HawkShack.com

It's a foregone conclusion that the Hawk's defense will be a shadow of what it has been because of all the salary cap related releases

But I also think the offense is taking a hit as well in that regard, though not nearly to the extent of the defense. P. Richardson is already gone and J. Graham will likely be gone too. That leaves D. Baldwin as the only remaining starting receiver.

It would be a different story if we had the bucks to bring in some top notch replacements but that is the problem. We don't have the bucks. Seattle is a seller this year, not a buyer. And we aren't in a good position to get some top talent from the draft either. We'll probably snag some has beens recently released by other teams that once were productive players.

The defense last year was awful, so getting fresh blood and cutting the fat was inevitable.

Age, Complacency, and an unwillingness to not buy in got all those players contracts elsewhere and this is good. Next year the Hawks will have over 90 million in cap money and a nice selection of draft picks.

This draft is stocked with exactly what the Hawks need, interior road grating linemen and tough running backs. Most will be available in rounds 2-3 so look for a trade back and acquiring of picks and they just signed a good blocking TE. Expect the running game to get going this year.

The injuries killed us last year and the Sherman vs "The Management" was obviously not going to end well. Bennett was a shell of himself by the end of the year, too. Just didn't seem to have the energy... you think all the negative publicity wore him down? (Las Vegas?)

The trade for Richardson seemed a stretch at the time and proved correct, costing us a second and a good team WR.

Today, Sherman's shot at Coach Pete just shows exactly what I thought years ago, that the rah-rah can only work for a little while and then you'll turn off the players. That happened last year. Time to purge the 30+ players...

We haven't had a top 15 draft pick in a long time. Maybe a couple of years to rebuild and restock with the kids will be a good thing. We got Okung and ET with those last top picks. Hard to do it at 30 every year, unless you're NE.

Largent80 wrote:The defense last year was awful, so getting fresh blood and cutting the fat was inevitable.

Age, Complacency, and an unwillingness to not buy in got all those players contracts elsewhere and this is good. Next year the Hawks will have over 90 million in cap money and a nice selection of draft picks.

This draft is stocked with exactly what the Hawks need, interior road grating linemen and tough running backs. Most will be available in rounds 2-3 so look for a trade back and acquiring of picks and they just signed a good blocking TE. Expect the running game to get going this year.

The defense was not awful last year, just not what it had been and it will be worse this coming season.

Yes, the draft is stocked with what the Hawks need but the best will be gone by the time Seattle gets to pick.

But I do agree about the complacency and bad attitudes. One of the criticisms about Pete has always been that his style is that of the "ra, ra" collegiate coach. But I'm not so sure that is a big factor. Pro players should be motivating themselves. My bigger gripe about Pete is I think he put up with too much guff from certain personalities. I think that hurt team morale.

Whens the kicker get replaced/

When do they dump Lacy?

I am excited about the new team, 2018 maybe 4-12 or 8-8, 2019 9-7 or 11-5, 2020 12-4 0r 14-2 and SB

20th in the league vs. the run was indeed awful, especially considering they gave up this years second rounder for Richardson who is now gone. He was supposed to be a clogger, a dual run stuffer and pass rush up the middle. We saw little of that, but what we did see was teams breaking off huge plays, see SF and Tenn. and Ram games. We also saw huge mistakes giving teams first downs on long 3rd down plays. It was dreadful to watch.

And if you do some research this draft is extremely deep in very good backs and interior linemen that will make it to the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

Yeah great two rounds we don’t currently have (2&3). I’m sorry, but I’m expecting a sh##ty record next year. I hope there is a long-term plan to compete in 2019 and beyond. Compete for Super Bowl’s is what I’m talking about. You look at the Vikings, Eagles and saints and how quick they turned it around. There is hope, although it appears bleak right now.

If we sign Suh, it might not be awful. If not, it will be a coin toss. Offense wasn't great last year. It won't be great until we get a run game or a much better O-line and a far better short passing game.

Largent80 wrote:20th in the league vs. the run was indeed awful, especially considering they gave up this years second rounder for Richardson who is now gone. He was supposed to be a clogger, a dual run stuffer and pass rush up the middle. We saw little of that, but what we did see was teams breaking off huge plays, see SF and Tenn. and Ram games. We also saw huge mistakes giving teams first downs on long 3rd down plays. It was dreadful to watch.

And if you do some research this draft is extremely deep in very good backs and interior linemen that will make it to the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

Yes, but they were 11th in points per game allowed. A more important stat.

The dominant statistic that set the Hawk's defenses of the past apart were turnovers. Which were scarce the last few years.

