Michael gone.....

[curmudgeon]

....to the'Pokes....

[c_hawkbob]

Did we just give him away?

[NorthHawk]

PFT says conditional draft pick.

If he gets a good opportunity to develop behind that OL, he could be real trouble for the rest of the league including us.

[c_hawkbob]

Interested to see the conditions of the draft pick ... Chris could start for that team

[NorthHawk]

I hope it's at least a 4th pick as compensation and maybe 3rd if productive, but I doubt it gets that good.

[c_hawkbob]

I'm guessing a 7th with a conditional upgrade to a 6th.

Having "shopped" him everybody could have been waiting for him to get cut, thew 'Girls just really needed a back.

[RiverDog]

I'll go with Cbob's guess rather than North's. A 3rd or even a 4th seems insanely high for a player about to be cut. Heck, he was originally a 2nd rounder, has seen very limited action, and doesn't play on special teams. No way his value would remain that high.

[Hawktawk]

Im bummed. I think CM is going to still be very very good someday. And behind that massive line he may get clean runs to the second level at which point he can house it. This trade could burn us as soon as this season.

[NorthHawk]

Im bummed. I think CM is going to still be very very good someday. And behind that massive line he may get clean runs to the second level at which point he can house it. This trade could burn us as soon as this season.

That's kind of what I was alluding to.

For the record, I hope it's a 4th. I don't expect it.

[Hawk Sista]

The frustration for me is that I think he'll connect the dots at some point. Now, playing behind arguably the best O-line in football, it could be sooner rather than later. I just never liked him, he never felt like he got the c-hawk way and he made too many ignorant moves.

Perhaps we'll see him in the playoffs. I hope so. #fumble

[NorthHawk]

Albert Breer of the NFL Network said we get a 7th round pick in return.
Another high Offensive draft pick that hasn't worked out.

The list of players selected mid to high (first 4 rounds) on Offense that are no longer on the team is getting pretty long.
Golden Tate 2nd Round 2010 (mistake to let him go)
James Carpenter late 1st round 2011
John Moffitt 3rd round 2011
Kris Durham 4th round 2011
Christine Michael 2nd round 2013
Chris Harper 4th round 2013
Kevin Norwood 4th round 2014

Only 3 Defensive players in the first 4 rounds are no longer here in the same time period.
Walter Thurmond 4th round 2010
EJ Wilson 4th round 2010
Jaye Howard 4th round 2012

It seems we don't do very well with 4th round picks, which seems a little strange.
Add in Terry Poole this year as a 4th rounder not making the team although he might end up on the PS.

[RiverDog]

Im bummed. I think CM is going to still be very very good someday. And behind that massive line he may get clean runs to the second level at which point he can house it. This trade could burn us as soon as this season.

That's a legitimate concern. Dallas has a fantastic OL, perhaps the best in the league, and Michael is a fine runner. But we probably didn't have very many options, and it's better than him going to someplace like the Rams or Cards where he could have ended up if we had cut him and made him a free agent.

[obiken]

He is a fumbler but a good back, he will do well with the pokes. I agree with CB on this one its a good move for all.

[Zorn76]

No surprise.

CM just...doesn't really get it I think. Showed some flashes here and there, but never really stepped up and took the #2 behind Lynch (while also showing he wanted to be #1 guy eventually).

Work ethic and desire.

Those are two things that are bad to be lacking in, and he was. Doubt much changes in Dallas.

[Hawk Sista]

Albert Breer of the NFL Network said we get a 7th round pick in return.
Another high Offensive draft pick that hasn't worked out.

The list of players selected mid to high (first 4 rounds) on Offense that are no longer on the team is getting pretty long.
Golden Tate 2nd Round 2010 (mistake to let him go)
James Carpenter late 1st round 2011
John Moffitt 3rd round 2011
Kris Durham 4th round 2011
Christine Michael 2nd round 2013
Chris Harper 4th round 2013
Kevin Norwood 4th round 2014

Only 3 Defensive players in the first 4 rounds are no longer here in the same time period.
Walter Thurmond 4th round 2010
EJ Wilson 4th round 2010
Jaye Howard 4th round 2012

It seems we don't do very well with 4th round picks, which seems a little strange.
Add in Terry Poole this year as a 4th rounder not making the team although he might end up on the PS.

