What’s next?

It’s already here. The talk of big change in the off-season.

The 0-2 start and the manner of the two losses made it inevitable.

Many people appreciate it’s a transition year. They just want to see reasons to be optimistic. I suspect a lot of fans are resigned to 6-10 or 7-9. Or worse. They simply want to go into the off-season believing the good times will be back soon.

Little about this start will evoke any optimism.

It’s not totally negative. The performance of the defense in Chicago, minus several stars, was encouraging. It highlighted Pete Carroll can still coach up a defense. Considering the lack of X-factor talent on the defensive line and the game of musical chairs across from Shaquill Griffin, last night has to be considered a job well done.

But then there’s the offense. And that’s the reason people are losing faith quickly.

Carroll’s interview after the game was bizarre.

Firstly, he revealed he told Brian Schottenheimer to take deep shots at the start of the second half. I get it. They had some momentum before half time and had an opportunity to snatch even more with a big play. Yet they had a spell where they didn’t run the ball for 14 consecutive snaps.

8:11 left in the second quarter until 14:15 left in the game. No runs.

Seattle spent an off-season saying they were going to fix and feature the run. This year they have 64 and 74 rushing yards in their two games. They have zero rushing touchdowns. They appear willing to abandon it in a flash.

Nobody wants them to run for the sake of it but this just seems so contradictory.

Secondly, the Chris Carson mystery (which is staggering and weird). He didn’t run the ball once in the second half. Not a single tote. Carroll said after the game he was tired due to a special teams commitment. Then it was revealed he had only two snaps on special teams. Today Carroll backtracked on 710 ESPN, suggesting he was mistaken. Carson was just tired and he made an assumption.

What’s going on?

Why is Carson tired, if indeed he truly was? Why is Carroll’s message — usually so on-point — now strikingly inconsistent?

People have started to assume, not unfairly, it’s merely an attempt to feature Rashaad Penny. The first round pick. Perhaps that’s true? But it doesn’t answer why Mike Davis got on the field before Carson to spell Penny.

Weren’t Carson & Penny supposed to be a two-headed monster?

What’s going on?

Then there’s the scheme and play-calling. Russell Wilson has never looked so unsure, so jittery, so compressed. He looks uncomfortable.

And even more concerning is their apparent inability to dictate to the defense in any way. They want to run the ball but either can’t or won’t. They see a seven-man blitz from Chicago and don’t have the answers to beat it.

This tweet from Brock Huard sums it up:

The offense was supposed to be the unit they could hang their hat on. This was supposed to be the year they got back to classic Carroll football. Instead, the opposite is happening. The offense hasn’t looked this stagnant in the Wilson era.

Things can change quickly in football. With two home games up next against inconsistent Dallas and Arizona (who look even worse than Seattle), they could easily be 2-2 in a fortnight. It might simply paper over the cracks but some of the doom and gloom would be lifted. Even if it’s just temporary.

They should beat Arizona. Should being the key word. But Dallas? If they lose next week the noise will grow. With a game against the Rams forthcoming, the reality is a 1-4 start heading to London.

That’s not unrealistic. And it’s why this Dallas game is undoubtedly the most important since Seattle was beaten in the playoffs by Atlanta in 2016. The fans need something to show this isn’t the ‘titanic’ after all. They need a reason to believe this team is a good off-season away from being ‘back’.

They’ve had two losses. They need some wins.

The offense has to be better. Carroll and Schottenheimer have to be better. So does Wilson — but he needs help. It has to start now.

Stand-out draft prospects so far

Nick Bosa (DE, Ohio State)
Clelin Ferrell (DE, Clemson)
Ed Oliver (DT, Houston)
Steven Montez (QB, Colorado)
Brian Burns (DE, Florida State)
Devin White (LB, LSU)
Dexter Lawrence (DT, Clemson)
Dre’Mont Jones (DT, Ohio State)
Raekwon Davis (DT, Alabama)
Christian Wilkins (DT, Clemson)
Austin Bryant (DE, Clemson)
D’Andre Walker (LB, Georgia)
David Edwards (T, Wisconsin)

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192 Comments

  1. Sean Harker

    This offense looks so bad, it is amazing to think that we were actually optimistic heading into this season. To me there is not one thing this offense does well. Outside of three big plays (2 to Lockett 1 to Uncle Will) this offense has been a complete joke. I have no clue why B Shotty was hired. Is it because he will do whatever Pete wants him to do?

    I want to see Pete gone. And John. This team has not been nearly as god as it should be since the super bowl 49 loss. They have not drafted well, made terrible FA signings for years, and basically give Wilson a pass on all of his shortcomings. the golden child treatment has also led to a fractured locker room. His Always Compete mantra has gone out the window. That mantra was fine and dandy to start a rebuild, but is not a program that can sustain excellence in this league. It looks like Sherman’s sell out may have been warranted.

    • Dale Roberts

      Yes, let’s fire the coach who got us to two Super Bowls, six straight years of a winning record, and six years of being in the playoffs. Organizations who fire successful coaches after a down transition year usually don’t recover for a long time. I think you’re wrong on this one Sean.

      • Shane

        Dale, I think you’re wrong on this one. You’re giving present credit for Pete’s past success. Pete WAS an awesome coach for Seattle and I’ll always remember how he brought 1 (should have been 2) titles to Seattle. But his “always compete” philosophy is complete bullshit, the latest fact to this truth is the Carson/Penny drama. Pete was great for Seattle up until SB 49. I haven’t trusted him since that awful evening. I wish Pete would have come out and said he made a mistake. We all know what he was trying to do. It was too obvious, Russ is his golden child. I’ve been spouting the fact of the SI story since the day after SB49. I FEEL I’m right and don’t care what other fans think. I’m a sports fan, and being a fan is all about feelings. I can think and feel what I want, and this team now is hot garbage. CHANGE MY MIND! The sad thing is they were soooo damn good and had a team built for a dynasty, and Pete blew it. Sorry he blew it. Bye bye… Thanks for the 1 SB (could have been more).

        • H

          Pete did come out and accept responsability for the SB loss. Despite the fact that he probably didnt even call the play.

        • bigten

          I wouldn’t necessarily say that the carson/penny drama is going against pete’s philosophy, I actually see it as reaffirming that mantra. As Rob laid out, not only did Penny get the call ahead of Carson, but so did Davis. With what was brought up about Baldwin’s past remarks on Carson, the issue might be that Carson doesnt compete like he should. And its great that he is so explosive when he does run and all, but if he is taking off plays, calling himself out of plays, that is unacceptable. And Pete’s remark of him playing ST might have been a shot at Carson. Carson might have complained about having to play ST, or made a remark during the game when called himself off the field, and Pete asked “wy the hell did you call yourself out?” Carson replies “i just played special teams coach, i was tired.” Maybe this also leads to why we arent running as much, neither Carson nor Penny have the stamina to sustain running so much. Or maybe Carson cant sustain, and they dont trust Penny yet. But my guess is that Carson is being punished and called out by Carroll because of his lack of competitiveness. Also, Carson is built like a brick **** house, and all that muscle takes a lot of oxygen to perform.

        • TonyHawk

          Shane, you’re blowing way too hard with this comment. This is a a transitional year, but let’s come back to reality and acknowledge that this is still only week 3. After two away games, one played without many of our best defensive players, it really shouldn’t be a surprise that we are 0-2. The fact that we even had a chance to win both games is a testament to Pete’s coaching. A couple of poor decisions aside, there are things to like about this years team. We are winning the turnover margin which should equate to wins in the future. I’m all for reevaluating our offensive play calling, but to say should fire Carroll is crazy talk. As Dale mentioned, organizations who fire successful coaches after a down transition year usually don’t recover for a long time.

      • Coach Mike

        Right on Dale. Proven track records matter, and Carroll and Schneider have those. If fired, they would have jobs before the seasons end. Meanwhile we would likely be debating the hiring of some NFL retreads and unproven coordinators or college coach. That sounds like a potential recipe for years of futility. No thanks.

        • Chris

          PC is a two time retread, and when hired was a college coach. Sticking with someone who has let the game pass him by is a recipe for years of futility. No thanks.

  2. Jordan

    Pete’s answer about Carson is very, very strange. I have never really looked sideways at PC in his entire tenure here until today. It’s just so fishy. I don’t know what to make of it.

    • Ishmael

      None of the options are fantastic

      1) He’s lying because reasons we don’t know
      2) He’s lying because he’s under pressure and panicked
      3) He’s lying to defend Carson
      4) He didn’t lie, but he’s not across what’s going on
      5) He didn’t lie, but he made a stupid excuse because he’s under pressure
      6) He’s losing the plot and genuinely can’t remember

      • Dale Roberts

        or 7) None of the above.

        • Elmer

          Or 8) Might be another Carson injury that the team doesn’t want to disclose yet. Time will tell, there are injury report requirements.

          Hope not.

        • Glor

          Words were said, so none of the above doesn’t cut it. If Carson isn’t on an injury report then 1-6 is it

        • CD

          He is lying to keep a team issue (Carson not fit enough, or medical issues, or lack grit to stay in the game) within the team. There is a reason he would rather not share, Pete just fumbled the delivery, my guess is he is trying to punish Carson – send a message without throwing him under the media bus.

          • Stevo

            Pete’s Carson comments completely confused me too. But I think CD is probably right that Pete is trying to take the blame off of someone else and put it on himself.

            I would guess that its something about Carson himself, or Schotty, or between those two. And Pete wants to keep it there. Pete is a leader, and leader’s take the public blame for someone else’s mistake, while they are working to fix their team.

            • Pedestrian

              Really think Pete just wanted to give the rookie some snaps to bring him up to speed after missing so much of the preseason. He sees Penny + Carson as a one-two punch. Think he just goofed up when he should’ve been honest. Or at the least that excuse would make sense.

              • neil

                You don’t really think he made a big mistake taking Penny first pick?

                • Pedestrian

                  No. I had my doubts at first with the type of competition he faced. But he is built like a prototypical back, nimble and quick, great vision etc.

                  I do think he needs the correct scheme, and a better oline wouldn’t hurt since I think any back would struggle in seattle.

                  Penny needs the reps, he may not be a great player this year. But if he can get the reps this year, it could set him up to explode next year. Hopefully the return of fluker will help both Penny and Carson this week.

