This is a guest post from Curtis Allen…
Can the coaching staff avoid a sluggish start on defense for the third season in a row?
The last two seasons have seen the Seahawks start out on a horrendous pace:
— Through 5 games the 2020 team conceded an average of 471 yards per game
— Through 5 games the 2021 team conceded an average of 451 yards per game
How bad is that? For reference, the all-time worst defense in NFL history over a full season is the 2012 New Orleans Saints, who conceded 440 yards per game.
The Seahawks had them easily beat in those stretches.
One could even argue the 2021 season start was worse than 2020, given that the only Seahawks starter on defense who was new to the system and coaching staff was Kerry Hyder. This team had no excuses for such a poor first quarter.
Starters like Tre Flowers – who had earlier been lauded by Pete Carroll for having his ‘best offseason yet’ and had won the right corner spot, moving D.J. Reed to his less-familiar left side – spoke for the fans when he openly expressed that the team simply was not ready to play after a disastrous Week Three performance against Minnesota:
Interesting comments from Tre Flowers on Seattle’s pass defense: “It’s a schematic thing, I feel like. I’ve got my own questions to ask.” Said there’s confusion among some guys on how to defend certain routes. “It’s going to be an easy fix once we all get on the same page.”
— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) September 27, 2021
What happened? You cannot blame COVID for limiting the offseason activities, as all NFL teams had to deal with that. In fact, being one of the NFL’s best teams in number of cases should have provided an advantage. Yet it did not.
A preventable ‘hold-in’ by Jamal Adams combined with drastically changing his role in the defense only added to the challenges.
By the time the defense began to gel somewhat, Russell Wilson had suffered a serious injury and the offense struggled to hold their end of the bargain, culminating in a very disappointing season.
After the season Ken Norton Jr and Andre Curtis were fired, Clint Hurtt promoted and Sean Desai and Karl Scott were brought in.
How can they all get on the same page and start the season with a unified goal? Hurtt has cited communication as an important key to cohesiveness in a press conference last month:
“The biggest thing right now is there’s a lot of communication. In and out of different calls…so you have multiplicity….So with multiplicity, guys being on the same page, on all three levels of the defense is crucial. If not, bad things can happen. Guys have to constantly be on the same page.”
Very true and a worthy goal. However, we have heard platitudes and statements of intent the last two offseasons and the Seahawks have been unable to marry them to on-field results.
COVID may not be hindering the team as much this year but they will have just as many challenges to building a cohesive defense as any other year – challenges that impact every position group on defense:
— Starting safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are still rehabbing injuries and Adams’ role in the defense may change yet again with this new staff implementing a 3-4 style defense
— The cornerback spots are once again loaded with newcomers that need to get up to speed quickly
— Pete Carroll was coy when asked about where Cody Barton and Jordyn Brooks will play at linebacker. Perhaps he is considering changing their roles? Combine that with a shift to more of a 3-4 scheme and you have the possibility of everyone learning new roles.
— On the defensive line, the Seahawks added Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Tyreke Smith and need to further develop Darrell Taylor and Alton Robinson
Can the Seahawks really integrate all these changes in a way that sets them up for success?
The good news is Hurtt is a straight shooter. He does not come across as someone who makes excuses for players like Ken Norton did. It is conceivable that he will be able to convince Pete Carroll to play the best players in positions that maximize their abilities, and let this defense come together with a shared vision far earlier than in past years.
Sean Desai was also a valuable addition to the staff. He has a PhD in education. He will need every bit of that teaching ability to help the staff put a product on the field that can keep this team balanced and effective early on while the offense finds its way.
Can this team get a reasonable return on their investments at the safety position?
The Seahawks have $17.4 million in cap space allocated to Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams this season.
They have $36.2 million in 2023 and $38.8 million in 2024 lined up for the pair.
When you add in the draft picks sent to acquire Adams in trade, you have a massive outlay by the team at the safety position.
For such a large investment, the return so far has been underwhelming.
While these two have brought the occasional highlight-worthy play, the $109 million in contracts the team has given them dictates that their play needs to ascend to something closer to consistently game-changing in order to get maximum return.