I really don't get the need to rehash this OVER N OVER. We can't even pay our all of our stars and the Hawks have the most players in the top 100 in the League... 3 more than any other team and triple the average. We can't afford to do much better than we are doing. SMH!

[Seahawks4Ever]

CM will do really well running behind the Cowboys O-line. I can't wait to see how he does running behind that quality line compared to our mediocre line. As CM has a career year it will show again how great Lynch is to get the yards he does running behind our line.

[monkey]

I really don't get the need to rehash this OVER N OVER. We can't even pay our all of our stars and the Hawks have the most players in the top 100 in the League... 3 more than any other team and triple the average. We can't afford to do much better than we are doing. SMH!

I know right?
Back to back Super Bowls trips, and people still find something to whine about.

[Oly]

I really don't get the need to rehash this OVER N OVER. We can't even pay our all of our stars and the Hawks have the most players in the top 100 in the League... 3 more than any other team and triple the average. We can't afford to do much better than we are doing. SMH!

We could do better on offense if offensive players on their rookie contracts were playing better; Wilson is the only elite player on offense that they have drafted.

That said, even though it's true that offensive picks haven't been as good as defensive ones, that's an unfair comparison because JS/PC may be the best drafters of defensive talent of all time.

As long as the offense is good enough to win games--and other than Graham and Lynch it's almost all Hawk draft picks--then it's hard to get worked up about it.

[RiverDog]

Albert Breer of the NFL Network said we get a 7th round pick in return.
Another high Offensive draft pick that hasn't worked out.

The list of players selected mid to high (first 4 rounds) on Offense that are no longer on the team is getting pretty long.
Golden Tate 2nd Round 2010 (mistake to let him go)
James Carpenter late 1st round 2011
John Moffitt 3rd round 2011
Kris Durham 4th round 2011
Christine Michael 2nd round 2013
Chris Harper 4th round 2013
Kevin Norwood 4th round 2014

Only 3 Defensive players in the first 4 rounds are no longer here in the same time period.
Walter Thurmond 4th round 2010
EJ Wilson 4th round 2010
Jaye Howard 4th round 2012

It seems we don't do very well with 4th round picks, which seems a little strange.
Add in Terry Poole this year as a 4th rounder not making the team although he might end up on the PS.

You can throw in the Harvin trade, which robbed us of a #1 and #3, plus in all likelihood, Tate would still be here. And we have Paul Richardson that the jury is still out on. It's pretty sad when you add it all up.

But that trend could change this season. Tyler Lockett is going to contribute immediately and has the capability to make us forget about all those wasted efforts.

[Seahawks4Ever]

I got up this morning and read the Sea. Times Sports section. Now, I have egg in my face (I should be used to it by now) because there right on the front page was an article by Jaysen Jenks. The article highlighted, or I should say low lighted many of the bad head scratching plays that lead to Cristine Micheal's demise in Seattle. There were plays he mentioned I just never knew about, like how much he missed holes and blocking assignments. I guess he also didn't like running the plays the way they were designed, he thought his "God" given talent would see him through. The article said he was still immature even though this was his 3rd. TC as a pro. So, who knows? Maybe he will do better in Dallas and maybe he won't. I understand that the he had a hard time with the ZBS and never learned to trust that the "hole" would be there if he was patient and stuck with the play, but he rarely did.
The worst thing about the article was that it was written by Jaysen Jenks whom I took an instant disliking to because his name not only reminded me of that dreaded Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks he even resembled Binks with his toothy grin... He is a good writer, it just amazes me where we sometimes get our prejudices from.

[NorthHawk]

"You can throw in the Harvin trade, which robbed us of a #1 and #3, plus in all likelihood, Tate would still be here. And we have Paul Richardson that the jury is still out on. It's pretty sad when you add it all up.

But that trend could change this season. Tyler Lockett is going to contribute immediately and has the capability to make us forget about all those wasted efforts."

I never meant this to be sounding like I'm complaining about the FO, rather it's interesting the dichotomy of our upper round successes between the two sides of the ball.
It's interesting to note that although the common wisdom is the team has been built through great picks throughout the draft, it has been a few very high quality picks rather than a lot of very good picks on the Offensive side. It also shows that a team can in fact come up short often on the top picks and still be successful.

