Depth & Resiliency

[Irish Greg 2.0]

For me, the most impressive aspect of this team this season has been its depth and resiliency – from gutting out the injury war of attrition to getting handed a brutal first-half schedule to absorbing every opponent’s "best shot" since we transitioned from hunter to hunted. To earn a berth in the Super Bowl, this team had to endure much adversity. The fact they did speaks to the collective mental toughness and preparation by the coaching staff in building this roster.

One thing that hasn’t gotten any talk this week in the national spotlight is the extent of injuries they had to work around in order to finish 13-3 and earn home field advantage. Yes, every team has injuries…but I would argue the combination of injuries we had with regards to how our team is constructed would have impacted any other team much more severely. Our depth (a Pete Carroll and John Schneider imperative since Day 1) and quality of coaching allowed us to not only survive, but thrive.

We played without our franchise left tackle (Russell Okung) for half the season, forcing a player not suited for that position (Paul McQuistan) into full-time starting duty, and against some pretty stiff defenses. Our All Pro center (Max Unger) missed three games. Our starting right tackle (Breno Giacomini) missed seven games. Back-ups Lemuel Jeanpierre, Michael Bowie and Alvin Bailey were pushed into critical spots in games with no margin for error (as evidenced by us only winning the West by one game). Look at those three closely: Jeanpierre, originally signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent; Bowie, a rookie 7th round draft pick this year; Bailey, an undrafted free agent rookie.

The offensive line disruption was significant, especially with a 2nd year quarterback still developing. Nothing is more important to a line’s development than cohesion and repetition together, and yet we trotted out a different O line each and every week. But it wasn’t just the line. Our Pro Bowl fullback (Michael Robinson) -- and a blocker Marshawn Lynch trusts implicitly -- was released right before the regular season, thrusting an undrafted/hearing impaired player with no experience (Derrick Coleman) into a pivotal role on a team with a mountain of expectations stacked on its back. #1 WR Sidney Rice went down in the 8th game of the season. Although not having a big season, Rice is a receiver Russell Wilson trusts completely and he also is our biggest target amongst the wide outs – and no matter what, always drew attention from defenses. It’s foolish to think losing Rice did not have a significant impact on our passing game, because it clearly did. Tight end Zach Miller, extremely valuable to our zone blocking scheme as an in-line blocker and always a sure handed target with his limited targets, missed two games. One of our play makers from 2012, tight end Anthony McCoy, was on IR and the team somewhat surprisingly released up and coming tight end Sean McGrath, forcing the team to play the season with a rookie 5th round pick (Luke Willson) and a castoff veteran (Kellen Davis).

Then, there is the much talked about Percy Harvin. It’s a fair debate to say “we didn’t need him”, but it’s also fair to see in his limited snaps that the offense looks different with him playing - that’s not a stretch. Harvin is, if anything, a player the defense has to account for on every snap. I think it’s a safe assumption to say things would have been much easier on our offense if he would have been plugged in as intended.

But it wasn’t just about the offense. On defense, our established best pass rusher was coming off a major injury and also had to fit into a new role, and we had to integrate two brand new pieces (Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett) at the same time. We shifted our second best pass rusher from 2012 (Bruce Irvin) to a new position. We lost a very valuable starting linebacker (KJ Wright) for arguably the most important four games of our season (the last three of the regular season and the Divisional Playoff game). Oh, by the way, our best linebacker (Bobby Wagner) also missed two games. Enter the expedited arrival of play maker Malcolm Smith.

The Legion of Boom lost one of its founding members, Brandon Browner – first to injuries, then to league mandated suspension – and appeared in only 8 games. This thrust two unheralded players into the spotlight: the talented but injury riddled Walter Thurmond III and the former 6th round pick who lived on the fringes of the roster for his first few seasons, Byron Maxwell. Come to find out, Maxwell is even better than Browner.

The schedule makers also didn’t do us any favors....opening up on the road at 10 am Pacific in the heat of Carolina, against what would become one of the NFL’s best defenses; a stretch of four out of five on the road (at Houston, before they imploded; at Indianapolis; vs Tennessee; at Arizona on a Thursday night; at St. Louis); and overall, five 10 am Pacific starts (although we finally put that demon to rest and went 4-1 in those games).

Like I said, resiliency. Yes, we have a very talented team. Yes, our coaching staff is excellent. But more than anything, the depth of our team and the ability to fight through the white noise and adversity is why we are on destiny's porch.

[burrrton]

Great summary, IG. All good points to keep in mind...

[Long Time Fan]

Well referenced summary. The Seahawks were tested and adversity reveled their character.

The scheduling was certainly interesting; the Seahawks faced opponents in states of transition. The Seahawks light the fuse on the Texans implosion. The game against TB was TB's turning point in the season. Arizona started a good stretch of games after playing the Seahawks in AZ. The away game against SF saw them much healthier.

[Oly]

Here's a testament to the quality of that depth: when you first posted that the Hawks battled injuries, my first thought was "yeah along the OL, but they were lucky otherwise." It wasn't until I read that great summary that I realized I had that reaction because the depth players performed so well that it never really felt like those injuries hurt the team too much. After all, they finished 13-3, so almost by definition you have to say those injuries didn't set the team back very much.

I think Pete's "always compete" mantra is the first time I've ever felt like a sports mantra actually did anything. This is Pete's team, through and through.

[HumanCockroach]

Depth and resiliency is Denvers story line.... says the media.... LOL. Just grin and bear it, everything changes come Sunday...

[PasadenaHawk]

great post I.G. This team is impressive!

[RiverDog]

Nice summation, IG.

We did have to overcome some adversity, from the Irvin suspension to the Harvin situation to the Browner injury/suspension to the injuries on the OL to the 5 early road starts. But we caught a few breaks on the schedule, too, not the least of which was getting to host the Saints vs. the Niners having to play them on the road. What looked like a tough game in Atlanta turned into a cake walk as the Falcons were a ghost of their previous selves. Same with the Giants. They were a real abortion by the time we got to them. We played Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and St. Louis twice without their original starting quarterbacks. That's over a third of our schedule.

I'm not complaining about the schedule or injuries. Our opponents had them, too, and overall, the stars lined up pretty nicely for us.

[Seahawker]

Nice post IG,

To get KJ & Willson back so soon and just the fact that Okung sailed through the 2nd half seems like a miracle in itself.
We know there were guys who played through injuries this season and now to be at full strength, remarkable.

[monkey]

Great post IG, agree completely.

[Zorn76]

Going back to last season, mental toughness has been the signature of the Seahawks.

The SF game was a textbook example of it. We hung in there on both sides of the ball, finally taking the lead with just a few minutes to play in the 3rd before it ended on, appropriately enough, a clutch play by you-know-who:)

Great summary, IG.

Seattle can handle anything, and that's what will carry them through any adversity they experience on Sunday, before nailing down a Lombardi.