The exhilaration and forward momentum felt by fans when Quandre Diggs was first acquired in 2019 slowed to a crawl when the Seahawks acquired Adams and were blitzing him heavily in early 2020. Diggs’ job had been minimized from impact player, flying around and delivering timely hits and defending passes, to a safety net – being asked to stretch and cover the entire deep part of the field. The team badly struggled to adapt to this new evolution. The defensive line and corners could not give the safety tandem any consistent support and Diggs’ effectiveness was dramatically reduced.
Adams has a very long way to go to fulfill his promise. In 2020, the team went out of their way to create blitzing opportunities for him. In 2021, they completely shifted gears and had him play predominantly away from the box. They cut his blitzing in half and rarely designed the free looks for him we saw so often in 2020.
The results were predictable. He went from setting an NFL record for sacks for a defensive back to recording no sacks at all.
Both seasons ended prematurely for Adams with shoulder injuries, a poor PFF score and with as many lowlights as highlights.
Can this new defensive staff solve this puzzle? Or will a third consecutive season of re-shaping Adams’ responsibilities just be more gas on the fire of this rapidly declining investment?
A third season concluding in similar fashion would spell the end of Adams’ time in Seattle. The Seahawks can cut or trade him June 1, 2023 and pick up $11 million in cap room. There will be a $21.3 million dead cap hit but after three seasons it would be time to admit that the trade has not worked and move on.
Meanwhile, the question remains, can the coaching staff utilize this pairing with creative packages and movement, while keeping the defense balanced and yet unpredictable?
That seems like a lot to ask. There is some optimism though with a fresh perspective from the coaching staff and some pass rush talent the team has added.
Can this defense get off the field?
Last season this defense led the NFL in most plays faced last year with 1,201. Even adjusted for 17 games, that is the highest number of snaps faced by an NFL team in years.
This is most certainly a function of the offense also having the fewest plays run in the NFL with 954.
Think about that. The defense on a weekly average faced 14.5 more plays than the offense. That is nearly two extra possessions every single game. Simply put, the offense’s inability to sustain drives placed a big burden on the defense.
We will get to the offensive challenges soon enough. But that does not absolve the defense of all responsibility.
Once again, the pass rush last year was abysmal. The Seahawks were in the bottom ten in the league in both sacks and pressures.
They were also in the bottom ten in takeaways generated.
They conceded an incredible 400 first downs on defense, just shy of the most in the NFL to the Jets at 401 first downs. Both of those teams ranked among the worst defensive seasons in years in this area.
But perhaps the worst stat of all is how they defended passes to the running backs.
Through sixteen games the Seahawks had conceded 1,038 yards passing to opponents’ running backs, far and away the worst number in the NFL in 2021.
How far and away? It was historically bad – the worst number since Pro Football Reference started tracking the stat in 2015.
Put it this way — the modern NFL record for receiving yards by a running back? Marshall Faulk with 1048 yards in 16 games in 1999. So, on average, the Seahawks defense conceded a prime-era Marshall Faulk number of passing yards every single week. No wonder they could not get off the field.
They must improve. It is the single-biggest area where they could gain ground in 2022.
They might as well tackle this problem head on. More than half of their opponents in 2022 feature a top-10 caliber pass catcher at the running back position.
Ken Norton had defensive lineman covering running backs at times. From everything Clint Hurtt has said, they appear to be going away from that model. It is entirely possible the biggest reason the Seahawks have moved towards more of a 3-4 alignment was to specifically address this one gigantic weakness.
If they can stem the tide and get off the field, it will be worth it. Even returning to just a league-average position in this area will provide some stability.
Can the team distribute the defensive snaps in a more effective way in 2022?
The Seahawks have produced some seriously head-scratching moments with their snap distribution in recent years, particularly on defense.
Just some examples from last season:
Week Two against the Titans: Rasheem Green and Benson Mayowa play 78% of the snaps on defense while Carlos Dunlap and Darrell Taylor get 30% and 26%. Alton Robinson makes a fantastic play, strip-sacking Ryan Tannehill and two plays later the Seahawks score a touchdown. Has he earned more snaps? Absolutely. Does he get more snaps? No. He plays a grand total of 18 snaps in the game, and the tired defense is shredded in the second half. After the game, Pete Carroll blamed the issue on ‘substitution challenges’ which if true, is an embarrassing admission for a professional football team.