    • JC

      I’m guessing Pete doesn’t have a huge role in Carson’s touches unless he specifically mentions it to his OC in game, so maybe he was just making a wrong assumption about Carson, who knows. What so few are mentioning is that they’re losing time of possession, and that’s a continuation of last season. If you’re running under 60 plays a game, people aren’t going to get touches you expect. Move the effing chains, then you can spread the touches around. Penny getting 10 carries is no biggie, that you couldn’t get additional 12 to Carson is the issue, let alone Prosise and Davis. Two 3 and outs in the 3rd quarter means the touches are in especially short supply.

  3. joel

    A couple of plays go different in both of these last two games, they’d be 2-0 but I would still be really worried by what I’ve seen. They’ve lost on the road, granted, but they’ve played ugly football against two very mediocre teams who each gave up multiple turnovers that this offense couldn’t do much with. If they can’t record solid home wins vs the Cowboys and Cardinals (two more mediocre teams), then I’ll be deeply concerned about where all of this is heading.

    I wasn’t confident in Schotty as an OC and of course there were be growing pains shifting the entire offense to a new playbook, but what we’ve seen so far has been mostly awful.

    • BobbyK

      While it’s true they could be 2-0 and both games have been pretty close – the fact of the matter is that after seeing these games – I am amazed that both have been close. It seems as they have been dominated for most of the 120 minutes of football this season. That’s what worries me the most. I can handle these two losses if we’d gone toe-to-toe and felt like they were evenly matched contests, but even announcers (not that I trust everything they say) are making comments each week about being amazed how Seattle is still in games after having been so thoroughly outplayed early in these very games.

      I know Pete and John struck gold with finds like Kam and Sherman, but one thing that bothers me is that they only have a 1st round pick in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft. When Pete and John took over, they not only had a 2nd round pick, but they had two of the first 14 picks in the draft to begin their overhaul. Not only is this a roster without top-tier talent at most positions – but they don’t have the draft picks to give them a better chance of striking gold.

      It’s frustrating to feel they are so far away from where they were and where they’re going to need to be to compete with the Rams. If you look at the talent on the Rams, the Seahawks roster is laughable at most positional groups in comparison. Not only that, but the Rams have an innovative head coach. I won’t compare Wade Phillips and Carroll, because as Rob said above, Pete can coach defense (though Phillips is one of the best DCs of his era; just a terrible HC).

      • BobbyK

        I take the Carroll/Carson thing as this… Carson said something on the sidelines or said/did something at halftime to get benched and Pete isn’t going to go public with anything. He’s protecting his player, which he has historically done.

        No front office is perfect and everyone (including every front office person in the Hall of Fame) makes mistakes, but Pete/John seem to be doing more than their fair share of head scratching things. Case in point… can anyone please explain the logic in this:

        “Tom Johnson will cost the Seahawks just over $1.8m towards the salary cap over the next two years, since he was cut after Week 1 rather than before.

        $1.8m for 39 snaps and one tackle.”

        — Alistair Corp (@AlistairCorp) September 18, 2018

        Seriously, they released him only to add a player from the PS that did NOT play a snap last night, yet was on the ACTIVE roster. That totally baffles me. The only thing I can think of is they wanted to have more DB/S depth on the active roster in case of injury. But this is ridiculous. Look at the salary cap space they burned. Terrible management there. Just utterly horrible.

        • Glor

          Wow

        • CD

          Must be more to it; issue in the locker room, or possibly they are going to drop most 2018 FA signings in the coming weeks to get comp picks back for 2019. Should have done it earlier to save the money.

          • Pickering

            Or it could be this FO got SteveHutchinson-ed. Not quite as bad, but bad nonetheless.

        • Pedestrian

          Idk seems there was nothin Lynch could ever do to get benched. Why now with Carson?

          • icb12

            Talent.

            You put up with a lot for talent.

            • Pedestrian

              Yeah, but Carson is your most proven/talented RB. I just think people are over thinking it. Either Pete lied and there’s some reason to bench him he didn’t want to share publicly, or he just goofed on his reasoning to the media and wanted Penny to get reps he missed in the preseason. They are counting on him this season.

              I tend to think the latter is true since they didn’t pick a RB in round 1 for him to not develop this season. And if Carson was benched for any reason internally, then fine, Pete has that right to not disclose those details. Penny NEEDS the reps if he is going to contribute and grow this season.

              • icb12

                eh?

                I would disagree there. What exactly has Carson “proven”?

                He’s pretty talented, had a decent start last year. But I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s proven anything. Either in the Pros OR college.

                And Penny IS the more talented RB. There’s a reason Penny went in the 1st, and a reason Carson went in the 7th. My opinion is that Time and Reps will prove that to be true.

          • VegasHawkFan

            “Idk seems there was nothin Lynch could ever do to get benched. Why now with Carson?”

            I feel like this answers your own question. They went through that as a team, allowing eccentric personalities to be non-conformist. If Carson is behaving in a manner that hurts the team, seems Pete has learned from those Lynch experiences and responding to that differently than he used to. That’s a big “if” of course.

            • Pedestrian

              Yeah it could be a possibility he was disciplining a player. I just tend to think the logical reason to be Penny needing snaps. And I’d agree with that logic, you want to develop your first round pick, he needs experience. Beyond that, it doesn’t matter much seeing as we’re focused on Dallas now and it was one game. If it becomes a trend, I’ll be more intrigued and speculative.

        • GerryG

          Dont forget they traded a 7th rd pick to get him too.

          So they spent a 7th, to get a guy they then cut, and then cut a 1.8 million $ DT, to bring back the S that they spent the 7th on, that they cut, who hasnt played.

          They also spent a 6th on a backup QB, who may be better than Austin Davis. Davis sucks, but still, RW never misses games, and the prevailing thought coming into the year was they are screwed if he does miss any time. So why spend limited draft capital on a QB who wont play, on a team that isnt going anywhere, in a year when your draft capital is already limited.

          • Largent80

            And Minnesota signed Johnson, so the thought Seattle could get him back is gone and they STILL have to pay him. Brilliant move Seattle.

            • Matt B.

              The only justification for all of these moves is that Pete and the FO’s philosophy is that this is still a championship caliber team. I seem to remember some kind of “win forever” manta associated with Pete. They obviously pushed all their chips in last year with the idea that they were a Super Bowl or bust team (unfortunately ended in bust). And I believe this year that at least Pete continues to see this a championship team. The FO seems like it’s torn between looking towards the future and still trying to give Pete the tools to succeed.

            • 80SLargent

              So many people up in arms about this Tom Johnson thing. Yeah, it’s kind of weird. That said, remember T.J. Houshmandzadeh? Yeah, Pete cut him even though he was due something like $7M guaranteed AND the remainder of Seattle’s receivers were straight from the Bellevue Community College flag football team.
              Guaranteed there’s A LOT more to this story we don’t know.

              • Rob Staton

                Doubt it. Think they just thought they could get him back and wouldn’t get Naz or Poona back. So they took a calculated risk. Didn’t pay off. No biggie.

                • Elmer

                  I think that you are right. To use your words: Younger and …cheaper.

                  If Johnson didn’t prove to be clearly superior to all of their other DT options by a significant margin, it’s no surprise that they released the 34 year old guy. The two more intriguing things about this to me are

                  1) Naz Jones. Last year he looked like a rookie with a lot of promise. This year so far, not so much.

                  2) What the Seahawks did with the open roster spot. My guess, though, is that they are far from finished with juggling the roster. It could turn out to be similar to 2010, when they treated the roster like it was an expansion team and led the league in transactions.

  4. Ishmael

    The only player worth getting excited about at the moment is Michael Dickson…

    Carroll is either lying or he’s losing the plot, neither of which is fantastic. Denver and Chicago both have legitimately excellent defences, so maybe things get a bit better from here, but things have been disgraceful so far.

  5. gault561

    What’s next for the Seahawks? How about a Maunder minimum lasting about a decade?

    Pete’s “win forever” philosophy is fading into “Win? Not so much>”. I expected a 7-9 2018 last winter. We’ll see.

    As many have noted here, we are reaping the harvest of about 5 years of bad drafts, poor free agent acquisitions and unwise 3rd contracts. The front office talent appraisal has regressed to below the mean. Entropy rules. Welcome to the bad old Seahawks of yesteryear.

    Since the only part of our game that shines is punting. How about a name change to the Seattle Punters. That’ll turn things around.

    I mark the beginning of the end to way back at the loss of draft savant Scot McCloughan. Scot could do everything. Hey Rob: any truth to the rumor that McCloughan sired Prince Harry.

    Time to gas up the Poona and head down to the track.

    Go Punters!

    • Mark Souza

      You seem very optimistic. I look at our remaining schedule, and unless there is some kind of major change, I wonder where we would get 7 wins from.

  6. NickW

    Wow all the doom and gloom by everyone amazes me. So many people seem to forget the offense looks like hot garbage every year early in the season. Nobody seems to even want to admit that. Both games they were a few plays going differently from winning. That’s how it’s been during Pete’s whole tenure here. Every year I feel like I am going to have a heart attack by the stupidly close games nearly every game. I still wouldnt trade it for anything. I remember the earlier years before Pete. Many many disappointments.

    Now, the running game is weird as all get out. Carson gassed??? Carrolls misstatements and backtracking? Something is definitely goong on. I did listen to that 710 Pete Carroll show. I noticed Pete sounding like, well, like there was a lot of stuff they were holding back for later games. To me it sounded like they were doing installs so to speak, each game. Getting more and more free with playbook as they go. Its not directly what was said, but the way it was said and the way he said they would be doing more qb runs and other stuff. It was pretty interesting to me.

    Im really not sure why they are holding everything back this much though.

  7. Bob Johnston

    People are freaking out about ugly early season losses by the Seahawks? It seems to me this is their MO. Not worried yet.

  8. Robertlasvegas

    I just wish sometimes that Russ would Chuck it out of bounds or tuck it an run

    • smitty1547

      I wish that a lot, 7 years and still hasn’t learned to throw the ball out of bounds

  9. Stevo

    I would agree that ugly early season losses is something we’ve seen a lot of with Pete Carroll teams.

    Also, with Pete’s teams, we’ve always seen a lot of young defenders playing their hearts out and somehow keeping games close. And we saw both those things Monday night. Oh, and unfortunately we saw another of the usual Pete Carroll signatures – his baffling offensive play calling.

    Next, I hope we begin to see other Pete Carroll signatures like pounding the rock and successful 4th quarter QB heroics??

  10. STTBM

    Somethings happening here. What it is aint exactly clear…

    Perhaps Carroll has seriously lost it. Last night’s playcalling and the weird situation with Carson reeks of internal dysfunction. Maybe Carson had the Audacity to question Schotty….Carroll appears highly sensitive to criticism from RB’s since the Play That Shall Live in Infamy…

    Psychology says this is likely, but I expected fat better from PC and IS.

