Note: This is a guest post by Curtis Allen and an addition to his weekly ‘watch points’ series. Curtis’ latest look at the Seahawks and their opponents for the Pittsburgh game will be published on Friday…
With 17 games now, the season doesn’t split evenly into quarters. With Week Five being a short week for the Thursday game, we will call the first five games the first quarter of the season.
Record — 2-3
MVP
1. Russell Wilson
Ten touchdowns against one interception.
A 72% completion rate, easily clearing the magic 70% goal that Pete Carroll has long held out for him.
Leading the NFL in quarterback rate (a sizzling 125.3) and yards per attempt (9.6).
Throwing between the numbers better than he ever had before:
And reaching nearly 20 MPH on a go-for-broke touchdown run against San Francisco.
All this while breaking in a first time offensive coordinator.
Wilson is the MVP of the Seahawks and it is not even close.
2.D.K. Metcalf
Through five games, Metcalf is on pace to put up nearly identical numbers in targets, yards, catches, first downs and yards after catch to what he did in 2020 in a projected 16 games of 2021 play.
Then how is he more valuable to the Seahawks this year?
He is more efficient and usable in different ways.
He has five broken tackles already in just five games. His career high is eight. The toughness he has demonstrated has taken his impact to another level.
He is on pace for 17 touchdowns. His career high is 10.
Russell Wilson’s quarterback rating when he threw to him in the first five games? 138.5 – a fantastic 25% better than last year.
He is doing this all with his longest catch so far this season only being 30 yards. The days of sending Metcalf on only two or three deep routes are over.
Metcalf is running more varied routes than he ever has and putting himself in better position to catch the ball rather than just winning on pure athleticism and speed.
Again – all with a new offensive coordinator.
He has one official drop in five games. The in-game technical mistakes we saw last year have yet to surface this year. An opponent got under his skin and he drew a taunting flag on Metcalf. That problem appears to have been remedied.
He is quickly approaching a standing on the team equal to Tyler Lockett as the go-to receiver in clutch situations. And he still has room to grow.
3.Darrell Taylor
He has had a fantastic start on the field.
In his first five NFL games, Taylor has recorded four sacks, seven pressures, two quarterback knockdowns and a forced fumble.
Three of those four sacks killed drives.
Two of those sacks came at key points in the game. The Seahawks were defending their red zone, so at least six points were all but assured and as many as 16 points were up for grabs.
The opposing offense ended up with only three points on those two drives because of Taylor’s sacks.
There are nine NFL players who have more sacks than Taylor this year. They are all on heavy snap counts.
The lowest is T.J.Watt at 54% of the Steelers’ snaps.
One other, Javon Hargrave, is playing 64% of the Eagles’ snaps.
The other seven are in the 70-90% range.
Darrell Taylor is running with them but is doing it in just 37% of the Seahawks’ snaps so far this year.
That is value.
Honorable Mention: Tyler Lockett
You know by now what Lockett brings to the Seahawks. He is a consistently productive receiver with a near-psychic connection with Russell Wilson. He’s perhaps the most clutch receiver in the NFL.
This year he has excelled in another way to help the team be successful — he has drawn three pass interference penalties for 80 yards in the first five games.
All three of those penalties extended drives and resulted in touchdowns for the Seahawks.
Lockett is earning every penny of that new contract extension.
Rookie Report
In past report cards, I ranked the play of the rookies each quarter, handicapping a ‘Rookie of the Quarter’ award. With the lack of draft picks and many rookies injured, there is no one that deserves the award this quarter.
Instead we can talk about a couple small but nice things:
- John Rhattigan made the team and had a fumble recovery on special teams
- Jake Curhan making the team as an undrafted free agent and taking some snaps is commendable
- Dee Eskridge had two electric runs and one catch before going on IR
Hopefully Tre Brown can make his debut this quarter for a team that desperately needs a spark at cornerback and in the return game.
