Seahawks 90-Man Countdown: Julian Love - Secondary Swiss Army Knife

Boasting extensive experience everywhere from slot cornerback to box safety and an off-the-charts football IQ, the Seattle Seahawks intend to give Julian Love starter snaps even if Jamal Adams returns healthy, further solidifying a talented, deep secondary.

Author:
Corbin K. Smith
Publish date:
Jul 12, 2023 12:46 PM EDT

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Seattle Seahawks

With the calendar flipping to July and offseason activities in the rearview mirror, the Seattle Seahawks will open training camp at the VMAC later this month, officially ushering in the 2023 season.

To celebrate the new incoming season, we'll be detailing every member of the Seahawks 90-man roster over the next several weeks, exploring best and worst case scenarios and what to expect from each player entering the 2023 campaign.

Julian Love, Safety

Height/Weight: 5-11, 195 pounds

2022 Stats: 104 tackles, two interceptions, three pass breakups

Starring at Notre Dame, Love became a starter as a true freshman and eventually earned consensus All-American honors after an outstanding junior season in 2018, finishing with 63 tackles, an interception, 15 pass breakups, and a defensive touchdown for the Fighting Irish. Opting to forgo his final year of eligibility, he entered the 2019 NFL Draft and the Giants selected him in the fourth round with the 108th overall selection. Though he only started five games as a rookie, he still logged nearly 500 defensive snaps playing multiple positions and took on a significant role on special teams, registering 37 tackles and an interception.

After three seasons primarily serving as a situational reserve and special teams ace, Love finally broke into New York's starting lineup in 2022 and enjoyed a career year as a do-it all safety, setting personal bests in tackles, interceptions, and tackles for loss. With the Seahawks aggressively pursuing him early in free agency, after being impressed by coach Pete Carroll and his staff during a visit, he signed a two-year, $12 million deal to join a talented secondary already featuring Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams.

Best-Case Scenario: Thriving as a jack-of-all-trades playmaker alongside Adams and Diggs, Love sees extensive action as a deep safety, box safety, and nickel corner and while he doesn't make as many tackles as he did in 2022, he gets his hands on a career-best three interceptions and registers a pair of sacks to help spearhead an impressive defensive turnaround for the Seahawks.

Worst-Case Scenario: With Adams returning to All-Pro form coming off injury and Diggs continuing to be a ball-hawking force, Seattle struggles to consistently get Love on the field with the other two safeties and though he remains productive with 64 tackles and a pick, he doesn't take on quite as significant of a role as the team originally envisioned.

What to Expect in 2023: Only 25 years old with ample room left to grow as a player, Love isn't just an insurance policy for the Seahawks as they wait to see how Adams recovers from a torn quad tendon. As Carroll has said multiple times since the team signed him in March, even if Adams is healthy and ready to roll in Week 1 with Diggs patrolling center field, the goal is to find as many ways to play all three safeties on the field together at the same time as possible and they intend for the newcomer to take on a major role on defense.

An instinctive player with excellent athleticism, quality ball skills, and plus-tackling ability, Love should be able to make an instant impact deployed in a variety of roles, including big nickel in sub-packages. Even if he doesn't start many games in his first season with his new team, depending in part on Adams' availability early in the season, it would be a surprise if he doesn't play at least 65 percent of Seattle's defensive snaps and could still see a bit of action on special teams, making him one of the most important players on the roster on either side of the football.

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