Following Rough Start, Revitalized Seahawks Secondary Building Own Legacy

While the group won't - and shouldn't - be mistaken for the historic "Legion of Boom," a once-maligned Seahawks secondary continues to improve by week. With a talented group starting to play up to its potential and reinforcements on the way, Jamal Adams and company are finally starting to write their own story.

Following the conclusion of a difficult 2017 season that concluded with his team missing the playoffs for the first time in six years, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll knew major changes were on the horizon for his once-vaunted defense.

Months earlier, cornerback Richard Sherman blew out of his Achilles tendon in Arizona. During that very same game, safety Kam Chancellor exited with a neck injury that threatened his career. Fellow star safety Earl Thomas had one year left on his contract with Seattle and had already exhibited signs of frustration with the organization.

In quick fashion, the famous "Legion of Boom" was no more. Sherman was waived and promptly signed with the 49ers, Chancellor never played another down due to his injury, and Thomas' last game as a Seahawk culminated with him giving Carroll the bird while being escorted off the field on a medical cart with a broken leg.

"It was just a matter of who the new guys were going to be and then we'd have to figure out who would ever have known that Kam [Chancellor] would be like that or Earl [Thomas] would have been the style that they would have been and so you have to wait and figure it out somewhat," Carroll explained. "You have hopes... that we would find the right combination of guys and we would turn it around and we would get back on track again."

As part of a substantial roster reset, Carroll and general manager John Schneider began reconstructing Seattle's secondary piece by piece. First, Bradley McDougald was re-signed and Tre Flowers was drafted in the fifth round to team up with Shaquill Griffin, who stepped into Sherman's stead at left cornerback. Then, a midseason trade in October 2019 brought Quandre Diggs to the Pacific Northwest, providing the team with a long-term answer in center field.

This offseason, the rebuilding continued, as Schneider orchestrated two trades with Washington and the New York Jets to acquire cornerback Quinton Dunbar and safety Jamal Adams, dealing two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and a fifth-round pick to further bolster the secondary. Second-year defender Marquise Blair transitioned to the slot cornerback spot and excelled during training camp.

Carroll loved what he saw on the field in August, but he also understood expectations would need to be tempered, especially during a weird season impacted tremendously by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I would say this, now in camp with when we started working together in camp and got to see our guys, my expectations went really high in thinking that the things that we could do and had a lot to do with Marquise [Blair], who really was an extraordinary young factor in what we were doing and all that," Carroll explained." We just, I just feel like we're just kind of getting back together again, it's taken a while to get the band back out there, so hopefully we can finish with a real strong showing to wrap up this season."

Despite impressing in camp, Seattle's new-look secondary struggled to come close to meeting Carroll's expectations during the first half of the season, in large part due to injuries and a lack of continuity. Adams missed four games with a groin injury, Dunbar missed multiple games with chronic knee pain, Griffin sat out a handful of games with a concussion and hamstring strain, and Blair tore his ACL in Week 2, ending his season.

During the first eight games of the season, the Seahawks were on pace to shatter the NFL single-season record for passing yards surrendered, allowing nearly 363 passing yards per game up to that point. The days where the "Legion of Boom" roamed in the defensive backfield felt like a lifetime ago.

But over the past four games, with Adams back in the lineup and the duo of Flowers and D.J. Reed playing well as replacement corners, Seattle has turned its season around and then some. Aided by a much-improved pass rush spearheaded by the addition of Carlos Dunlap, the team has allowed under 300 passing yards in all four games and given up an average of 205 passing yards per game.

Leading the way, Diggs has intercepted two passes, helping eliminate seam, post, and corner routes from the free safety spot. Griffin has performed well since returning from injury, allowing just four receptions for 26 yards in two games. Using his unique skill set, Adams has recorded 16 run stops and 5.5 sacks since returning from injury, per Pro Football Focus.

With players such as Adams, Griffin, and Diggs finally playing extensive snaps together, Carroll can see the chemistry finally coming together on the field. Things should only get better with Dunbar returning healthy from injured reserve in the near future. For Carroll, it's been a long process reaching this point with multiple signings, draft picks, and trades made over a three-year stretch seeking the right combination to fill the shoes vacated by the likes of Sherman, Chancellor, and Thomas.

"I can't tell you that I had a vision for it because I wasn't sure who the players were going to be and as we were transitioning," Carroll commented. "It kind of happened, it didn't seem like it happened all at once although it almost did now when you look back, but I've always felt like our secondary should be notable. We should play with, in noteworthy fashion. That's just kind of, that's the way I've expected it over the years." 

While Carroll was quick to point out finding "a collection of those guys of that caliber" is rare - there certainly may never been another "Legion of Boom" - after a turbulent start, Adams, Diggs, and a rejuvenated defensive backfield is finally starting to create their own legacy. It's a different group of players with different strengths and personalities, and now that the unit is finally gelling, they soon may have their own memorable moniker to go by if they pave the way for the Seahawks to make a deep playoff run in January.