How will Julian Love survive a Pro Bowl season while leading a revamped safety group?

Julian Love signed with the Seahawks as a free agent last year expecting to play a big role on defense. What was perhaps harder to predict last spring, however, was that Love, who played in a secondary that also featured Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams, would be Seattle’s safety representing his team at the Pro Bowl after the 2023 season.

Now in his second season as a Seahawk, Love finds himself in a different position: taking on a leadership role in a young secondary after both Diggs and Adams were released due to salary cap concerns. Love noted that it was tough to see the two veterans go as he had developed a close bond with them, and said his job in 2024 will not be to replace either player, but to be himself and lead in his own way.

“I appreciate those guys and everything they’ve done, and now I just have to be myself and offer my leadership to the guys in this room,” Love said earlier this offseason. “…I’m not a guy that yells and screams in front of the group, I’m not. I’m pretty composed and just want to tell our guys what it is and what it’s not. That sense of responsibility obviously has to be there, but the flip side of that is I want to create a culture where we cheer each other on and celebrate each other’s success as much as our own. That’s my goal and my leadership style, and I just try to take that and be there for the guys here.”

As for the guys in his position group, Love will find success with a newly assembled safety group after general manager and president of football operations John Schneider’s difficult business decisions. With Adams and Diggs gone, the Seahawks have signed two seasoned veterans with starting experience. They include Rayshawn Jenkins, who recorded 217 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, five interceptions, 21 passes defensed and three forced fumbles over the past two seasons with Jacksonville, and K’Von Wallace, who started 12 games last season, splitting it between Arizona and Tennessee. And while Love and Jenkins are considered the starting safety duo before training camp, Wallace should have plenty of opportunity to carve out a role on defense given the number of three-safety lineups Mike Macdonald used in Baltimore last year.

And Seattle’s safeties are excited to see what they can do in Macdonald’s defense, a defense that has seen great performances from safeties Kyle Hamilton, who was named to the All-Pro first team last season, and Geno Stone, who ranked second in the NFL with seven safeties.

“It’s a really creative and fun defense, but you have to pay attention to the details,” Jenkins said, later adding, “Our security room is pretty versatile.”

Jenkins, meanwhile, is making a good impression with his new team and head coach, showing the kind of playmaking, versatility and football intelligence that made him one of the team’s most coveted transfer candidates.

“We’ve seen the things we expected based on record, reputation and homework,” Macdonald said during OTAs. “He’s going to be a leader on this football team. We’re going to count on him and he’s very talented.”

“He’s a guy we can compete with and he can do everything we need from a safety in our system. He’s off to a great start; we expect a great year from him.”

Behind the trio of Love, Jenkins and Wallace, the Seahawks have a group of young players, all entering their second seasons, demonstrating depth: 2023 draft pick Jerrick Reed II, who was a standout on special teams as a rookie before suffering a season-ending knee injury, and undrafted free agent additions Ty Okada and Jonathan Sutherland.