Week Seven against the Steelers: The Seahawks are desperate for pass rush. Their prize young rusher Darrell Taylor is carted off the field with a scary-looking injury. Do they turn to their other young rusher, Alton Robinson for a jolt? No. Robinson records one measly snap on defense. Again, the Seahawks turn to Rasheem Green and Benson Mayowa for the bulk of snaps. They record one pressure and no sacks between them.
Ben Roethlisberger – probably the least mobile quarterback in the NFL – has a consistently clean pocket and the Seahawks had no defensive answers despite taking the game to overtime.
Week Eight against the Saints: Darrell Taylor is a precautionary scratch. Again, Benson Mayowa logs 78% of the snaps while Robinson and Dunlap only get half that amount at 39% each. Mayowa has very little impact with zero pressures or sacks as the Seahawks only pressure Jameis Winston in 17% of plays.
Are you sensing a pattern here? Incapable veterans are being played ahead of talented but unproven youngsters.
What did Benson Mayowa do to secure such a prominent role on the defense? A career part time player is all the sudden playing well above 70% of the team’s snaps in the most critical stretch of the season.
Did all those snaps provide good results? See for yourself. He ended 2021 with one sack, six pressures and a 59.4 PFF grade and is currently an unsigned free agent. He is the living embodiment of a replacement-level player.
You can practically draw a line from Mayowa’s 2021 individual performance to the defense’s performance overall. What’s more, you have a young player on a rookie contract in Alton Robinson that showed development in his rushing defense and real pass rush promise on a team starving for it and his snap percentage actually decreased in 2021.
What exactly was the benefit of that arrangement?
For this year the question is — can the defense find a good mix of playing the experienced veterans while getting the young players crucial development time? Or will we again witness veterans logging heavy snaps while potential defensive building blocks like Boye Mafe, Darrell Taylor and Alton Robinson have their NFL experience curtailed?
Is Uchenna Nwosu this year’s version of Benson Mayowa, providing merely adequate play while simultaneously blocking younger players from developing?
The Seahawks have collected an impressive group of talented young cornerbacks. They also wisely covered themselves with veteran free agent signings to assure depth and experience is provided at the position. But will we witness Carroll once again opting for the comfort of experience and mediocre yet predictable play over the unknown of youth and talent at the position? It would not be surprising to see the veterans starting at all three corner spots Week One. But by Week Six or Seven, if future prospects like Tre Brown and Coby Bryant (and even raw but immensely gifted rookie Tariq Woolen) are not being worked into the mix, that is a serious problem.
Why? Artie Burns, Justin Coleman and Sydney Jones are all on one-year contracts. If they log the bulk of the snaps in 2022, there will be no confidence going into 2023 – likely when the rookie quarterback salary cap window opens – to know what they have back there. If the Seahawks do not have a firm grasp on what the future of the cornerback position holds by then, that would be a major mistake.
It could easily lead to a repeat of what we have seen in recent years – the Seahawks spend crucial cap dollars on veteran players for one-year contracts in the name of experience and stability, with Pete Carroll justifying it by reasoning that it is too risky to just hand the young players the job and with his ‘competition’ mantra combined with a strong desire for the security of having veterans on the field.
Can the Seahawks trade some predictability for long-term growth and development? Will they?
Can Pete Carroll develop trust in this defense?
With all these moving parts we discussed, it seems unlikely in the early going that he will make decisions based on confidence in the defense.
Pete Carroll has always been one of the most conservative coaches in the NFL in going for it on fourth downs. That may or may not change.
But what has changed? The number of times Pete elected to punt in the opponent’s territory. The Seahawks led the NFL in a very specific and telling stat — Michael Dickson punted 21 times inside the opposition’s 50-yard line.
For instance, the Seahawks twice chose to punt inside the 40-yard line in the Week Seven game against the Steelers, rather than go for it or attempt a long field goal try. Both times, Dickson and the special teams unit could not down the ball deep and it fell into the end zone for a touchback. The net gain on both was about 18-20 measly yards. On the first punt, the Seahawks intentionally took a 5-yard delay of game penalty to give Dickson more room. It did not help.
Were those decisions borne strictly out of an intuition that the defense could not make the stop? Not necessarily. The offense was having its own troubles. A hallmark of the 2021 Seahawks offense was regularly shooting themselves in the foot when in field goal range.