    Penny has no business getting more than the occasional rep, and the offense repeatedly stalled without Carson. The continued deep seam routes and the refusal to use any read option plays, or have Wilson run…its total insanity!

    This is even worse than the offense under Mora and Knapp. It’s approaching Flores level…and yet our offensive players are far more talented, and proven players, than those guys had. I’m flabbergasted. This is beyond my worst nightmares…

    Carroll is done. Utterly done. All we can hope is Schotty is just as done, and we can hold onto the players…

    Ask Tom Johnson why he took a few extra peanuts from the Vikings to leave us….No one else is. I bet the reasons would be telling.

    • UKAlex6674

      I bet the fact he gets to play for a top contender is more telling and gives him a chance of winning a ring.

  11. Barry

    I’m going to move past the Carson second half thing and point out a issue bigger to me. Penny. He has looked very not worth jumping up and down in a war room for after drafting. He looks not quick and has looked slow.
    Is that a unsure rookie playing slow do to being unsure at a position of instinct? All I am doing at this point is hoping so.

    I’d prefer answers to the doom and gloom statements vs just saying them because we are frustrated. I am not sure who I’d want to take over. There hasn’t been many hot young coaching hires in the NFL for a few years. McVey comes to mind but a talented young team with tons of first round talent can do that. I wonder if will we be eating our words in a few weeks?

    Pete and John have been frustrating for us as fans the last few years but you have to remember multitude of picks doesn’t always mean quality, sometimes quality only comes from top rounds. There are teams loaded with first round talent that never make it out of the first round. And there have been picks in the more recent years that show great potential, but the just haven’t sustained that. You have to remember players like KJ, Sherm, Cam and Wilson etc are great because they are freaking extremely rare especially to have all at once.

    Maybe this is the end for Pete and there is just nothing left contrary to the cheer Pete always puts on. But successful Franchises make moves when its a good time. We fire Pete now are we going to hire Dan Quinn? Probably not. I like making moves but not just because I’m upset and throwing a fit about it.

    • McZ

      Yeah, but when is the perfect timing to have that debate? I remember this coming up in February, and nobody wanted to listen.

      Instead, “only Pete can do it”…

      PCJS track record for first and second round picks after 2014 is as miserable as it can get. Pocic and Penny having the benefit of a doubt, and Clark being the statistical irregularity.

      PCJS track record of drafting OL is even worse.
      PCJS track record of drafting RB is mediocre, and we are in just another round of turning talent into Marshawn II, despite the faslct, that power rushing is a 1990 thing.
      PCJS haven’t drafted a single WR worth the money; Moore was praised in preseason, but is not able to be targeted in a real competition.
      PCJS track record on drafting TE has just seen a major uptick in Will Dissly. Before him, the output was nonexistent, including Vannett.

      Add to this poor play calling (come back to this later), poor position coaching, a competitive system benefitting taking risks (and resulting injuries) over careful quality development, and you have all the ingredients.

      Only Wilson in his pure, instinctive play mode adds points to the table. Two plays before is pick six, offense rolling, the Hawks took a timeout. This situation should be a lengthy debate here, because it shows everything that is wrong with the state of things. Bevell at least let Wilson play, when he was out of wisdom. The new Carroll-Schottenheimer-offense tries to reign, despite having no working olan.

      • Barry

        Well clairvoyance is a fortunate talent to have.

        I agree that a wide open offense would probably benefit Willson, his limitations are not that suited for a two-back pocket offense. Something close to the Saints for many obvious reasons would probably be ideal.

        As far as the drafting goes, I can’t agree. Go back and look at all of the payers that Pete and John have drafted who have either contributed to our team or played very well for others. For example at the RB position both Spencer Ware and Alex Collins have produced in the pros. Ware was on a team of stacked backs, and even was in a crowded backfield and all oundants agree that looked to be the odd man out. Dissly is off to a great start very true. But the Hawks did pretty well finding a Canadian kid out of Rice in the 5th round of the 13 draft, Luke willson. The first two years he was behind Zach Miller, and has solid numbers his second year when Miller went down Wilson was targeted 40 times for 22 rec and
        362, a 16.5 yrd ave and 3 TD’s. His longest was 80 yrds. Wilson also blew up the combine with a 40 in the 4.5’s. Imagine if he was on a team that threw the ball. The next year Graham was signed. If you go back and look at all of the drafts you will find good solid players, maybe not the HOF ones we got spoiled with at first but solid contributing players with loads of talent. But again not every player is going to make good on their talent. That’s just life in this league.
        A little WR named Locket was also drafted by Pete and John, if it wasn’t for the injury year you would have been leading all WR’s from his draft class in receptions, yards, and return yards. But I suppose he’s not worth mentioning either.

        The O line troubles are as much a Wilson issue as they themselves are a issue. and many of the guys we’ve had like the RB’s or other have been signed and played well for other teams also. Sometimes things don’t match up. But that does not mean there isn’t quality in both coaching and playing or player.

        That’s not to say there hasn’t been misses in coaching and drafting. But all of the knee jerk reactions I’m seeing are frankly from fans, thats all we are, none are pros and as such should perhaps consider that when we post opinions dealing with absolutes.

        For the last 5 years this team was going to get every teams best. The NFL has ups and downs and knee jerk reactions and scarce points doesn’t make wins come or losses go away.

        Maybe we will get a new regime after this year. If we do and they do HALF as good as Pete and John have we will be lucky.

        • Chris

          Regarding the drafting by the FO:

          1. If we’re stacked at RB, why draft Ware?
          2. Willson isn’t something I’d hang my hat on if I wanted to argue the FO was doing well. He’s replacment level.
          3. Lockett is replacement level after his injury.

          Take a look at all the draft picks since Scot M left the FO. How many have panned out? How many of the high leverage trades have panned out? Harvin? Graham? Richardson? I’ll even through Duane Brown in here; for an average LT on the downside of his career, we gave up a lot, especially with the Lane trade falling through.

          If you really think Wilson is as responsible for the line troubles as a lack of skill and a lack of scheme, I think you’re off base.

  12. Strategicdust

    yeah, this year feels decidely different. They’ve been on the losing side in years past without feeling so thin on depth and without so many difference making players. I think this coaching staff and front office have a bad habiit of overthinking things and make bad choices while thinking they’re good ones. I am happy this team has been good for the past 5-6 years but this league requires you to always be at your best. This year the teams feels unprepared, the offense has no diversity and other teams don’t seem to have any trouble handling them. That should be a major cause of alarm. I think this organization has grown stale for any number of reasons and change should be coming soon.

  13. Mstillz

    Once again we gave up on the run WAY too early. I dont recall the exact stats but at one point we had 21 passes and 9 rushes. We were rushing for 4yds a clip in the 1st half and never broke one to make that ypc stat look out of wack from reality, we just simply stopped running the ball! This is all on Shotty, you have to keep running, the game was close.

    To make it worse we started the 2nd half with 6 strait pass plays despite being in a 10-3 defensive battle.

    We finally started moving the ball when we started running again in the 4th quarter.

    All in all a very frustrating loss but hey, we were in 2 very close games on the road and could have won. We also have a new OC working with RW for the first time in his career and that takes some adjusting. On the down side, as a NYer Im quite familiar with Shotty and NOT a fan. I think it wasn’t a very good hire at all.

    • UKAlex6674

      Mstillz! I am in New York from 19th-24th November so am there for Thanksgiving. What sports bar would you recommend for the games on the Thursday? Is there anywhere Hawk fans go in particular? Any local knowledge would be hugely appreciated!

      • Mstillz

        Hey mate, there is only one Seattle focused sports bar, its on the upper east side named Carlow East on 85th/Lex. A good overall sportsbar is the Ainsworth, they have 2 or 3 locations, they are all good.

  14. Ben Ft. Worth

    Dear God, please let this be the year we get a premium LSU Tiger! Devin White would is already #1 on my Christmas wishlist!! I’m not saying I want to see this team tank it to be able to acquire him. But from what Devin has exuded down at LSU screams future Bobby Wagner team captain replacement to start building a new defensive core. Pleaseeeeeee!

  15. litl gravy

    for whatever this is worth:

    rashaad penny is a better running back than chris carson.
    he looks so much like shaun alexander it’s eerie to me.
    shaun alexander often got 20+ carries in a game, and got stuffed on plenty of them.
    but not all of them.
    on the other ones, he’d accumulate 1500 yards and 20+ TDs.

    that kind of workload is how (and it’s the only way) penny can be properly used and have his value maximized.
    he’s 230 and he’s pretty fast, but firstly he’s a vision guy and a balance guy. it’ll take reps for him to feel out defenders and defenses.
    it’ll also take him some adjustment to discover what he can and can’t get away with against nfl speed. if given those reps, i have zero doubt that he will make those adjustments; he’s a VERY talented back.

    carson is fine, probably a fringe starter or good backup quality runner.
    on the other hand, his conditioning issue goes back to his first preseason, and i wonder if he has asthma or some similar respiratory defect (he’s clearly in phenomenal physical condition, but he gets winded after any long run and always has). he also may have a fumbling problem, in which case all bets are off…

    Mike Davis is not an nfl caliber back. playing him when they have any other option in uniform is confounding, to say the least.

    Penny is good. don’t worry about Penny at all. He’s an asset, and i believe we will see that manifest before long.

    • bigten

      +12
      A note to add about Carson’s conditioning. He has a lot of muscle, which takes a lot of oxygen to use, and a lot more if not properly used. As a world class athlete, one thing taught that most people don’t hear otherwise is not to fight yourself. Tensing up and constantly firing your muscles unnecessarily can cause major fatigue and you end up fighting yourself as much or more . This could be a factor for him. Because he is so explosive, he could be holding his breathe, overly tensing up, all around fighting himself more than he should. Add in if he does not have the drive or competitive nature to push through that, it could be a real irritant on Carroll

    • Ghost Mutt

      “He’s a vision and balance guy”.

      Really? Because his balance is what I’m concerned most about – he’s lost his feet and fallen over on multiple carries.

      I’m not giving up on him, and I’m not in the “never draft a runner in the 1st” camp, but Carson’s looked far more competent than him this year.

    • icb12

      Yep. This.

      Penny isn’t getting much love. Admittedly I don’t understand why the seahawks asked him to gain a bunch of weight.
      But it’s easy to forget this is a rookie with 17 carries. 17. I’m willing to wait and see what he has.

