It feels like we’re witnessing the dying embers of a great era. The final few weeks of an exciting, legendary run that needs to come to an end for everyone’s sakes.

Except, at the same time, we aren’t.

The Seahawks under Pete Carroll have lost their way.

Their identity is shot. They want to play ‘complete circle’ football and yet they’ve stumbled into a one-man-quarterback-band.

The attitude is long gone. The Seahawks don’t play with a chip on their shoulder any more. Neither do they play with a physical edge to strike fear into opponents.

For the last three years they’ve tried to rebuild the team and frankly they’ve done a bad job. The roster construction has left them with a historically poor defense. They’ve squandered money and high picks, compromising their ability to make further improvements in the coming years.

The coaching staff isn’t inspiring any confidence. Carroll’s speciality is supposed to be defense but look at the results. Most of the young players aren’t being developed. The ideas and game planning leaves a lot to be desired. While other staff’s do less with more — the Seahawks are left surprised when opponents throw a lot against their league-worst passing defense.

On Sunday the players were flat and looked demoralised. Even Carroll’s body language told a story. He looked like a man struggling to comprehend what he was seeing — with no obvious solutions to fix the problems.

The game itself was a joyless experience. Suddenly the offense looks as broken as the defense. For those that are quick to say yesterday isn’t an example of the offense being impacted by the poor play of the defense — remember that they gave up 17 points and about 240 yards in the opening three drives. Right from the off the Seahawks were chasing the game. Sure, things tightened in the second half. Yet the offense is having to play with a mentality of keeping up at best and overcompensating at worst.

That’s not to absolve the offense of criticism. They need to be better. Russell Wilson cannot make the ridiculous, indefensible mistakes he is making. Nobody should wash away the turnovers and staggering errors he is forcing.

Yet it’s a further example of how everything is infected now. A different kind of circle is being created — with only special teams, so far, resisting the urge to join in. Clearly the ‘hope Wilson can cure a thousand ills’ approach was unsustainable. Thus, the walls are crumbling around the 2020 season.

No longer can the team clutch to a NFC West lead like a comfort blanket. Now they’re third in the division, clinging on to the seventh seed in the NFC.

They face a win-or-bust game against the Cardinals. Lose that one and their playoff hopes could begin to evaporate — even with the weakest schedule in the NFL.

Cast an eye towards the rest of the division. Kliff Kingsbury, Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan have picked up teams who, initially, were among the worst one or two in the sport.

McVay and Shanahan have built Super Bowl teams since, despite only being able to call upon Jared Goff and Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback. Kingsbury has turned the Cardinals from the team picking first overall to a NFC West contender in a season and a half.

Meanwhile the Seahawks flounder — stuck in an annual rut of being unable to win the division despite their clear quarterback advantage. They’ve won the NFC West once in five years and that run increasingly looks like it will extend to six.

That’s not good enough.

They are also 1-5 in their last six games against the Rams (and a missed field goal from 0-6) and 1-5 in their last six NFC West games.

All good things come to an end and sadly, it’s starting to look a lot like the Carroll era should come to an end. New blood, new ideas and a fresh start is attractive.

It was a wonderful run but as with anything, it can’t go on forever. The Bill Belichick’s and Mike Tomlin’s are the exception not the rule.

The inevitable response, especially from some sections of the media, will be to point to Carroll’s record and familiarity and question the sanity of anyone making such claims. A lot of people don’t want to consider this topic. It’s a step too far. Practically a form of blasphemy. Carroll is immensely popular and likeable and rightly so. The Seahawks without him? Unthinkable.

Yet former glories aren’t enough to justify continuing into the future.

Fear of change can’t compromise decision making. Moving on would be a risk, sure. Teams do it all the time though. The challenge is to get the replacement appointment right to make it the correct call — not avoid making the decision due to anxiety that the grass might not be greener on the other side.

A 6-3 record also shouldn’t hide the truth. Russell Wilson is sufficiently good enough to maintain a base level of wins every year. You could argue he’s good enough to secure a playoff spot most if not all years. You are not doing a good job by achieving the bare minimum with this quarterback.

All teams endure rough patches. The Seahawks are 1-3 in the first real test on their schedule. The thing is, everything that is unfolding has been predictable. The off-season fears are coming true. The problems experienced today are not solely down to game-planning mistakes, bad interceptions or a decision not to go for it on fourth and inches at midfield.

This is about the construction of the roster from 2018 onwards. This is the way they’ve used their picks and cap space. The players they’ve chosen to retain at great cost and the players they’ve moved on. The inability to address stated priorities. The trades they’ve made. The way certain players have failed to be developed. The inability to make the most of having the best quarterback in the division. The coaches they’ve appointed. The failure to install a vision and philosophy correctly. The way they’ve struggled to capture a physical edge despite craving it so much. The dejected, sad looking body language the players are starting to show. The continued focus on competition and competing — yet with protected individuals who, when they underachieve — are allowed to continue without consequence.

As Colin Cowherd noted today — without Wilson, are the Seahawks even capable of winning a game?

What do the Seahawks do well?

"I don't think Seattle wins a game in this league without Russell Wilson." — @ColinCowherd pic.twitter.com/EyBgYP2JCZ

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 16, 2020

It’s starting to feel like it’s time. The current regime, which includes John Schneider, doesn’t seem capable of solving the riddles of roster construction and the current staff don’t seem capable of elevating what they’re left with.

Yet the reality is nothing is going to change.

Jody Allen isn’t firing Pete Carroll. She’s just given him a five-year extension. The Seahawks are in an ownership holding pattern and no major changes to the football infrastructure will occur until a buyer is found. Per reports, that could take at least three years.

So for at least the next three years, and it could easily be more, nothing is going to change.

That’s the most serious problem for this franchise. There’s no true leadership from the very top. Power and control appears to be ceded or passed on to Carroll and Schneider — the football people. There doesn’t appear to be any accountability.

That’s not a good place to be. Especially when things are not going right and you’re just carrying on until someone else takes over to make the big call you needed to make years earlier.

Previously I thought continuity during this period was necessary. Now my perspective has changed. The Seahawks can’t move on from Carroll but increasingly it looks like they need to. It’s becoming a marriage of ownership convenience rather the right thing for the product on the field.