Right now, our best defense will be the offense:)

Tons of changes, but necessary ones, IMO. Since the OL is still gonna be a work in progress with the new offense regime, I'm really hoping we grab a RB early (for us) in 3rd rd (I know we don't have 2nd or 3rd currently, but the Schneid will make it happen).

I'm looking forward to this next season. It also wouldn't surprise me if we ended up 9-7 and out of the playoffs.
NOt saying that's gonna be the case, but with this much changeover there's Tons of work ahead. The main thing for me will be to see how well the roster comes along and at what point we see them start to gel a bit.

I think on offense, we're gonna need Schottenheimer to be maybe more aggressive than he'd like. We don't have the kind of team that's gonna win games by only scoring 24 pts. We have to be prepared ( and perhaps plan for) a quicker tempo with a decent efficiency concerning all things on that side of the ball. The time is now for this considerable overhaul.

I also suspect that once RW's new deal is in place, we may see both Pete & John go as well. I think they want to be able to button a few things up for their replacements before leaving. My feeling is that Carroll would like to take a shot at one more coaching gig elsewhere before hanging it up. I dunno. Maybe he's already at the point where this will be it and he retires when current contract is up.

Yah. Quicker tempo is something that was missing the last few years.
On Offense they seemed to be too regimented and never really had any sense of urgency until the last couple of minutes of the first half or the 4th quarter.
Why they rarely changed up earlier is a mystery considering they seemed to play better when they did go up tempo and I think it cost them games.

Up tempo needs to be used strategically. I think it was Anthony that advocated that we should go to it for the entire game, which was pure lunacy as demonstrated by Chip Kelly. But I do agree that we should have used it more often. I'm wondering if all the injuries on defense is the reason why we didn't see more of it.

RiverDog wrote:Up tempo needs to be used strategically. I think it was Anthony that advocated that we should go to it for the entire game, which was pure lunacy as demonstrated by Chip Kelly. But I do agree that we should have used it more often. I'm wondering if all the injuries on defense is the reason why we didn't see more of it.

I watched a number of other teams looking at when they went up tempo and the good Offensive teams seemed to use it as a strategic advantage. The Steelers started a few games with a no huddle Offense and it was said at the time they did that to 'set the tone for the Offense'. It didn't last all game long, but was used early in other games, too. I think we really missed the boat on that with the previous OC and became far too predictable.
I also remember Holmgren telling Hasselbeck tempo, tempo, tempo. Given the Offensive success he had, it's good enough for other, less successful OC's to use even if it wasn't a no huddle Offense. The up tempo gets everyone a little more focused on the job at hand.

trents wrote:It's a foregone conclusion that the Hawk's defense will be a shadow of what it has been because of all the salary cap related releases

But I also think the offense is taking a hit as well in that regard, though not nearly to the extent of the defense. P. Richardson is already gone and J. Graham will likely be gone too. That leaves D. Baldwin as the only remaining starting receiver.

It would be a different story if we had the bucks to bring in some top notch replacements but that is the problem. We don't have the bucks. Seattle is a seller this year, not a buyer. And we aren't in a good position to get some top talent from the draft either. We'll probably snag some has beens recently released by other teams that once were productive players.

Actually, I think both offense and defense this year will be a net, net plus on both sides of the ball. That was locked in just a couple weeks after the end of the season when they let Richard, Bevell and Cable go. Now, we can use all the talent that we have on the OL and the defense will actually come to play and not, NOT LOSE!

Evidently Tyler Lockett is invisible, like is not even on the roster?.

He's a playmaker and had a decent year after a horrendous injury. Look for huge plays from him. P Richardson had 1 decent year out of 4 and people are freaking out.

Largent80 wrote:Evidently Tyler Lockett is invisible, like is not even on the roster?.

He's a playmaker and had a decent year after a horrendous injury. Look for huge plays from him. P Richardson had 1 decent year out of 4 and people are freaking out.

Exactly what I"m thinking. Lockett was looking great. Hopefully he can make it back full strength and continue to improve.

I mean, can we at least wait until the team is assembled before writing an epitaph?

Free agency is more than likely over for us except possibly signing some of our own back.

I now think they keep Earl, maybe throw him a bone for the one year remaining on his contract, then they can franchise tag him for the next year or let him walk and get a decent comp pick.

JS bottom feeds every year. In part it's because the first signings are often over paid, but another part is he wants to protect any Comp picks next year.
I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't sign a few players between now and the draft as well as maybe another or others after when teams look at their rosters and see they have excess players at one or two positions.

We only need a couple earlier picks (just like the ones we gave up for Brown and Richardson) to get a good OG and RB. After that, there is good value in this draft later on in places we need depth. 3 5th rounders is good in this draft and can be also used in packages to move up if there is a guy they really want.