Pleasant Surprises
1.Darrell Taylor
After experiencing delay after delay with his rehabilitation last year (and receiving occasional scraps of information spoken in positive tones but appearing extremely ominous) fans can be forgiven for waiting to see if Taylor could actually play in an NFL game before getting excited.
After five games, everyone now has license to get excited.
Watch him deliver that blend of speed and bend in the preseason.
Darrell Taylor ghost technique for the sack pic.twitter.com/zFDbHNl0Bm
— hawkschronicle (@hawkschronicle) August 29, 2021
Watch him put the Colts’ $70 million right tackle on the turf in his first NFL game.
I may watch this play more than my personal library of… Dan Marino throws.
I guess this is what @Joe_Fann & @BradyHenderson have been talking about for the last 18 months. #DarrellTaylor#ObsessedWithThePassRush pic.twitter.com/vsDQpGsrlr
— Mitch Levy (@Mitch_Seattle) September 14, 2021
Watch Rashod Hill get spun around and go horizontal to try and stop Taylor from swatting the ball away from Kirk Cousins and failing miserably.
#VFL & Seahawks DE Darrell Taylor with the strip-sack of #Vikings QB Kirk Cousins today.
It’s Taylor’s second sack through the first three games.
via @NFL dot com pic.twitter.com/XjDNo78mm2
— RockyTopTalk (@RockyTopTalk) September 26, 2021
It is only a five game stretch. He has a long way to go to become a complete player.
His injury history may rear its ugly head again.
But a big chunk of the frustration about the draft cost and the injury time lost is being spent right before our eyes.
Taylor is an incredible bright spot in a season that has been completely uneven.
2. The easy win in Indy
Starting the season on the road against a playoff team, albeit a banged up one. A team with superior strength on both sides of the trenches. Against an offensive line with a once-again reshuffled interior. With a new offensive coordinator. Without the benefit their starters having played a snap of preseason football.
The Seahawks passed the test with flying colors.
Chris Carson running tough. Russell Wilson throwing precision bombs. Tyler Lockett showing he is not getting complacent after getting another extension. The remade defensive line causing all kinds of problems for Carson Wentz.
It was a sight to see. For one bright week, the season got off to a great start.
3. Running backs in the passing game
The offense has made an effort to use the running backs more in the passing game this year and it shows.
The team is averaging 10.53 yards per catch with their running backs, a huge jump over last year’s 7.33 number.
They have regularly burned the opposition with simple passes in screens and wheel routes. The 28-yard pass to Collins in the San Francisco game was a catalyst for the offense to wake up after maybe the worst quarter of offensive football in team history.
Travis Homer appears to have found another way to help the team alongside his special teams and pass blocking responsibilities. Last year he had nine catches for 90 yards. Already this season in five games he has six catches for 75 yards, a robust 12.5 yards per catch average. When he comes on the field on third downs, it is not an automatic cue that he is just there to pass block.
The Seahawks in the past have used passing to the running backs almost as a mere courtesy – a way to spread the defense out a bit when they cannot get the running game going and the receivers are facing two-deep safety looks.
Now, they seem to be actually planning their use as a regular part of the offense.
Look for that to continue. Particularly when Chris Carson gets healthy.
Biggest Disappointments
1. Jamal Adams
Zero sacks. Zero quarterback pressures. Zero turnovers generated. Only two tackles for loss. A grade from PFF that is even worse than last year.
Adams’ #33 regularly appearing on highlight reels for the wrong reasons.
No admission from Adams or the team that his play has been seriously lacking.
A $70million contract that looks like an utter disaster not even two months after it was signed.
His performance in the first quarter has been so poor that even the most ardent proponents of the trade are changing their minds on the deal.
On the flipside, even the staunchest opponents of the trade have to admit that even this is worse than they could have expected.