It’s starting to feel like we’re all going to have to just get through this when really, we should be invigorated by the best years of Russell Wilson and should be dreaming of Championship opportunities.

So what’s the answer?

We can all debate the short term merits of firing the defensive coordinator (which isn’t going to happen on a short week) or begging Kris Richard to come back and help out. The reality is this season is being reduced to ‘hope for the best’. You’re going to hear the old adage that 20 years ago fans could only dream of the playoffs, so you should just be satisfied that you’ve got that morsel to digest. Frankly, that’s all you’re going to get.

Long term — as in the off-season — is where the serious decisions need to be made.

Carroll requires a specialist, experienced staff from now on. He needs to bring in a defensive coordinator to run the defense outright and he needs to empower that coordinator to bring in his own people to fill out the staff. Carroll should be prepared to take a backseat to focus on being the figurehead at the top of the table. The days of former USC colleagues and Carroll tree protégés need to be a thing of the past.

They also need to make difficult choices in terms of personnel. Your top earners need to be able to justify their contracts. Nothing should be off the table. The status quo can’t just continue year after year. Things need shaking up and they need to re-establish who are the players they can truly classify as the core.

They need to humble themselves and stop overthinking the draft and free agency. If you have a big glaring need for a pass rusher — go and get one. Don’t squander millions dishing out RFA contracts to Branden Jackson and Joey Hunt, spend $7m on a tight end who’s been actively contemplating retirement and then decide $3m on Benson Mayowa will do after all.

This front office gets a lot of praise. It’s time for that to stop and a sense of pressure and urgency needs to be applied instead. Sometimes it’s OK to be predictable — doing things like fixing your needs in free agency then making a draft pick that is recognised as logical.

They need to do a detailed and thorough review that looks at how they came to put together the D-line that they did for 2020, in part because they didn’t like the value, only to trade the house for a blitzing safety who has been hurt all year and is now making business decisions.

And if they were inclined to make a massive trade like this, why not do it for Jalen Ramsey instead — given the way his mere presence was enough to take out Seattle’s top skill player on Sunday? When will Jamal Adams ever do that to an opponent?

If asked, no doubt Carroll and Schneider will go to great lengths to say everything is discussed and analysed and reviewed. To what extent though? Do they have to go, cap in hand, to the current owner and explain their decision making process at the end of each season? Are they challenged from the top?

You can say this talk is premature but what’s the point in waiting to discuss what seems obvious? This needs to be embraced and something done about it. The change has to come from within, with the existing football structure, because Carroll isn’t going anywhere. We cannot be sat here in 12 months talking about the same things yet again.

For now we look ahead to Thursday and hope for a win. We hope things will flip and suddenly, from nowhere, this team will grow into something nobody can predict based on their last two performances.

I’m desperate to be proven wrong. I want to eat the words in this article. Unfortunately though, topics like this are going to need to be taken seriously from now on. We have to be prepared to have these uncomfortable discussions.

If you missed our instant reaction podcast yesterday, check it out below:

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Seattle’s season is collapsing before our eyes. They look like a broken shell of a team. There’s no spark, no intensity, no fight.

The Seahawks came into this game trying to calm the masses after the Buffalo beating by pointing to the NFC West standings.

Tonight Seattle is third in the division.

Sadly, Pete Carroll doesn’t seem to have the answers and it’s increasingly hard to have any faith in his ability to rescue this sinking ship.

No doubt some people will point to the fact Seattle are still 6-3 as some kind of reassuring counterpoint.

If you feel that way, you’re kidding yourself. You are absolutely kidding yourself.

There was so much wrong with this game. The usual defensive chaos. The rapidly declining offense. Russell Wilson looks spent, his MVP hopes shattered, under the weight of having to carry this team. The inability to get their best offensive skill player involved happened for the second time in a matter of weeks.

Out-coached and out-played again.

Carroll was hailed as cool and inspiring on 710 ESPN last week for signing a new contract. Yet he is overseeing the collapse of the season.

Between them, Carroll and John Schneider have done an incredibly poor job constructing and developing this roster since the reset in 2018. Yet nobody holds them to account — either in ownership (which is in flux) or an overly-friendly media.

They have put together what could easily be the worst defense in over 100 years of NFL history.

There are no answers, no solutions.

Carroll stands up at the podium every week and says things have to get better. Things aren’t getting better, Pete.

Last week was a total embarrassment and this felt like a continuation.

The only glimmer of hope was the offense but look at it now. It’s absolutely shattered with Wilson giving the ball away 10 times in the three losses.

The Seahawks are now 1-5 against the Rams in the last six and it’d be 0-6 but for a missed field goal.

They get out-coached every time.

Before the bye they were able to beat Atlanta, New England, Dallas, Miami and Minnesota. Three of those teams are dreadful and they relied on nailbiting victories. The Dolphins were yet to truly find their flow and the Vikings blew it.

Since then, they are 1-3. The only win was against the MASH unit that is the San Francisco 49ers.

Everyone acknowledged this was the meat of the season for the Seahawks. The real test. We’d find out a lot about this team during this run.

They have a losing, 1-3 record.

Against proper teams they are being found out. They are a pretender. They can barely function.

It was all so predictable.

We talked about it throughout the off-season. The way they went about building this defense was a shambles.

Despite all the anger and abuse directed at this blog, what exactly was unjust?

They failed to fix the pass rush and made it worse. Thus, they can’t play their scheme. They wasted $50m in free agency. They used their top draft pick on an unnecessary linebacker and their second on an injured pass rusher.

The Jamal Adams trade was a desperate attempt to add a player of note right before the season. The Seahawks have no idea what to do with him other than have him blitz. They traded the house for a blitzing safety.

Players are not being developed or showing progression. Only Poona Ford is elevating his play in 2020.

The defensive plan, week-to-week, is confounding and jumbled. They haven’t established one thing they can hang their hat on.

So many other coaches do less with more. Look at the way Kyle Shanahan is battling with practically a full starting 22 on IR. He took Jimmy Garoppolo to a Super Bowl. Sean McVay inherited a consistently weak Rams team with a floundering #1 pick quarterback and has made them a force (and they too have been to a Super Bowl). It’s taken Kliff Kingsbury a season and a half to transform Arizona from the worst team in the league to an exciting NFC West contender.

