Old but Slow wrote:Future, I feel bad for your team losing so many key elements. The rivalry has been awesome, and I hope that it can reignite in the future. I may be wrong, but the Niners may drop into the cellar in this tough division this year. If they can find a way to battle themselves out, more power to them. But there are cycles in the league, as teams rise to the top only to sink as salary cap issues, injuries, retirements, and such take effect. The strength of a front office is the ability to avoid the severe drops that occur when contracts come due, and players leave for financial reasons. So far, the Seahawks have been able to avoid the kind of salary traps that result in huge dead money, and money payed to players long gone.
The Chancellor issue is a big one for the franchise, because although he is a big cog in the machine, changing his contract at this point is like opening a gab in the dam. If they can find a way to give him some guarantees without increasing the bottom line, something might get done. But, finally, no one player is the difference. I love Kam, but to crumble the team to satisfy one player? Not likely.
Old but Slow wrote:Future, I feel bad for your team losing so many key elements. The rivalry has been awesome, and I hope that it can reignite in the future. I may be wrong, but the Niners may drop into the cellar in this tough division this year. If they can find a way to battle themselves out, more power to them. But there are cycles in the league, as teams rise to the top only to sink as salary cap issues, injuries, retirements, and such take effect. The strength of a front office is the ability to avoid the severe drops that occur when contracts come due, and players leave for financial reasons. So far, the Seahawks have been able to avoid the kind of salary traps that result in huge dead money, and money payed to players long gone.
The Chancellor issue is a big one for the franchise, because although he is a big cog in the machine, changing his contract at this point is like opening a gab in the dam. If they can find a way to give him some guarantees without increasing the bottom line, something might get done. But, finally, no one player is the difference. I love Kam, but to crumble the team to satisfy one player? Not likely.
Well, the Hawks' FO strategy has been much better than ours so far. They found a lot of talent in later RDs and at least swung on some big name FAs. Overall it's worked. Baalke's strategy has been to draft injured players and take chances on talented malcontents in lieu of signing big name FAs. Overall I'd say that strategy is failing. It all stsrts with Jed York, and he has no vision whatsoever for this team or what the org stands for.
I doubt Seahawks slip much. If Chancellor is lost for aby period of time, that's huge. But the entire team has earned the faith that other players or units will step up to fill the void. IMO they aee still prob a 12 win team, as has been my prediction all offseason.
Like I posted though, I honestly do not know what to expect from Reaser, Acker (reddhirt corners) and other players who'll be playing this yr. I know Lemonier is a subpar OLB, but Eli Harol may take his slot very quickly. The O has talent, so I have no idea what to expect there. It's on Kap to have a big yr, but I am not banking on that. I think he'll have a very good yr, but he is still not looking like an elite QB.
All in all after losses of Aldon and Brooks I would not be surprised at this point if we do have a sub .500 yr. But I still want to see all of these unknowns play out. Still excited about the yr.