Julian Love signed with the Seahawks as a free agent last year expecting to have a big role in the defense, but what might have been harder to predict last spring was that Love, playing in a secondary that also featured Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams, would be the Seattle safety representing his team at the Pro Bowl following the 2023 season.

Now, heading into his second season as a Seahawk, Love finds himself in a different position, stepping into a leadership role in a young secondary after both Diggs and Adams were released in salary cap-related moves. Love noted that it was tough to see those two veterans let go because of the bond he formed with them, and said his job in 2024 won’t be to replace either player, but rather be himself and lead in his own way.

“I appreciate those guys and all they did, and now I just have to be myself and provide my leadership for the guys in this room,” Love said earlier this offseason. “… I’m not a guy who is going to hoot and holler in front of the group, that’s not me. I’m pretty collected, and I just want to say what it is and what it isn’t for our guys. That sense of accountability obviously has to be there, but then the flip side of it is I want to create a culture where we’re gassing each other up and just as happy celebrating the next person’s success as your own. That’s my goal and my leadership style, and I’m just trying to adopt that and be present for the guys here.”

When it comes to the guys in his position group, Love will be celebrating success with a new-look safety group following those difficult business decisions made by general manager and president of football operations John Schneider. With Adams and Diggs gone, the Seahawks signed a pair of veterans with starting experience, adding Rayshawn Jenkins, who over the past two seasons with Jacksonville recorded 217 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, five interceptions, 21 passes defensed and three forced fumbles, and K’Von Wallace, who started 12 games last season splitting time between Arizona and Tennessee. And though Love and Jenkins project as the starting safety duo heading into camp, Wallace should have plenty of opportunity to carve out a role in the defense given how many three-safety looks Mike Macdonald used in Baltimore last year.

And Seattle’s safeties are excited to see what they can do in Macdonald’s defense, one that got big production out of safeties Kyle Hamilton, a first-team All-Pro last season, and Geno Stone, who finished second in the NFL with seven safeties.

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

Jenkins, meanwhile, is making a good impression on his new team and head coach, showing off the type of playmaking, versatility and football intelligence that made him one of the team’s top targets in free agency.

“We’ve seen the things we anticipated off of tape, off of reputation and doing our 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 that we can play matchup with, and he can do all the things that we ask from a safety in our system. He’s off to a great start; we expect a big year from him.”

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