The Seahawks aren’t a picture of health at the moment but they have big names on their defense and can’t come up with any solutions.

The whole philosophy of this team is supposed to be to create a complete circle. They’ve taken a shotgun to their identity, with bad team building, and now there’s a tsunami of chaos driving towards the shore.

Carroll is supposed to be a defensive minded Head Coach with a reputation as one of the best in the league. He is the architect of the Legion of Boom era.

Now he’s parenting the ‘Region of Room’. He’s in danger of ruining his legacy by creating a unit as bad as the 2013 Seahawks were good.

Carroll deserves to feel pressure and it will ramp up after this latest loss. The fans are turning now. Every tweet posted by the Seahawks media team is accompanied by a flurry of tweets complaining about the defense or defensive coaches.

Serious, proper questions must be asked by the media, who need to step up to the plate for once and not shirk their responsibility.

And what must Wilson be thinking? He’s been delivered the ultimate hospital pass.

His MVP hopes are up in flames. He is making mistakes he has never made in his career. He is pressing and his play has fallen off a cliff. The offense suddenly looks totally dreadful. As bad as it looked at the end of last season as soon as the running backs got hurt.

Do you think this is on him? Do you think suddenly, he’s decided he fancies becoming a turnover machine? That he doesn’t want to be the prolific saviour?

Of course not. It’s no coincidence. He’s under immense pressure to score, score, score. He has the weight of 11 defensive players resting on his shoulders. It’s impacting him so much that suddenly he is making bonehead mistakes that would make Mark Sanchez blush.

His first interception today, where he had a mile of space in front of him to run for a first down. What on earth was that? When has he ever done anything like that?

I can't believe Russ threw this. pic.twitter.com/7ICIUXczLe

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 15, 2020

That isn’t Wilson. He doesn’t do stuff like that.

He’s also seeing ghosts. He’s feeling pressure when it isn’t there. Teams are getting in his head.

That’s not to absolve him of blame. He’s playing stupid, reckless football and it’s costing the team as much as the wretched defense.

And what about the plan, as with the Arizona loss, that involved not having any idea how to get your best skill player involved?

D.K. Metcalf is too good to ignore. How the hell do they justify not involving him at all? That’s ridiculous and it’s happened twice now.

The offense and in particular Wilson don’t get a pass.

But can you blame him/them with the defense broken? You know as well as I do that it would be different with a competent defense and Wilson playing smart football.

The wheels are coming off the season.

It’s not just the bad play of the offense and defense. The team looks disorganised, passive and going through the motions. The Seahawks are low energy. There’s no intensity or discipline. They just look rubbish.

What hope is there for a strong playoff run? If they even make the post-season it won’t last long.

Be honest with yourself. They’re broken.

Unfortunately, I’m starting to think the players sense this too.

A few years ago it was revealed that some veteran players had started to refer to the Seahawks as ‘the Titanic’.

The boat is sinking. Eventually they’ll be staring at an off-season where there are more questions than ever, with hardly any draft picks or money to spend.

Optimism and hope is being drained away, bit by bit.

This is no longer a young, hungry, vibrant group that is pissed off for greatness.

It’s a stale, quarterback-dependant unit that is expensive, slow, lacking any kind of attitude or physicality and just drifting along to a sufficiently disappointing conclusion.

This is supposed to be a 20-30 minute preview podcast. However, the Seahawks defense is forcing us to do much more. We get into so many topics below so please have a listen…

I tried to do it.

I switched on the tape. I fully intended to watch the Buffalo game for a second time.

In part I was intrigued by Brock Huard revealing on 710 ESPN this morning that they gave up an entire drive without hitting anyone. Plus, it was suggested there was a drive consisting of five consecutive first downs (before the streak was ruthlessly broken by the end zone).

I wanted to see if it was true.

I couldn’t do it. I started watching and then stopped. Once was enough.

The defense is completely broken.

The “scheme”, which now needs to be written with quote marks for the rest of the season, is all over the place. There’s very little physicality or fear factor. Everything seems so passive — even for a defense that is suddenly among the heaviest blitzers in the NFL.

Execution, attitude, discipline, understanding — all missing.

It’s broken. As the title says — this is a make or break week going into the Rams game. This cannot continue. A serious, genuine improvement needs to happen right now. There cannot be another game like the one on Sunday.

What happened in Buffalo should never have been possible in the first place.

How has it got to this point? How has a Pete Carroll led Seahawks franchise produced a unit that is hurtling towards being statistically one of the worst ever — in over 100 years of NFL history?

The problems started with the off-season. The roster construction was incomprehensible. This was supposed to be the year to take the next step — with resources in the way of cap space and draft picks to make it happen.

I won’t write out the long list of issues again — but if you missed it in September, here’s the breakdown.

Failing to address glaring problems with the defense (and in some cases compounding issues) forced them to do things they’ve never done before.

They started the season blitzing to mask their pass rush deficiencies. They knew they had to manufacture pressure because, unsurprisingly, Benson Mayowa bookending L.J. Collier wasn’t good enough. In the first two weeks they blitzed 36.4% of the time.

Yet the tactic failed to create sacks and left the second level exposed — with the Seahawks leading the league in explosive plays conceded.

Time for a rethink.

By week four they changed course. They decided to be conservative. They were sitting in zone and trying to make teams take what was on offer. It worked against the Dolphins but was exposed against the Vikings and Cardinals. By week seven, their blitz percentage had dropped by a significant 10%. They were suffering death by a thousand cuts.

Time for another rethink.

In the last two games they’ve pretty much flip-flopped between the two. They’re caught between an aggressive, blitzing approach to manufacture pressure and a passive system that — as we saw in Buffalo — is susceptible to giving up easy yards and barely laying a finger on the opponent.

Then when they switch to blitzing — it takes one well-timed screen pass to make the whole thing fall like a pack of cards.

Remember the days when Seattle went after opponents? They’d hit you in the mouth and let you know about it after. They were brash, hungry, devastating and organised.

