Why The #Seahawks are a Playoff Team in 2025 – #5 Reason | #SeattleSports

Why The #Seahawks are a Playoff Team in 2025 – #5 Reason | #SeattleSports

Well, Dave, we’ve talked a lot about Vegas odds and looking at power rankings, and that’s what you do before the preseason. We don’t have a sense of what teams are ultimately going to look like, but I think we’re both sort of takenback by the lack of confidence in the Seahawks and the overall win total. And I know the goal is to get people to bet on both sides of the wager, but I think they set the mark at seven and a half wins for the Seahawks, which seems actually it’s better than it was last year going at this point. But the fact that nobody seems to believe this is a playoff team. So, you and I are going to come up with five reasons as to why this is a playoff team this year and start with our number five today. You go first. Yeah. Um, I’m going to go with an individual in this case and it’s Devin Witherspoon. I just think he is such an important player. Now, did he play poorly last year? No, he he did not. He he played really well, but you know, you look at um some of his numbers from his rookie year, he needs to play a little bit more like that. I mean, he had an interception for a touchdown, obviously, the 97 yard uh touchdown that he had on Monday night. He had three sacks, but he also had a sack that was called back because of a penalty and another interception. And he had a bunch of big hits and he just was all over the field. Last year, he played great. I don’t think anybody would say he played poorly, but like I’ I’d like to see him get those numbers back up and him start making more plays. And I think once you get settled into a defense that you start to, you know, feel like, okay, now I can kind of play outside of that defense. I can I can go and, you know, take chances and, you know, try to do things differently. But Spoon is such an unbelievable player. And I think the one thing last year that really stood out to me was that he is a moving target constantly. It would be like being at a gun range and trying to hit a target that’s just constantly moving around. and he made a play last year against Arizona out on the edge where there was a blocker there and he just couldn’t get his hands on Spoon because he’s such a he just so much energy, man. You look at the the way that he plays. But I you know, look, I I’m not I’m just saying their best player needs to have his best season and I think being settled into this the second uh year with this defense, I think that’s going to be huge for him. Well, and we we talked about him yesterday on the air and we were going through the uh ESPN’s top 10 list of defensive tackles and Jaylen Carter was like number four or three and we were talking about ah Jaylen Carter he was a consideration for the Seahawks. Who would you rather have? And you and I are both hands down Witherspoon. And we had somebody text in and say you guys are you guys are homers. Your defensive tackle is a game wrecker. A cornerback can be schemed against. And we’re like, well, why couldn’t you scheme against you can scheme against any one individual you want. There’s those are the guys you talk about the extra meeting guys, right? And with a defensive tackle, they’re pretty much where they’re going to be the entire game. With Witherspoon, he’s on the outside, he’s on the inside, he’s he’s like almost like a middle linebacker. He’s rushing the passer. He’s dropping into coverage. He’s everywhere. So scheming him, certainly you could. It’s a lot harder. It’s a lot harder. So, he’s he’s multiple, as they like to say. So, I I agree with you. He’s he’s huge. Uh for me, my number five is Ernest Jones. This defense changed when he got here, and it’s hard to measure his impact and say, “Well, he’s responsible for this guy’s turnaround and that guy’s turnaround.” The one guy you could point to is Tyrese Knight and say, “Look at the impact he had overall on the defense because it it felt like a light switch the day he got here. all of a sudden everybody in the defense as a whole started trending better, right? Um Tyrese Knight grew up quick. I I felt under under his watchful eye, if you will. So, I think his impact was huge. And now you get him from the beginning of the year. You get him from training camp to preseason to the very first game of the year through the whole season. I just think having him at the beginning, he’s familiar with the defense. Year two for him. Um he’s not a new guy anymore. He’s an established presence out there. His impact I was remarkable. I never would have predicted that. I never would have thought a middle line, all due respect, that a middle linebacker coming over could have had that kind of impact. And again, it’s not just him, you know, want to, you know, go over the top, but the defense had a pretty dramatic turnaround after he got here. They