But given how spectacularly bad this defense was at forcing punts, that certainly played a large part in Pete Carroll’s thinking. This defense forced Pete Carroll into a posture of mistrust, and his decisions frequently evidenced that in 2021.
Perhaps the new coaching staff can give Pete more confidence, shape his perspective and help him move his needle from extremely conservative to slightly more aggressive.
It will be up to this defensive coaching staff and personnel to make decisions like that pay off though.
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Wonderful and thorough write up cha. I greatly appreciate your efforts and appreciate Rob for giving you the opportunity to “guest” post here. Not everyone who runs a website would be willing to “share the limelight” like he does.
Your points about playing mediocre vets rather than give the young guys more time on the field was very disheartening. Unfortunately I feel like leopards don’t change their spots and despite having new blood in Desai and a new man in charge in Hurtt, it’s still Pete Carroll in charge and the defense remains his “specialty” and thus I’m really pessimistic about the young guys getting more playing time. I also question the approach to building the D in that they invest in Safeties while the rest of the NFL has moved away from paying premium dollars for that position (including the champion Rams).
And speaking of Safeties, you said the following: “A third season concluding in similar fashion would spell the end of Adams’ time in Seattle. The Seahawks can cut or trade him June 1, 2023 and pick up $11 million in cap room. There will be a $21.3 million dead cap hit but after three seasons it would be time to admit that the trade has not worked and move on.” I’m sorry my man, but I do not agree at all. I think as long as Pete’s here, Jamal is here as Pete continues to sadly try to justify what was an obviously horrible trade. I would LOVE to be proven wrong but I look at LJ Collier STILL occupying a spot on this roster and to me that says that Pete won’t move on from mistakes anymore like he did with Harvin.
Well said Big Mike.
Part of Pete’s legacy will be to justify the Adams trade. He doesn’t want any push back from the coordinators-hence he hired Hurtt instead of Vic Fangio. Say what you want about former DC Gregg Williams ; but he warned us that Pete wouldn’t know how to use Adams. So far, he has been correct.
Possible but Pete has dumped bad investments before.
If Adams gets banged up a third straight year, you really have to start thinking why you are carrying him on your roster. His 2023 cap hit is $23.6m, 2024 is $24.6m, you just can’t keep paying a broken player that kind of money.
Sincerely hope you’re right and I do believe he’ll have injury issues and make business decisions again this year. If so, we’ll see for sure.
I remember reading something last year about the substitution issues they were having and it ended up landing at KNJ’s feet, not Pete’s. I think it was a comment from Pete in one of his interviews about Kenny wanting to get the experienced guys in and not the young ones, causing this “substitution issue”.
At this point, as far as the tea cup (he is extremely fragile now) is concerned, I just hope he improves this year and is not a liability for us.
“teacup”…..nice!
I find it funny that the “Everyone Is Wrong About Jamal Adams” guy has changed his title. “Jamal Adams Is Absurdly Misunderstood”
Who is that?
https://seahawksdraftblog.com/im-not-buying-this-baker-mayfield-tweet#comment-633980
Ah yes, that post. I took your advice and didn’t go watch it. Not going to now, either.
Next week…
‘Everybody is pretty much right about Jamal Adams’
LJ is a comparatively cheap, continuing experiment with a distinct end-date. Adams is an entirely different kettle of fish, as we have all discussed. Keeping Adams if he continues to disappoint would be a much greater sin.
Welp, I guess we’ll see how fast this changes…
https://mobile.twitter.com/Seahawks/status/1544388290010238976
🙄🙄🙄
The “expect” winning teams smells of a bunch of politically correct bullshit imo. As for the sales of the team, who knows? She could be wishful thinking or she could be trying a power play to keep them until she’s old. Time will tell.
Yikes. $36 mil in 2023 and $38 mil in 2024 for two safeties. And now I hear that DK is fully expecting to be either the first or second highest paid receiver in the league (either just ahead or just behind Deebo) and we could be looking at a $60 million plus cap hit in 2023-2024 for two safeties and a WR, the first two which have already had injuries and the last playing a position with high risk of injury. Makes those of us saying that we can’t pay Russ $50 mil kind of silly if we’re willing to pay more for two safeties and a WR. And now we have a “owner” releasing a press release to say the team is not for sale which seems like the biggest “this team is for sale” I’ve ever seen and I just have the WORST unsettling feeling right now that the light is a long way off.
