Many Deficits

[trents]

Watching the playoffs this year has made me realize how many deficits the Seahawks have compared to the teams that continued to advance. The Hawks are weak to mediocre in enough different areas that one or two good acquisitions is not going to make a serious contender that will go deep into the playoffs. We have slowly and systematically fallen behind the curve since peaking out in 2013-2014. And that applies to the coaching area IMO as well.

[mykc14]

Watching the playoffs this year has made me realize how many deficits the Seahawks have compared to the teams that continued to advance. The Hawks are weak to mediocre in enough different areas that one or two good acquisitions is not going to make a serious contender that will go deep into the playoffs. We have slowly and systematically fallen behind the curve since peaking out in 2013-2014. And that applies to the coaching area IMO as well.

I don't think that's true. I think if you look at offensive playmakers we are as good as many NFL teams. Defensively- statistically speaking we are similar to the Chiefs and Packers (in points and yards per play). IMO the only area we are really lacking is in terms of offensive identity/adjustments/creativity. You look at teams this weekend and you see a lot of offensive creativity. The Chiefs offense appears unstoppable with Kelce, Hill, and Mahomes but the Hawks have very good players in DK, Lockette, Wilson and Carson but we have no creativity. Bucs, Packers, Cheifs, and Bills all aren't miles ahead of the Hawks in talent but are miles ahead of them on the offensive side of the ball. To me this falls at the feet of PC and our offensive identity. There is no way our offense should have been shut down like it was at the end of the season. I know we played some tough defenses, but look at what the Packers did to the Rams- they shoved the ball down their throat. They kept them off-balance and double teamed Donald on just about every passing play. The Hawks tried to block him one-on-one multiple times. The Hawks also had other issues up front, but overall much of that was a complete lack of being fluid on offense.

[jshawaii22]

I don't think that's true. I think if you look at offensive playmakers we are as good as many NFL teams. Defensively- statistically speaking we are similar to the Chiefs and Packers (in points and yards per play). IMO the only area we are really lacking is in terms of offensive identity/adjustments/creativity. You look at teams this weekend and you see a lot of offensive creativity. The Chiefs offense appears unstoppable with Kelce, Hill, and Mahomes but the Hawks have very good players in DK, Lockette, Wilson and Carson but we have no creativity. Bucs, Packers, Cheifs, and Bills all aren't miles ahead of the Hawks in talent but are miles ahead of them on the offensive side of the ball. To me this falls at the feet of PC and our offensive identity. There is no way our offense should have been shut down like it was at the end of the season. I know we played some tough defenses, but look at what the Packers did to the Rams- they shoved the ball down their throat. They kept them off-balance and double teamed Donald on just about every passing play. The Hawks tried to block him one-on-one multiple times. The Hawks also had other issues up front, but overall much of that was a complete lack of being fluid on offense.

IMHO, after watching the games this past weekend, I believe we are YEARS behind all 4 teams that were playing. It's going to take a lot more then a creative offensive identity to get back into the top of the league. We were very lucky last year that we played one of the weakest schedules in the NFL (NFL East for one) and next year we don't get that at all. We will actually have to go out and win the games. Russell needs a complete re-boot this off-season and maybe he needs to get a fire lit under him to lead his team. When the Defenses best pass rusher is a safety, you have issues. Dunbar... did he have a sack in the last 2-3 games? It's not working.
We also have a whole lot of players standing in line for new contracts, with a big drop in the cap coming, so we're going to be a deep poop trying to resign the good ones (like Carson)--

Unfortunately, I think giving Pete and JS new contracts will prove to be a mistake, as is the fact that we don't have an "owner" to stand up to the team management and push is now a major hindering for moving forward. The idea of the coach being above the GM and probably most upper management doesn't put any pressure on either of them to perform.

[mykc14]

IMHO, after watching the games this past weekend, I believe we are YEARS behind all 4 teams that were playing. It's going to take a lot more then a creative offensive identity to get back into the top of the league. We were very lucky last year that we played one of the weakest schedules in the NFL (NFL East for one) and next year we don't get that at all. We will actually have to go out and win the games. Russell needs a complete re-boot this off-season and maybe he needs to get a fire lit under him to lead his team. When the Defenses best pass rusher is a safety, you have issues. Dunbar... did he have a sack in the last 2-3 games? It's not working.

