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Sadly enough, I lowered my Columbia Blue #12 flag this morning, not to fly again until September. We now head into the 2019 offseason, and it promises to be one of the more important off seasons in the past 20 years. So where do we start? Which issue do you feel is the most important and why?

I say resigning Frank Clark.

The ownership change who knows when that will actually get done, and with Pete getting extended, new ownership probably wont make any big changes for a couple years at least when we do get new ownership.

FA and the draft only seems important if we don't resign Clark, as I don't see us having that many major holes to fix at other positions.

Extending RW will be interesting but in the past he has been a team player restructuring his contract to allow us to do things with our cap space at other positions. Also with the cap expanding it should give us more flexibility than we have had in recent past.

Uhm. All of the above? Not a single one of those should be addressed with any less importance than the other.

EmeraldBullet wrote:I say resigning Frank Clark.

The ownership change who knows when that will actually get done, and with Pete getting extended, new ownership probably wont make any big changes for a couple years at least when we do get new ownership.

FA and the draft only seems important if we don't resign Clark, as I don't see us having that many major holes to fix at other positions.

Extending RW will be interesting but in the past he has been a team player restructuring his contract to allow us to do things with our cap space at other positions. Also with the cap expanding it should give us more flexibility than we have had in recent past.

Where do you get that from? In fact, when his initial rookie contract had expired I was kind of disappointed that he didn't do more to leave more money in the team kitty when negotiating his present one.

Except for replacing Janikowski, no one area stands out as needing attention more than others. I would have to say that we need more depth at linebacker and maybe wide receiver.

All of the above.
Hawks really need to start looking for a replacement for Baldwin. He is starting to get some high mileage and the dings are starting to show. Still playing at a high level, but how much longer does he have before the dings become major dents?
Clark has to be a priority since he is the only consistent pass rusher currently on the roster. Also need to draft this position, but it would most likely be a gem unearthed after the 1st round.
Perhaps the biggest is Russell's status. The hawks really need to work out a team friendly extension. No way the Hawks can break the bank to keep him, if it means sacrificing quality and depth throughout the rest of the team. He cant do it on his own. This will be interesting.
O-line will be of major concern as usual, what will happen with Sweezy and Fluker? They may be fairly highly sought after in the free agent market. If so, the hawks have shown a history of not retaining o-line talent in bidding wars.
I expect as usual there will be no need to watch day one of the draft since Pete and Schneider will trade out to obtain more picks.

Pope out

Draft/FA.
It’s how we fill the holes and upgrade depth that we need to take the next step.
Clark is part of it - and a big part of it, but without upgrading the DL to provide
more pass rush, we’ll just be stuck in a little better than mediocrity.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned anything about our impending ownership change as being an important off season issue. Suppose I amended the question about ownership to say that a clone of Ken Behring is the front runner to buy the Seahawks? Would you think more of the issue under that circumstance?

RiverDog wrote:I'm surprised that no one has mentioned anything about our impending ownership change as being an important off season issue. Suppose I amended the question about ownership to say that a clone of Ken Behring is the front runner to buy the Seahawks? Would you think more of the issue under that circumstance?

We really don’t know who the next owner might be, but we do know that the team is far more successful than
the Behring years and would face opposition from the NFL if they wanted to move it.
Another bad thing might be a Snyder type who meddles, but if they want to be successful, they shouldn’t
mess with a good thing. That would be the smart move, but who knows the ego the eventual owner will have.

NorthHawk wrote:We really don’t know who the next owner might be, but we do know that the team is far more successful than
the Behring years and would face opposition from the NFL if they wanted to move it.
Another bad thing might be a Snyder type who meddles, but if they want to be successful, they shouldn’t
mess with a good thing. That would be the smart move, but who knows the ego the eventual owner will have.

I wasn't eluding just to Behring's attempt to move the franchise. He was an intrusive owner that foisted his uniformed opinion on the operations side of the business, the most obvious example being his insistence of drafting Dan McGuire in the first round, plus his tight wad attitude about spending on free agents.

There are some really bad owners out there. You mentioned Dan Snyder, which is one. There's also owners like Mike Brown and Mark Davis that ain't ever going to field a SB winner. I want an owner that will bring in the very best people he can find, give them the authority to run things as they see fit, and back them up with his pocket book...exactly like the owner we just lost.

I say resigning Wilson and our FA is most important. Then addressing the OL we have with Good solid FA so we don't have to waste picks in the draft.

I wasn't eluding just to Behring's attempt to move the franchise. He was an intrusive owner that foisted his uniformed opinion on the operations side of the business, the most obvious example being his insistence of drafting Dan McGuire in the first round, plus his tight wad attitude about spending on free agents.

There are some really bad owners out there. You mentioned Dan Snyder, which is one. There's also owners like Mike Brown and Mark Davis that ain't ever going to field a SB winner. I want an owner that will bring in the very best people he can find, give them the authority to run things as they see fit, and back them up with his pocket book...exactly like the owner we just lost.

Of course it's a concern, but I see it as a long term issue and hope that Jody Allen will have a process in place whereby they will look for the best owner, not the one with the deepest pockets.
After a certain amount of wealth, it's all the same, and an NFL franchise is a valued commodity so there should be a number of candidates to choose from.
We can only hope they make the right choice.

NorthHawk wrote:Of course it's a concern, but I see it as a long term issue and hope that Jody Allen will have a process in place whereby they will look for the best owner, not the one with the deepest pockets.

After a certain amount of wealth, it's all the same, and an NFL franchise is a valued commodity so there should be a number of candidates to choose from.
We can only hope they make the right choice.

Jody Allen is just one of the parties that has input on the decision. The other owners have to approve the sale, and at least one owner, Jerry Jones, has expressed his preference for Jeff Bezos, so it might, indeed, turn out to be the candidate with the deepest pockets.

The fact that it's such a long term decision is exactly why I feel it's the most important of all our off season issues this year. It could have a huge impact on the direction this franchise takes.