About DK, does it make sense to pay that to a guy who’s contract will be expiring just as our newly drafted QB is actually hitting his stride? He’s painting himself as the Hawks only bona fide superstar, he’s clearly not afraid to hold out of camp (I mean, what’s a couple hundred thousand dollars for a guy that is looking at a $20million+ raise?), and I feel like our leverage is slipping away by the day, including for a reasonable trade. I worry that the lack of a strong owner- or any owner, to be honest- has a big target painted on our backs.
I’ve long been frustrated with so much of the defense, but you really got on something I was unaware of and it’s pretty wild. I keep thinking about this and how crazy it really is statically.
Most interesting thing I’ve seen about our gloriously inept defense in quite some time:
…
“Through sixteen games the Seahawks had conceded 1,038 yards passing to opponents’ running backs, far and away the worst number in the NFL in 2021.
How far and away? It was historically bad – the worst number since Pro Football Reference started tracking the stat in 2015.
Put it this way — the modern NFL record for receiving yards by a running back? Marshall Faulk with 1048 yards in 16 games in 1999. So, on average, the Seahawks defense conceded a prime-era Marshall Faulk number of passing yards every single week. No wonder they could not get off the field.”
….
That’s just wild.
Some frosting on this nasty cake:
They finished the 17 game season with 1106 total yards conceded to RBs in the passing game.
The #31 team was the Jets with a grand total of 907 yards conceded.
They were 22% worse than the worst team in the NFL last year.
Oof. That cake didn’t need frosting.
I’m increasingly worried about us ever recouping anything on the Adams deal, a shoulder injury is probably the worst one a Seahawks safety could get besides a career ending one. Hawk tackling is done completely with the shoulders and if he reinjures himself he’s done for
I wouldn’t worry
I’ve long written that trade off. I just hope they can a) salvage it somehow in some small form this year and/or b) be prepared to move on short of a miraculous turn around, rather than carrying this through to the bitter end
If you want to worry about anything it’s their total apparent unwillingness to learn any lessons from years of misusing their cap space and their stubbornness to stick with ‘their way of doing things’ in free agency despite consistently bad results
💯Rob.
While Seattle pays Safeties, LBs and TEs, the rest of the NFL doesn’t.
For those of you that are following the current college football saga with USC/UCLA moving and the future of CFB in general, I thought this Colin Cowherd/Joel Klatt podcast was a really good watch and worth the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFbhULBUeDY
Now I see a rumor that Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, and Colorado may be headed to the Big 12. If that happens the PAC-12 may not be able to survive.
Oregon and Washington should go to the Big 10. Easy flights to the Mid West and they’ll still play both LA schools.
The Pac 12 is done.
that was a well needed article, thanks cha. how bad the d has been the last several years has been overlooked by new o coordinators, Adams trade, d coordinator firings and and a franchise h.o.f type qb getting traded away to not having a starting caliber qb. easy to forget how abysmal the pass rush and total d has been. The lack of 3 and out stops on d and long sustained drives been allowed by a d minded coach is absolute baffling. how many years in a row do the hawks need to have the” historically worst d of all time” trajectory to say enough is enough. I am back on the get rid of pc and js after squandering away all the fa money again with nothing or little to show for it.
Is there any way the switch to a 3-4 is to put Adams at linebacker? Or maybe that change will somehow salvage Adams at strong safety?
I agree with Rob on Adams. If the Seahawks are throwing good money after bad to salvage that trade it is only making things worse.
He is too small for linebacker.
He would be in the bottom 5-10% weight/size wise, and he’s already yoked. There isn’t weight to put on. That translates into higher probability for injury, and he’s already injury prone as a SS that plays close to the line. It would be worse if he was a LB and would negate the benefit positionally since he would rarely be on the field.
As a football player there are many things not to like in Adams but the worst is he is not good person like Tyler Lockett. Tyler is down to earth person who listen and improve his game. They way Adams is very arrogant, may be he has lot of skills but being arrogant is not helping to improve/fine tune.
