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The main reason is our new RB R. Penny. He could be as good as Shawn Alexander was I still think we need a RT and RG but then we are set.

I can see us going 11-5 putting the last season far behind us. It was 9-7 for a lot of reasons that can change this year. With Penny here I am stoked.

To get the stats that Alexander got, the blocking in front will have to improve to have some semblance of comparison.
But I share your enthusiasm, I think that if the blocking does improve, he can be a big factor.

I'm not bearish on this year because of last year's debacle- as I've said elsewhere, if we had a kicker who could hit a 40yd FG reliably, we (arguably) would have been 11-5.

I'm bearish on this year because our D and O-line are virtually unknowns.

I like watching new people try to make it. Maybe Pete can Belichick it and build a great team twice around Wilson. I can imagine there were some egos between the LoB who came before Russell having to give up the lead position to the new QB. Now this is Russell's team. Let's see what it can do.

Sure, they could have been 11-5 but they STILL would have been one and done in the play offs. They were NEVER a competitive team last year. Yet while they could have been 11-5 last season they also very easily could have also ended up 7-9 or worse.

I cannot be Bullish or be a Bear because I don't have enough information yet. Will they be better than last season? I don't know, it is possible may not be probable but it is possible.

There is also the addition by subtraction factor. MB was done IMO.

Our D does need help I don't know if our draft picks or some FA can shore it up but we gotta do something about it. But we're going to fix our OL just wait until Sept

I still believe in Pete Carroll and his mantra always compete he plays the best player period.

Its all sweet dreams and flying machines, till we play Arnold and Suh, then it all comes crashing to the ground. Sorry guys, our line sucks, it sucked last year, and its going to suck bigger this year. Man I hope I am wrong!

I felt that last season's squad was worse than our record suggested. With the exception of Pete's first year in 2010, we were competitive in every single game, not losing a contest by 10 points or more for a league record 70+ games. That streak was turned into a sports trivia question a couple of years ago in Green Bay, and punctuated last December by the Rams, in our house of all places. I sensed a noticeable drift towards complacency, a drift that Pete must have sensed as well. The electricity just wasn't there as it had been in years past, and to use a phrase coined by Pete, we weren't playing championship football.

But I am open eyed about this season. Teams turn over with such frequency that it's difficult to predict. With the turnover of both players and coaches, I'm expecting a rebuilding year, but it wouldn't surprise me for us to make the playoffs.

One thing is for sure: This will be one of the more interesting camps and preseason in quite some time, perhaps as far back as Russell's rookie season.

For me it has the feel of the pre-championship years when things were trending up.
Time will tell if the players they drafted last year can take the next step and if the coaching changes can fix the OL.
I also get the feeling Norton will bring back that sense of urgency we've missed for a couple of years. Richard was a bit clinical in his demeanor, but Norton brings the emotion and intensity.
That can help a lot with the young team that we've become the last 5 or 6 months.

obiken wrote:Its all sweet dreams and flying machines, till we play Arnold and Suh, then it all comes crashing to the ground. Sorry guys, our line sucks, it sucked last year, and its going to suck bigger this year. Man I hope I am wrong!

Our line has sucked since Pete has been here save for perhaps one year when Okung and Unger stayed healthy. You should be more worried about the depleted and unproven defense.

Aseahawkfan wrote:Our line has sucked since Pete has been here save for perhaps one year when Okung and Unger stayed healthy. You should be more worried about the depleted and unproven defense.

The OL has always been a weak link, but not to the degree it has over the past 3 seasons. Obi's worries are justified. Hopefully the coaching change will make a difference.

RiverDog wrote:The OL has always been a weak link, but not to the degree it has over the past 3 seasons. Obi's worries are justified. Hopefully the coaching change will make a difference.

Not really valid. It has been that bad prior to the last three years. What has been different is we had Marshawn to make the line look better and make the run game take pressure off the line by forcing defenses to defend the run. Russell has been getting put under pressure since he's been here. When you have a Marshawn, it makes your O-line look way better than they are and makes your offense look way better than they are.