The 2020 defense is a mess and it’s getting worse not better. The Seahawks, who for years have had a set way of playing, are now scrambling around trying to figure out what works game-to-game. They’re caught between the two extremes of bringing extra rushers and playing soft in coverage.

They’re going to smash the record for passing yards conceded per game:

2020 Seahawks 362.1
2020 Falcons 310.3
2011 Packers 299.8
2015 Giants 298.9
2012 Buccaneers 297.4

They’re also going to shatter the record for the all-time worst passing defense in terms of yards conceded — by a thousand yards. The record is 4796 and the Seahawks are on a pace for 5794.

As someone pointed out on social media, the Legion of Boom have become the Region of Room.

There’s simply no excuse for this. This is a team with Bobby Wagner, Jamal Adams, K.J. Wright, Jarran Reed, Carlos Dunlap and Quandre Diggs. They’ve used first round picks in the last two years on L.J. Collier and Jordyn Brooks. They’ve paid, traded for or picked these players. Some are big names and established pro’s.

Despite all of the legitimate concerns voiced throughout the off-season, there are still enough established players on this defense to cobble together a solid plan. They can at least be average rather than abject.

That’s why it’s only fair that serious questions are asked of Pete Carroll and his defensive coordinator. It is their duty and their responsibility to find solutions.

And it’s just not happening.

The cornerback situation is less than ideal. Quinton Dunbar was all over the place in Buffalo and Tre Flowers has limitations. All teams have injuries though and this is a scheme, supposedly, that allows you an opportunity to not have to line-up elite cover corners on the outside.

Was there no way to come up with a scheme or system to mask that weakness and elevate the key players you did have available?

Does Jamal Adams fit this defense? The player they traded so much for? And if he does, why has he looked so average aside from his explosive debut in Atlanta?

The game against the Niners was held up as a sign of progress and yet, as we now know, Jimmy Garoppolo was clearly not right and the 49ers are in the middle of an injury crisis. Nick Mullens, who was dreadful against Green Bay in the following game, delivered 20 points, 238 yards and two touchdown passes in one quarter once he replaced Garoppolo.

Week after week, Pete Carroll comes to the podium and insists things will get better. He talked of the Buffalo performance being unrecognisable — yet we’ve already seen half a season of this. He says after the game they didn’t expect Buffalo to abandon the run. Really? You didn’t expect the Bills to attack your weakness with their strength?

It’s blatantly clear that the defense needs new leadership and that Ken Norton Jr is simply holding on at this stage. The Seahawks can’t afford to ‘hope for the best’ here.

The Rams game has to be the final straw. If they fall to 1-3 since the bye with the defense struggling once again, there needs to be some action.

The Ravens fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron when they were 9-4 in 2012 and they went on to win the Super Bowl with Joe Flacco stunningly being the main reason why. If the Ravens had stood-pat and reassured themselves over a winning record, they probably would’ve missed out on that Championship.

Nobody wants to be negative about Ken Norton Jr — a man who rightly commands respect and love in Seattle. Eventually though, something has to be done. This can’t keep going on. Even if it merely means promoting someone already on the staff — there has to be some kind of accountability.

Meanwhile, sections of the Seattle media skirt around the big topics. On 710 ESPN yesterday morning — rather than initiate a relevant discussion about the problems at hand, we instead heard a radio host telling Carroll how ‘inspired’ he is that Carroll found his calling as a football coach.

It feels like we’re in bizarro world sometimes. That same radio host was yelling at people on social media today — and yelling again on the radio about fans wanting a pound of flesh (that he wasn’t going to deliver), while accusing some fans of treating Carroll ‘like he’s Adam Gase’.

It’s not that at all. I think some fans, understandably, are concerned and baffled by what’s going on with the defense. They want a bit more pushing and probing when Carroll is interviewed, rather than uncomfortable fawning.

Meanwhile on Field Gulls yesterday, somebody posted an article titled ‘Seahawks fixed their pass rush’. I don’t know if that was simply an attempt to draw people in but the reality is they blitzed 60.4% of the time against Buffalo and gave up 44 points — the most in 10 years of the Carroll era. That is not a fixed pass rush. It’s manufactured pressure that delivered four sacks but also 19/24 passing for 254 yards and two touchdowns for the offense.

The counter argument is, predictably, the Seahawks are 6-2. They are first in the NFC West. These conversations are unnecessarily negative and we should be grateful that the Seahawks aren’t the Jets or the Jaguars.

It’s such a tepid counter. We’re witnessing one of the all-time great quarterback careers. This is a franchise that has raised expectations to where you can dream about Championships. That is the goal — every year — and it’s not unrealistic with Russell Wilson behind center.

Yet since their last Super Bowl appearance five years ago — the Seahawks have been stuck in a rut. They make the playoffs but swiftly make their exit. In the last five years they’ve won the NFC West once. They’ve not sniffed a NFC Championship game. In that same period, the 49ers and Rams have both been to the Super Bowl and the Cardinals came within a game of it.

Isn’t it right to wonder how the coaches in San Francisco and LA elevated teams led by Jimmy Garoppolo and Jared Goff to the Super Bowl, yet Seattle’s coaches aren’t able to do the same with Russell Wilson?

When you watch this defense you can’t help but feel history is going to repeat. They were 6-2 last year and 6-2-1 in 2016.

The Colts, Browns, Bears and Raiders are one win behind the Seahawks. A 6-2 record doesn’t mean anything. It’s not an adequate counter to any of the issues raised regarding the defense. It doesn’t justify any decision made during the off-season or since. Wins against the Falcons, Patriots, Cowboys, Dolphins, Vikings and Niners are not any indication of contender status — especially if they end up paired with losses to the Cardinals, Bills and Rams.

Wilson is the reason they’re 6-2. He’s helped deliver 274 points — second only to the Chiefs (286). Without him playing at a MVP level, where would they be? Seattle’s net points differential is +31. Kansas City’s is +103.

We can also see the way the defense is increasing the pressure on Wilson. He has seven turnovers in the two defeats so far. He’s turning the ball over at a faster rate than at any point in his career. He’s pressing because he has to — and teams are coming after him now because they know he’s the only way for Seattle to win.