  16. Greg Haugsven

    The Arizona game is actually a road game. Or maybe your calling there home our home as we win there all the time.

  17. 80SLargent

    Something that’s not brought up much, for whatever reason, the Seahawks generally suck playing on grass. Combine that with playing on the road in September, that’s the triple whammy right there. 0-2 really should’ve been expected. It’s their process on offense that’s way below board right now.
    As far as Arizona, that’s kind of a weird deal. Seattle normally finds a way to win there (on grass), then finds a way to lose to them at home. That could end up being Seattle’s first victory of the season. People are underselling Dallas’s defense, and Seattle’s offense is hot garbage. Even though Dallas’s offense doesn’t scare me, I don’t like that match up at all for the Seahawks.
    That damn Raiders game in London apparently counts as a “home” game for the Seahawk too, yuck.
    Hard Knocks, here we come. 🙁

    • UKAlex6674

      The Oakland game is an game (not in the sense it’s in London, but the fixture reads Seattle at Oakland).

  18. Rich

    What short memories people have. The slow offensive starts are not just the MO of a Pete Carroll team, but of most teams. You forget the 2005 Superbowl Seahawks, coached by offensive genius Mike Holmgren, only scored 14 points in their first game (which they lost to a mediocre Jacksonville team) and only had one game out of their first four where they scored more than 21 points. They started out 2 and 2 and everyone was calling for Holmgren’s head. The 2006 playoff team scored nine points in its first game and only six points in its fourth game. The 2013 Superbowl Seahawks only scored 12 points in their first game and had four games where they scored 17 or less points. The 2014 Superbowl Seahawks had four games where they scored 19 or less points. Remember, the defense, which only has to react to the offense, generally starts out ahead while the offense has to lock in to a complicated coordinated scheme. By the way, the 2009 Seahawks (Jim Mora led team), which only won four games, started out winning their first game 28-0 and won their fifth game 41-0. Don’t be so quick to judge. The season is still early.

    • Thy Hawk is Howling

      Excellent post Rich!

      Another thing to add we’ve played two teams on the road ( Like you mentioned real Grass, apparently it affects us) known for their DEFENSE. It is quite frustrating with the delayed offense, yet amazing that Russ always hangs in there every Damn time it goes like that. Somedays are rougher than others and sometimes it’s all about that particular matchup between different player’s. Some basketball player gave Michael Jordan fits more than anyone else, probably?

      It’s this Damn Interwebs of instant reaction, over analysing, and narsacistic opinions that focuses a Metaphorical Microscope on anything that happens especially Popular Culture, Politics, and everybody’s feelings.

      I’ve noticed some site’s aren’t allowing comments anymore and ‘Yes’ that is good for us all! It’s all these opinions that everyone wants to force on eachother that has created all this Damn Drama recently I believe. You want to make a difference these days, keep some of your thoughts to yourself. It’s when to make a comment that you need to choose the proper time I’m beginning to understand. Coming from me who has posted quite a bit on here when I was in a mood cracking myself up, hoping I made someone else smile and physically Chuckle or Laugh, which I believe is a Load Chuckle? Or is a Chuckle just a quite Laugh?

      Anyway Rich great post and thank you for keeping it Real!

      Our Boy’s will get this thing going, I’m choosing to believe! Even if we suck really bad don’t dwell on the negative enthrall yourself with the exciting, entertaining, heart racing, and fanhood aspects of the game. Have Fun with it, so much better than waiting for Football in March, am I right People?

      Take the negatives and consciously change that energy in your mind to:

      “A Vision of Hope for the Next Play”

      You never know what this Life is going to show us next

      Go Positive Fanatic Energy!
      Go DangeRuss!
      Go Pete the Gum Chomper!
      Go Hawks!

      Cough, Frack “Seahawks Twitterverse”!

      • Regan

        Thank you for that post, all this negativity sucks! It ain’t never been pretty with these Hawks but they always compete and that’s all we as fans can really expect. Ya’ll taking this way to seriously, it’s a game, meant for entertainment, are you not entertained?

        • Thy Hawk is Howling

          Right on Regan! You keep it real as well M8!

          What is the point if it’s not Fun Anymore?
          You can be an Adult and still play make believe!

          Sometimes the River of Happiness flows a little slow(Just like our Offense) but I feel it’s going to pick up and those rapids are going to be fun!

          Go Hawks N Stuff!

      • A, Chris

        +1
        Nice to see other fans trying to enjoy the season.
        Cheers

  19. EranUngar

    A few words:

    RW has never been a “throe receivers open” QB. He grew under the “protect the football” philosophy an big part of his ball holding is waiting to see the receiver open. It takes time for him to build the kind of trust he has with Baldwin and let go of the ball knowing what his receiver will do. Other than Lockett, every weapon he has on the field is new to the team or had very little actual game rapport with RW. Having new OC only contributes to avery slow and unsure offensive start.

    In fact, we have seen this type of slow offensive start in every year. It was mitigated by a superior defense that helped keeping things in check during the first games of each season.

    Here are some of those wins by the defense early in past seasons:
    2015:
    Holding the Bears scoreless in week 3, Holding the lions to 10 points on week 4, Holding the 49ers to 3 points on week 7 and holding the cowboys to 12 points on week 8. The Seahawks lost all other games during that period.
    2016:
    holding the dolphins to 10 points on week 1, Holding the rams to 9 points on week 2 (and losing), holding the Jets to 17 on week 4 and the cards to 6 points on week 7.
    2017:
    Holding the packers to 17 points in GB on week 1 (and losing), the 9ers to 9 on week 2, the colts to 18 on week 4, the rams to 10 on week 5 and the giants to 7 on week 6.

    The Seahawks offense took time to get going every yer bu he stellar defense kept them in games and helped them win their share of games.

    This year, the stripped defense can not win games on their own. When we label teams like Denver and Chicago as mediocre, We misrepresent the situation. Both teams are top 10 defenses with a struggling offense. Those are exactly the type of teams that we used to bit on defense.

    I am not saying that all is well in the Northwest, far from it. What I am saying is that the offense will likely improve as they always did. I hope that with K.J. and Wags returning and with young players cleaning up their game, the defense should be on an upward slop too.

    No, they wont make the playoffs this year but by the 2nd half of the season we should be able to see a competitive team with some strengths to build on when the cap opens up next year.

    • UKAlex6674

      But the point is, why does the O take time to heat up? It doesn’t on other teams. And in the meantime, we are losing games we should win, putting more pressure on ourselves down the stretch. I have said it before and I will say it again – I am sick of ‘it’s not how you start it’s how you finish’. Why can’t we ‘start as we mean to go on’?

      • EranUngar

        I wish i knew.

        Every year there are different reasons (excuses). Pedestrian WRs, lack of monetary investment in the offense/OL, wrong offensive weapons (Graham,Harvin…), injuries at RB…

        In my mind it has to do with PC. He is a defensive coach at heart. He believes that a championship team starts with a superior ball hawking physical defense and he is not dead wrong. He also believes in a basic meat and potatoes run first offense with everything else coming out of the running game.

        As rules kept changing in favor of QBs and WRs, defenses find it harder to totally impose their will on the game. It also dictates a smarter and more elaborate passing game. The most innovative minds on offense are not rushing to coach under PC and we end up with Shotty or others that do not challenge PC.

        Until the injuries struck on defense last year, we always had the type of defense that could take over games especially as winter started. Pete needs to rebuild that defense to be dominating next September. If he is able to do that, we’ll be a contender once more. If he does’t it will e time to change the balance and bring an offensive HC.

  20. Georgia Hawk

    Two things came up last night that concern me:

    1. The Tom Johnson fiasco is absolutely inexcusable. Hawks are paying Tom Johnson $1.8m for 39 total snaps, 1 tkl, and spending the rest of the year on Minn roster, while the D Line is already dangerously thin and under talented.. Hawks are doing this so they could sign Luani to come in and play exactly 0 snaps on Defense or ST….but Carson is running Kickoff coverage.

    What the actual heck is going on here? This is a Browns type move. I’m so completely baffled by this.

    2. The Penny weight fluctuations. Carroll mentioned that Penny is down 8 lbs from where he started the year and that is why he got a heavier work load in the second half.

    WHAT?!?!?!

    First the guy was up15 lbs from the draft, when he was far from undersized to begin with, only to have him cut 8 of it back, then “rewarded” him with more work when you thought maybe possibly the starter looked gassed from the 2 kickoffs he was inexplicably covering?

    What in the heck is going on over there? From the outside looking in, it looks like Carroll is a clueless doddering old fool. His inability to give coherent, consistent answer when asked about it is even more concerning.

    • Stevo

      Hey GeorgiaHawk,
      The Tom Johnson thing is an embarrasing personnel mistake, true. A stupid, money-wasting screw-up.

      But whose fault? Hard to say. Here’s what I can see.
      1) Someone (probably all the coaches and personnel guys) through 33 yr old TJ might have a little more in his tank than it turned out he had. They were wrong. He wasn’t worth that much money.
      2) They took the bet because they were very concerned about D line depth after losing Avril and Bennett. So, they overspent to make sure they had depth. And, having depth means you end up cutting somebody decent in order manage your roster numbers.
      3) The GOOD news is that other guys outcompeted TJ. JReed is playing healthy, Stephen is strong, Naz Jones is showing great potential, Poona is a special young player, and QJeff and Raheem are both big enough to shift inside. That’s a lot of DTs who can play. Somebody had to go. The 34-year old guy drew the short straw. I’m okay with it.
      4)The only mistake here is they should have expected all their younger DTs to be healthy this year. That’s a mistake they didn’t want to risk, so they overspent on TJ as an insurance policy.

      • Georgia Hawk

        I would accept that if PC hadn’t outright stated the intention was to re-sign him immediately on Monday.

        Naz Jones was a healthy scratch week 1 and played 12 snaps week 2. really the only reason he was activated (as it looks from here) is because Johnson had been cut.

        To me this looks like a big time mess up…but I’m just observing from the outside.

    • NickW

      Listen to the Pete Carroll show yourself. What he actually said, not what other proplr are saying he said, is that Penny has lost 8lbs in a week of being back due to the weight gain from not practicing full strength from injury. Thats a good thing and that would explain why he looked a little better during the Bears game than the week before. Amazes me how many people twist words people say just to suit there own narrative.

      • Georgia Hawk

        Carroll’s exact wording is “He weighed in about 8 lbs less than he did from the week before coming off all of that time when he was not able to practice full speed.”

        I suppose you could take that to mean he gained weight due to being injured and not able to practice…if taken in a complete vacuum.

