Seahawk talk

[HaroldSeattle]

By: Hank Gola
New York Daily News
Monday, February 3, 2014​

Three guys who played on a couple of the best defenses of all time are ready to welcome the Seahawks to the club.​

“An incredible performance,” said Rob Burnett of the 2000 Ravens, who dominated the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. “I don’t think I’ve seen a defensive performance of that magnitude in a single game since our game. An absolute beatdown.”​

Jim Burt of the ’86 Giants went one further. “I thought it was the most dominating performance I’ve seen in any Super Bowl,” he said on Monday. “I thought this was better because Kerry Collins (of the 2000 Giants) was not Peyton Manning. That Giants offense could never compare to this Denver offense. They had everything and they couldn’t do anything.”​

“You’re not talking about a slouch,” said Carl Banks of the ’86 and ’90 Giants and the team’s current radio analyst. “When you can take what was the most prolific passer in modern times, whether he’s a playoff quarterback or not, with an offense that broke all kinds of records, if you can do that to that team and that quarterback you deserve to be in a very elite club.​

“And then when you also add on the fact that they’re playing in a league that literally ties one hand behind your back defensively, I don’t think you can say anymore,” Banks added. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Could they have played in another era?’ One hundred percent. There’s no doubt that the Bears, the Ravens and even my teams could have played in this era and been dominant but also, could you have thrown the Seahawks back to the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s? I say 100%.”


A few things jumped out with what the Seahawks were able to do. Recently, after the rules changes tilted things toward the offense, the only real recourse a defense had was via the pass rush. A secondary was only as good as the time a quarterback had. But Seattle made up the difference with incredible closing speed and a four-man rush that consistently collapsed the pocket.

“I was looking at the game, thinking, ‘Oh my God. These guys are catching the ball at three yards and they’re not getting three and a half yards,’ ” Burt said. “They’re getting hit and they’re getting stoned.​

“They get back in position really fast and they’re able to react with great speed,” Banks said. “I was talking to Terrell Owens and he said the one thing he noticed was that the Denver receivers were definitely affected because instead of going forward when they caught a ball, they were actually giving ground.”


No wonder, after the hit Kam Chancellor laid on Demaryius Thomas early.

“It was a game-changer. That set the whole tone,” Burt agreed. “When he knocked him five yards back, I’m like, ‘That’s like the Giants used to play.’ It was like, ‘OK, we’ll let you catch the ball across the middle but you’re going to get punched in the face.’ ”
Both Banks and Burt agreed that Manning was affected.​

“Just the way they were getting to him, he was shook,” Banks said. “He didn’t have his progressions available to him and he didn’t want to wait it out at all.”​

“When you saw Peyton, he was shaky in the pocket,” Burt said. “He actually had a scared look on his face. All the years I watched Peyton, I didn’t realize he was scared to get hit. His feet were moving all around.”​

“He’s such a smart guy. He can scheme out of a lot of different stuff,” Banks observed. “But when you’re not giving him a lot of different looks, it baffles him. I talked to (Bill) Parcells yesterday morning before the game. He said he wouldn’t be shocked if they lined up just like they did every week and tell Manning, ‘Come get us because we’re not going to play nickel, we’re not afraid of you,’ and that’s exactly what they did.​

“Everybody for the past four or five games was playing him in nickel. He’d run ‘check with me’ at the line,” Banks added. “And they said, ‘OK, here’s what we’ve got, let’s see you scheme out of it.’ The beauty of it is that when you have a team that can line up and say, ‘here we are,’ it’s tough because you can’t call a play for that. You’ve got to beat the guy in front of you.”​

Burt said the only negative aspect to the Seattle defense was how much holding he thought it got away with.
“They’re holding on every play, not a lot, just a little bit. They’re tugging, just enough and every single one of them are doing it. Just before the guy goes in a break, they get a hold of the jersey and tug just a little bit.​

“But look,” he went on. “After this one, I’ve got to say, these guys, take your hats off to them. They’ve flat-out got it going.”
​

Read more: Seahawks leave former players of great defensive teams in awe * - NY Daily News​

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Thanks for the post Seagal! I love what they say and totally agree with it. Seahawks play a old school brand of football, and showed the world that you can win and win big with it!

 

[Doublejive]

For Seattle, the Fun May Be Just Starting

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — After the Super Bowl, in the concrete corridor connecting the locker rooms of the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, players and coaches came and went.

Peyton Manning and John Elway went one way, separately, a pair of aging quarterbacks left searching for their dose of validation.

Pete Carroll came the other. The coach of the Seahawks, he stepped into the locker room to a raucous celebration: Players and team employees posed with the Lombardi Trophy, and the introverted running back Marshawn Lynch danced to celebrate Seattle’s 43-8 victory.

Carroll called his players to the middle of the room.

“We have done everything the way we’ve wanted to get it done,” Carroll, his voice hoarse, shouted through the din. “I’m so proud, fellas, I’m so proud, that we are standing here, right now, in this moment.”

On this night, they were headed one way.