absolutely did. and it took him a couple of games to get going and you know and we’ll we’ll we’ll talk about that a little bit later but as far as the the defensive numbers go but um yeah I mean when he got there it took him a little while and you know you think about it they didn’t they traded him the Rams that is to Tennessee and then all of a sudden he’s on a plane back to Seattle he ends up playing the Rams in the second game that he got here and the very first game was against Buffalo and he had just played them in Tennessee so it was just kind of a strange situation but once he got settled in, you could see that he definitely had an effect on Tyrese Knight that you mentioned and uh yeah, I mean he was uh he was huge as far as an individual player goes. How big is it that he gets a full training camp now? He’s got this he’s got the defense down obviously knows the system it but it’s his first full season for the team and he gets to go through OTAAS. He gets to go through mini camp and training camp and preseason and be there in game one second year with Mike McDonald. It’s just it’s kind of exciting for me to to imagine, all right, if that’s who he was coming in off the street, didn’t come to training camp with these guys. He’s with a completely different team, different system, and that’s the impact he had. What’s it like if he’s there from day one? Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, you come in in the middle of the the season and, you know, you’re trying to be a leader, but you also don’t want to step on people’s toes and you’re trying to get the defense down. So, to answer your question, I think it’s huge that he’s going to be able to go through training camp and, you know, hit the ground running and hopefully the numbers that they finished with uh defensively are going to be something they begin with. Yeah. And he’s he’s also a guy that, you know, his presence tells you if he goes down, who do they have? That’s something we’ve talked about is depth and all right, if this guy’s not there, this guy we feel confident in him. It is it does expose one of the I guess one of the one of the weaknesses and that would just be the depth of that. Not not that he’s weak, but if he goes down, oh uh oh, what do you do? Yeah. So, that that’s kind of the one area he he’s so such a presence that you look at the possibility everybody can get hurt. If that happens to him, who who’s the guy that steps up? Right. Yeah. I mean, I think it it’s that’s one of the things that probably is left. I mean, we talked about depth because Mike after the OTAAS was talking about corner, saying, “Okay, the three, number four, and number five guy are going to have to battle it out.” Well, they end up bringing in Shaquille Griffin. So, um, you know, you feel pretty good about the depth there. At least you got lots of choices. Um, not a lot of cho I We’ll see. Maybe Pat Oonnell or maybe uh Drake Thomas steps up. I like Drake Thomas. I I thought he looked great. He’s a little under unders sized, but he is a guy that made some plays last year. So, um, that would be the one thing. Yeah, I I would uh worry a little bit about as far as depth goes. Of course, everybody’s always going to say offensive line, more choices there, but I think uh inside backer to me is is sort of glaring. And we always talk about this, the middle of the defense is really important to this defense when they’re playing well. And you saw at the end of the year, Big Cat started making plays, you know, and so that inside part of it is very, you know, and especially getting everybody on the same page. If now all of a sudden you have to go to a guy like Drake Thomas, he doesn’t have that experience. So, um, yeah, it would be, uh, I I would feel better about maybe a little bit more depth there, but Ernest Jones, yeah, I mean, he’s he’s been huge for this team. All right, so there’s our number five reason that the Seahawks will make the playoffs. Dave and I are going to take you reason by reason, starting with five. You want to start with one, but we’re going to start with five. Coming up, we’re going to give you reason number four the Seahawks are a playoff team this season.

There is some skepticism with this year’s Seahawks team, but hosts Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton (Wyman and Bob) share their optimism in Seattle’s playoff chances with their top 5 reasons the Seahawks are a playoff team. Today starts with #5. Stay tuned all week!

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0:00 – Intro
0:45 – Devon Witherspoon – Wyman #5 Reason
3:45 – Ernest Jones – Bob’s #5 Reason

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Listen to The Wyman & Bob Show weekdays from 2 p.m. – 7 p.m. live on Seattle Sports 710 AM and the Seattle Sports App, or on-demand wherever you listen to podcasts.
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