The team publicly justified his 2020 play by pointing out he was acquired so late in the preseason, that he did not have time to be fully integrated into the defense and was playing out of sorts for most of the year.
That is believable.
What defies explanation is, knowing how important Adams was given their level of investment in trade, how the team could not get Adams signed and onto the field this offseason to actually get make sure he is fully aware of their defensive concepts and the role they have in mind for him.
Adams missed the OTA’s with an ‘excused absence’ and then opted to be in team meetings but not on the field in training camp or preseason as a ‘hold-in.’
All of which is excusable if Adams were playing well in the regular season. He is not. Rumors and talk about how the Seahawks are still fitting this player into the defense continue to dog the team as he logs ineffective game after ineffective game.
Beyond the obvious return on investment concerns, Adams is currently blocking young, inexpensive talent on the roster in Ryan Neal and Marquise Blair. The team has spent the affordable years of their NFL careers failing to explore whether they can fill prominent roles on this team.
And that is a shame.
2.Coaching
The offense and defense frequently have been unable to play well at the same this quarter. The quality of complementary football is extremely lacking.
A disturbing trend with this defense is resurfacing and will not go away. There are just too many mirrors to last season’s defense to ignore.
The pass rush acquisitions were talked up as a real strength in 2021 – an unspoken mea culpa for fielding such a horrible unit in 2020.
Serious concerns about a major position group (cornerback) were answered with statements about competing and believing in the group and assurances that players like Tre Flowers were having their best offseason yet.
And yet just like last year, here we are. The Seahawks are fielding a team that after five games is on pace to concede the most yards in NFL history.
The pass rush is underwhelming (see below) and the defensive backs do not seem coordinated in the least.
This defense is seriously bad given the talent they have. Think of this – of the eleven primary defenders, only Kerry Hyder is the ‘new guy’ on this team. All of the others have experience in the system and familiarity with the coaching staff.
Yet this group looks as uncoordinated and disorganised as a team of guys in a pickup game that just met each other. That cannot be explained any other way than a result of poor coaching.
In answer to press inquiries, Pete Carroll has dusted off some of the same tropes he fed the press last year as well:
- “The players are doing what we ask in practice but we are not seeing it on Sundays”
- “We just need to clean up some things”
- “We thought we had some challenges worked out but they popped up again”
The unfortunate part with this team right now is Russell Wilson is hurt and there is no easy stretch of opponents with banged up second-rate quarterbacks trying to keep their teams afloat coming up on the schedule to prop this team’s confidence and record up.
For a team that is heavily dependent on veteran players (and seemingly not reinventing their defense from previous years) the return the coaches have been getting on the field is baffling.
The defense is dead last in yards conceded per game.
Rushing yards? 30th
Passing yards? 29th
Scoring? 21st
Veterans like Bobby Wagner, Benson Mayowa and Carlos Dunlap occasionally make plays but appear more like spent forces than players that offenses have to consider in their game plan.
Jamal Adams’ skill and ability continue to go vastly under-utilised.
There is only thing worse than being bad.
Being bad and expensive.
That is where the team is currently. Major changes are coming.
3.Poor pass rush
The team has recorded ten sacks through five games. Last year after five games they had nine sacks.
Players yet to record a sack in 2021: Jamal Adams, Poona Ford, LJ Collier, Carlos Dunlap, Kerry Hyder, Bryan Mone and Robert Nkemdiche.
Darrell Taylor is the only player on the roster with more than one sack.
The pass rush is achieving a 23.4% pressure rate, a slight bump from the 21.4% rate the defense recorded through five games last year.
The good news (if you want to call it that) is that the team this year is doing that with half the amount of blitzing. Last year’s pass rush was truly horrid.
Week after week, watching Ryan Tannehill, Kirk Cousins and Matt Stafford picking the defense apart from a pillowy-soft pocket after being told once again all offseason that the pass rush problems have been solved is just too much to bear.
Once again, the corners and safeties are being left out to dry by the lack of pressure on the quarterback.