        The problem is that the weight gain was done before the injury between the combine and training camp (it was mentioned right after the first pre season game Aug 9), and the injury occurred after that. Unless there is another injury somewhere that hasn’t been reported thats it. He’s also been a full participant in practice both weeks so far.

        Saying he lost 8 lbs in a week because of a hand injury that occurred after the initial weight gain, and attributing the weight loss to being able to fully practice after being listed as a full practice participant the week before is a stretch of the truth Im not willing to accept. You can say this is twisting the narrative all you want, but something is not adding up here.

        • NickW

          You’re adding more into what Pete said which isnt fair. They may have had him add weight before. He wasnt asked about that and he didnt talk about that. All he talked about was him putting on weight from not being able to fully train, and then losing 8lbs in a week. thats all he talked about with regards to his weight. So one has to infer its that particular weight gained while not training fully, not anything before that. We can assume all we want but that doesnt make it so. We can only go off what he said.

          • Georgia Hawk

            I disagree, I believe the weight gain referenced is the pre season gain Pete specifically noted. Based off practice reports and injuries reported, thats the only weight gain and less than full practices that have been reported. Either way, agree to disagree.

            To use your words…” Its not directly what was said, but the way it was said…”

            • bigten

              I would actually disagree and take it as he gained weight while not being able to practice, in addition to the off season weight gain. So he lost 8 pounds of the weight he gained in excess of the offseason weight gain.

              • Rad_man

                Then Dude has got a weight problem if an injured hand makes him gain that much weight at 22 years old. He hurts his leg and is out for a month he gonna come back at 260?

  21. Drew

    So to me, after the time out where Pete & RW seemed to be at odds, it looks like Russell was audibling more out of plays, and Pete is trying to keep him in the system? When Russell audibles and checks calls, he does awesome, as he’s able to read defenses and attack them. To me it seems like Pete is trying to make him just run the plays that are called.

    At this point 7 years in, let RW do his Peyton Manning thing and change calls if need be. Why else pay him so much money if you won’t let him do it? That’s how all the elite QBs separate themselves.

    • Aaron

      RW is at the point now that you hope he’s at a level where he can control the game offensively. Schotty calls in the play and Russ adjusts it if it needs to be. Honestly, I don’t want Pete getting his hands in the offense at all. Seems like it never works. He’s a defensive guy, that’s where I want his hands in. Also, Pete needs to stop doing things like taking our best RB and putting him on special teams. If anything, put Penny on special teams cuz he ain’t shown he’s an RB1 yet like Carson.

  22. Carl

    Is Brock Huard interested in being the Seahawks offensive coordinator? Couldn’t be any worse than Schotty.

  23. C-Dog

    1. On the Pete and Schotty front; Pete had every opportunity to seek out an innovative offensive play caller to work with the league’s most unique quarterback, and he chose Brian Schottenhiemer. Some twitter talk that John Deflippo turned down the invite to interview for the gig because he didn’t want to play call for a HC that intervenes with the play calls, and he didn’t want to play call for an unconventional QB. It feels like the Schottenhiemer hire was simply to grab a guy who would be willing to do both. That’s not a great reason to hire someone, IMO. That’s settling for the person who just wants a gig.

    I’m going to be the one to say this; maybe Darrell Bevell wasn’t the worst thing in Seattle. At least he embraced Russ’s uniqueness and for the most part, found a way to balance it with what the HC wanted.

    I think the hire was Pete likely doubling down on his core philosophy and that double down is cutting against the grain of what Russell Wilson is.

    2. On the Russell Wilson front; Russell Wilson is not a pocket passer. IDK why so many folks are continually obsessed with what he does in the pocket. Yes, he can pass from the pocket. Yes, Tom Brady can occasionally roll out on a boot leg to complete a pass. Pocket passing is NOT likely what a sub 6-0 quarterback is going to do well. Why is there this outrageous obsession to make him one? There are so many ways to be creative on offense to utilize what he does well. Seattle has done glimpses of this in the past going spread and up tempo, putting the defenses on their heels. He has shown time after time to be incredibly effective when they do this. He was driving Seattle in the 4th to a tie until the time out.

    I think the issue is not whether Russ is an elite QB, or a sub average QB. I think the issue is that if the HC is not going to fully embrace what this QB does well, if they are going to painfully try to force a square peg into a round hole for the rest of this season, for God’s sake, it’s whether that should place him on the trade market right now and prepare to start Brett Hundley for the rest of the year.

    Seriously. Maybe the should just put him out there now. If the Jacksonville Jaguars offer two second round picks and Blake Bortles, take it. If the NY Giants offer Eli and their first round pick, or if the Denver Broncos offer Keenum and their first, grab them. Be done with it because I don’t know if his trade value with be better after the season.

    3. Back to the Pete front; I want to start being swayed to the side of the fence that is ready to give up on his, I’m close to being there, but then I saw that young no name defense kind of ball out against the Bears in Chicago. Young dudes were balling. It makes me think the Pete can still coach up a defense, and I have always, ALWAYS been a defense wins championships first.

    I hate drafting QBs in round 1. Despise it. The thought of them scouting out Josh Allen made me puke a bit. Even the fancy throwing Mahomes in KC, yeah, no, let’s just see how that whole thing plays out before we anoint him the latest greatest.

    If the marriage between PC and RW continues to go south like everyone now thinks it is and will, there is a big part of me that, if PC is committed to staying around another 4 to 5 years, seeing what he can build up if say they draft an Ed Oliver, or one of those Clemson kids. Maybe they sign Tyrod, or Teddy Bridgewater to game manage that archaic smash mouth offense effectively.

    3. On Chris Carson; I have no idea what is going on there. I want to say it was Pete favoring the draft status of Penny, but then why on Earth would they sub in Davis over Carson? I think masking injury, or a disciple action is likely.

    4. On Tom Johnson; paying all that cheddar for one game looks horrible on the surface, but was Tom Johnson really going to help this team moving forward? Is the play of Tom Johnson and Naziar Jones that far apart? Who’s to say that there wasn’t something going on between Johnson and the coaches. Maybe after the Denver game Pete decided that he wanted to move Jarran Reed to 3T and start Shamar at nose, and get the younger DTs involved as well, and Tom Johnson didn’t take that very well.

    5. On the John Schneider front; I see this guy getting slammed a lot now, as well, but I seriously question how many of the free agent signings and draft decisions that have showed up poorly are his decisions over Pete’s. Pete calls the shots. John works for Pete. If Paul Allen does decide to go big overhaul and fire the head coach, etc.. I would not be shocked if he decides to keep John in place and give him a chance to pick his own head coach. For one thing, John’s contract runs longer than Pete’s and Paul Allen blocked Green Bay’s attempt to interview John for their GM gig. Both things kind of show me that the owner thinks fairly highly of the GM.

    6. On the 0-2 start front; It’s shocking to me how much the fan base is freaking out about this. It’s shocking to me that I have joined in. If they win the next two games, I think there is a decent chance a lot of that will shift. The season is still young. The QB and play caller are still figuring each other out. There is a ton of new young personnel trying to get settled. 16 games is a lot of football to play, and things can change for the better. There is a big part of me that thinks what is going on right now is a LOT of overreacting from a fanbase that has gotten used to winning, that had it’s team miss the playoffs for the first time in a long time, and now the whole sky is falling because the team started 0-2 and things feel shaky.

    • H

      Spot on mate, start to finish.

    • Shadow

      Definitely agree on point 5 on Schneider. Given how much say Carroll has had in personnel decisions, if/when the team cuts ties with Carroll I would want to keep Schneider around for a couple of years to see what he can do with only his hands on the wheel.

    • Matt B.

      I like most of your post, not sure I completely agree on #2, I think it’s more a problem of what they’re trying to ask him to do, long developing plays with a subpar O-Line, WR’s who aren’t separating (sometimes running the same route) and by the way, don’t make a risky throw… Good luck succeeding in that. However, the rest of your points are good, as a reactionary fanbase with higher expectations on the offense I think it’s been startling and you start looking for any cracks and overblowing them in order to justify why it’s not going well. The only long term concern in my mind that’s come out of the last few days comes back to the fit of Schottenheimer/Carroll/Russell. It seems like Pete always pushes the same game script at the start of the season before it proves unsuccessful and more of RW’s comfort zone starts to take over (up tempo, making things happen). I guess it just seems to me like it’s more important to put points on the board and win games then it is to “be right” and execute a philosophy.

      • C-Dog

        Great points, Matt B.

        I wonder if the long routes are employed because he can’t see the shallow inside hitters with any regularity.

        Definitely believe the “don’t make a risky throw” thing is a factor in terms of his hanging onto the ball. That mentality almost guarantees a QB to play scared.

        • Mark Souza

          He’s had plenty of games when he’s seen open receivers on quick routes and got the ball out quick, taking the opponents pass rush right out of the game. We put up big numbers when we do. I think Rob did a great job on the previous post highlighting that we’ve had a handful of games where we ran our offense this way, but it’s not Pete’s style, that our head coach seems to be fixated on the big hitters, chunk plays, and that’s why we seem to abandon the run so quickly and call predominately slower developing plays that force our QB to hold the ball. Unfortunately, we don’t have the line to run that kind of offense, and other than Lockett, the receivers.

    • Volume12

      See, I feel the same way about drafting RBs in round 1 as you do QBs. I don’t hate it, just believe it needs to be the perfect marriage so to speak.

      As much as I’ve always loved Pete, he’s always been a flake.

      • C-Dog

        Yeah, on a general note, I’m not a big fan of that either.

    • cha

      ” think the issue is that if the HC is not going to fully embrace what this QB does well, if they are going to painfully try to force a square peg into a round hole for the rest of this season”

      I’m not sure if this is the whole enchilada but it sure seems they were happy to let RW scramble around with 270lb LB monsters who can run 4.5 40’s when his contract was $500k/year. Seems like since the extension any Run Pass Option, Read Option, or Designed RW runs have become a distinct rarity.

      • C-Doy

        They’ve definitely been limited. It feels like they’ve been saved for whenever they let him go up tempo. Again, you have probably the single best QB in the league to run RPO and RO and you are taking that away from him. That’s a huge part of what he does.

  24. Largent80

    Love Ed Oliver. I think he will end up being the best player in the draft. We might have a shot at getting him.

    Rob, you asked how I retired at 38. I have been buying/renovating and selling homes/condos in the US and Mexico for about 16 years. Very profitable if you know what you’re doing.