I’m not going to make judgement on teacup’s qualities as a good person. I’ve actually not seen anything that says he is a bad person. Yep, he is a bit full of himself and arrogant but that doesn’t make him a terrible person. All we get to see is what is presented to us in the media and on the field.
Not a good person like Lockett?!? That’s an odd bar to compare him to and consider him a bad person for falling short of. I mean, not many NFL players are saving themselves for marriage and writing poetry books. But I’m unaware of any legal trouble or domestic issues and he is a hard worker and student of the game by all accounts. Not many players are wired like Lockett, and shouldn’t be expected to be.
It’s like reading about the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Great write-up.
First, how in the living hell could one justify Pete Carroll returning in 2021?
Second, how in the double living hell does one justify Pete Carroll returning in 2022?
What were/are the expectations?
IMO, for this defense to make any strides toward being league average, not special – just competent – Pete has to be reduced to a rah-rah guy and have little-to-no say, preferably the latter, in the play-calling, depth chart, rotations, or snap counts.
The idea that the jury might still be out on whether Adams or Collier are either:
A: Any Good
B: Capable of Being Any Good
C: Worthy of Their Roster Spot and/or Salary
is an absurd question at this point in their careers. Both are peak-Pete Carroll-esque acquisitions, the results of a cascading Rube Goldberg series of decisions that somehow, some way left these guys as the best decision available in Pete’s mind.
And nothing in Peteland is ever in a straight A-to-B line of thought; there are always huge under-reactions (ignoring the obvious) followed by ‘he did what?’ overreactions (e.g. Coffee Cup/Peacock/Tea Cup/Best in the Nation) in poorly thought-out attempts to correct the first.
This article rekindled too many recollections of what this team has been for too long…and now they’ve traded away their GOAT QB because ownership chose Pete over him. (And, yes, yes, yes… RW’s going to get paid. Large. But a team that has $43m tied up in 2 safeties and a backup TE really can’t be accused fo using any perceived savings wisely, can it?)
Sorry, I lost my way there, this is about the defense. So, in conclusion, the Genius needs to step aside and allow new voices try and correct an ongoing collapse.
I want to believe it might be different this season, that it might be better, but Pete, man.
“First, how in the living hell could one justify Pete Carroll returning in 2021?
Second, how in the double living hell does one justify Pete Carroll returning in 2022?”
Answer: Jody has no stomach for paying Pete Carroll to not be the HC of the Seattle Seahawks. I strongly and truly believe she sees it as bad business which is why I find her statement today about “trusting and expecting the leaders of her franchises to build winning teams” to be an utter line of bullshit. She’s interested in profit maximization and paying Pete Carroll to not be the coach of this team won’t contribute to that end.
Meant as a reply to Gross MaToast
Absolute rubbish, her statement. If anything, it’s an attempted CYA . “I told them to do better.” Right now, she has two franchises that are in the same state of disrepair with the best players wanting out and competing for championships a laughable notion. That’s bad for business.
But profit is built in both franchises, especially the Seahawks. Huge profit. It’s why the Detroit Lions of the world continue to exist and print money, because with TV revenue being shared equally they print a lot of it.
But hey maybe you’re right, maybe she actually thinks Pete Carroll will lead this franchise back to the promised land and maybe she’ll hold him accountable if he doesn’t. But if that were the case and if she truly cared about winning, wouldn’t she have already held him accountable and sent him down the road while keeping a HOF QB? What aspect of her way of doing things would allow her to buy his bullshit to the point that she sent Wilson down the road and kept Pete other than not wanting to pay him to not coach the team? Some sort of loyalty to authority figures and “I’m not gonna bow to a minion, even if he’s a HOFer”? Serious question. I cannot for the life of me come up with any other possibilities.
Some of the issue comes down to what would you do if Pete Carroll left? Who will replace him. There has already been a lot of time spent debating Wilson’s departure and backup quarterbacks, and what if all the good college quarterbacks are gone by the time we draft. Picking a new head coach is even harder than finding a quarterback. Who exactly would you choose to replace him that isn’t already a head coach?
I know one thing as it pertains to that question: I’d rather fail by taking a chance at a younger, more innovative offensive mind while keeping Wilson than watching him walk and staying with the man who has overseen a steady deterioration of this franchise. I believe being afraid of what might happen and as a result, paralyzed by that fear, is worse than taking a shot at something possibly exciting but ultimately failing.