If this team wants to survive the injury to Russell Wilson and get to the postseason, the pass rush is job number one to improve.
What will it take? More blitzing? Better coaching? Another miraculous in-season acquisition? Better effort from the players?
Every option must be explored. Right now.
An answer must be found. The team is at a crossroads right now.
The sunniest take imaginable: Sometimes losing your best player forces you out of your comfort zone. Options you have dismissed when your MVP-level quarterback was tearing the field up become much more plausible all of the sudden.
There exists a possibility that the suddenly adrenaline-focused front office and coaching staff will be forced to make this team better in order to avoid a total collapse — and this could reap positive results.
Dishonorable Mention: Jason Myers
Myers has already missed two field goals and an extra point.
All of those misses had a direct impact on the game.
Fans that expect another perfect season kicking field goals are going to be disappointed. That part of the game is just too unpredictable.
But Myers cannot keep going like he has in the first quarter. A return to more consistent play is absolutely necessary for this team to remain competitive.
Upcoming Quarter
Schedule:
@ Pittsburgh SNF
New Orleans MNF
Jacksonville
Bye Week
@ Green Bay
The Seahawks will be fortunate to go 2-2 this quarter.
Goals
1, 2 and 3. Survive the absence of Russell Wilson
A backup entering the game and taking the game by storm is not an uncommon occurrence in the NFL (see Week Eight last year vs San Francisco — Nick Mullens put up 20 points on the Seahawks in the fourth quarter after subbing in for Jimmy Garropolo).
Now Geno Smith has a completely different task – to be the quarterback that teams game plan for. That is a whole different animal.
How can the rest of the team help Geno? Three ways.
1) More focus on the running attack
2)The defense must even out their inconsistencies
3)Special teams must go from merely adequate, back to the special unit they were last year
If you missed it this week, check out Rob’s plan for the Seahawks from 2022 onwards.
There were also two live streams to catch up on.
One with Brian Nemhauser:
And one with Jeff Simmons:
Please consider supporting the blog via Patreon (click the tab below)…
Very nice analysis.
It’s funny that DK is on track for those numbers because it “seems” he’s been a disappointment, but that’s just how good he is and can be even better. He’s definitely opened some things up for others, unlike what we’re told about Jamal Adams doing such a “good job” and we’re all just too dumb to see it.
Agreed on Darrell Taylor biggest/best surprise so far. He needs to play more. Period. There should never be a 3rd and long where he is not on the field. That would be an example of incompetent coaching at his finest to see the team at 3rd and 8 and him not on the field, though I’m sure there will be times Norton and Carroll have him on the bench in those situations. Because, well, you know – they’re so much smarter than us on every single football move they make… EVER.
Hyder is an example of signing a player who isn’t that good and giving him good money to not do much. Dunlap has affected some plays (pressures/battled balls at important times) so I’d cut him some slack. I’m sure there are some who will cry that we need to give LJ Collier more time to develop. lol
Regardless, again, nice write up.
Wonderful cha, thank you very much for the effort.
1-3 over the next 4 imo.
With all due respect to those people Bobby, pretty difficult to see LJ Collier develop when he’s a healthy scratch for half the games.
He just needs time. He’s going to be better than Reggie White and Aaron Donald combined. Mark my words!
Started season with 50-50 expectation, but easy win at Colts gave false hope. Defense was most disappointing after having Pete -a defense Guru.
Cha excellent article
Agreed about that opening Colts win. Totally sucked me in and gave me false hope too.
ditto
me too, why cant they play d like that all the time
Maybe a better question is why can’t they play the Colts all the time. They are worse than anticipated, clearly.
Great analysis. One question I keep asking myself. Are we missing KJ Wright in the middle of the field on these passes? That is really the major change in the LB crew that we haven’t seen in over 10 years. Was not resigning him another mistake knowing the cost shouldn’t have been that prohibitive?