Essentially the defense is starting to infect the offense too.

If the Seahawks lose on Sunday against an opponent they consistently struggle with, they’ll be on a 1-3 run with the only victory coming against the lowly Niners. If the defense struggles in a defeat, the growing concern that is starting to build will multiply.

This is a huge game — arguably the biggest regular season game in the second half of the Carroll era. You might think it’s a bit over the top to say they need to salvage the season. I don’t. You can’t expect to have realistic Super Bowl ambitions on a 1-3 run when you’re fielding one of the worst defenses in NFL history.

They have to win. They have to play better. They have to find a way to make this defense function.

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The Jamal Adams trade is already concerning

The Seahawks are basically using him as a pass rushing linebacker, blitzing to try and manufacture pressure they otherwise can’t create.

He’s never been a particularly good zone coverage defender. He’s always been better playing downhill and aggressive.

We’re seeing when he does sit in zone, there are issues. When he blitzes they’re often leaving Quandre Diggs isolated (and we can all see the results) or they’re forcing themselves to play nickel with a ‘designated rusher’ rather than an extra coverage man.

The Seahawks scheme has always worked best when they can rush with four and let everyone in the second level do their jobs.

Kam Chancellor had only two career sacks. He rarely blitzed.

Suddenly, in part because they did a bad job addressing the pass rush this year and in part because of who Adams is, they’re having to switch everything up to facilitate him and prop up the D-line.

When he played in a 3-4 in New York it worked a treat. You have four linebackers on the field in base to cover the second level and you just have more flexibility if you want to rush an aggressive safety. The Todd Bowles and Gregg Williams schemes are designed to take risks, to blitz creatively and bring a lot of pressure. It wasn’t just Adams — it was exactly the same with Deone Buchanan in Arizona.

Seattle’s defense simply isn’t built that way.

When you trade two first round picks, a third and a good veteran for a player — you expect clarity on role, you expect a good fit and you expect a high level of performance immediately.

It’s difficult to watch the way Minkah Fitzpatrick is playing in Pittsburgh. He’s acting as their eraser. He has six interceptions in just over a season with the Steelers and two defensive touchdowns.

The Seahawks couldn’t compete with Pittsburgh in trade talks. The Steelers, at the time, were dangling what looked like a top-10 pick a year ago. Yet the cost was cheaper and the results far better.

With the price tag Seattle paid for Adams, expectations are very high. I’m not convinced he suits their scheme and I’m not sure they know how to best use him. I’m struggling to see how the Seahawks are noticeably better with him in the lineup versus Bradley McDougald. It’s starting to feel a bit like Percy Harvin all over again. They acquire a player who is clearly very talented but doesn’t necessarily fit and they can’t work out the best way to utilize him.

I can’t be the only person wondering if the Seahawks can justify paying him a massive contract in the off-season. As we saw with Laremy Tunsil and Jalen Ramsey — when you trade the house for players without an oven-ready contract extension ready to go, you end up getting fleeced. Tunsil and Ramsey smashed records for annual salary and guarantees at their respective positions. They were given a blank cheque the moment the trades were ratified.

Adams is in the exact same boat. Budda Baker is the highest paid safety on $15m a year. It’s not unrealistic that the Seahawks are facing a $17-18m commitment per year — on top of the same amount they’re already paying Bobby Wagner.

I don’t think you can justify that.

The next eight games are huge for both the Seahawks and Adams. They need to determine whether this is a long term arrangement or not. Either that or Carroll needs to cede control of the defense in the off-season and turn things over to an experienced schemer who can build the unit around Adams.

New coaches are needed from the outside

Seattle’s defense is getting worse year after year.

It’s always been a unit that relies on talent. Nobody could look at their scheme even in the LOB days and admire its complexity or the way it challenges opponents. It’s always been fairly straight forward. In the 2011-2014 period, Seattle had an obscene number of world class players with BAMF attitudes to make it virtually unstoppable.

Now there isn’t a cornerback on the roster you can hang your hat on (including Shaquill Griffin). The safeties are not living up to expectations. The D-line can’t generate pressure with four and Bobby Wagner has turned into a shadow of his former self.

At a time like this — when your backs are against the wall and you’re getting hammered by opponents and critics alike — you need your coaches to step forward. They need to come up with solutions.

We’re eight weeks into the season now and all Pete Carroll keeps saying is he believes things will get better. These are just shallow, meaningless words at this stage.

It seems clearer by the week the Seahawks aren’t capable of turning a historically bad unit into something passable.

Yet as flawed as the defensive roster is — this is still a team with some big name, expensive players. To not come up with any solutions half way through a season isn’t acceptable.

The Bills giving up on the running game should be the final straw. Have you ever witnessed a team so blatantly jab a finger at a defensive weakness like that?

It had to be humiliating for Carroll. One of his big mantras is that first and foremost you have to stop the run. Now opponents aren’t even bothering running. He’s helped create a defense that takes away the running game for all the wrong reasons.

This will be a very painful experience for Seattle’s Head Coach. Fresh off the news that he’s been given a contract extension until 2025, he also needs to be honest about this situation.

The Seahawks coaching staff is littered with old friends from USC and family members and it’s not working for the defense.

Carroll needs to bite the bullet. He is a fine Head Coach with a superb track record. He needs to become the figurehead, the leader, the culture setter. And he needs to employ someone with experience to run the defense.

That doesn’t mean going back to Dan Quinn or Gus Bradley. The defenses in Atlanta and Los Angeles are also terrible. It means employing an outsider to come in and sort things out.

It needs to be someone with ambitions of being a Head Coach in the future. Someone who can come in, rescue Seattle’s defense and deliver a fresh vision and new ideas.

It needs to be someone who can test opponents with clever scheming, week-to-week game-planning and can get the best out of Seattle’s supposed stars.

The Seahawks have one of the worst defenses in the NFL and it’s going to squander the best years of Russell Wilson without making some difficult decisions.

Plenty of coaches lead from the top and employ specialist coordinators to run the offense, defense and special teams. John Harbaugh is a good example. That has to be a path Carroll considers in the off-season.

Ken Norton Jr still needs to go, this week (but he won’t)

I think Carroll has too much respect for the man. Clearly the players think the world of him.