I agree with what you are saying about the franchise deteriorating. I do place the blame on Pete Carroll and not John Schneider for that. Someone has to take responsibility. But the Seahawks still need a plan to replace him. Starting now. Talking to the teams and seeing who would come in as a head coach when Pete’s contract expires. Or developing from within.
lol
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/look-josina-anderson-doubles-down-on-baker-mayfield-trade-report/ar-AAZf8v7?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=d6eec817bdf14ee3bda771d10348e1ca
Josina teased that something might hit today with news. Did she just stake her reputation on something that may or may not happen?
Josina + reputation in one sentence = contradiction
Tickles me that Josina so strongly denied what Rapaport said about Seattle not being interested, teased a development within 24 hrs and then got scooped by Rapaport.
And now says she didn’t get the scoop because she was at the beach.
Good grief.
Poor Josina, just can’t catch a break! Maybe next time she should just mail it in instead of calling.
Funniest thing in all of that is that she thinks she’s still relevant.
I remember a few weeks back I was watching Rich Eisen. He was interviewing Rapaport. Rapaport was in his car with his family, on the way to some family outing.
Eisen asked if it was a good time to talk, as Ian was in the passenger seat with the anxious kids in view behind him.
Ian says, “Rich, it’s always a good time to talk football.”
Anderson is supposed to be an insider, yet she doesn’t have her phone on her 24/7, like every other insider in the business? I bet Mayfield’s agent was feeding her BS just to get Carolina to the table. If he had to burn an “insider”, I guess he figured she was the sacrificial one.
Great read Cha – many thanks. PC still in charge really don’t think he will cede any real authority to Hurtt & Desai. Afraid “New Boss same as the Old Boss”. Play the young and up and coming athletes – endure the massive losing season while developing talent. Get a high draft pick. Select your QB of the future and complete the rebuild in a year or 2.
Baker Mayfield traded to Panthers…
https://bleacherreport.com/post/nfl/ddef783c-c58c-424e-95ce-79100d5b64b3
A 5th round pick to pay Baker $8m this year.
Well, at least that saga is over. I’d wish him well in Carolina but I’m not sure how that will work out for him. Not too impressed by Tepper and Rhule.
I guess the new rumors will be Darnold to Seattle to comPETE with Drew and Geno!
Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Darnold and Matt Corral.
It’s still a 1-year rental though, isn’t it? I haven’t heard of any new contracts, etc, for Baker. The jury hasn’t even heard the opening arguments for Matt Corral yet, so the jury is definitely still out on him. It will do Matt a world of good as a first year clipboard QB learning how to be an NFL QB behind Baker.
Really don’t know what to think of Darnold, never really paid much attention to him.
My first thought too Tom. How long til the first time we here about Darnold’s impending trade to Seattle? Over/under is 1 week.
I’ll take the over on that one. Had it been over/under the start of training camp I would take the under though…just a few weeks away!
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you would’ve lost the wager my friend. Cowherd suggested it to Bucky Brooks on his show today. Not strongly, but still brought it up.
He also brought it up when he first heard about it. There is a clip on youtube when during his show today Rappaport tweeted the news. The Panthers would be smart to hang on to Darnold even though he will cost them $18.8M this year.
Mentioned it mid-June if Mayfield/Carolina happened… https://seahawksdraftblog.com/this-is-a-key-few-weeks-at-quarterback
“I guess the new rumors will be Darnold to Seattle to comPETE with Drew and Geno!”
Not with his guaranteed $18M salary for this year. Unless CAR picks up a major portion of it. I still wouldn’t do it. I was high on him when he was first drafted but he has gotten worse over the past few years in that dysfunctional franchise.
Obviously they wouldn’t pay him $18m
But there’s every chance the Panthers cut Darnold now
I wouldn’t mind Darnold if the Seahawks could somehow make a move that is cap-neutral.
Say the Panthers agree to eat $10m like Cleveland did and they take Gabe Jackson and a conditional 2024 pick…Darnold reduces his salary to say $16m so the Seahawks pay $6m and it’s even because Jackson is saved. Just a $3m dead cap on Jackson.
They might even come out slightly ahead because it would (probably) cut into Geno’s play time incentives.
GOOD! One of the more exhausting story lines of the offseason. Glad thats over.
