#Seahawks TE Zach Miller had surgery on his ankle during the bye week, source confirmed @RossJonesFOX report. Should be out 5 or 6 weeks.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 29, 2014
It’s a big blow for the Seahawks. Miller’s blocking ability has been crucial in helping rookie Justin Britt through the first three weeks. Seattle doesn’t feature the tight end in the passing game as much as they could, but when Miller is involved he’s a reliable safety net.
They had plenty of time during the bye to adjust schematically and adapt to this news. But it’ll be interesting to see if this has an adverse effect on Britt.
UPDATE — this is positive at least…
Seahawks believe TE Zach Miller will only miss two games after having an ankle scoped during bye week.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) September 29, 2014
A good solution to this problem like any problem om the offense is Percy harvin. I expect to see bevell chalking plays that force the dends to hesitate in thief rush or coverage assignments. I don’t think that bevell should rely entirely on the jet sweep or read option to achieve this. That would be predictable. I would like to see some uneven line…overloading on side of the offensive line…and then running some trap plays back the other way. It might be easy to look at Percy and feel that any play with his athleticism will be efficient, however bevell needs to rationalize superstition over repetition. That is he needs to call/design plays with harvin that dictates the defensive reaction…it is here where as they say…speed kills.
I am not happy with this news, of course, especially after re-watching the Packer game (got to be there live, wooo!) and seeing how many plays Miller faced Clay Matthews 1 on 1 and succeeded.
That said, this team spent all of 2013 cobbling together blocking packages with all of the OL injuries – surely Bevell and Cable can scheme out some workarounds for 2 games. For instance: Willson coming around and throwing that off-shoulder block on Matthews on one of Lynch’s TD runs was a thing of beauty.
Or maybe they’ll use more Alvin Bailey as TE line overload plays.
Seems like we value our tight ends more for blocking then receiving, so why not put Bailey in. At least he can drive an opponent into the ground.
I was rooting hard for the Eagles to beat the 49ers. Too bad they choked in the second half. So frustrating!! Now the 49ers will think they can come back from any score.
I think the issue there is that Bailey wouldn’t have a pass option. Miller blocks well but he’s in there instead of a 6th tackle to keep a defense honest. Carroll talked up the possibility of Gilliam playing some TE but he’s lighter and has played the position before.
Rob, the reason we made it through 2013 with our “OLine From Hell” was DaBeast protecting Russell’s left and Miller Time backing up his right. With Britt still a pup, Miller’s loss may be very hard to overcome. Hopefully he’s back after two games not 5 or more.
However, since needs must – Gilliam was a TE before he became a tackle and Cassius Swamp – er, Marsh (some place with bugs and frogs) was also a TE (at least for some trick plays while at Uni). Not to mention Willson who would be the “next guy up” in Carroll’s system. Personally, I think Willson will surprise – in a positive sense – and I’m looking forward to seeing him play that very important blocking position for a few games. Think how great it would be IF Luke can handle it and we find out we’ve got two great blocking TE’s – that would open up a whole lot of new looks and schemes.
Off topic – I was not too impressed with the 49ers playing the OLineless Eagles. Kaep is such a magnificent physical beast with the football brain of a Gnu, or even a Wildabeest for that matter. Three times he lost where he was in the count a ended up with a delay of game – and – the one time he was supposed to take the delay of game penalty he wastes a time out. The man is seriously half a bubble out of plumb (as my carpenter friend would say).
Tough tough news, But in honesty, we’ve escaped the injury devastation that have hit many teams in the NFL. Hopefully, we won’t have any more serious injuries, but you have to expect at least a few more before the playoffs. But we’ve seen it before with this team and they overcame it.
Props to KC fans being able to yell when the scoreboard tells them to yell. I guess that’s a big deal when you haven’t had much to cheer about….
I see them running willson and coop. Gilliam as a likely part time play but what about the prospect of them throwing marsh out there? They talked about in the past and there’s no better chance then now, hopefully! That being said come back soon miller!
Crazy idea alert. If the Bruce Irvin experiment (not living up to 1st round and there is no fall off in production to the guy behind him), I thought trying him at TE might work. Not a short term answer though.
Does Gilliam have to report as an eligible receiver every time because he’s wearing red’s old number?
Only two weeks is not a big deal. Though I imagine he will probably be out a little longer than that. The good news is that we’re not exactly facing good defenses in the next two weeks. But it would be nice to have Miller for St. Louis. I’m not really worried here. I ‘ll get worried if our running game takes a significant hit and makes the Washington and Dallas games closer.
2 years ago I wanted to draft Travis Kelce TE but Kansas city got him after we picked Chrristian Michaels. He’s really looked good this year and especially after that last Monday night game against Philly. He was my long term replacement for a Zach Miller.
How many people actually watch players they mock drafted on here because I certainly do?