Our concern should be the depleted and unproven defense. When you have a defense like ours was, your offense can make a lot of mistakes they won't be able to make now. The days of consecutive games without a big loss are over. We're going to see way more lopsided losses now because our defense won't be able to hold the score down or force 3 and outs as often. It will be hard to watch when your offense is playing like ours waiting for big plays and your defense is getting owned.

Well, let's see.
That defense all is crying about was getting old, slow, and injury prone.
With those three points in mind that defense gave up last year:
33 to Titans
38 to Texans at home - gee we won that one
Winning touchdown drive with a minute left in the game to the offense juggernaut Redskins (at home)
34 to the Falcons at home
30 to the Jaguars
42 to the Rams at home
26 to the Cards at home

Now I don't care if one brings up the injuries, that is one of my points: old, slow and injury prone.

I don't think there was much choice than to revamp, get younger and faster.
I'm looking forward to the changes both offensely, defensely, and coaching.
It was time.
And it would have been worse if the same ole same ole continued.

After pondering on the Seahawk's draft picks this time around and some of their FA signings I'm feeling more optimistic about the chance of the Hawks having a winning season at least and maybe even getting a wild card birth in the playoffs. The main reason my outlook has shifted a bit is Penny plus the acquisition of receivers who have a blocking mentality. I think that will help offset the lack of talent in the interior of the O line. For me, the bigger questions are still on Defense.

It's entirely possible Seattle gets into the playoffs, but extremely unlikely, removing multiple all pros and pro bowl players from the roster and replenishing with cast offs aaaaannndddd minimal draft picks typically isn't a recipe for great success. This isn't like the first couple seasons Carroll was in Seattle as much as people cling to it. The talent dumped vs the talent that roamed that field last season due to injuries isn't remotely close to the same.

Players like Sherman, Kam, Bennett and Avril showed well when thrust into playing time and were green( or filling a enormous need, Seattle ALREADY had great DE talent Bennett and Avril expanded that talent, followed by Irvin), the talent this time showed inexperience like those, but they also lacked flashes of performance. Maybe Griffin learns to play the ball all of a sudden, or perhaps one of the retread defensive lineman finds some sort of dominance etc. I wouldn't hold my breath though...... ultimately they want to return to the recipe that made them dominant, run game with great defense, unfortunately they are trusting to a rookie unproven back, aaaaannndddd a lot of retread defensive lineman, and a whos who of pretty mediocre defensive backs...

Clem7 wrote:Well, let's see.
That defense all is crying about was getting old, slow, and injury prone.
With those three points in mind that defense gave up last year:
33 to Titans
38 to Texans at home - gee we won that one
Winning touchdown drive with a minute left in the game to the offense juggernaut Redskins (at home)
34 to the Falcons at home
30 to the Jaguars
42 to the Rams at home
26 to the Cards at home

Now I don't care if one brings up the injuries, that is one of my points: old, slow and injury prone.

I don't think there was much choice than to revamp, get younger and faster.
I'm looking forward to the changes both offensely, defensely, and coaching.
It was time.
And it would have been worse if the same ole same ole continued.

Likely so. But it's going to maybe require some painful growing before it gets good again for reasons other than line play, which has been during our bests year average. A bad O-line is not what makes or breaks this team or we would have never went to a Super Bowl, much less won one.

Our defense made this team great with an offense that relied on big plays from the passing game and a consistent, brutal running game fueled by a once in a franchise old school RB that was made of iron with a diesel engine that ground yards where there would have been none. So worrying about line play that was always bad to average is a waste of time, when it is the young, unproven defense that will hurt us more just as it was the injured and depleted defense that hurt us most last year.

Clem7 wrote:Well, let's see.
That defense all is crying about was getting old, slow, and injury prone.
With those three points in mind that defense gave up last year:
33 to Titans
38 to Texans at home - gee we won that one
Winning touchdown drive with a minute left in the game to the offense juggernaut Redskins (at home)
34 to the Falcons at home
30 to the Jaguars
42 to the Rams at home
26 to the Cards at home

Now I don't care if one brings up the injuries, that is one of my points: old, slow and injury prone.

I don't think there was much choice than to revamp, get younger and faster.
I'm looking forward to the changes both offensely, defensely, and coaching.
It was time.
And it would have been worse if the same ole same ole continued.