Great read cha, thanks!
For me Wagner and Brooks are a major disappointment. I don’t know if it’s only not having KJ next to them or also the terrible design of the D, where they are often asked to do anything else but what a LB should do.
Another positive seems to be Al Woods. He’s tough and he looked quite good and he would do better with more rotation.
biggest disappointment is the lack of pass rush AGAIN. How many years can the hawks go without a pass rush and sub standard db. Get a decent pass rush, the db’s don’t look as bad
The Jarran Reed fiasco really screwed over the Seahawks and Reed himself.
Reed got about a million less for this season and isn’t doing anything to set himself up in free agency. He or his agent really screwed themselves financially.
The Seahawks lost their best DT when they sucked at DT and needed to add, not lose the one guy that could get pressure from the interior.
Just a total lose-lose for both parties involved.
I actually don’t mind the Seahawks EDGE rushers this year with Taylor, Dunlap and Robinson. I think that’s a decent trio. I’m sick of seeing some of the other bums rushing on important 3rd and long plays from the EDGE though. Another example of bad coaching decisions.
Taylor needs more playing time for sure, considering how many plays the d has had to play, its a damm shame he hasn’t had that many snaps
GE-NO is gonna go 3-0. Bye week is gonna come and Russ is gonna be ready to go after. Fans are gonna be talking about whether or not to keep rolling with the Geno Smith. (Not on this site though). Geno gets 1 more game and loses to the Packers, Russ needed another week to get ready. Russ starts the rest of the year and Seahawks roll to a wildcard birth. Rest of the division too good for us to win it.
Yeah something tells me Russ will be playing vs GB, ill be happy if we get 2 wins from Geno although I don’t expect it
Ge-No he isn’t
To me the normal results with Geno steering the wheels would be L with Steelers and Saints and tight win with Jaguars. And if we start him against the Packers we lose for sure.
I’m not even sure we’ll beat the Jags
My thought exactly.
If you look at Geno’s career I would expect that he’ll throw 90% of his passes within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage and get the ball out of his hands very quickly. It will take error free execution and consistency in his mechanics to score points. Unfortunately Geno’s history indicates that he’ll turn it over twice a game and complete about 58% of his passes. He’s not going to win games for us and with Our current RB situation and sorry defense 0-3 is most likely. I do like the optimism and it’s possible that the QBs for our next three opponents keep us in the game with turnovers, but it’s more likely they shred our D. Will gladly take being wrong on this.
I’m thinking 1-2. If Geno can’t best Jacksonville then the Hawks might as well blow it all up and Pete resign immediately.
* Full disclosure note I didn’t want to include in the article:
Carlos Dunlap does have a “sack” but it isn’t on the books.
Indy went for a 2pt try and Dunlap tackled Wentz. For some bizarre reason the NFL doesn’t count it as a sack. Just a failed 2pt try.
For what that is worth.
thanks for this excellent write-up cha. you make great points about RW and DK’s development despite having a new offensive coordinator. on the other hand, doesn’t this also suggest that despite his struggles with in-game adjustments, Waldron is making a contribution? further evidence that the Seahawks would be much better off with a head coach who would fully implement a version of the west-coast offense, whether it’s Payton-style, McVay-style, Reid-style.
This year was the first time I bought Seahawk tickets in over 6 years. I bought 100 level seats for the Saints game and secured a decent deal. This Russ injury is a total bummer.
Wow. Only one Seahawk with more than one sack. You would think there would have to be one more by accident.
Geno Smith is going to be an interesting experiment to watch for the simple reason that we haven’t seen anyone but RW run the offense for a decade now. We’ll have something to compare RW to as far as running the offense goes, most of it likely negative in comparison, but also possible that we might better see some things RW is deficient in. Again, we just haven’t had the opportunity to do so, excepting the Rams game.