We also have a whole lot of players standing in line for new contracts, with a big drop in the cap coming, so we're going to be a deep poop trying to resign the good ones (like Carson)--

I have been pretty vocal about my frustration with what we weren't able to do last off-season to address the DL but bringing in Dunlap was extremely effective. He had the same amount of sacks as Frank Clark last year. I think Darryl Taylor will be able to help us next year and might set up a pretty good DE combo with Dunlap (If we keep him). As far as our cap situation, yeah it's not great and we do have some good FA we will have to make some tough decisions on (KJ, Griffen, Carson) and some others that we could bring back cheaper (Mayowa, Pocic) but we are in a FAR better salary cap situation next year than most of the other teams that made it to the playoffs last year. Look at this (These are projections of a $176 mil cap next year):

Seahawks: 4 mil

Bucs: 30 mil (but they only have 30 players under contract, by far the fewest in the league next year)
Ravens: 19 mil (The best cap situation on the list, but they still need to pay Lamar)
Bills: 2 mil (and they haven't paid Allen yet)
Titans: -8 mil (and Henry is a FA)
Chiefs: -18 mil (and they only have 40 players under contract next year, second fewest in the league)
Rams: -27 mil
Pack: -31 mil
Saints: -105 mil

As you can see we really are not in a terrible place financially next year, especially when looking at the teams that were good this year. We have guys that become FA after the 2021 season that we need to think about locking up as well that could free up some cap space (Lockette, Adams (probably will take cap space), Brown, Dunlap, Diggs (might take up more space as well). Those may combine to cancel out any saving though. At the end of the day it's not great but it isn't as bad as most of the other 'good' teams.

[Aseahawkfan]

We rise and fall on Russell and the defense. If Russell has a bad game and the defense can't ratchet down, we generally lose. If Russell steps up and the defense can ratchet down at the right time, we win. It is what it is. Almost every team rises and falls on their QB and their defense's ability to keep the points low. I think we should focus on rebuilding the defense into a beastly D.

[RiverDog]

Unfortunately, I think giving Pete and JS new contracts will prove to be a mistake, as is the fact that we don't have an "owner" to stand up to the team management and push is now a major hindering for moving forward. The idea of the coach being above the GM and probably most upper management doesn't put any pressure on either of them to perform.

There's advantages and disadvantages to having passive, hands off ownership. I think we can all agree that Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder, perhaps the two worst offenders of an active, interventionism management style have been miserable failures, but then there's Mike Brown, who didn't make a head coaching change for 15 years while his team never won a playoff game.

Although I don't think we're at the point where a coaching change is needed, I get the impression that Jodi Allen will find it very hard to fire Pete Carroll no matter how badly the team were to struggle.

[obiken]

We rise and fall on Russell and the defense. If Russell has a bad game and the defense can't ratchet down, we generally lose. If Russell steps up and the defense can ratchet down at the right time, we win. It is what it is. Almost every team rises and falls on their QB and their defense's ability to keep the points low. I think we should focus on rebuilding the defense into a beastly D.

But why do we continue to hold RW to a major High bar and the Offensive line to a bar set so low a snake couldn't craw under it?? WE need to focus on rebuilding the Offensive Line to my low bar: people that can block Aaron Donald!!!

[Aseahawkfan]

But why do we continue to hold RW to a major High bar and the Offensive line to a bar set so low a snake couldn't craw under it?? WE need to focus on rebuilding the Offensive Line to my low bar: people that can block Aaron Donald!!!

From what I read, Pete is going off metrics that indicate the offensive line is a low priority and has a minimal effect on winning a championship. O-line positions are low draft value positions and you usually don't want to spend too much draft capital or money on O-line except perhaps the left tackle. Metrics have shown the quality of the RB and QB are far more important to win success than the quality of your O-line.

I'm not a big O-line guy myself. I think you get one or two quality O-line guys, then rely on your QB and RB to make it work.

I think the bigger problem myself is the long passing game is no longer the way to go in this league. D-line and blitz packages are too good now to wait too long in the pocket. Offenses should be designed more with short, fast passing games. Right now Pete seems really stuck on the run and play action deep pass game. I don't think that is a very good offense any longer. If Pete refuses to adopt the short passing attack that is so common with great offenses today, he's going to continue to have problems moving the ball when the run is stuffed and the 2 deep safety defense cuts off the long ball. Giants pretty much set the blueprint to shut us down and other teams kept on repeating it. We didn't adjust.

Fast, quick passing to neutralize the pass rush and throw the safeties off is much smarter nowadays. This simple play action off the run style of offense is old school that doesn't work unless you have a top 5 defense. And even then why not design a more modern offense for today's game.

[trents]

If we had to let Carson go because of salary cap issues, I won't shed any tears over it. He's a good tough, violent running back but we can't keep him on the field because he is injury prone. So is Penny. Shaquille Griffin is not bad but he is not Jaylen Ramsey either.

Pete may have something there with the metrics of expenditure on O Line. Seem it may be as important to keep them on the field (from a health standpoint) so they can jell as a unit than it is to spend big bucks on top talent. The teams with the biggest O Line struggles are those whose jersey numbers change from one week to week.