NorthHawk wrote:Their best drafts were when Scot McGlughan (SP) was identifying talent.
Sure, Pete would know Wagner, Sherman, etc from coaching against them, but it's far more complicated than that.
They scout all across the country, not just from the division a coach is from.
I see it as bad talent evaluation compounded by not selecting the best players at positions of need, and maybe even the arrogance of having a good draft or two early and thinking they
are the smartest people in the business. Compound that with bad trades and we see a massive decline in talent and maybe even scheme fit with the trade commodities we've received.
John was said to be high on Mahomes and Allen before they were drafted and many thought of them as late 1st round for Mahomes and maybe even 2nd round talent for Allen, so perhaps
he has an eye for players who can be molded into an NFL QB. I hope that's his niche in this business, but the rest of the team might be suspect if the trends of the last
8 or so years continue. From a talent accumulation they've lost their way in team building and gone from drafting well to trying to sign big names to make up for it, and it's been
a massive failure to date.
I don't believe McGloughan picked the DBs. I believe that was mostly Pete. Pete had an idea of how he wanted the secondary to be and found the players who were currently out of favor in the NFL. But after Pete did it so well, he was copied and those players became more sought after and scarce.
I think between Ken Norton Jr. and Gus Bradley, they had good LB talent evaluators.
Our D-line really started to shine when Dan Quinn came onboard. We signed Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett, who became a great tandem. We already had Brandon Mebane who was a great anchor in the middle of the defense before McGloughan arrived.
So all these folks thinking McGloughan was the architect of the Super Bowl team are full of hot garbage. They don't recall very well how this team was built. They haven't spent much time thinking about how the team was built. It's a pretty amazing story if you think about it.
1. Chris Clemons: Our original LEO was traded for from the Eagles. The LEO was a position that Pete Carroll brought with him that he used in college with Clay Matthews.
2. Key Drafted Players: Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, and Earl Thomas. These guys were picked by Pete to do what he wanted to do with his defense. Pete knows DBs well and knew exactly what he wanted. The tall, long-armed CB like Richard Sherman was out of style. So it was a big surprise when Pete brought Sherm in and turned him into a Pro Bowl and possible Hall of Famer by designing the perfect defense for that type of player. Pete wanted that old school big strong safety and found it in Kam. Earl was the super fast free safety able to prevent the deep ball in Pete's defense. Pete designed the defense before he found the players perfect to execute it.
3. Trade for Marshawn Lynch. Pete Carroll knew Marshawn Lynch. He played against him in college. He knew he had that brutal run style Pete likes. He saw he was available from Buffalo, so he made the move. Then he set up the kind of social environment a player like Lynch thrives in. McGloughan had nothing to do with Pete Carroll letting Beastmode be Beastmode and getting the most out of him.
4. Doug Baldwin was an undrafted free agent that worked his way on the squad. With undrafted free agents, no way to know they're going to turn out to be your top receiver.
5. Bobby Wagner and KJ Wright we drafted. Maybe McGloughan knows LBs, I don't know. But so does Ken Norton Jr. and Gus Bradley. Finding a great LB isn't the hardest thing in the world. Pete knew how to use his LBs to support his defense.
6. Russell Okung. Maybe McGloughan picked this guy. Not sure. We've never had O-line expertise. Okung was probably the best O-line we ever drafted with Max Unger a close second likely. Not even sure McGloughan was here when we drafted Unger.
7. Russell Wilson. John Schneider personally scouted Russell Wilson. He believed in him and pushed him to be drafted. Then Pete let Russ compete and the rest is history.
The reality is a lot of different hands and a big one was Pete's built that Super Bowl team. We took pieces from a lot of different places that fit into what Pete wanted to do. Scott McGloughan didn't have a lot to do with it no matter how many people continue to put forth that theory which does not at all fit the facts.
The reality is Pete Carroll came into the league with a vision for a team that most of the NFL wasn't trying to build. He had pieces in mind before he arrived. He found those pieces and built about as close to a perfect team using his schemes as you can. Schneider found the QB that no one but him believed in and sold Carroll on it. Then we had the magic happen that is necessary to win a Super Bowl as it all came together.
The Seahawks Super Bowl team and win was one of those magical periods in football for a franchise when it call comes together to create something amazing.
Now can Pete and John pull this off again? Probably not, but at the point we were at I'd rather see them try as they seem at their best when they have no attachments to any players and are in Always Compete and Find Talent By Looking Under Every Rock mode. So we'll see what they can do.