Like many here I was a little stunned by the Jordan Brooks draft pick. It was not so much a slight on Brooks, but rather that there were a bunch of players at available at desirable positions just above and below our draft position. I really wanted us to trade up a bit for a ew different players that year, but there were even player picked below Brooks that I really had my eye on.
Anyway…it’s probably going to be rough sledding without RW. I hope we play our best young players as much as possible the rest of the way in positions that give them the best opportunity to succeed. This is probably a write off year. Might as well get a good handle on who we want to keep or jettison for the team next year.
Good write up as always…
Wowsers!
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/10/15/eagles-trade-zach-ertz-to-cardinals-for-tay-gowan-and-a-fifth-round-pick/
Wonder if the cards are going to keep playing lights-out ball.
Holy shit
They also seem to be building in the trenches. Loved the addition of Rodney Hudson to address their need at Center.
Liked their 2020 draft getting OT Jones in 3rd made sense.
Then getting Lawrence and Fotu in the 4th were two I was hoping we were looking at.
2 DT’s well liked here in that would have been great fits.
Watching Fotu go, then Lawrence also, just 2 picks before us was deflating to me.
Heck whether our picks pan out in the future I’m definitely hoping we do as Rob suggested. Build up our fricking trenches.
Not to mention addressing needs with good trades. Hopkins and now Ertz.
Us with a panick trade for Adams .
The sad part is you could look at so many teams; and just show comparatively how badly the Seahawks have been at team building.
The Cardinals are seizing the moment. Not sure how much Ertz has left but AJ Green has done more than I thought
He’s a likely upgrade at the position.
Thanks for the analysis, cha. What do you think of Rasheem Green’s performance and development this year?
Green’s play is very similar to the defense’s overall this year:
Fantastic start against Indy, then has faded badly. Announcers calling his name only once or twice a game maximum.
He’s the #2 DL in snaps with almost 66%. I’d expect that to drop off as PCs confidence in Taylor and Robinson increases.
Rob,
What position groups look like the strength of the draft at this point?
Rob knows a lot better than I, but I’ve seen a healthy bunch of good looking, quality DB’s this season so far. I wonder if Rob has this position group high?
I think some of the bigger name CB’s are massively overrated in CFB
It’s a poor looking draft TBH.
Tight end has some depth
Loved it Cha! Thanks for the time and thought you put into your stuff this season! (You too, Rob!)
very fair write-up.
I think i’d add Quandre to the list of honorable mentions – most of the times i’ve seen someone flying around on this year’s defense, it’s been him.
Haven’t seen it mentioned here- – but I think it’s cool that Russell is out there on the practice field doing what he can, and not staying home, or re-habbing alone, or other things guys on IR sometimes do. Shows good leadership.
Yep, Diggs always in on the tackles and he is the only guy who can get couple of INTs every year.
Bobby is a better player but Diggs looks better to just the naked eye test so far this year tbh
I used to think that until Diggs last press conference. When Diggs said that the issues with the defense weren’t his problems and that he had no idea what was wrong just hit me wrong. The guy is supposed to be a leader and this is all he has? Really? Lost a ton of respect for Diggs from that last press conference in the post-game from the Rams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcezDoTa_A4
Around 2:38 minutes and then definitely at 3:45 minutes into the interview.
It’s not his job, he just works there.
Superb work once again, Cha. A clear summary in one article of all the key conclusions we’ve come to in the articles and comments over the past few weeks. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your fan perspective.
Carson already ruled out again…
Is this anything anyone didn’t expect coming into this season?
RB is competing with C and CB for top position to solve in offseason.
Doesn’t matter. Carson has some REALLY cool workout hype videos, and that is what the fans really want.
Please stop it.
DK hasn’t practiced all week (not sure about today) and has anyone heard about Eskridge?
Huge for Arizona’s hopes of staying undefeated:
Top duo for me.
https://twitter.com/seahawksPR/status/1448788526770712612
(Sorry for the dump in the comments, last one…)
Reeeeaaaaly???