    I think it might be Pete’s time to retire or go somewhere else. I agree that JS would probably make much better decisions without PC making the final ones. I love Pete but I think it’s time to cut ties and enter a new era of Seahawks football.

    I just joined the blog yesterday but saw someone else with the name I chose( Largent80 ) so I’m going to change it to something else.

    Go Hawks

  25. SB~2013

    New to the blog and changed my name because…well someone else had it. I want to know if Rob could do a piece on Ed Oliver sometime during the season. I feel like he might end up being the best of the bunch next draft.

    So far I’m thinking Dexter Lawrence might be the best fit for us though.

    Go Hawks

    • Rob Staton

      Will certainly do a feature on Ed Oliver at some point, especially if Seattle look like getting a high pick.

      Quick notes here — he’s very fast and quick. Highly athletic. Would expect a good combine. I do have some initial reservations though. Can he play inside at his size and win with power, control the LOS? He will need to do that to start inside as an every down player. Is he flexible to play inside/out? Does he have the length and power to drop the anchor? Not sure there either. Can he win against older, wiser linemen without just relying on his quickness? He’s a big time talent but these are some of the questions to ask and try and answer over the coming weeks.

  26. Largent80

    After re-watching the game, All I have to say is that RW holds onto the ball for way too long(yes, this has been a problem for a few years). But it’s painfully obvious after seeing it again. He makes the O-Line worse than it really is with this tactic.

    And this is also on the coaches for not scheming to their QB.

    • Ashish

      Seriously @Largent80 you watched game again?? I don’t even want to see any news related to it. Russ one of my fav looks terrible and the bad habit of holding the ball is there for sometime. Worst part is he don’t think it’s bad. So good luck my hawks fan-friends.

      • Largent80

        Yes I watched it again as I do almost all games. Inevitably I miss seeing some things in a live broadcast. I did notice that all of the pass routes were verticle, with the lone exception being the hitch route to Penny which was a stare down from RW and resulted in a pick six.

        Unless Bevellheimer starts calling some short, quick passes the Hawk offense is going to suffer. Hardly any 3rd down conversions and a worn out already banged up defense. We’ve seen this for the last several years, and they hired the wrong OC in my opinion, that is unless Pete’s ego has gotten so big that he feels the need to meddle with the offense as well as the D.

        In my other opinion the guy just needs to be a defensive coach and this team needs to evolve with a coach that is open to innovation, or at least consider it.

    • McZ

      They started the game with some quick release plays, and our receivers were simply not capable to play this scheme.
      Wilson then needed to hold the ball, because there are no targets and it’s 3rd and long.

      The OL was predicted as #29 in the league, then had a worse pre-season than 2017, currently is #31. The line is a large reason, why the run game stalls at one point sooner or later in the game, because they are in full survival mode even against moderately capable pass rushers. Fluker may help, but he’s a game-and-out player. The gap to even an average line is three average starters, plus young depth. This will take years, and none of the current players bar Pocic and Jones will be a part of it.

  27. Aaron

    Insightful interview this morning on Brock and Salk with Jake Heaps. Some thoughts on Russ…

    1. What type of offensive scheme works best for him?

    2. Are the Hawks focusing so much on the running game that they’ve neglected to form an offense that best suits Russ?

    3. Why does Russ work best in a no huddle up tempo offense? Why can’t he function just as well with a slower, more pace-centric offense?

    4. Has Russ, due to injuries and age, lost his mobility to the point that his best asset can’t be relied on anymore? Is he at his “mid-life crisis” moment as a QB (i.e. adapt or die)?

    5. What triggers Russ getting into a “Gunslinger” mode? Why does he refuse to just go out there and let it rip from the start?

    6. Along those lines, why does Russ not trust himself to make the difficult throw?

    7. At what point do excuses for Russ go away and it ultimately falls on Russ to be held responsible for this offense? He is less than a year away from asking for a contract extension. If this organization is going to become a contender again, they need to be absolutely sure that Russ is part of that future. Are they sure? That’s the $30 million dollar question.

    • dylanlep

      Did he offer his opinion on any of these questions?

      • Aaron

        These were my questions following the interview. For Jake Heaps thoughts, follow the link below (starts around 7:45, ends around 22:30)…

        http://sports.mynorthwest.com/category/podcast_player/?a=750f4283-6fdb-4acd-bc42-a960011b85fe&sid=1007&n=Brock+and+Salk

        • Mark

          As to number 5, what triggers Russ to enter gunslinger mode, I think it’s pretty easy. Poor play calling. He is regularly asked to execute vertical pass plays that take time to execute, time this line can’t provide. The he has to scramble, often turning his back to the LOS. At that point the play timing is gone, receivers are have to freelance to get themselves open somewhere within range of Russ, who is running for his life. All this freelancing starts while Russ has his back turned. When he looks downfield again, he has no idea where his receivers have gone and has to find them. Sometimes it works and results in the best playground play you’ve seen in your life. But often it doesn’t. Does that sound familiar.

          And as others have pointed out, Russ isn’t as fast and nimble as he once was. He’s having a lot more trouble ditching the rush. It hasn’t been pretty.

          • Rob Staton

            I don’t see it this way.

            The protection is generally fine. The playcalling, scheming, decision making and play of the receivers and QB has not been.

            • Mark Souza

              Rob, I think were saying the same thing. Our line is not great. At this point it’s not even good, but it could be made to work if the play calls took into account the fact that protection will fail before you get to three Mississippi. We’ve executed game plans that took that into account before with great success. The line is adequate and could be quite effective with the right game plan. But will Pete change, or just continue to force a square peg into a round hole?

              Instead of recognizing this and game planning for it, we get a glut of vertical pass calls and slow developing routes.

              We might be able to pull off vertical play calls more often if we established the run and made the rush respect play action, but we don’t, and they don’t.

              • Rob Staton

                I think this O-line has got a lot of potential. I think it can be good. But if you’re condensing everything, asking Wilson to pick apart a defense from a static pocket all the time, abandoning the running game in a flash, having your Head Coach make hormonal demands of the playcaller, and none of your receivers get open — there will be sacks. And when they come, if you don’t counter with your calls and scheme, you’ll have a long night.

    • Volume12

      3. Because he’s not a conventional, dropback QB. Not a rhythm passer.

      Pete wants to play or at least philosophically, a fairly old-school methodical type offense right? IMO we’re starting to see that doesn’t work for RW unless he has a strong ground game to lean on. It’s becoming a clash of styles and if it can’t be worked out, will be brutal.

      An innovative play caller and PC will not work together. RW and an offense that won’t get him on the move (PA, bootlegs, etc.) will sputter.

      6. You’ve touched on his worst bad habit. He leaves a ton of yards on out on the field.

      • C-Dog

        I’ve long believed that the primary reason Russ doesn’t trust those throws with any regularity is because PC has been in his ear DAY 1 to not throw INTs. “If you don’t trust it, don’t throw it.” So he got into the habit of juking and jiving to get receivers more open.

        • Shadow

          I think you’re spot on with Pete being in Russ’ ear and I think that has hampered him. To be honest, I would gladly live with a few more interceptions if it meant that Russell Wilson had been given the freedom to cut loose more often. That TD throw to Lockett showed that he is capable of getting the ball into a tight window; I just wish he’d trust himself to pull the trigger on those kinds of throws a lot more often.

  28. Volume12

    Keep building around the best player on this team. Michael Dickson.

    • BobbyK

      They are doing that. Terrible offense allows the punter on the field more. Except when Wilson fumbles or throws INTs (or Carson fumbles). Then that’s taking the ball out of Dickson’s hands.

      • Volume12

        I know. That’s why I said keep building around him. Pete will continue to play football from 2004 in the year of our lord, 2018.

        ‘We need bigger RBs dammit! They have to weigh a certain amount or they aren’t any good!’

  29. Volume12

    What happened to Justin Britt?

    • Rob Staton

      Bruised shoulder apparently.

      • Volume12

        Know how long he’s out for?

        • Rob Staton

          No but the talk is he could be out a while

        • 80SLargent

          I just read that he’s day to day.

        • teejmo

          day-to-day

  30. David Ashton

    What’s going on with Ronald Jones in Tampa!?

    • Rob Staton

      No idea. I learnt of some issues pre-draft that could be problematic. Can only assume they’re coming to the fore.

      • David Ashton

        What were they? Injury concern related?

        • Rob Staton

          Focus

  31. John

    How can we help Pete and Shotty see Brouck’s tweet? I am starting to wonder how self aware they are….

    • Aaron

      I’ve been wondering for 2-3 years how self aware Pete is. Seems very isolated and not willing to hear and apply feedback from analysts and stats. I’m not talking the armchair QBs or shock jocks, I’m talking the former players and coaches. Pete wants to die on the hill of his way is THE way.

  32. STTBM

    This years slow start is different than past years. It’s not what’s happening, it’s HOW it’s happening. In previous years, some blame was due to poor play calling or game planning, some due to sloppiness, some due to player mistakes. But this year, it appears to be dramatically mostly asinine play calling, and the line and RW flat stinking it up. Only vertical routes, our best RB by a mile benched for a fat rookie who isn’t even close to warning time. And no RW runs of any sort…

    This is an utter meltdown from PC on down. The business of taking a timeout to chew RW for doing his job as a seventh year qb and audibling out of terrible plays reeks of insecurity on Carrols part–and maybe the blossoming of a control freak.

    Boy, do I hope I’m wrong. But if this Regime has become as dysfunctional as I fear, Allen will clean house soon.