Wow a 2024 conditional.
Great deal for Cleveland when they had no leverage. Wonder if it could be Jimmy G time here.
And what did they supposedly want from us? A R2 pick? Lol.
Ian Rapoport: A new QB in Carolina: The #Panthers are acquiring former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield from the #Browns for a 2024 conditional 5th-round draft pick, sources tell me and @TomPelissero. Deal is pending a physical. All parties split the financials to make it happen.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1544736336732635136?s=20&t=kshejHp30kAiYnpQ1Ipi_g
im fine rollin with drewno lockesmith in ‘22
“Drewno Locksmith”
I literally LOL’d man. Good one.
“Through sixteen games the Seahawks had conceded 1,038 yards passing to opponents’ running backs, far and away the worst number in the NFL in 2021.”
No question one problem is sending DLine out in coverage but I don’t think that happened as much as folks think. I’d love to see stats on that compared to other teams but to my eye it wasn’t happing that often. I think it is more about Pete’s philosophy of letting teams have the “dink/dunk” plays and coming up and making the plays. That worked in 2013 but we don’t have the playmakers we had then for this approach.
I can’t help but wonder what role Bobby Wagner had here. I remember watching so many games where he looked behind in coverage or just sat back waiting for tackles to come to him. I can’t find it but is there any stat for receiving yards for his coverage responsibility that is sortable by RB?
That is a fair point. Maybe it isn’t directly that the DL were specifically assigned coverage duties. Stats can be murky in that area.
I can share an anecdote about DL in coverage though that just won’t leave my brain. I was in the stands for the Steeler game with my Steeler fan buddies. The Steelers had the ball in the red zone and lined up splitting Najee Harris in the slot. When I spotted Benson Mayowa line up across from him, I involuntarily said “OH NO” out loud and was pre-emptively facepalming.
My concerned buddies said “What’s wrong???” I said “you’ll see.”
Roethlisberger to Harris for the touchdown.
There is no justification – none, zero – for putting Benson freaking Mayowa in coverage on a running back. Let alone one of dynamic ability like Harris.
So there’s that.
I’m also absolutely convinced they missed KJ Wright badly. After 2020 I think there was a fair argument to be made that KJ should have stayed for 2021 and Wagner should have been the one shown the door.
But on a bigger scale, the number of times we witnessed a Carlos Dunlap, a Rasheem Green or even a Bryan Mone line up in 2 or three point stance on the DL and then not rush, but try to ineffectively occupy a coverage zone was maddening last year. (For instance, I recall a snap against Tennessee where Green got in stance, and when the ball was hiked, stood up and literally stood there. He didn’t rush, he didn’t drop. Just stood there. The Titans had 11 men playing against 10 + a statue and they converted a third down on the play.)
Did they get an official ‘target’ on the stat sheet? No. But whatever Ken Norton was trying fail miserably? Did the defense get shredded at a historic level? Yes.
Pete reminds me of that guy who refuses to wear the new underwear his wife got him, even though his current batch of tighty whiteys are frayed, with holes galore.
I’m guessing there are a few of those types posting in here, too😅
“Pete reminds me of that guy who refuses to wear the new underwear his wife got him, even though his current batch of tightly whiteys are frayed, with holes galore.
I’m guessing there are a few of those types posting in here, too”
Roy: Your point is well taken. Maybe Carroll has past his time. Maybe he hasn’t. But at least he is open minded enough to bring in NEW IDEAS. Last season he brough in Shane Waldron and Andy Dickerson from the Rams. To give a new look to the offense. This year Carroll brought in Sean Desai and Karl Scott to give the secondary a new look. Carroll also fired is buddy Ken Norton and promoted Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator.
From everything I have read. I like these changes.
Others might have seen already but if not
Allianz Arena – Home of FC Bayern Munich, Munich
Single game tickets on sale from 9am BST/10am CET, Tuesday 19th July
Charles Robinson with more on Baker
But, but so many people had him going to Seattle (looking at you Josina)…………
I literally read this as “@Prez will record blank sacks this year”
https://twitter.com/Seahawks/status/1544507676226232320
Russ and Baker “revenge” games week 1? I’m here for it!
I just keep wondering why or when the Seahawks plan on signing there draft class.feel free at some point just saying