That and they wanted to see Goedert in a TE1 role before paying him.
Russell Wilson going to go on IR per Pete
Also Pete was asked about putting Carson on IR and Pete said ‘yeah we’re looking at it.’
That’s 4 weeks, right?
I thought it was 3. Someone who knows please post.
IR is a minimum of 3 games, but it would be 4 calendar weeks since there’s a bye in there Week 9.
thanks man
I thought it also means he can’t practice while on IR. If true, not sure the impact, but know he was at practice this week and likely helps with game prep. Also, it now allows another roster spot.
Looks like at least Week 10 per ESPN
If I were Russ I’d punt on the season and hope the organization undergoes major changes in the offseason.
He won’t. Despite some Seahawks’ “fans” opinions of him, that’s not who he is.
Gents,
So I open a spare Seattle Times Sports section, and not unlike an Onion article, the Friday Seahawks preview is on RW running around at practice and even throwing with his left hand, according to the article pullouts, cuz that’s the only guy who we care about.
Dude has to dominate all of the media narratives ALL the time. PC talked about his starting QB Geno in this weird tone of voice, (kept saying ‘he’) like PC was talking about his opposing QB, using a backup, who is at replacement level, and fishing for something nice to say.
Cha – RW looks like, on paper, the team MVP. But since we are breaking things down by QTRs, you need to look at the breakdown of offensive production in parts. First half versus second half of games.
Our 3rd down production is like 26th, which means RW isn’t sustaining drives. You won’t argue that the ball isn’t in his hands in all those situations?
Is that on the OC, or on the QB who takes needless sacks while waiting for the bomb to open up way downfield. Or misses wide-open guys across the middle?
I’ll let cha respond to your comments directly pointed his way but I will say this about the first part of your post: it is not Wilson’s fault that the media focuses so much on him nor is it unusual. The national media talks about Brady, Mahomes, Dak and lately Herbert nearly non-stop. I’m guessing KC media talks about Mahomes and few others to a large extent. It is the “glamor” position in pro football. Saying “dude has to dominate the media narrative all the time” makes it sound like you feel he is responsible for the local media doing so and furthermore makes it obvious you have an axe to grind with Wilson. Also, Geno is not Pete’s starting QB, he’s the backup. He’s starting until Wilson is healthy and it’s very likely you’ll see over the course of the next few weeks why that is. But you know what, if Geno plays really well and shows he’s starter level QB, I’ll come in here and say I was wrong. If that isn’t the case, will you or will your obvious personal dislike for Russell Wilson not allow you to do so?
Big Mike,
In the ESPN era, with the ‘hero’ driven media scape, where there is incessant talk of big personalities / GOATs, yes, I have grown to be irritated by RW and all the chatter around him. My envy of his giant-assed contract annoys me too – he IS the highest-paid QB against the cap. And we are talking about giving him a fourth contract that will be 50mil a year.
You can’t run a good franchise, in a team sport with 53 man rosters, like this. Chiefs, meet the Seahawks. KC’s reign is over as the Chargers have a first round talent on a rookie contract, so they probably have 5+ players on their roster that round out their depth and make them a good TEAM. (Read on here that PFF has the Seahawks as one of the thinnest rosters in the NFL.)
We are not a good team right now because all of our money is tied up at QB, MLB and Safety. THREE GUYS.
As soon as RW (and the LOB) started getting paid, there has been a marked decline in our performance. Seahawks and RW are one of only five teams to not make their conference finals since 2015.
We went to TWO Super Bowls with the highest paid OL in the league. If you dont think we have missed Max Unger… ( my sources said they traded MU cuz he wanted out and PC/JS were worried they weren’t going to get anything for him )
This is a team game, and its like War, the season is a long campaign, games like battles, where your victories should be measured in injuries, and not just final score. One of the ‘big dogs’ is down and this three-man hero brigade is immediately in question.
