After what felt like literally months without football (my perception of time is A+) the Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 17-16 in a dramatic and meaningless football game on Saturday. The game was won on a Trevone Boykin Hail Mary, followed up by a two point conversion. It was great. Christine Michael looked awesome all day. Seriously it was great. It also meant very very little (except of course that we’re going to win the Super Bowl).

But the football-esque substance that is pre-season NFL action did give us some new evidence on how good the Seahawks might be this year. Nothing too definitive, but some evidence nonetheless. So we’re going to run through some Seahawks units (and one non-Seahawks unit) that redefined either their floor or ceiling on Saturday, so that we’re properly calibrated heading into the regular season.

Seahawks offensive line:

Obviously, the floor for this unit is terrifyingly low. Former Bowling Green basketball player George Fant was our second string left tackle, and although he has great physical tools, he looked decidedly unready to play tackle in the NFL. We’re apparently one injury away from Fant protecting Russell Wilson’s blindside. This is not to pick on Fant, who again is an interesting prospect, it’s to say that every spot on the line is uncertain, and could be filled by someone unprepared.

That said, the ceiling on this unit? Pretty good actually. The talent that’s been brought in this year looks useful. First round pick Germain Ifedi had a bad holding call, but otherwise played great yesterday. The much maligned Justin Britt lined up at center and was pretty damn good at it, especially as a run blocker at the point of attack where he’s always excelled. Garry Gilliams looks like a really solid pass blocker at right tackle. Across the line there were glimpses of something in the way of a league average offensive line. I’d say the ceiling for this unit? League average. And if you put Russell Wilson behind a league average offensive line, dude is going to eat.

Seahawks pass defense:

The floor of any Seahawks pass defense is going to be high; Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman assure as much. And without Michael Bennett disrupting up front and Kam Chancellor enforcing in the back it’s tough to draw any meaningful conclusions from Saturday’s game.

That said: Tharold Simon was okay yesterday. Jeremy Lane was okay yesterday. And within the context of a Pete Carroll coached secondary, okay is a glaring hole. The floor of this pass defense which took half a step backwards last year, to just great from the historically great standard they had set in the three previous years. That, despite re-signing Lane to a solid contract, has not been raised this offseason. This pass defense could again be good but not great.

If you want reasons to think the ceiling might be raised, you’d have to look at Tye Smith emerging as a legit number two corner and Brandon Browner coming in and providing scheme versatility against teams that would have exploited us with tight end play last season. But even those moves wouldn’t move the needle too much. The ceiling for this unit remains dizzyingly high by the league’s standards, but by Pete Caroll standards this is a good but not great crew.

The Rams:

During the Seahawks pre-season win, word leaked that the Rams are going to extend their GM and head coach before seeing how they do year one in Los Angeles. That’s bonkers to me. Their GM is fine, and has drafted well, despite giving up a lot of capital to get Jared Goff who is not a generational talent. Extending him? Sure, whatever. But extending head coach Jeff Fisher? Woof. That’s building an 8-8 ceiling on your team out of marble.

Seahawks Kicking:

Steven Hauschka is still dope as hell. He hit a bunch of field goals. It was cool. The ceiling and floor didn’t move, I just wanted to point out how good Steven Hauschka is.

Seahawks Passing Game:

Russell Wilson led one drive for the Seahawks, and devoured the Chiefs until he got to goal line and threw an interception. The pick came on a slightly late pass thrown to Jermaine Kearse who did not fight off the Chiefs young superstar cornerback Marcus Peters. It was a bad pass, but there was nothing in Wilson’s play to suggest he’ll take even a quarter step back this year; he and Doug Baldwin looked particularly in sync in their brief time on the field together. The ceiling with this team remains top 5 passing offense, and the floor remains very high so long as Wilson stays healthy.

What got me excited on Saturday was Wilson’s backup Trevone Boykin. Boykin in many ways is Wilson 2.0. He was a dominant college passer at TCU. He’s mobile, undersized, but capable of throwing a great deep ball. His stats in college suggested he should have been drafted. Boykin slid because he got arrested in the aftermath of a bar fight that happened a couple days before he was to play his last college game.

On Saturday Boykin looked solid. Obviously the game winning Hail Mary was nice to see, but earlier on he showed a solid rapport with forgotten Seahawks receiver Paul Richardson moving the ball down the field. Now if this team is leaning on the Boykin to Richardson connection during the regular season, something awful has happened. That said, the fact that that connection looked good means the floor for the Seahawks passing game even in the worst case scenario is pretty high.