Earl Thomas was the lone player from Seattle's two Super Bowl teams to take the field against Chicago on Monday night. With that much attrition, the Seahawks had to switch up the way they dealt with some things, including certain passing situations.
CHICAGO — Any casual fan tuning into Monday Night Football might have been left confused.
What happened to the Legion of Boom?
It’s a well-told tale locally how the Seahawks are not much like their old selves anymore.
But they were less like their old selves on defense Monday night at Chicago than ever, with linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright missing the 24-17 loss due to injury.
Starting in their place were Austin Calitro in the middle and newly-signed Mychal Kendricks at weakside linebacker.
Seattle also had another new look in the secondary, with Akeem King getting the start at right cornerback in place of rookie Tre Flowers, who was also inactive with a hamstring injury.
Earl Thomas was the only defender from Seattle’s Super Bowl teams who remained in the starting lineup on Monday night.
In Calitro, King and Kendricks, the Seahawks started three players who were not with the team until at least June, or not on the initial 53-man roster to start the season.
Calitro, who was also on the practice squad for about 10 days last season, signed in June and made the team as a special teams player and a backup to Wagner, and was forced into the starting lineup when Wagner injured his groin in the opener against Denver.
Kendricks, who was released by the Browns after pleading guilty to insider trading, was signed by Seattle on Thursday after the team learned of the severity of Wagner’s injury — Wagner may be back next week.
King was on the practice squad much of last season and on the offseason roster. But he was waived in the cutdown to 53 and on the practice squad when the season began before being promoted to the active roster before the game against Denver as Flowers’ backup when Dontae Johnson was placed on Injured Reserve.
That made King the team’s fourth starting right corner this season behind Byron Maxwell — signed to take that spot before being injured in training camp and never playing in the preseason and being placed on IR — Johnson and Flowers.
Calitro did not play in a game last season on the practice squads of both Seattle and Cleveland for a time.
Five possible starters inactive
With six injured players it wasn’t too hard for the Seahawks to find seven players to make inactive for Monday’s game.
Six players who had been listed as out or doubtful were all inactive — Wagner, Wright and Flowers, receiver Doug Baldwin, safety Delano Hill and offensive lineman D.J. Fluker.
All but Hill were listed as starters on the team’s depth chart entering the season.
The only healthy inactive to get down to the necessary 46 was offensive lineman Jordan Simmons.
The injuries allowed the Seahawks to keep a few players active who were healthy scratches the week before, specifically defensive tackles Nazair Jones and Poona Ford and tailback Mike Davis. Seattle also needed Jones and Ford active to make up for the absence of Tom Johnson, whose contract was terminated to make room for safety Shalom Luani
Seattle hopes to re-sign Johnson, whose $950,000 base salary was guaranteed. The only money Johnson would not get by missing Monday’s game is a $15,625 roster bonus.
For Baldwin, being inactive snapped a streak of 89 straight games he’s played in, dating to the 2012 season — it had been the fourth-longest streak for current NFL receivers.
Wagner had not missed a game since early in the 2015 season.
All the injuries compelled Seahawks general manager John Schneider to engage in a little gallows humor during his weekly radio show on the team’s pre-game radio network.
“The Bears are going to see our inactive list and be pretty excited about it,’’ Schneider said.
Seahawks go with three-safety look
With something of a makeshift back seven, the Seahawks came up with a three-safety, three-cornerback look that appeared designed in part to get more experienced players on the field in obvious passing situations.
In those situations the Seahawks had just one linebacker on the field — Calitro – meaning Kendricks had a more simplified role.
“We were trying to keep the linebackers from having too much of a game plan, too much burden on them, particularly Mychal to learn too much,” coach Pete Carroll said after the game. ”
The three safeties were starters Thomas and Bradley McDougald, with Tedric Thompson then coming in. The corners were starters King and Shaquill Griffin with Justin Coleman coming in at the nickel.
Basically, Seattle had Thompson in the game instead of Kendricks or another weakside linebacker with McDougald then essentially playing in the weakside linebacker spot.
“I thought Bradley played a fantastic game,” Carroll said. “I’m anxious to see us grow with that.”
The scheme also meant that rookie Shaquem Griffin — who started at weakside linebacker last week in place of Wright at Denver — did not see action on defense.
Griffin struggled in the first quarter against Denver and saw Calitro take much of his snaps at weakside linebacker as the game wore on. With Wagner hurt, the team wanted Calitro in the middle this week with Kendricks playing WLB.
“Shaq had a little bit of a rough game last week but he’s out there competing his tail off all through the week,’’ Schneider said on his radio show.
NOTES
- Without Wagner, Jarran Reed served as the defensive captain for the coin toss. Other game captains were left tackle Duane Brown and punter Michael Dickson along with season captains Russell Wilson and Sebastian Janikowski.