Then Carroll and the Seahawks came the other — all youthful enthusiasm, rah-rah coaching philosophies, a roster of overlooked players representing a ravenous fan base looking for its first championship to celebrate.

“What about this defense?” Carroll shouted, hoisting the trophy and eliciting cheers from the circle around him. He moved on to the offense, then the special teams. He listed players by name, he cited the power of the team’s fans in Seattle and he implored the players to do something rarely suggested by a coach.

He told them to stay up all night long.

Carroll, 62, is coaching his third N.F.L. team, but his first since lifting Southern California to dominance in the last decade. When he joined the Seahawks in 2010, he brought that collegial enthusiasm and a belief in positive thinking to the N.F.L., where fun long has been considered a weakness to be eradicated by discipline.

General Manager John Schneider overhauled Seattle’s roster, dotting it with heavy doses of undrafted players, the kind hungry to prove their worth. He drafted quarterback Russell Wilson two years ago in the third round, after all of the other teams overlooked him because his height — 5 feet 11 inches — was deemed too short for an N.F.L. quarterback, nothing at all like Manning. Or Elway. Even Manning’s backup in Denver, Brock Osweiler, was drafted ahead of Wilson.

“So many people told me I couldn’t do it,” said Wilson, who completed 18 of 25 passes for 206 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions, a performance that far outshone that of Manning, named the N.F.L’s most valuable player on Saturday for the fifth time.

Seattle has one of the youngest teams in the N.F.L. Only three Super Bowl champions had a lower average age: the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1981 San Francisco 49ers and the 1985 Chicago Bears. The Steelers won four Super Bowls over six years, the 49ers won three in the 1980s, and the Bears were a powerhouse for several seasons.

The Broncos may well return to the Super Bowl next year, particularly if Manning returns, which seems likely, though perhaps dictated by off-season tests of his surgically repaired neck.

But Denver feels like a team trying to squeeze something from the present. The Seahawks feel like a team at the start of something big.

“If we stay together — we’re young, we’re talented — we feel like we can keep doing this and doing this and doing this,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said.

Against the Broncos, five Seahawks scored a touchdown. One was Doug Baldwin, an undrafted receiver. Another was Jermaine Kearse, also undrafted.

Linebacker Malcolm Smith, who returned an interception for a touchdown, recovered a fumble and was named the game’s M.V.P., was a seventh-round draft pick in 2011. He had started three games before this season. Asked after the game about his 40-yard dash time at the postcollege scouting combine, he said he had not been invited.

Seattle’s top-ranked defense dismantled Manning and Denver’s record-setting offense, shutting out the league’s highest-scoring team ever until the final play of the third quarter.

The performance elicited comparisons to defensive champions of the past, like the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s, the Bears of the 1980s and the Baltimore Ravens of a more-recent vintage.

It is a defense rooted in fundamentals and built on speed. During the season, the Seahawks practice tackling on Tuesdays. During the Super Bowl, they made Denver look old and slow.

We’re fast, we’re physical and we played this game on our terms,” the defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, said.

Many players credited Schneider and, especially, Carroll for taking a chance on them and believing in their abilities when so many others did not. A recent poll asked N.F.L. players which coach they would most like to have. It was Carroll, seemingly wired for the current generation amid a fraternity of old-school coaches.

“He’s the most positive, forward-thinking coach for the players of today that I’ve seen,” the Seahawks’ owner, Paul Allen, said in the locker room. “It’s just amazing.”

Shortly after Allen gushed about his coach, Carroll, fresh from a news conference and other interviews, bounded into Seattle’s locker room — actually, the locker room of the Giants, their logos all covered by Super Bowl banners.

Sometime before the team arrived after the game, a banner had been hung that pronounced the Seahawks the champions. Carroll stood below it as he addressed the team.

“One more thing,” he shouted. “As close as we are right now, we will never be separated from this moment.”

The Seahawks finished with their usual routine.

“We all we got!” a player shouted.

“We all we need!” the chorus, including Carroll, sang. The refrain was repeated three times.

Then, in unison, a full-throated final question: “What’s next?”

The answer: a victory parade scheduled for Wednesday in Seattle, and a league left trying to figure out how to be more like the newest Super Bowl champions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/sports/football/after-doing-it-their-way-seahawks-savor-the-moment.html?_r=0

 

[Seahawksgal]

Seahawks DE Michael Bennett on Seattle discount: This isn't Costco

By John Breech | CBSSports.com
February 12, 2014 5:06 pm ET

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said last week that he loves his team, loves his teammates and enjoys playing for Pete Carroll, but that doesn't mean the unrestricted free agent will be taking any discounts to stay in Seattle.

During an interview with the NFL Network on Tuesday, Bennett made it clear that he won't be taking any discounts and in the process he also gave some free advertising to Costco and Walmart, but not Target or K-Mart.

"There is no such thing as discount," Bennett said. "This isn't Costco, this isn't Walmart. This is real life."
Bennett, who led the Seahawks with 8.5 sacks in 2013, signed a one-year, $5 million deal in March and it sounds he's expecting a lot more than $5 million for 2014.

