Candy or Coal? Seahawks Players Get Mixed Results in Their Stockings After Loss
It's that time of the year. Kids are going to bed dreaming of what wonders and treasures will they behold on Christmas morning, starting with the contents of their stockings.
As a kid growing up, I knew I was not allowed to touch the presents under the tree until my large family was all awake and ready for the festivities to begin. However, my stocking was free game as soon as I awoke.
For football fans and players, most gamedays are like a Christmas morning. However, the Grinch came in the form of the Rams and stole Christmas joy from the 12s as their playoff hopes are dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh.
In the aftermath, several players received grades from Pro Football Focus and other pundits that could be seen as receiving candy or coal in their stockings. Even in the loss, a few Seattle players stood out and got delicious candies like Lindor chocolates, peppermint bark and those signature chocolate oranges. For others, due to the nature of scoring just 10 points and falling to 5-9, received nothing more than a lump of coal.
Let's look inside the stockings of a few players to see who got the good stuff.
Candy
Carlos Dunlap
If I were to give one single gift to any Seahawks player based on their performance on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, it would go to defensive end Carlos Dunlap. He led all Seattle players with a PFF grade that sparkled like a well-trimmed tree, garnering an 84.8 mark, one of the best grades of the week anywhere in the NFL. That is due to his 3.0 sacks, which marked the first time all season that any Seahawk pass rusher notched more than 1.5 sacks in a single game, and just the second time all year any Seahawk got more than one at all.
Quandre Diggs
Seattle's Pro Bowl free safety certainly deserves some yummy holiday goodies for his solid performance. He has been the stalwart performer in a topsy-turvy year for the Seahawks and this game was no different. He earned a PFF grade of 73.0 including a 71.7 coverage grade. Matthew Stafford played the role of Santa Claus, passing a gift to Diggs directly in the form of a second-quarter interception. Per Pro Football Reference, that was the only time Diggs was targeted and he came through in the clutch.
Gerald Everett
Good grades and candy-worthy performances were hard to come by on the offensive side of the ball. Tight end Gerald Everett has not panned out as well as most had hoped, but, at least for a half on Tuesday night, he looked the part. In the first half alone, he hauled in all four targets he received for 60 yards, including a 34 yarder. The unfortunate part is the South Alabama product became "the little boy who Santa Claus forgot," as Wilson never looked his way after halftime. Pro Football Focus agreed with the assessment, giving him the highest grade of any offensive player, with a pedestrian 67.3. It's worth noting, Everett currently has the highest catch rate of his five-year career, at 80 percent.
Coal
Russell Wilson
Let's not bury the lede here, Wilson was terrible. He has not looked like himself for much of this season and it was much of the same in L.A. Only the shutout in Green Bay a few weeks back garnered a worse passer rating, as he was tagged with a 55.3 mark on Tuesday. However, Pro Football Focus was feeling even more Scrooge-like and slapped him with a 33.6 mark, the worst of his season and... career. The egregious missed would-be touchdown throw to Metcalf will haunt Seattle fans like Krampus for weeks. As far as passer rating goes, it was his 11th-worst performance and second-worst since 2018.
Dee Eskridge
This may not be entirely fair to Eskridge. He may not deserve a fat lump of coal, but certainly, at best, he deserves socks or an ugly holiday tie. It's time to call his rookie season a disappointment. He has appeared in just half of the possible games this season due to a concussion and only made seven catches on 14 targets for a meager 47 yards. He was targeted four times on Tuesday without a catch. He came oh so close to an incredible, momentum-swinging grab late in the game but it fell to the turf. PFF gave him a 51.2 mark for his efforts.
Bless Austin
Another one that might not be entirely fair is the case of Bless Austin. In fact, if you are looking for a person to whom a present should be given out of pity, Austin is your man. He got tagged with the worst PFF grade of the night for any Seahawk, at 29.1 Plus, he was called for that brutal defensive holding penalty that kept the eventual go-ahead touchdown drive alive for the Rams. However, due to COVID and unforeseen circumstances, Austin was placed in the bright lights as one of the main cornerbacks, very much without warning. Either way, it was a forgettable night for the Rutgers alum.
