“The season is not over, but just the sour taste that has been in our mouth since Day 1 hasn’t really left. It hasn’t been right since Day 1. … Something’s missing.” — K.J. Wright on Seattle Sports 710

It was great to hear K.J. Wright speak the brutal truth about these uninspired, inattentive, nonchalant Seahawks this week.

The former team star, speaking on his Seattle Sports 710 radio show, ripped the immature antics of DK Metcalf and Jamal Adams, the poor play of Darrell Taylor and Riq Woolen, the out-of-the-picture Quandre Diggs and even, subtly, his venerable friend Bobby Wagner.

With all of the bad attitudes and/or terrible play, Wright said Pete Carroll needs to “lay down the hammer.”

“I am pleading with him this week to really and truly lay down the hammer, lay down the law with these guys. Enough has been enough.”

Wright is right. We just wrote about the safeties and Wagner needing to move on in 2024 and how Woolen has had a miserably regressive season. We also have never liked the one-dimensional Taylor (who still cannot play the run) – we suggested earlier this year that the Hawks trade him.

Wright’s criticism supports everything we have said about these guys. Like us, he thinks changes have to be made. He wants them made now, but we don’t think that will matter. This team has too many cancers on it that need to be removed, and that cannot be done until this nearly dead season is finally buried.

As Wright said, “This team is looking really, really distracted. The focus on football is not there. The attention to details is not there. It is so clear. That is the most disheartening thing about watching this team, (because) you see the talent.

“It’s not even about the opponents anymore. They’re fighting their own internal battles within the building. They’re fighting guys buying into what Coach Carroll is saying.”

Wright said Carroll seems “extremely frustrated. He feels like he’s preaching to them, he’s trying to be nice with them, but they’re just not receiving his message well. So essentially, they don’t give a damn what he’s saying at this point.”

Carroll waved off Wright’s comments, saying, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

But you know damn well Carroll knows what he’s talking about. He just can’t do much about it right now, other than maybe make a couple of lineup tweaks, as Wright advocated. The big moves will come after this bothersome season comes to an end.

Wagner disagrees

For whatever it’s worth (not much, frankly), Bobby Wagner said he does not think Carroll has lost the attention of his players.

“I think it’s when you go on a four-game losing streak everybody tries to find something, tries to create the reason, especially people (who are) not in the locker room,” Wagner said. “They try to come up with the reason, because you try to figure out what is going wrong. And so, you can name a player, you can name this, you could do that.

“Winning cures all of that. The moment you win, then it’s a whole different story. We understand what we need to do. We need to do it, quick.”

No leadership

Wright asked a great question: Other than Wagner, who are the leaders on this team now?

“Who’s coming to lend him a hand when it comes to being a voice on the football team?”

Wright said a team needs four locker-room leaders. “Let’s be crystal clear: There are not four guys.

“No brother is holding the other brother accountable,” he said. “So Coach Carroll, if the players are not doing it, doggone it, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to do it. You don’t have a strong enough locker room … so you’ve got to be the one to execute it.”

As an example of missing leadership, Wright pointed out a personal foul by Jaxon Njigba-Smith, who pushed a 49ers player in the face.  

“Who’d he go and shake hands with after that? DK Metcalf,” Wright said. “He went over and shook hands with him. Like, what the heck is this? What are we saying right here? What are we teaching these young guys who have so much potential?

“Who is Devon Witherspoon looking up to in that building? Who is he looking up to? It’s really hard to see when you have ‘leaders’ … in the locker room — are they showing the younger guys what it’s supposed to look like?”

The secondary has no dependable leaders. Adams is a loose cannon, Diggs is more team spokesperson than a team leader, and the corners are all super young. Julian Love, a team captain in New York, should be able to step into that role in 2024 — assuming the other safeties are gone.

Wright said Jordyn Brooks has not been able to assume a leadership role because of the presence of the venerable Wagner. Of course, Brooks might be gone in 2024 as well, so it doesn’t really matter. The linebacker position should undergo big change in 2024, with a couple of thumpers ideally replacing the undersized Brooks and Wagner.

Wright said Jarran Reed might count as a leader up front. Leonard Williams could be, as he gets more comfortable. Of course, he might not be back in 2024 either – he was noncommittal about the idea of re-signing last week (he is expected to go wherever the money is).

On offense, there are no real vocal leaders. Geno Smith is not really a take-charge guy, beyond his role as quarterback. Tyler Lockett is kind of a quiet leader, sometimes speaking up but mostly just doing his job quietly.

Evan Brown should be the de facto leader of the line, but the interior has been very weak – the main reason there has been no consistency in the running game.

So yeah, Wright sure seems to be correct in saying there really are very few leader types on this team.

Once the useless older defensive guys are gone, it will open the door for players such as Love and Witherspoon to take the lead.

Lineup changes?

Until then, Wright passionately called for Carroll to make lineup changes to send messages and get better players in there.

He pushed for Coby Bryant to replace Adams. He said Woolen doesn’t have the “will to tackle” and should be pushed by someone who does. He ripped Taylor for his inability to get off blocks and make any plays in the running game. He called out Diggs for taking bad angles and getting caught out of position.

Wright didn’t criticize Wagner, but he didn’t argue with the suggestion that the 33-year-old linebacker gets burned in the passing game far too much and should perhaps be replaced in the middle by Brooks on passing downs.

Like the rest of us, Wright is fed up watching this nonchalant, inattentive and insubordinate bunch of defenders. And he made it clear salary and ego should not be factors if Carroll wants to win the final four games. 

“This is not the point to care about guys’ feelings,” Wright said. “It is time to lay down the law. It is time to finish this season on a high note.”

That seems unlikely, but what seems quite likely – or at least very needed — is Carroll and John Schneider making some major changes in 2024 to create a roster of players who are going to take coaching and figure out how to play well together.