ability to almost take away one side of the field with his coverage ability, as well as his underrated ability to come up and make a tackle on elite running backs will be absolutely missed by the Seahawks for the rest of the year.
Hopefully Seahawks' free safety Earl Thomas will come back this week against the Falcons after missing the past two weeks with a hamstring injury. The way Thomas covers the ground and plays centerfield for the Hawks, you don’t want to take any chances with re-injuring a hamstring and missing more time, but with an injury to Richard Sherman, the Seahawks are extremely hopeful that he will be back sooner rather than later.
Another key piece to the success of the rest of this season for the Seahawks is going to be how the corners that replace Sherman play. You cannot expect it to be the same as it was with Sherman out there, but somehow keeping a lid on opposing offenses will be a test for the Hawks in ways it really hasn’t been in previous years.
As of right now, it seems that filling that role will be rookie Shaquill Griffin who has been playing extremely well this year, and who coaches on the Seahawks really seem to think has a big upside. Other corners filling the second and third spots will be a mixture of Deshawn Shead when he comes back from injury, Jeremy Lane, the recently signed Byron Maxwell, and Justin Coleman.
Aside from defensive injury problems, the offense has its own problems going forward. The running game that Seattle’s offense has been known for has been completely missing all season.
As a result of that, quarterback Russel Wilson is the team’s leading rusher. Running back C.J. Prosise just got sent to the IR, joining the one running back who looked really good for the Hawks so far, Chris Carson. Eddie Lacy also got hurt two weeks ago when the Hawks game plan was to feed him the ball, and Thomas Rawls has not done much. There has been rumors that Carson may come back which could potentially boost their run game just enough.
The main problem besides the run game for the Seahawks is the offensive line. They just got Pro-Bowl tackle Duane Brown from the Texans who helped, but got hurt with an ankle injury and we have not heard if he will return or not. Wilson has saved this line by being able to scramble around and make things happen, but if the Hawks want to make any sort of push into the postseason, they are going to need to be able to run block, and give Wilson time to pass down the field.