It was not the game anyone expected to break a 12 game win streak, but the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Marcus Mariota-led Washington Commanders. I asked my discord server what their biggest questions about the team are right now. Let’s take a look at what’s on the mind of the fans. The wording of the questions has been lightly edited for this article.

More Barnyard?

“Should Fleury spam the barnyard in the redzone?”

This seems like such a no-brainer. Last season, the Seahawks were successful on 10 of their 11 attempts at running the Barnyard, and their one failure was when they tried to run a misdirection play out of it. Furthermore, they’ve been a disaster in short yardage, particularly around the goal line, so far this season. You would think this would become their default going forward.

But when Mike Macdonald and Brian Fleury were questioned about it in recent press conferences, they both sounded fairly non-committal. Maybe that doesn’t mean much, but as of right now it seems like they have some resistance to the concept. Maybe they’re worried it won’t work as well without Anthony Bradford, or it’ll create injuries. We’ll have to see about this one.

What Is Jadarian Price?

“Is Jadarian Price the future Seahawks franchise running back?”

The thing to keep in mind with Price is that he wasn’t a featured running back in college. He wasn’t even a co-star. He was an outright sidekick to Jeremiyah Love. So expecting him to turn into some featured running back in the NFL is probably a mistake. But let’s also keep in mind that he doesn’t have to be in order to be a valuable NFL player.

He was the last pick in the first round of a bad draft. If he ends up turning into a rotational running back in a three-headed backfield, with effective production, that should be more than good enough. But at this point I’m not expecting him to be some elite bellcow. It just doesn’t strike me as realistic. Don’t rule out a high pick on a running back next year.

Julian Love Is Really Good

“Is our defense lost without Julian Love?”

Of the many things that went wrong last week against the Washington Commanders, AJ Finley’s first career start was certainly on the list. The team most certainly missed Julian Love, who had been playing at an All-Pro level over the first two games. However, consider that AJ Finley is, effectively, the fifth safety on this team when everyone is healthy.

Love, Ty Okada, Bud Clark, and Rodney Thomas II are all clearly ahead of him in the pecking order, all things being equal. Now, how many teams in the NFL have a functional fifth safety? Would any team have success in these circumstances? Almost certainly not. So it’s not just a Julian Love thing. Sometimes, the injuries just stack up too high.

Solving The EDGE Rusher Problem

“What happened to our EDGE rushers?”

I take a bit of a different perspective here than many, but I’m going to suggest that the problem is actually pretty small. Keeping in mind that Seattle deploys their EDGE rushers unconventionally, prioritizing run defense over quick pass rush wins, I think they’re doing fine. Derick Hall, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Uchenna Nwosu are doing well.

The issue, if there is one, is Dante Fowler Jr is barely playing, which puts too much on the plate of the above three. I don’t think Fowler is playing poorly, so either get him more snaps or get someone else who can bridge the gap and lighten the load. Boye Mafe wasn’t great last year, but at least he could stay on the field. We need just a little bit more.

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