The 12s - Not Jadeveon Clowney - May Be Seahawks Biggest Loss of 2020 Offseason
Late last week, Washington governor Jay Inslee gave the green light to the state’s professional sports teams to resume operations under strict guidelines following nearly three months of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the news has understandably been met with a great deal of excitement in the Seattle area, many questions remain, especially about a fast-approaching 2020 NFL season. How will the Seahawks conduct training camp and will it happen on time? Will there be football played in August and September without any hitches? And, most importantly, will there be fans allowed in the stadium in some fashion?
That last question is the most important for the Seahawks, who are in the latter stages of an offseason that’s been heavily criticized by some in the fan base and media alike. The biggest knock on their work these past few months has been their inability to add top-tier talent to a defensive line - particularly at the EDGE position - that struggled mightily in 2019. Since free agency started in March, they've lost two of their key defensive linemen in Quinton Jefferson and Al Woods, while Jadeveon Clowney remains unsigned.
Add in the possibility that Seattle’s most notable addition this offseason, cornerback Quinton Dunbar, may never play a single down for the team after allegations of armed robbery came down on May 14 and the Seahawks are looking at one of the more disappointing offseasons in recent team history. But their most significant potential loss of the offseason may not be Dunbar, nor Clowney - it may be their home field advantage.
There are very few stadiums that cause headaches for opposing teams like CenturyLink Field. The notorious, record-setting noise generated by the 12s has given the Seahawks one of the most remarkable and iconic home field advantages not just in the NFL, but in all of professional sports. Despite going just 4-4 at home last season, it’s been one of the Seahawks’ greatest weapons throughout the years and the team’s personnel hasn’t been shy to admit that, often attributing a great deal of their success to their avid fan base.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic still sweeping the globe, no cure or vaccination yet available, and Inslee’s insistence that all professional sporting events in Washington remain spectator-free, the Seahawks are faced with temporarily losing the 12s, perhaps for the entire 2020 season. Suddenly, a road trip to Seattle doesn’t seem as daunting for the eight teams set to head to the Emerald City over the final months of the year.
Looking at the 2020 regular season schedule, the Seahawks are set to play host to a group of teams that logged a combined .484 road-win percentage in 2019, including playoffs. It should be noted that the team that held the second-highest mark, the Patriots, have seemingly regressed, while others, on paper, have slightly improved or maintained a relatively similar position to where they were last year.
Between the 49ers, Vikings, Cardinals, Cowboys, and Rams, the Seahawks are looking at possibly five home matchups against teams with legitimate postseason aspirations without the most important piece to their home field advantage: their fans. While the fate of a football game ultimately relies on the preparation and execution by the players and coaches, it feels silly to say that the expected lack of fan attendance won’t change the outlook of the Seahawks’ upcoming campaign, if ever so slightly.
At the very least, it makes the potential of obtaining the NFC’s first overall seed in the new seven-team playoff format slightly less appealing. Of course, teams will still want the lone playoff bye week in their conference, but clinching home field advantage throughout the postseason has never felt less significant than it does right now. Sure, teams may be allowed to pump in fake crowd noise to maintain the illusion of normalcy, but it won’t have the same impact, especially not for the Seahawks.
The good news for Seattle is that all 31 other NFL teams are likely destined to deal with the same thing. Even if some states eventually allow for spectators to attend games in some capacity, it’s hard to imagine that the NFL would let teams host fans unless all teams had the ability to do so.
Therefore, the possible temporary loss of Seattle’s beloved 12s balances itself out in a way when considering the fact that the Seahawks, in theory, won’t have to enter hostile territory at any point in the season. Elements and setting will vary on their road trips, sure, but there’s no outside source to directly swing things in the favor of one team or the other. Every site would essentially be neutral.
Losing the 12s would certainly hurt the Seahawks, especially in the eyes of the oddsmakers for some of the more debatable games on their schedule, but it’s also not a death knell for them. Criticisms of their offseason aside, Seattle still bolsters one of the most talented rosters in the NFL with one of the league’s few elite quarterbacks.
On a neutral playing field, it’s hard not to really like their chances in almost every matchup. Great success can still be achieved in 2020, and it’d make for one hell of a celebration once the seats in CenturyLink Field are allowed to be filled to the brim again in the future.