The glass half full of that observation would be that we still ranked 6th in points allowed, a crutch that an etenal optimist could use to bouy their contention that we're really not that far away from being a SB contender.

I agree with what you are saying as its a good example of what I've been arguing for some time, that we are no longer a contender and it was time to hit ctrl-alt-delete.

Defensively, Pete has shown a knack for figuring out how best to use the talent he has, and JS has been able to find some real good fits in the Draft and FA.
Maybe it doesn't continue, but I think they may be better than most expect. For certain a lot of talent has left this year on D, but the (largely) unknowns that were selected last year might surprise us.
Since we no longer have the bullseye on our back as the team to beat, we may surprise some teams and end up with a better Defense than many think.

Clem7 wrote:Well, let's see.
That defense all is crying about was getting old, slow, and injury prone.
With those three points in mind that defense gave up last year:
33 to Titans
38 to Texans at home - gee we won that one
Winning touchdown drive with a minute left in the game to the offense juggernaut Redskins (at home)
34 to the Falcons at home
30 to the Jaguars
42 to the Rams at home
26 to the Cards at home

Now I don't care if one brings up the injuries, that is one of my points: old, slow and injury prone.

I don't think there was much choice than to revamp, get younger and faster.
I'm looking forward to the changes both offensely, defensely, and coaching.
It was time.
And it would have been worse if the same ole same ole continued.

The only real issue I have with this thought is that they didn't really bring in anyone, you can say they were getting old, slow and injury prone, but with the injured players on the field really only one game was any significant amount of points allowed, the others are what you are going to see this season for the most part.

I expect a 4-4 start with alot of learning. After that the story will be told. Could see 6-2 in the second half of 2018 which would tell me that 2019 will be a great year.

I think the biggest need the Seahawks have is CB if we can't stop our opponents passing game we are toast. We need to go FA and get some serviceable CB

I think our CB's will be OK.
I doubt they will achieve the level of Sherman, but they should be OK.

Check this story out for a TE:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... tight-end/

If he has played OT, he should be a powerful blocker on the line that we could use. At least he wouldn't have to learn how to block at the NFL level.

My faith for this year, are you joking? 11-5?? we just came through the worst recession since the Great Depression, All of the out of work comedians, and then there's you!

We should have been 10-6 or 11-5 we lost some close ones. I have faith in the Seahawks. I think Penny will be stellar, we do have to fix our OL though.

From what I've read, Solari runs a simpler blocking system and we haven't heard talk of them shuffling players around much into different positions.
Two of my criticisms were us having young guys, running a complex system even though they never played in a pro set much while learning more than one position.
Solari, from what I've read wants player to just be more physical and aggressive. If he does keep them in the same positions, I think it may go a long way to making the
OL respectable again. Combine it with a couple of TE's that can actually block and for the first time in a few years I'm hopeful it could work out pretty well.

My faith for this year, are you joking? 11-5?? we just came through the worst recession since the Great Depression, All of the out of work comedians, and then there's you!

Thanks, Obi. I’m cleaning the coffee from my iPad.......

NorthHawk wrote:I think our CB's will be OK.
I doubt they will achieve the level of Sherman, but they should be OK.

Check this story out for a TE:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... tight-end/

If he has played OT, he should be a powerful blocker on the line that we could use. At least he wouldn't have to learn how to block at the NFL level.

That feels like faith... lack of DE talent and depth, paired with young or mediocre or both young and mediocre corner talent... makes me exceedingly leery.

Well, what is faith?
I guess it's the belief in something that is not verifiable.

Here's an article that may give us hope for an improved OL:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 82899.html

NorthHawk wrote:Well, what is faith?
I guess it's the belief in something that is not verifiable.

Here's an article that may give us hope for an improved OL:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 82899.html

As a rule, I don't pay much attention to the beat reporters putting out these rosy scenerio articles this time of year. They are looking at the team in a vacuum, with nothing outside of Renton to provide them with a frame of reference.

But this season, with all the turnover, it's interesting to hear about what types of differences we might see this coming season.