I am firmly in the camp of getting that OG (think Wynn, Henandez, Corbett etc.). There are too many RB's to pass on especially with Prosise being injured almost all the time and Rawls, and Davis not being tendered.

Hawks had dinner with 2 defensive players from Wisconsin last week and Reid (S) from Stanford is coming for a pre-draft visit. This could be ET related or not.

Largent80 wrote:We only need a couple earlier picks (just like the ones we gave up for Brown and Richardson) to get a good OG and RB. After that, there is good value in this draft later on in places we need depth. 3 5th rounders is good in this draft and can be also used in packages to move up if there is a guy they really want.

I am firmly in the camp of getting that OG (think Wynn, Henandez, Corbett etc.). There are too many RB's to pass on especially with Prosise being injured almost all the time and Rawls, and Davis not being tendered.

Hawks had dinner with 2 defensive players from Wisconsin last week and Reid (S) from Stanford is coming for a pre-draft visit. This could be ET related or not.

Yeah, it would be nice to have 3 picks in the rounds 1-2 this year. We could easily fill some big holes. Moving back in round 1 should net us at least a number 2. Getting an OL and RB seems possible with two picks in the first 2 rounds. Trading ET may change all of that completely though. I wouldn't be shocked to see them draft S early if we get rid of him. Even if we don't the writing on the wall of him leaving may force the Hawks hand.

I'm wondering if they are over valuing the trade market for ET much like they did last year with Sherman.
Maybe lower the demand to a 2nd and 3rd this year along with either a 2nd or 3rd next year.
That would give us a lot of room to play with moving up and down the board as well as permit the other team to still get a good draft pick.
If we ended up with another 3rd next year we may have 4 3rd rounders if you include the comp picks (Graham and S. Richardson).
It would allow us to move up into the 2nd to regain that pick that goes to Houston as part of the Duane Brown trade.

The one good thing that we have going for us is that Jerry Jones is a sucker. He's always been the type to be attracted to the shiny object. The man had to be talked out of drafting Johnny Manziel in the first round. My prediction is that Jones will clean enough salary off his books and eventually pay close to the price we're asking for Earl.

I don't think a 1st and a 3rd is out of the question. He's still one of the best in the business, and, while the loss of Sherman will hurt, Thomas is essential to the defensive scheme. Any club that believes they are 1 or 2 moves away from a Lombardi would be crazy not to consider this or at least counter with something substantial.

Thomas, Wagner, and Wilson are the big three this team can ill-afford to lose, so a king's ransom, or something close to it, should be the asking price.

MackStrongIsMyHero wrote:I don't think a 1st and a 3rd is out of the question. He's still one of the best in the business, and, while the loss of Sherman will hurt, Thomas is essential to the defensive scheme. Any club that believes they are 1 or 2 moves away from a Lombardi would be crazy not to consider this or at least counter with something substantial.

Thomas, Wagner, and Wilson are the big three this team can ill-afford to lose, so a king's ransom, or something close to it, should be the asking price.

I think the question any other team who would be giving up the draft picks would be is he worth that trade to them.
Clearly last year, Sherman wasn't to any team, and maybe this year the same is happening for other teams who have a need for a FS.
We'll see if as the draft nears it changes for them, but as it stands today, no other team seems to think it's in their best interest.

MackStrongIsMyHero wrote:Any club that believes they are 1 or 2 moves away from a Lombardi would be crazy not to consider this or at least counter with something substantial.

That's not the only factor in the equation. The other is that Earl has to want to play for them, and j/b they might be a contender doesn't mean he'd be willing.

The Rosetta Stone in this mystery is Earl's "come and get me" message to the Cowboys.

Cowpies have $600,000 in cap space. They couldn't sign Doodly Squat even if he was available.That deal with them is a non factor. That vaunted OL for the last few years is getting paid now. See, you can't have nice things for long. So to every jackwad calling for Pete and Johns head, guess what?, cut your own head instead.

Largent80 wrote:Cowpies have $600,000 in cap space. They couldn't sign Doodly Squat even if he was available.That deal with them is a non factor. That vaunted OL for the last few years is getting paid now. See, you can't have nice things for long. So to every jackwad calling for Pete and Johns head, guess what?, cut your own head instead.

They can clear cap space pretty easily if they really wanted to as they have a lot of over paid, under performing players on their roster (when don't they?). Some might be released anyway, trade or no trade:

http://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/2018/01 ... -witten/2/

They 'Gurls have been rumored to be considering releasing Dez Bryant. That move alone would create $8.5M. And there's lots more possible cuts or restructures of under performing or aging veterans that they could manipulate or move.