Overall from 2010 there are 10 Offensive players and 13 Defensive players still on the team that have been drafted since 2010 not including this year's PS.
Of those on Offense 5 are starters or situational impact players like Lockett might be used at first - especially on ST.
On Defense, there are 10 starters or situational impact players (including Kam).

It looks like the Offense has been built around a small number of high value draft picks, trades for key valuable players, and nondescript Free Agents to fill the remainder.
The Defense has been built on more high picks than the Offense and very high quality later round selections as well as a few high profile (and/or value) Free Agents.
The inference from this is the FO better understands Defensive scheme and player fits than they do the Offense. That would be a natural occurrence considering the Defensive focus of the Head Coach.

My suspicion is a team that is Offensively oriented (and successful) would have drafts and acquisitions that are the opposite of ours - namely higher successes on Offensive picks and higher quality FA signings. Maybe if I have time I will check out a few over the same time period. It's also noteworthy (to me, at least) that teams are focusing more on the Defensive side than they have in the recent past since our success. The old saying that the NFL is a copycat league is showing to be true and the pendulum is swinging back to Defense.

[RiverDog]

I got up this morning and read the Sea. Times Sports section. Now, I have egg in my face (I should be used to it by now) because there right on the front page was an article by Jaysen Jenks. The article highlighted, or I should say low lighted many of the bad head scratching plays that lead to Cristine Micheal's demise in Seattle. There were plays he mentioned I just never knew about, like how much he missed holes and blocking assignments. I guess he also didn't like running the plays the way they were designed, he thought his "God" given talent would see him through. The article said he was still immature even though this was his 3rd. TC as a pro. So, who knows? Maybe he will do better in Dallas and maybe he won't. I understand that the he had a hard time with the ZBS and never learned to trust that the "hole" would be there if he was patient and stuck with the play, but he rarely did.
The worst thing about the article was that it was written by Jaysen Jenks whom I took an instant disliking to because his name not only reminded me of that dreaded Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks he even resembled Binks with his toothy grin... He is a good writer, it just amazes me where we sometimes get our prejudices from.

Here's the article S4E was referring to, and it's a good piece, more than just an opinion as he's referenced his claims by referring to specific plays and quotes coaches like Tom Cable.

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seah ... -seahawks/

It makes you wonder why we didn't trade him in the offseason when his value might have been higher.

[NorthHawk]

History is full of missed opportunities, but with his talent, it's natural to give him another look to see if he progressed enough to warrant keeping him.
Unfortunately that means time and in this case the pre-season.

[monkey]

My suspicion is a team that is Offensively oriented (and successful) would have drafts and acquisitions that are the opposite of ours - namely higher successes on Offensive picks and higher quality FA signings.

I can confirm that guess, just look at the Green Bay Packers roster and their drafts/free agent acquisitions over the last 6 years or so.
The Packers have swung and missed multiple times trying to put together a decent defense, while they just cannot seem to go wrong when it comes to drafting WR's, the same way we cannot seem to miss when drafting secondary. Our two teams are, in many ways, exact opposites.

[c_hawkbob]

I really don't get the need to rehash this OVER N OVER. We can't even pay our all of our stars and the Hawks have the most players in the top 100 in the League... 3 more than any other team and triple the average. We can't afford to do much better than we are doing. SMH!

I heard that!

We take chances with our higher draft picks because we can and because we need to. Our team is made up of key difference makers and important role players. We wind up having to pay our difference makers a ton because we are successful and it costs to keep an elite talent beyond his rookie contract. This means we must have a good portion of those role players on their first contract or, like Jackson, near the end of their careers to keep our cap in shape.

So back to the raft picks;

- On the one hand hitting on an unusual talent (Russell Wilson) will pay dividends on the field if they are able to become one of our key difference makers, they make us into the team that we are.

- On the other hand we need some of these upper round draft choices to fail to work out for us, it keeps our salary cap manageable to have other teams pay these guys their second (money) contracts.

A decent percentage of first, second and third round failures are just as important to this team as are the late round and undrafted FA successes.

[obiken]

MC is a good, fast back. He will be great with the kind of line that the Pokes have. However, Rawls shows the potential of being a back that can make stuff happen on his own. I agree with this move and that is rare.