on offense and defense In our handy dandy photo tool http://www.authenticsseattleseahawks.com/cheap-bobby-wagner-jersey , you won’t find a ton of pictures of Quinton Jefferson, which is a bit unusual for a starting NFL defensive end. But not so unusual for a defensive end who has just six tackles and no sacks through three games. However, Jefferson gets a lot more done “behind the scenes” than he’s given credit for on a normal box score.According to FootballOutsiders premium charting stats, Jefferson leads the Seattle Seahawks with five pressures this season, 1.5 more than Frank Clark, even though Clark does have three sacks. Jefferson usually doesn’t play as many snaps as Clark does (though in Week 1, he led the defensive end group with 48 snaps to Clark’s 43), but he’s a very regular member of the defensive line rotation. It’s a long way from being waived, as the former fifth round pick was a year ago, spending a brief amount of time with the LA Rams before returning last year, quietly winning the job opposite of Clark, and then recording a team-high four QB hits against Dak Prescott on Sunday.He’s no doubt helped Seattle’s pass rush, which now ranks 16th in the NFL at 25.2%, per FootballOutsiders. (I would link to a full list, but it’s behind a paywall.)The Seahawks are tied with the Carolina Panthers in that category, and are a step behind the LA Chargers at 15. The team apparently leading the way in pressure rate: the Dallas Cowboys. Though Seattle’s defense was the star of the game, the Cowboys did sack Russell Wilson and hit him seven times. They have 11 sacks on the season and it’s come from all angles, with nine players recording at least a piece of a sack. The Seahawks next test is Chandler Jones and the Arizona Cardinals, who rank third in pressure rate on defense.Neither the Seahawks nor the Cardinals have anything to brag about with the pressure rates allowed by their offensive lines, however.While Seattle is often described as having the worst pass protection in the league, they actually rank 27th in pressure rate allowed, per FO. That’s bad, but it’s not the worst. There are five teams below them — including the high-profile, high-paid unit in Dallas, and Arizona, a team that ranks 31st in pressure rate allowed at 38.5%.Only the Houston Texans are worse.The top two teams in the NFL are no surprise, with the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders ranking first and second http://www.authenticsseattleseahawks.com/cheap-bradley-mcdougald-jersey , while the surprise Miami Dolphins are third.For now, I think the Seahawks’ protection is where it is, and while the unit hopefully improves as the season goes on (we’ll see what the return of D.J. Fluker means in the long run, as well as the health and positional futures of Justin Britt, Joey Hunt, J.R. Sweezy, and Ethan Pocic), I don’t expect Seattle to end the year ranking as the top offensive line in football. I don’t think the Seahawks will lead the league in sacks either, but I think pressure rate on defense has a lot more potential.Depending on the progress of Rasheem Green, the health of Dion Jordan, the formula on how to use Barkevious Mingo, the potential breakout of Jarran Reed, and greater coverage by a secondary that seems to get better each week, maybe Seattle can finish in the top five there. It starts with guys like Clark, but Jefferson is doing his part too.Rasheem Green looks ahead of schedule “Frolf. Frisbee golf, Jerry. Golf with a frisbee. This is gonna be my time. Time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin. I proclaim this: The Summer of George!”Where were you on the night that the classic Seinfeld episode, “The Summer of George,” the season eight finale, aired? At least 20 million Americans were at home, watching it live on TV. I’m sure many of you didn’t care. And surely some of you were not born yet, or were too young to know what a Seinfeld even is. “What’s the deal with Seinfeld?” But for Rasheem Green’s parents, that night they probably weren’t watching TV.They were saying, “What’s the deal with this baby of ours who was born today?”Word for word, I bet they said that.It’s fascinating to get to this stage in my life now where there are NFL players who were born at times that didn’t seem that long ago, because I wasn’t that young when Seinfeld was in its eighth season. I know that many people are also reading this thinking, “Kid, I watched the first season of the Seattle Seahawks Seahawks Quinton Jefferson Jersey , in person, with tickets I bought because I was an adult with a job!” But Green, 21, is now in the NFL, proving that we are getting closer and closer to the first 21st century baby to turn pro.So far in his first year with the Seahawks, Green is no baby.The now-looking-significant injury to Dion Jordan (“What’s the Dion with Jordan?”) has pushed Green into a starting role at defensive end in training camp, while a sidelined Frank Clark has only put more pressure on the third round pick from USC to bear a heavy load for Seattle on the defensive line. The idea that Green, one of the youngest players in the draft, could be a notable piece of the defense in 2018 was not one at the forefront of many people’s minds when the Seahawks selected him (which was only possible thanks to the trade down on day one, but let’s keep pretending like John Schneider is flat-out bad at drafting), but now you have to wonder if he’ll just keep the job regardless.Green’s drawn rave reviews in practice.That showed up in his NFL preseason debut on Thursday night (spoiler alert provided by McKenna in the tweet above) when he produced a solo sack of Andrew Luck early and then combined for one with fellow 2018 draft class pick Jacob Martin. It is worth noting that his sack of Luck came against Joe Haeg at left tackle and not Anthony Castonzo, but Green still did just about everything right on Thursday. And against better tackles, he could remain effective based on what we’ve seen.And here he is helping the Seahawks recover a fumble for a touchdown by jumping on quarterback Brad Kaaya:“What’s the steal with touchdowns?”By all accounts, Green had a good night. With Jordan likely out for an extended period of time, and Seattle already thin at defensive end with Barkevious Mingo and Martin now both seemingly moving up from linebacker to help in that area, leaving Shaquem Griffin and others (“What’s the Beal, Emmanuel?”) to man the middle-outside of the defense, Green’s advanced learning pace is coming at just the right time.There’s still three preseason weeks and plenty of practices left to go, and who knows how he will fare against typical starting left tackles (the Broncos, Bears, and Cowboys — Seattle’s first three opponents — could all have capable-to-elite offensive tackles), but this is way sooner than Green was expected to play, and way sooner than he was expected to be this effective.Who knows, this might just be The Winter of Green.
