Seahawks Need Rasheem Green to Emerge as a Star Entering Third Season
By all accounts, Rasheem Green endured an underwhelming rookie season in 2018, showing his youth as a 21-year old when on the field and struggling through injuries. He finished his first year with just nine tackles and was a healthy scratch for the Seahawks final two games, including a wild card loss to the Cowboys.
As coach Pete Carroll hoped he would, Green made tremendous strides in his second season in the Pacific Northwest. Stronger after hitting the weight room hard during the offseason and fully healthy, he held up much better at the point of attack against the run and started to make consistent contributions as a pass rusher, leading the team with 4.0 sacks.
"I thought Rasheem had a terrific season this year to help us out and start to get his career rolling," Carroll said in his end-of-season press conference.
Starting three of Seattle's first four games, Green notched a sack in two of those games, including an incredibly impressive play chasing and bringing down speedy Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray in a Week 4 victory. Few 280-pound defenders would have had a chance at making that play.
The former third-round pick out of USC only got stronger as the season progressed and with veterans Ziggy Ansah and Jadeveon Clowney nursing injuries late in the year, he started five of Seattle's final eight regular season games. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he produced 18 tackles, 2.0 sacks, two forced fumbles, and four tackles for loss in that span.
His stellar play continued into the playoffs, as Green registered his first career postseason sack and two quarterback pressures in a victory over the Eagles in the wild card round.
The best news? Turning 23 years old earlier this month, Green still hasn't come close to reaching his ceiling as a player. Entering his third season, the Seahawks need him to live up to his immense potential and break out as a star in 2020.
While it remains to be seen if training camp will start on time, whenever practice does start up again, Green will be the favorite to start at base defensive end for Seattle. Clowney currently remains unsigned and former starter Quinton Jefferson signed a two-year deal with Buffalo in March, creating a vacancy at the 5-tech role.
Without those two players on the roster, Green's primary competition will be L.J. Collier, who produced just three tackles as a rookie. All of the Seahawks offseason additions at defensive end, including Bruce Irvin and second-round pick Darrell Taylor, are best suited to play the LEO spot.
Seattle also currently has some depth concerns at defensive tackle behind Jarran Reed and Poona Ford. General manager John Schneider hasn't added any players at the position through free agency to this point and opted not to draft one last month.
With only one player (Bryan Mone) with regular season game experience behind Reed and Ford, Carroll indicated following the draft that the 280-pound Green and Collier could both see some action reducing inside to create interior pressure on opposing quarterbacks in passing situations.
“What happens in the third down situations, when we move guys around some, you’ll see Rasheem and L.J. will work inside, along with J. Reed. We think we have a nice mix in that regard. Those guys are developing pass rushers, and they’re learning their way and both have a lot of ability and a lot of upside to them."
After logging 546 snaps in 2019, good for 51 percent of Seattle's total defensive snaps, Green should expect a major uptick in playing time. He doubled his snaps from his rookie year to 2019 and now could be in mix for 650 or more snaps in 2020.
Assuming added responsibility will undoubtedly yield greater expectations for Green, which means he'll have to further elevate his game in a number of ways. He's shown flashes as a pass rusher, but he only produced five quarterback hits last season and must find more consistency with his counter moves.
Mental lapses with gap integrity as a run defender also occasionally happened last year, springing opposing backs for big gains. Those will need to be cleaned up along with continued emphasis on hand technique.
But given his size, athletic tools, and improving fundamentals, Green has the talent to break out as one of the NFC's best young all-around defensive ends this year. Considering the lingering concerns about Seattle's pass rush and defensive line in general, such a jump may be necessary for the team to take the next step forward as a Super Bowl contender.