It’s just not working though.

A change is required to shake things up. They need someone with a fresh perspective making the calls and being the key decision maker in the meeting room.

Carroll is protecting Norton and taking a portion of the blame — and rightly so. It’s his defense too. Yet he’s not going anywhere and things simply aren’t improving.

Forget Dan Quinn. He needs to repair his reputation and coming to Seattle to try and fix this mess in-season isn’t the way to do it.

It’ll probably need to be someone from within the staff already — but really, what have you got to lose?

Somebody needs to be held to account for this defensive shambles. Ownership clearly isn’t going to do it. The media aren’t going to do it. Therefore Carroll has to.

The Ravens fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron in 2010. They were 9-4 but the offense was struggling. Baltimore won the Super Bowl that year.

Sometimes change is just necessary.

A record-setting example

The Seahawks’ defense is set to smash the record for passing yards conceded per game:

2020 Seahawks 362.1
2020 Falcons 310.3
2011 Packers 299.8
2015 Giants 298.9
2012 Buccaneers 297.4

Look at the difference between Seattle this year and the rest — then note who’s second (for the Dan Quinn truthers).

They’re also going to shatter the record for the all-time worst passing defense in terms of yards conceded — by a thousand yards. The record is 4796 and the Seahawks are on a pace for 5794.

The Seahawks wasted money on tight ends

Greg Olsen is earning $7m this season. He currently has 171 yards and one touchdown. He’s on pace for 342 yards and a couple of scores. Meanwhile Jacob Hollister, on a $3.2m second round tender contract, has 11 catches for 98 yards and one touchdown.

Given the flaws elsewhere on the roster, the use of over $10m on these two players warrants a serious challenge.

It’s time to get real

Let’s have a close look at the reality of Seattle’s 6-2 record.

Only one of those victories — against Miami — was against a reasonable opponent. The other wins were against Atlanta, New England, Dallas, Minnesota and a banged up 49ers outfit.

The New England, Dallas and Minnesota games could’ve easily be losses.

In the toughest stretch of the season, they’re currently 1-2. Next up are the Rams, who the Seahawks are 1-4 against in the last five outings.

They’ve failed to get any angle on the Sean McVay offense. In the last five games between the teams, LA has scored 42, 33, 36, 29 and 28 points.

Here’s the total offensive yardage conceded in each game:

2017 (H) — 352
2018 (A) — 468
2018 (H) — 456
2019 (H) — 477
2019 (A) — 455

Falling to 6-3 overall and 1-3 in this grown-up portion of the schedule is a very real threat.

This feels like a make or break game next weekend. The Seahawks need to prove they aren’t pretenders.

If you missed our ‘pulling no punches’ instant reaction podcast discussing the Buffalo game, check it out here:

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The Seahawks were completely out-thought, out-classed and out-coached on a concerning afternoon in Buffalo.

I said in the week that Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Baltimore would win a game like this. The Seahawks had an opportunity to show they belonged in that tier.

Instead they were hammered in one of the worst games of the Pete Carroll era.

And Carroll in particular should be embarrassed.

They came out flat with no energy and a game plan that was totally unfit for purpose. They gave up 174 yards in the first quarter alone (154 passing). They ended the half with 292 yards (272 passing).

Buffalo were aggressive and took the game to the Seahawks. They exploited Seattle’s massive, glaring weaknesses in pass defense.

The run/pass ratio after their first drive in the second half was 4/31. The Bills mocked Seattle with their play calling — and there was nothing they could do about it.

The Seahawks were passive, low-energy and looked like a team that had absolutely no idea what to do in the face of an onslaught.

No doubt the message after this will be to draw a line under it, move on and not linger on a horrible day.

We don’t have to do that as mere observers though. There was so much wrong about this performance and some serious questions, for once, need to be asked.

All of the off-season fears with the Seahawks were exposed.

The defense is a shambles and it’s clear returning players and band-aids are not going to cure any ills.

Key players are simply not delivering. Bobby Wagner can’t play well once every few weeks to justify an $18m salary. Jamal Adams might only just be returning from injury but can we say with any confidence he justifies the kind of trade outlay usually reserved for a quarterback?

So much was expected of players like Quandre Diggs and Quinton Dunbar. They aren’t delivering.

They spent over $50m in free agency and used three first round picks, a second and a third round pick on this unit during the off-season. How the heck is it as bad as this?

There seems to be two utterly basic plans on defense. All-out blitz or sit back and play zone coverage. It’s not confusing anyone. It’s not challenging anyone. Teams don’t respect Seattle’s defense.

Whatever they do the results always end up being the same — massive yardage conceded and a total reliance on turnovers for stops.

Even when they got into good positions, such as 2nd and 27 early in the second half, they gave up an easy completion to a wide open receiver.

People will point to the seven sacks. Was it a positive? Sure. But the Seahawks were giving up way too many easy passes. A 1st, 2nd or 3rd and long situation wasn’t an issue for Buffalo. Seattle was giving up nine yards per play right until the very end of the game. Forcing a five yard loss only to give up 20 on the next play isn’t going to cut it.

Look at the last quarter. The Seahawks were blitzing constantly. The Bills call a couple of screens and it’s job done.

Out-coached on the key downs.

The stats at the end, as they’ve been all season, are a horror show.

415 passing yards for Josh Allen, nearly 50% third down conversion, 44 points conceded.

There’s a complete reliance on Russell Wilson. Their inability to play anything like complementary defense means he has to force things — like on 4th and 1 when facing a 14-0 hole minutes into the game and he throws a lousy interception (his seventh of the season already). Such as the start of the second half when, under the weight of expectation, he misfires on two throws then coughs up a fumble.

All of his turnovers this year have been astonishingly reckless. That’s not suddenly started happening for no reason.

And look at the ways teams are starting to attack him. You can afford to take risks when on the other side of the ball, you know you’re getting to get your yards and your points. Buffalo knocked Wilson down 16 times today — the highest total in any game this season. That’s not on the O-line. That’s on teams feeling they can be aggressive — usually because the points and yards are flowing.