  33. 80SLargent

    Now that I’ve had a couple days to absorb the stink that were the first two games of this season (no, it’s not the smell of marijuana), this is where I’m at with “what’s next”.
    1. These slow starts (especially on offense) aren’t a new development. This will not change as long as Pete Carroll is a Seahawk.
    2. It looks like a total mess right now, but there really is a rhyme and a reason for it, and Pete Carroll is in the center of all of it.
    It is very clear to me that, in every bit of this, Pete Carroll is trying to recreate the culture that put the Seahawks in contention for Super Bowls. Yeah, yeah, nothing new… That culture was “us against the world”, “nobody respects us”, etc. Step 1 was the offseason cleaning house of the players who turned it into “us against us”, and “we’re bigger than the team”.
    So here we are. Most of us knew this was going to be a transition year; JS called it a “reset”, and I think it’s really apt. Again, Pete Carroll is trying to reset, and recreate the culture that started to brew in 2010. This mean, EVERYBODY in the building all the way down to the janitors, need to buy in, and buy in 100%. This also means, he doesn’t give a rats ass if the fans buy in, and that’s obviously the hard pill to swallow for us.
    Pete has always talked about bringing in players with “grit”, players who have overcome adversity in their lives.
    Seattle started the season with two road games against good defenses with fierce pass rushes. With the team as it is now, it was going to be an uphill battle to win those games no matter what, those games were dripping with “adversity”. So what does Pete do? Seemingly the dumbest thing a coach can do short of a certain pass in a certain Super Bowl. He tried a vertical pass attack against those teams, and basically abandoned the run game. Why the hell would he do that? I mean, us as fans are totally up in arms about it already.
    Here it is: Pete is trying to find out who “his guys” are. He’s actually manufacturing adversity, and seeing how the players respond to it. That includes burning a time out in the middle of a 4th quarter one score game with 10 seconds on the play clock when his franchise QB checked out of a play. We all saw Russell’s reaction, but Pete did that to make sure that even the best player on the team is buying in 100%. Pete benched Carson for the 2nd half of last game because he had pulled himself out earlier. Pete ran all those pass plays against those rushes, to see how his line and team reacts. How do they react to the adversity? Do they get down on each other? Do they get down on themselves?
    Pete Carroll’s teams were winners because of how they handled adversity, of how resilient they were. That resiliency died on the 1 yard line at the end of Super Bowl 49. The mess that is this season thus far, I can say with great certainty, is all in an effort to regain that culture of resiliency even in the face of the greatest adversity. Again, he doesn’t have to get the fans to buy into it, he has to get his team to buy in, and weed out the ones who won’t. But we’re still here scratching our heads as to why Pete released Tom Johnson… T.J. Houshmandzadeh could probably tell you.

    • Rob Staton

      Cutting Houshmandzadeh was absolutely the right thing to do.

      • Shadow

        I still think one of the big reasons why Seattle got so good so quickly is that Carroll’s timing was fortunate: his first year in Seattle was the uncapped year of 2010, which made it a lot easier to cut ties with players like Houshmandzadeh and the dozens of other guys they sent packing without long-term cap ramifications.

        • BobbyK

          They paid Housh and were on the hook for it.

    • Volume12

      Maybe some, I stress some, of the things Bennett, Sherm, and whoever else had to say about Pete weren’t so ridiculous?

      • Mark Souza

        The frustrating part is we cleaned house on defense, yet it’s the offense falling on its face.

      • FresnoHawk

        What about what they said about RW?

      • Shadow

        Honestly, my problem with the disgruntled exiles isn’t so much what they were saying, it was their refusal to accept their part of the blame for what happened. I have no doubt that some of what they accused Pete Carroll of is accurate, but it would have carried a lot more weight if they had followed it up with, “and I made mistakes, too.”

      • 80SLargent

        Again, after SB 49, more players started turning their aggression on their own team. Harvin was an issue prior to that, but he was dealt with relatively swiftly, and the ship righted itself just in time to make a run at the Super Bowl. They put Sherman on the block after the 2016 season.
        These guys, prior to SB 49, were young, hungry, felt disrespected, and had that “us against the world” mentality. After that, they were older, paid, respected, and pointing fingers every time they felt something was wrong instead of owning their own stuff.
        Say what you want about Russell Wilson, but that guy is 100x the leader than all the guys they let go put together.
        In the 2012 playoffs versus Atlanta, when the offense came back to take the lead with like 30 seconds left in the game, only to have the defense give it up in 3 plays, did Wilson publicly admonish them for that? Nope. In fact, Wilson was on tape in the locker room saying, “We’re going to win the Super Bowl next year, get your minds around it.”
        In Super Bowl 49, when the defense gave up a 10 point 4th quarter lead, did Wilson say anything bad about them? Nope. Not a peep.
        In fact, I could probably come up with 10 other games off the top of my head where the “historically great” defense gave up 4th quarter leads, but we’ll NEVER hear anything about it from Wilson.
        Maybe those guys would’ve been better off just worrying about what they were doing on defense instead of pointing fingers at the offense?
        I say the kind of guys who got let go, that happened because THEY lost their way.
        Do we really think guys like Wilson, Wagner, Wright and Baldwin would still be here if they acted like a Sherman?
        As far as the offense, again, the slow starts are nothing new. It’s frustrating as all hell to watch. Going back to 2012 when Wilson became the starting QB, I can think of maybe one game out of the first two weeks of those seasons where I could honestly say the offense looked really good; that was opening day 2014 against Green Bay.
        This isn’t new territory. This is when Pete “experiments”, and since is a transition (reset) year, for better or worse, at this point I’m expecting the experiment to last throughout the season. Outside of Wilson, Wagner, D. Brown, Lockett, and Britt, they have a bunch of young guys and veterans for all intents and purposes on 1 year deals; a lot of players with a lot to prove. Pete’s trying to find “his guys”, even if it means losing games in a transition year. We’ve seen him tear it down and build it back up before, and it took about a season and a half for it to really start to come together. 2010 and Beast Quake were great and wonderful, but that team had no business making the playoffs. While I see the team getting better than they look right now, it still looks like a 7-9 squad. Expecting them to contend this year was always unrealistic.

  34. Mark Souza

    I was preaching all year about the unwillingness to run the ball. And I blamed Bevell. This year is more of the same and Bevell is gone. I think Rob hit the nail on the head earlier in the week, the blame belongs with Pete.

    A bunch of things bother me about the offense. First, and well documented, the lack of true commitment to the run. Second, when we do run, why are we running predominately to the right? We have three studs side by side in Brown-Pocic-Britt, yet we run to the much weaker side. Ifedi should be a road grader, is built like a road grader, yet he rarely hits anyone when he run blocks. Sweezy used to be a crush or miss guy be before we let him go, either he would whiff, of pancake his man. Now it seems he can’t do anything right.

    Third, and my biggest issue by far is related to my previous gripe. Why aren’t we setting up this offense to play to the strengths of the players we have? We need to be fairly split between run and pass for a number of reasons. Pass protection is a weakness for this team. But they are huge and strong up front. Take advantage of it. Then when you run play action, it’ll mean something. When you run, run more to the left than the right, at least until Fluker gets back. Utilize quick on-time passes. The defense will creep to the line to shut down both. That’s when you go play action, double move deep routes for the home run. The home run is the spice, not the meal, because we don’t have the horse to do it all the time. Trying to play vertical is killing us.

    I want to see a game where we have a back with 20+ carries. And I want to see a game where Wilson finishes with a clean jersey (that won’t happen if we ask him run slow developing vertical ball where he has to hold the ball behind that line). And I want to see both in the same game.

  35. Trevor

    If Fluker can play this week I really would love to see a right side of the OL of Fant / Fluker. I think it would be a huge upgrade over Sweezy / Ifedi and they certainly cannot be any worse.

    I am really worried Fluker will not be able to stay healthy but when he played during the pre-season the run blocking improvement was drastic on the OL.

  36. icb12

    Anybody still crying over Tom Johnson’s 1.8 mil…. just remember it could be worse.

    The Bills are eating 54 MILLION in dead money this year.
    They pay their entire offense 57 million. …

  37. mishima

    Rob / others,

    If the Seahawks pick in the top 10, do you favor them keeping the pick or trading down to acquire more picks?

    Thanks.

    • 80SLargent

      Normally, I’d say try to trade down for more draft picks. However, it all depends on who’s still on the board. I.E., Aaron Donald was the 13th pick of the 2014 draft; Earl Thomas was the 14th pick of the 2010 draft. If a guy they really like/want is there, then take him; if not, try to trade down.
      I do think they’re going to have to find a way to build some draft capital for the 2019 draft. The trade deadline this season might be interesting.

    • H

      If we have a top 10 pick we probably have a new head coach and, possibly a new GM.
      So basically we’ll have no idea because we’ll have no history to draw from. FWIW i’d like to keep the pick, we need some studs on this team, haven’t had the opportunity to grab one in a while.

      • Volume12

        Depends. How many cool dudes are still on the board when they pick?

    • SB~2013

      I think we should probably trade down and get that 2nd rounder back if possible. It seems to be a pretty deep d-line draft and I’m not sure we would benefit too much from drafting say at 9 opposed to 16 or something. I’d like to hear Rob’s thoughts though.

    • Rob Staton

      Too hard to say right now

  38. gmoney

    Rob – I have a reference you will recognize:

    I’m afraid Pete Carroll is Arsene Wenger of the NFL at this point. The level of dysfunction, stubbornness, smug and desperate holding on to the past glory.

    • EP

      I would agree with this and I am an Arsenal fan. Both amazing coaches, two of my favourites of all time but they are old and stuck in their ways.

      • gmoney

        Me too EP, really sad… I hope we won’t suffer Gunner’s like decade of decline and frustration if Carroll sticks around.

        This proves that staying at the top is as hard or even harder than getting there.
        Some coaches are good at turning franchises around but can’t sustain success long-term like Belichick.

        It takes a lot of self-scouting, adapting, constant innovation, stat and tendencies analytics, scheme morphing and much more…

        Nothing ever stays the same just like in life. The moment we stop growing we get left behind.

    • Rob Staton

      Carroll and Wenger do share similarities it seems. Nice comp.

    • Kenny Sloth

      Genius .

      Let’s hire Klopp for Seattle!!

    • dylanlep

      Great analogy, saw someone make this comparison on twitter. They both took their respective leagues by storm with new ways of thinking, strategy. Then others studied them, copied them and instead of adapting they doubled down on their outdated philosophies. Both great minds but the game past them by.

  39. Trevor

    Rob when I look at the dysfunction in Pittsburgh this year it makes one wonder if Todd Haley was critical in keeping that group focussed.

    What are your thoughts on Haley as a potential HC if the Paul Allen decides to make changes this upcoming off season.

    • Rob Staton

      I’m a big fan of Haley. But I wouldn’t want him as Seattle’s next head coach.

  40. Hawk Eye

    what a mess.
    In the grand scheme of things, with 3 pro bowlers on defense, with 2 more potential ones in Shaquill and Clark, plus 3 pro bowlers on offence, some high picks on the line, very promising TE, potentially the best punter in the league at minimum salary for 4 years, etc, etc and we should be looking forward to the future. Maybe not a contender this year, but lots of cap space and some good picks next year and this is a different story.
    But there seems to be something so dysfunctional about the whole thing right now that does not bode well going forward.
    The 2 key figures that do not seem to have their act together at the moment are Pete and Russ. And that spells trouble for any football team as they are the 2 most important parts.

    I would not bet against Pete fixing it, but I sure as hell am not betting on him to fix it either at this point.