I hope that Geno works inside the offense again like he did on the first couple of drives. This is by far the best roster he has had around him, especially at the WRs and TEs. His ‘very, very bad’ numbers on the Jets was because he was on a very, very bad team with awful WRs.
As for RW, hand injuries and torn ligaments are a tricky thing. He won’t probably be the same for the rest of the year after he comes back, they are so easily re-injured with this littlelest of contact. Numbing them up wont help, just kills your accuracy.
With our division and our first-place schedule, we are probably a 7-10 team, RW or not.
That’s a way too simple way of looking at it.
There are so many reasons why the Seahawks aren’t good and we’ve discussed them all for a long time.
Paying a top QB market level money isn’t one of them.
I mostly agree Rob and shit drafting is unquestionably the biggest reason for the decline of this franchise. However, I do believe that if Russ does stay for another contract, it would be reasonable for him to take a bit less than market value, if it’s 50 per, say 42 instead, so there’s a bit more for roster construction/depth.
Rob,
Really, is it way too simple? I actually gave you three good reasons, and painful ramifications, for why RW’s (and two other) big contracts have had on roster construction.
– One of the Thinnest rosters in the NFL.
– Shipping out an All-Pro Center to free up more money.
– Under paid OLine, since the Super Bowl days, and RWs contract
Im gonna bring up San Diego again. With their stud rookie QB balling out, a good coach who will get the best out him, and the roster full of mid-level veterans, (who will all be cut when they have to pay Herbert) they probably have a two year window to win a Super Bowl.
If you dont draft well, which Seattle clearly has not, then market rate QBs look like albatrosses.
“If you dont draft well……”
That’s actually why this team sucks. It’s not some magic crossing routes.
It’s because the Seahawks have been objectively bad at drafting which had they been better, not great mind you just better at, then paying a ton to Wilson..or rather three players, would not matter since you’d have enjoyed Watt/ramzyck/Buddha baker instead of mcdowell on a rookie contract…in the case of the 2017 draft there were three middle round safeties still playing in the league that would have “allowed,” seattle to not burn 9 draft picks including: two 1sts, a 2nd, and two 3rds, on safeties….
Had seattle drafted to their own type, their very own stated preference…you could have been watching Chubb on a rookie contract and hell i love carson but maybe not paying him so much to slowly get ruined by injury…don’t like Chubb? Great how about alvin Kamara since pete loves weapons, maybe Kareem hunt…
But this is all on seattle sucking at drafting. I could do this all day and break down every pick and just pick players within about 8 spots ( going after) of Seattle’s choices that have been better. Cheaper. Played seattle ball. All while paying Wilson and wagner.
No they don’t
It’s such a tired argument
Go and pay Andy Dalton $8m then, I bet the Seahawks will be great
The reason the Seahawks are bad is nothing to do with having a great QB on a market value contract
For most teams the franchise QB is essential.
I’m not sure if the football that Carroll wants to play requires one though. Nor am I saying that’s a good way to play the game. 🙂
It is interesting to look at the last 20 years of Super Bowl winning QB’s and see how many were high-priced vs. cheap. If you remove the outlier that is Brady the cheaper QB’s are well-represented. Granted, it’s fair to say that you still need a franchise QB since many were insanely talented and later paid (like Wilson). 🙂
A friend asked me what’s going on with the Hawks. I had a hard time not going doom and gloom. Would love someone to breathe some positives to be excited about this team, but I just can’t see it.
They won’t make the playoffs this year- fine, I expected that even with Russ. But this defense…
Outside WR, there are glaring holes at every position group. There doesn’t appear to be enough salary cap to fill a roster, resign depth players, and make a big off-season splash and our top-15 R1 goes to the Jets.
This is really exceptional Cha – thank you for all your hard work on these articles, they’re a massive addition to SDB.
Thanks for reading!