"There is no discount really because you go out there and you don't give a discount on effort," Bennett said. "You go out there and you give the best effort every day and you fight for your teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way that you perform and the kind of teammate you are."

Basically, if the Seahawks want Bennett back in 2014, owner Paul Allen is going to have to break out the check book.

"It's definitely a business. People hate to say it's that, but it is what it is," Bennett said. "I would love to play for the Seahawks, but they're going to have to want me back and the numbers are going to have to be right."

If the Seahawks and Bennett can agree on the right 'numbers,' the team could franchise tag him at a cost of $12.6 million or just let the 28-year-old leave via free agency.



Seahawks DE Michael Bennett on Seattle discount: This isn't Costco - CBSSports.com

 

[HaroldSeattle]

By John Breech | CBSSports.com
February 12, 2014 5:06 pm ET

Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett said last week that he loves his team, loves his teammates and enjoys playing for Pete Carroll, but that doesn't mean the unrestricted free agent will be taking any discounts to stay in Seattle.

During an interview with the NFL Network on Tuesday, Bennett made it clear that he won't be taking any discounts and in the process he also gave some free advertising to Costco and Walmart, but not Target or K-Mart.

"There is no such thing as discount," Bennett said. "This isn't Costco, this isn't Walmart. This is real life."
Bennett, who led the Seahawks with 8.5 sacks in 2013, signed a one-year, $5 million deal in March and it sounds he's expecting a lot more than $5 million for 2014.

"There is no discount really because you go out there and you don't give a discount on effort," Bennett said. "You go out there and you give the best effort every day and you fight for your teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way that you perform and the kind of teammate you are."

Basically, if the Seahawks want Bennett back in 2014, owner Paul Allen is going to have to break out the check book.

"It's definitely a business. People hate to say it's that, but it is what it is," Bennett said. "I would love to play for the Seahawks, but they're going to have to want me back and the numbers are going to have to be right."

If the Seahawks and Bennett can agree on the right 'numbers,' the team could franchise tag him at a cost of $12.6 million or just let the 28-year-old leave via free agency.



Seahawks DE Michael Bennett on Seattle discount: This isn't Costco - CBSSports.com

It's a business, so we should expect this mindset. It doesn't bother me at all, the Seahawks will be treating it like a business and letting some players with contracts go. I must say it would be nice to have Bennett back, he was great this year.

 

[blstoker]

It's a business, so we should expect this mindset. It doesn't bother me at all, the Seahawks will be treating it like a business and letting some players with contracts go. I must say it would be nice to have Bennett back, he was great this year.

I agree that I would love to see Bennett come back, but if he's wanting significantly more than $5 million, then I say let him walk.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I agree that I would love to see Bennett come back, but if he's wanting significantly more than $5 million, then I say let him walk.

The question I would ask you, what is significantly more? I'd say the length of the contract is just as important. I won't mind two or three years at 7-8 million, if the Seahawks could swing it.

 

[Seahawksgal]

It's a business, so we should expect this mindset. It doesn't bother me at all, the Seahawks will be treating it like a business and letting some players with contracts go. I must say it would be nice to have Bennett back, he was great this year.

I totally agree with you Harold. I wasn't surpised by this at all, and at least he's being very upfront about it. What I don't like is when they pander to the teams and saying he wants to stay and all the blah, blah, and then the next thing you know, he's running out to the highest bid.

Hasn't he been on a one year contract the last two years? I wonder how much he'll be asking and if there will be any way we would be able to keep him. Would love to see him stay a Seahawk.I just saw that it wasn't posted or mentioned so I thought I would.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I totally agree with you Harold. I wasn't surpised by this at all, and at least he's being very upfront about it. What I don't like is when they pander to the teams and saying he wants to stay and all the blah, blah, and then the next thing you know, he's running out to the highest bid.

Hasn't he been on a one year contract the last two years? I wonder how much he'll be asking and if there will be any way we would be able to keep him. Would love to see him stay a Seahawk.I just saw that it wasn't posted or mentioned so I thought I would.

Well what he'll ask for and what he gets may be far apart, or maybe not. The free agent market will sort it out. Last year Bennett found the market to be under what he thought it would be, thus the Seahawks got a deal. Hard to really predict what will happen with Bennett.

 

[Seahawksgal]

Well what he'll ask for and what he gets may be far apart, or maybe not. The free agent market will sort it out. Last year Bennett found the market to be under what he thought it would be, thus the Seahawks got a deal. Hard to really predict what will happen with Bennett.

Do you know how much they paid him for last year? Since I don't follow college players/games, are there any good/promising players at Bennett's position that are in this year's draft that we could possibly take to replace him?

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Do you know how much they paid him for last year? Since I don't follow college players/games, are there any good/promising players at Bennett's position that are in this year's draft that we could possibly take to replace him?

Seahawks paid about $5,000,000 for Bennett services in 2013. As far are there any good promising players available in the draft? I'm sure there are some, I don't follow college football all that much, but read up on players at the various draft websites. Many of the better known pass rushers will get drafted ahead of the Seahawks first pick, so the Seahawks will have find someone everybody else over looked or perhaps sign another free agent this year, that isn't to expensive.