  41. astro.domine

    Back to the matter at hand:
    What’s everyone predicting for Sunday?
    Does the offense start to click? Does Wagner help shutdown a run-heavy Dallas offense?

    • Aaron

      Cowboys 27
      Seahawks 20

      Hawks fall to 0-3 behind another performance where they don’t run the ball enough. Russ is sacked 4 times. The defense does it’s best, providing 2 turnovers. The Cowboys dominate time of possession behind a balanced attack and a 100 yard rushing performance by Zeke, though some of that is to wind down the clock once the game is out of our reach. More of the same. Feeling a top 10 pick kinda season. Pete’s swan song.

    • SeahawkeyezSubj80

      I actually think Seattle gets 1st win of season. 20-17.

    • Hawktalker#1

      Although there were a lot of problems in the first couple games, I refuse to believe that the front office the coaching staff are beyond growing and learning something from those mistakes. There is just too much youth, energy and talent on the team. I predict they use some Homefield energy and things go their way this week and they pull this one out.

      Go Hawks

    • Del tre

      14-9 win for the hawks with the cowboys scoring a last second TD but missing the extra point. Russell is bad again, holding onto the ball for 5+ seconds, but a combo of Carson and Penny move us down the field, Penny shuts up haters with 90 yards on 15 carries, Carson goes for 50 yards on 12 carries. Russell replaces a bit in the second half and leads us downfield for the Td to take the lead, Shaq has 1 more pick.

    • mishima

      Cowboys 27 – Seahawks 17

  42. SeahawkeyezSubj80

    Just a conspiracy theory. So dont murder me on this comment. Do think Seattle is getting offers for Chris Carson. Knowing Rashaad 1st rd. pick. Dont want to Risk injury. Thats why Carson pulled.

    • Aaron

      Pats probably want him since Michel hasn’t worked out yet. However, Pete was gifted Coleman from them last year, so he doesn’t want to press his luck a second time. Fool the Evil Emperor once, shame on him. Fool him twice, shame on you.

      All jokes aside, I think Carson has either a stamina issue, a diva issue, a practice issue, or a locker room issue. Don’t buy the special teams thing at all.

      • Hawktalker#1

        Spot on with that take the Carson benching issue.

        I’d love to play some poker with Pete. Poker face needs some work.

        • 12th chuck

          also might explain why procise is still on the team.

  43. John Roberts

    I wonder if Carson angered Pete by begging off special teams. That would st least explain the strange excuse given by Pete.

  44. Aaron

    BREAKING NEWS ALERT: The Browns have won a football game…REPEAT…The Cleveland Browns, NFL’s modern day Purgatory, have just won a regular season football game. Hell has officially frozen over.

    • Georgia Hawk

      This will make 3 straight weeks of the Browns having a better record than the Hawks.

      *Vomit

    • dyl;anlep

      Browns are straight up better than the Hawks, that is reality

    • AlaskaHawk

      Browns won with their shiny NEW quarterback Baker Mayfield, rumor has it that he signed to a very inexpensive deal. Mayfield completed 17-of-23 passes for 201 yards and, of course, was the key figure in the Browns’ first win since Christmas Eve two yeas ago.

      Filed under: How to duplicate the Seahawks past winning strategy.

  45. Sea Mode

    “I need to do a better job, I’ll be the first to say that,” Schottenheimer said Thursday, via the Seattle Times. “It’s just one of those things where you get a lot of thoughts and advice as a play-caller — not just from [coach] Pete [Carroll] but from everybody until it’s third and 22 and you are backed up on your 1-yard line and you are like ‘hey guys what do you like? Hello? Hello?’ But again, some of it is me learning Pete a little bit. But again, hey look, I get paid to call the plays — I need to do a better job. Sometimes it gets you off your game when you are looking at different things. It’s not Pete, it’s just different things, and it’s hard to find a rhythm sometimes. But I need to be better, and I will be.”

    Hmmm…

    • Volume12

      lol. Is this some of that self scouting PC/JS used to talk about?

      • Sea Mode

        To me it sounds like it has a total “yes-man” ring to it.

        • Volume12

          Definitely.

          I was optimistic that Schotty with a better QB than he had in the past (Bradford, Pennington/Sanchez) would be reinvigorated, but so far it’s the same ol’, same ol’.

        • Mark Souza

          Yup, Shotty falling on his sword for Pete. However, truth is, Pete already admitted that he got impatient and was the reason we went away from the run. So Shotty, it doesn’t matter how well you do if Pete won’t let the team run the plays you call.

    • Aaron

      Sounds like Schotty is just trying to be nice and not call out Pete for putting his hands in the offensive cookie jar. Pete is in a weird place right now. His demeanor, his words, how he says them, his body language. He looks lost, tired, and at a crossroads.

  46. teejmo

    Completely off-topic, but does anyone find the media’s love affair with Justin Herbert out of Oregon funny, or is that just me? I mean, of the three games he’s played this season, he’s completed over 50% of his passes… once. And those three games were against Bowling Green, Portland St, and San Jose St… not exactly Murderer’s Row there. Yet he’s getting Heisman hype, rumors of first-round potential…

    • Kenny Sloth

      Hilarious to me and I’m a Ducks fan. Better than Jake Browning tho💚

    • Matt

      He’s young.
      Huge arm.
      Very athletic.
      Big Kid.

      But yes…I sincerely and totally agree with you…I find his status comical. He will end up burning an NFL franchise that is tantalized by the tools.

      That said, I do think teams are getting smarter. Baker Mayfield looked insanely good last night. I think more teams are going to lean much heavier on accuracy and how these guys do on the board. Baker looked like a 10 year pro going through progressions/reads. That is far more valuable than great athletic tools at QB. I don’t think you can teach QBs to be comfortable going through reads. Marcus Mariota is the epitome of this. Uber talented, great, smart kid that looks wholly uncomfortable moving past 1 & 2.

      • Volume12

        It’s almost like a QB that was one of the most dominant collegiate players at the position of the past decade, Cam Newton the other, is gonna pan out at the next level. Amazing how that works.

        The NFL would rather take the guy with size though.

      • Volume12

        In all seriousness though, I feel the same about Auburn QB Jarret Stidham. Has all the tools, but man does that guy struggle with pressure. Like horrendously bad.

        UCF’s McKenzie Milton is better than both.

  47. Kenny Sloth

    Thursday Night Football and the Browns deserve eachother

    • Volume12

      This.

      Sam Darnold is so frustrating. He’ll make some amazing as throws and wow ya, and then throw just a devastating INT at midfield the next.

      • Hawk Eye

        yeah did not watch much college football, but saw him a few times
        reminds me of Favre
        can come back and win the game, but also gets his team behind with some bad throws

      • Kenny Sloth

        Star studded corps of skill players including but not limited to Quincy Enunwa and Isaiah Crowell

  48. Volume12

    Rob, you checked out Kentucky EDGE Josh Allen at all?

  49. all i see is 12s

    Maybe this has been touched on, but did anyone else think that watching Tyrod play last night was reminiscent of watching Russell and the Hawks play thus far? Swarming defense getting consistent pressure and getting after the run too. Tyrod look flustered and impatient- unsure. I watched it and said, “this looks just like my hawks.”
    The Tyrod gets hurt and Mayfield did his magic. It was incredible. The ball was coming out immediately. They hammered the run game. When pressured, Baker would create space with his legs. This is was Seattle looked like in the back half of 2015.
    I was envious of Cleveland. Why cant Russell play like that? Why cant we have an offense designed to do that? Or playcallers ready to call that? Are we to believe that Baker is better than Wilson?
    When you see such a drastic change with almost all the same personnel it begs the question that maybe its not the players, its the scheme. frustrating

    • Elmer

      I wondered pretty much the same things. Maybe without Baldwin, they don’t have enough horses to get open in the short amount of time that Wilson has. Don’t know, but it was sure fun to watch Mayfield in action.

  50. Aaron

    Frustrating but hopeful third party analysis of the Seahawks offense, particularly the o line and Russ…

    https://youtu.be/YqzeCQTCsfM

  51. Josh

    Losing games sucks. They have been losing more games in recent times. I don’t like it and neither do the fans, the players, the coaches, or anyone who is involved with the Seahawks organization. When you switch coaching staff in the pro game it’s a big deal.
    I knew this at the beginning of the season: The hawks were going into one of the few stadiums in the league that have an actual home field advantage. Mile high in the air. Against one of the best pass rushers in the game that is on a pretty good defense. The hawks played them close. I was fine with that. Then they played their second game against one of the best pass rushers in the league with multiple starters out on defense. The bears have a pretty good defense as well. They Should of/could of won that game but didn’t because RW had one of his worse games as a pro.
    When you fail, you learn from mistakes, and it makes you better at anything in life. Including football. Let this team learn from its mistakes and get better. The Seahawks are notorious for this. I remember when everyone on this site wanted Justin britts head on a spit. Haha, things change and teams pull it together and players settle into their roles
    I’m glass half full, the Steelers have multiple pro bowlers littered through their offense and have been struggling to find their stride as well with a new coordinator. Let Miami, Tampa Bay, and Kansas City have their hot starts. Let’s pull it together and start winning ugly like we are accustomed to seeing.

    • AlaskaHawk

      I agree with you. Seahawks are facing some real opposition:

      1. First couple games were away against very good defenses.

      2. Seahawks historically have a crappy looking offense in their first four games and sometimes throughout the season. It’s like they never played football before.

      3. This year we are also missing a bunch of all star defensive players including the safety, corner and two linebackers. Seahawks were lucky to keep the score as close as they did. Offensively they are also missing their right guard and two lead receivers, and the running backs are still a work in progress.

      4. Coaching – who’s on first? Who is calling the plays and why are they calling those plays? Is their some theme to the offense this year?

      5. We all agreed this is a year to rebuild. So tear it down and rebuild. Just make sure that the players and coaches you have are the ones you want next year.

  52. dylanlep

    Oh man … Earl

    • Mark Souza

      Just heard about it. Pete didn’t sound happy. Reading the tea leaves, Earl is showing his displeasure at having to be a Seahawk by not practicing. When asked if Earl would play this weekend, Pete said, “I don’t know.”

      My response would have been stronger. I would have announced that Earl will be inactive this weekend. And if he shows for practice on Tuesday, he’ll be running with the second team. I’m done with his games.

      He’s not much of a thinker is he? How much does he think he’ll get on his next contract if he sits on the bench for 14 games and leaves with the label of a head case with a bad attitude?

  53. EP

    Dwayne Haskins only throws compeltions

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