It seems that we will see a much more physical scheme which should mean a simpler scheme in that it's more of putting your hat on your man and pushing him down field.
That in itself might help with the false starts since they might not have to think as much about their responsibilities on plays.
As well, the OC has full control of the Offense instead of the OL coach being responsible for the run game.
I wonder if maybe some of the young OL weren't sure who was in charge when trying to learn how to play at the NFL level. I've nothing to back it up, but it might have occurred at times.

NorthHawk wrote:It seems that we will see a much more physical scheme which should mean a simpler scheme in that it's more of putting your hat on your man and pushing him down field.
That in itself might help with the false starts since they might not have to think as much about their responsibilities on plays.
As well, the OC has full control of the Offense instead of the OL coach being responsible for the run game.
I wonder if maybe some of the young OL weren't sure who was in charge when trying to learn how to play at the NFL level. I've nothing to back it up, but it might have occurred at times.

False starts really wasn't that big of a problem if not for one player: Ifedi, who racked up 9 false starts while no other Seahawk OL received more than two.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/penalty/fal ... ew=players

Yah, that's who I was thinking of, but in general it should help him a lot since he didn't play much in a 3 point stance in College and now can (hopefully) just react without thinking about his responsibilities.
It would be a shame to see him go somewhere else and succeed because he had so much to learn considering he's got the physicality and athleticism we need to regain "bully" status along the OL.
I'm hoping it helps him the most this year.

I'll happily take false starts with less QB pressures, and whiffs when protecting the QB.... could of been worse, there could have been two Brown quality players protecting the edges, Ifedi last season played at a higher level in pass protection than the guy Seattle sold its future for.

At least with a false start, your QB doesn't get hit, you get another shot, and typically, you lose less yardage. I'll take that every single time over Brown's look out blocks, not laying a finger on the DE as he runs by, or getting placed on his ass time and again.

While I was all for letting go of Bevell, less than excited about Schottenheimer.....horrible record. Nobody said much about it at the time, but he got blasted pretty hard this week.

Blasted pretty hard this week?
What does that mean?

He's improved the run game for most of the teams he's been OC.
That's really what we expect from this change along with better or at least less predictable play calling.

I'm luke warm about the hiring of Schott. Pete didn't venture too far out of his comfort zone, and I was hoping for someone that would help Russell take the next step in his development.

But nevertheless, it is a change, and I'm excited to see what comes of it. If our defense is stout, then the move to get back to a run-first offense should bode well. But if we're surrendering 25 points a game, it could be a really long season as I don't think that Shott's run first offense will be able to keep up.

We'll have to resign ourselves to the idea that our Defense won't be able to win games by themselves like the last 8 or so years and that the Offense will have to make up the difference.
ST's can help in that as well, but you can't build a philosophy on ST's winning games on a consistent basis.

I was hoping for a more aggressive OC, too, but Schottenheimer's record has shown that he can build a decent Offense if given the talent.

NorthHawk wrote:We'll have to resign ourselves to the idea that our Defense won't be able to win games by themselves like the last 8 or so years and that the Offense will have to make up the difference.
ST's can help in that as well, but you can't build a philosophy on ST's winning games on a consistent basis.

I was hoping for a more aggressive OC, too, but Schottenheimer's record has shown that he can build a decent Offense if given the talent.

The last 4 words of your post loom large. With Pete's penchant to spend his resources on the defensive side of the ball, Schott's going to have to make do with what's left over.

The last 4 words of your post loom large. With Pete's penchant to spend his resources on the defensive side of the ball, Schott's going to have to make do with what's left over.

I think there is some good building blocks on Offense with Wilson and Penny, but outside of Baldwin our WRs are largely unproven and our OL has to prove itself in real games.
There is hope with Solari as OL coach and the OC not having to share responsibilities with the OL coach for the run game. But I guess that's just optimism at this point.

50/50 split offense to defense... two of three highest paid players on offense... truth is Seattle "spent " on That side of the ball, because, the all pro performers were on that side of the ball. Seattle and Carroll pay for great players, not sure why that's so incredibly difficult to grasp. Always have, always will ....

It isn't like they haven't dumped enormous amounts into offensive players. Baldwin, Wilson, Graham, Harvin, Lynch... lmfao people get an idea, and can't adjust.