Field Gulls
The Seattle Seahawks rookies combined for 158 snaps in Week 12 against the Tennessee Titans. Tory Horton being placed on IR certainly had a major impact on that number. It could have been even lower had Grey Zabel not managed to play through injury. It’s also worth noting that the offense had 26 fewer plays than in the previous game, which reduced the overall snap count — especially because all of our rookies, except Nick Emmanwori, play on offense.
Let’s analyze some of the key plays from this game!
First, we need to talk about his recovery. There are two possibilities: either he’s a Wolverine who recovered from an injury that was serious enough to raise the possibility of IR — costing him at least a few games — only to return as a full-time starter, or the team has so little confidence in Christian Haynes that they preferred to risk Zabel’s knee.
Regardless, he played every snap and performed better than he did against the Rams. Even so, he committed a false start, was called for holding (canceled by a defensive penalty), got away with another holding early in the game, and allowed just one pressure (a QB hit), which could have easily resulted in an interception.
Jeffery Simmons is one of the best DTs in the league. With excellent hand usage, he prevents Zabel from establishing his outside arm, and without that contact, he creates a clear lane to the QB. The center doesn’t get a good angle to help, and Sam Darnold, even recognizing the pressure, chooses to force the throw — which nearly becomes an interception.
Zabel handled stunts well in this game. In fact, the entire Seahawks offensive line showed improvement in that area against the Titans. However, on this snap, after passing off the stunt, he hesitates between helping the center or the left tackle. That indecision slows him down and leads to a holding penalty (again canceled).
I liked seeing him use a different hand technique, trying to force an early move from the rusher. He mistimes the contact but compensates with good positioning to keep the defender away from the QB.
It’s always good to see that level of physicality against a DT like Simmons.
This was one of the offensive line’s best snaps in the run game. Everyone executes well, but Zabel stands out by quickly reaching the second level and taking an excellent angle for Ken Walker to gain yardage.
This snap has both good and bad: good job identifying the stunt, passing off the rusher, and staying alert for the late blitzer. However, it came very close to being a holding call.
He recorded eight tackles and three run stops. He played heavily as a dimebacker due to Ernest Jones’ injury and also stepped in as a safety after Ty Okada went down at halftime. It was likely the game in...