Seattle has a MVP candidate at quarterback. Yet the defense is so bad, every week they make the opponent’s quarterback look like a MVP candidate too.

The pressure is constantly on Wilson’s shoulders. Not just from an opposition pass rush but by his own team — constricting him, demanding so much from him.

This game is exactly why some of us voiced concerns during the off-season. Nobody thought the Seahawks would be a bad team this year. Not with Wilson at quarterback. Yet there was a very real threat that he could end up propping them up. A very real threat that when they get to the playoffs and play the proper teams — or when they face the likes of the Rams next week or the Cardinals again shortly after — they might lose games because the defense is this inept. This poorly constructed.

With Wilson enjoying the peak years of his career, it’s Seattle’s responsibility to build a team around him to succeed. They don’t need the LOB era defense and Marshawn Lynch. They just need to avoid being terrible in key areas. They’ve created a terrible defense — one that is even worse than last year, despite all the talk of off-season priorities and all of the massive resource used on the unit.

They’ve created a historically bad group. It is going to set records for ineptitude.

It’s not just on the defense though. The Seahawks simply didn’t look ready to play today. From the opening kickoff onwards — they were sloppy, sluggish, slow and unprepared.

Wilson’s off-days seem to be particularly panicky. He has a tendency to get spooked and it happened today. The Seahawks needed a cool head to throw counter punch after counter punch. In Seattle’s two losses he’s turned the ball over seven times. Seven times.

He’s never turned the ball over at this rate. It is not a coincidence. Of course he needs to take the blame for the turnovers. Yet this team is putting an insane amount of pressure on Wilson to cover up so many warts. The offense scored 34 points today. That should be enough to win, even with a couple of mistakes.

I’m not sure simply ‘moving on’ from this is enough. Things aren’t getting better on defense, despite Carroll’s claims that it would happen.

Perhaps a wake up call is required? Maybe they do need to fire Ken Norton Junior? Maybe it’s the kick up the arse the defense needs? Bobby Wagner is hardly playing like he wants to save the man he respects so much.

If nothing else they just need more ideas. They need to ask questions. Being aggressive can’t just mean blitzing like crazy. There simply isn’t any progress.

How can Carroll present this defensive product to the fans, to Wilson, to ownership and say this is what will lead the team to glory?

The Seahawks went into the bye week knowing they were facing the toughest stretch of their season.

They’ve played three games since and they’re 1-2. The win was against a 49ers team we can now clearly see were absolutely hammered by injuries.

With the Rams next, given their recent record against Seattle, that could easily stretch to 1-3.

Reality bites sometimes, I’m afraid.

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According to Adam Schefter, Pete Carroll has agreed a multiyear contract extension with the Seahawks.

Jason La Canfora originally reported earlier in the season that this was likely. Now, it appears the deal was struck a while ago and simply hasn’t become public knowledge until today.

Schefter says the deal keeps Carroll in Seattle until 2025 when he will turn 74.

It will coincide with the peak years of Russell Wilson’s career and would make the Carroll era a 15-year tenure.

This is good news for the Seahawks franchise. The club is currently in a holding period with ownership. A new buyer will be expected in the coming years. Until then, there’s a serious need for continuity and expertise within the football operations.

This will see the team through a somewhat challenging period with so much uncertainty due to Coronavirus. By the time the Carroll era is concluding, there’s a reasonable chance this will coincide with new ownership who will be able to plot the future path.

Carroll remains a figurehead for the city and very much the face and personality of the franchise along with Wilson. The culture he has created in Seattle is second to none. That’s not to say things have gone perfectly over the last few years. Winning the NFC West only once in the last five seasons is arguably a poor return given the quality of the quarterback. The team also has a questionable record in terms of personnel decisions since opting to reset in 2018.

Nevertheless, it’s very easy to assume things will be better with someone else in charge. Carroll has embraced the need to rally behind the quarterback due to a suspect defense this year and the Seahawks have started 6-1 this season as a consequence.

There will be big decisions to be made in the future. Coaching changes, particularly on defense, seem unavoidable in the off-season. As noted in an article a few weeks ago — I’d like to see Carroll cede some control on defense and appoint an experienced, established coordinator who can elevate the unit after several years of struggle. Ideally that would also be someone from outside of the Carroll coaching tree to provide a new, fresh perspective.

There are also key personnel decisions to make in the future with the cap situation likely to impact all teams and the Seahawks facing a sustained period with limited draft stock.

These are challenges that Carroll will no doubt embrace with his well-established vigour. And while he will always be known as the man who delivered the first Super Bowl victory to Seattle — he will equally be judged on whether he was able to deliver another between now and 2025.

The best way to celebrate this news would be with a win against Buffalo. It feels like the type of game Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Baltimore would win. If the Seahawks want to be considered in the same tier, they need to go and prove it today.

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— There are so many bad quarterbacks in college football at the moment it’s hard to work out how Maryland managed to land Tua Tagovailoa’s brother via transfer. Taulia has been absolutely superb the last two weeks and looks the part of a pro prospect for the future. He’s mobile, accurate, throws well on the run, doesn’t take unnecessary chances and can make plays at every level. He’s also elevating Maryland way beyond expectations. In a 35-19 win against Penn State he threw three touchdowns and 282 yards was on point.

— No quarterback has elevated his stock more than BYU’s Zach Wilson so far, however. Some players just have a X-factor. They look in control, skilful, the clear best player on the field. That’s Wilson week after week this season. The 51-17 win against Boise State was another masterclass. He has a lot of what teams look for — creativity and improv skills, the ability to throw from difficult angles on the run, enough speed to make gains on the ground and he’s highly accurate. He’s not a big, physical player and that gives some pause. He might have a lot of similar traits to Justin Herbert but he doesn’t have the arm or the size. That does matter and he’ll need to get stronger. He doesn’t have that ‘flick of the wrist’ fastball that Kyler Murray had on a more diminutive frame. Even so, he has looked fantastic this year.

— Sometimes you can boost your stock when you have to leave a game through injury. Kyle Pitts was hammered on an illegal hit that led to concussion symptoms against Georgia. Without him, the Florida offense just didn’t look the same (even though they won comfortably). He had two catches for 59 yards and a touchdown but you have to know where he is at all times. He’s not going to come into the NFL and be a George Kittle style complete tight end. He’s more of a moveable chess piece. Yet a team with a young quarterback who needs an ideal #2 to pair with a dynamic outside receiver should target Pitts early in the first round.

— Going back to Penn State, one of the biggest disappointments so far is not being able to see running back Journey Brown. The team released a statement saying he’s out with an undisclosed illness. He posted a video suggesting he might be back at some point this season but it’s unclear. Based on his 2019 film he was a player I was desperate to see more of. He’s reportedly up to 216lbs which is in Seattle’s range. He jumped a 40-inch vertical at SPARQ so he’s incredibly explosive. He’s been timed at a 4.29 in the forty and you do see that speed on the field. He is lightning fast and his acceleration is incredible. He has superb change of direction skills and delivers sudden, ankle-breaking cuts to avoid tacklers. He also fights through contact and is a surprisingly good goal-line runner. He looked like a potential second round pick based on what he showed last year. Look out for updates on his status moving forward. Penn State badly miss him and others (Micah Parsons etc).

— Pittsburgh pass rusher Patrick Jones is a leader, he’s incredibly quick off the edge, he has versatility and range, he has a repertoire and it’s hard to take any mock draft seriously that doesn’t have him listed as a high pick. He was superb again in a big win against Florida State. He was firing up his team mates in pre-game. He’s pretty much the exact type of player the Seahawks need.

— I’m watching the first quarter of Clemson vs Notre Dame tonight then the rest in the morning. The player I’m most interested in is left guard Aaron Banks. Every time I’ve watched Notre Dame so far he’s been the player who stands out. If you’re a fan of the Damien Lewis pick (who isn’t) then Banks could deliver a guard pairing with major long term potential. With Ethan Pocic still only 25-years-old, the idea of a blossoming young interior O-line is enticing. Notre Dame scored on a 65-yard touchdown run to start the game. Banks opened the initial gap before delivering a nice second-level effort. He’s a big, mean, athletic blocker with the size Seattle loves at left guard. He also switches out to play left tackle for some snaps.

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It’s not something we’ve really discussed so I thought I’d bring it up today.

There’s an old piece of football rhetoric that suggests a sensible way to construct your team is to have experience on offense and speed/youth on defense.

It’s an understandable philosophy. Arguably the most important thing on offense is execution. A quarterback who can read a defense and get into the right play. Receivers who run the correct routes with precision. Blockers who are battle tested and understand their jobs.

On defense you also need to be organised and efficient. This is especially the case in Seattle’s scheme that demands cornerbacks stay on top and the defensive linemen play with great gap discipline. Arguably though, the most important thing is to be able to fly to the ball. The physical elements are vital — not just speed but also explosive power and strength.

An ageing, slow defense rarely succeeds. You want your organisers and your leaders on the field but you also want youth, quickness and the ability to cover as much of the field as possible.

Were the Seahawks conscious of this when they began their reset?

After all, they moved on a number of star defenders who were getting older. That’s not the only reason. Pete Carroll was trying to wrestle back control and re-establish his culture. Yet for the most part, they set out to build a younger group.

There are exceptions of course. You’re not going to have 100% experience on offense and 100% youth/quickness on defense. They kept Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright and the likes of D.K. Metcalf and most recently Damien Lewis have started quickly as younger players on offense.

There are some noticeable trends, however.

For example — the Seahawks have used six picks in the top two rounds in the last three drafts. Rashaad Penny was taken in round one in 2018 in a good draft for running backs when the Seahawks prioritised fixing their running game. After that, they took L.J. Collier, Marquise Blair, Jordyn Brooks and Darrell Taylor. D.K. Metcalf is sandwiched in the middle but that felt like an opportunity they capitalised on, having traded back into the final pick of round two.

That’s a fair old focus on defensive youth via the draft.

Alternatively they’ve moved to add experience on offense whenever possible. Their most expensive addition in free agency this year was Greg Olsen. Rather than spend a high pick on a receiver or running back (despite a very talented bunch being available) they instead signed Carlos Hyde on a decent backup salary and Philip Dorsett.

They traded for and then extended Duane Brown over the last three years. Their approach on the O-line since 2018, with the exception of the highly talented Lewis, has been to plug in veteran players on the O-line. This year they re-signed Mike Iupati and added Brandon Shell and B.J. Finney.

It’s possible this is all a coincidence or simply isn’t that relevant. After all — they also signed Ziggy Ansah a year ago and then traded for Jadeveon Clowney at great cost. They franchise tagged Frank Clark. Then again, Clark was a young core player and the Ansah and Clowney moves were necessary to try and create any kind of pass rush (rather than rely on Jacob Martin, Cassius Marsh and Barkevious Mingo).

The issues on defense and a lack of draft picks could change things. There’s a decent list of prospective or potential defensive free agents in 2021. Lots of teams are going to need to cut salary to get under the cap.

Von Miller could be a free agent. Franchise-tagged Matt Judon, Leonard Williams, Shaquil Barrett, Yannick Ngakoue and Bud Dupree are due to reach the open market. Melvin ingram, Ryan Kerrigan, Sheldon Rankins, Takk McKinley and Larry Ogunjobi are all currently set to be free agents. The Eagles, Saints and others might have to hack away at their rosters to cut costs.

Free agency is going to be massively unpredictable. Who’ll be available? How much will teams have to spend? How is the market for certain players going to change? How will players expecting big money react when it isn’t available?

It could create never before seen opportunities (or just a whole lot of frustration).

And as noted — with only one high pick currently (second rounder) the Seahawks are not exactly plush with draft stock to rebuild a D-line or replace a starting cornerback. They might lean on the veteran market on defense in 2021, especially with the offense looking relatively well stocked.

I suspect though that there might’ve been something to their approach since 2018 to build a veteran offense and a faster, younger defense. It’s logical.

The roles might be reversed in 2021 (and with another excellent receiver class emerging, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to draft a cost-effective #3 early). The suggestion maybe sheds some light on how they approached the reset though.

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Check out this weeks podcast where we discuss the Bills game in depth and reflect on the trade deadline and whether the Seahawks should consider adding Vic Beasley…