So why the he11 was Kearse ahead of Lockett AND Richardson all year?

[HustleWilson]

That coaching decision alone probably cost us home field advantage in the playoffs. I don't criticize Pete much but dude, horrible...absolutely horrible.

 

[seattlefan75]

I dont know if you could blame kearse for not getting homefield besides it was the defense that was getting scored and thrown on by the atlanta offense without thomas and shead. But you do have a point in how the heck kearse was ahead of richardson seems like he did more in the playoffs then what kearse did all season

 

[Anointed One]

Yeah, I haven't been a Kearse supporter but you can't blame him for not getting HFA... I do understand what you're saying though in terms of him being a #2 for most of the season when he isn't even the top 3 best on the team... That's what I had a problem w/ as well...

 

[dude82]

Richardson was fun to watch the past two weeks, but let's not forget that his injury history since coming into the league put him in the category of "Anything we get from this guy, even if it's just staying healthy for a full season, would be a bonus". I don't think you can look at his production over the past two weeks and retroactively suggest that he should have been ahead of other guys on the roster this whole time. You could make a better case for Lockett coming into the season and I figured his ascension into the #2 receiver role was inevitable anyway. I think early on they didn't want to demote Kearse because they thought that the funk he was in couldn't last all season.

Once it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, I agree that they should have bumped Lockett up the depth chart earlier than they did. Assuming Lockett is back and at full strength going into training camp next year, I think he's the #2 right away and Kearse will have to battle it out with Richardson and probably a few other guys for one of the spots further down the depth chart. I honestly hope that this year was an aberration and he comes back next year with a vengeance, but I can also see him playing himself out of a roster spot by the end of the 2017 preseason. Neither outcome would surprise me.

 

[Anointed One]

Richardson was fun to watch the past two weeks, but let's not forget that his injury history since coming into the league put him in the category of "Anything we get from this guy, even if it's just staying healthy for a full season, would be a bonus". I don't think you can look at his production over the past two weeks and retroactively suggest that he should have been ahead of other guys on the roster this whole time. You could make a better case for Lockett coming into the season and I figured his ascension into the #2 receiver role was inevitable anyway. I think early on they didn't want to demote Kearse because they thought that the funk he was in couldn't last all season.

Once it became clear that that wasn't going to happen, I agree that they should have bumped Lockett up the depth chart earlier than they did. Assuming Lockett is back and at full strength going into training camp next year, I think he's the #2 right away and Kearse will have to battle it out with Richardson and probably a few other guys for one of the spots further down the depth chart. I honestly hope that this year was an aberration and he comes back next year with a vengeance, but I can also see him playing himself out of a roster spot by the end of the 2017 preseason. Neither outcome would surprise me.

Let's also not forget that he was a 2nd round draft pick for a reason...

 

[dude82]

Yes, he was, but he'd only been healthy for half the games in his first two seasons and didn't even play in many of the games he was healthy enough to play in coming into the season, so it was understandable that they'd hesitate to put him out there in a fairly prominent role until they had to (after Lockett's injury). I think Lockett got more experience in his rookie year than Richardson got in his first two seasons combined. My hope is that Wilson and Richardson continue to build their rapport so that we can put P. Rich's second round talent to more use starting next year, but I do get why that didn't happen this year until it had to. The thought of defenses having to contend with Baldwin, Lockett, Richardson and Graham at the same time makes me wish that Lockett was healthy now and that the 2017 season started next week, but Wilson getting a bunch of off-season reps in with those guys should, hopefully, result in headaches for defensive coordinators across the league starting in September.

 

[Uhsplit]

To Pete, run blocking WR's carry weight over those that can't. Even Graham is getting better at blocking. It is an important part of our game.

 

[blstoker]

To Pete, run blocking WR's carry weight over those that can't. Even Graham is getting better at blocking. It is an important part of our game.

yeah, if our receivers are blocking downfield - Russell doesn't have to.

 

[dude82]

yeah, if our receivers are blocking downfield - Russell doesn't have to.

View attachment 153916

I used to only get mildly nervous whenever Wilson went out to block, but with multiple leg injuries this year I admit I would have been okay with him not trying it this season even if it meant we didn't get as much yardage out of a play as we could have with him as lead blocker. Even after he got healthy enough to move out of the pocket and do some running downfield, I was holding my breath on the few occasions where cameras caught him blocking downfield. All it would have taken was for one defender to take out his knees and we might have been looking at Trevone Boykin finishing the season as our starting quarterback. If Wilson has full clearance next year to do what he could do before this season, fine, but anytime a defender got near him in the open field this year, I could just feel every Seahawks fan saying "Don't get hurt. Don't get hurt. Don't get hurt." to their TV screens at the same time.

 

[MKHawk]

Lockett got hurt right as he was assuming the #2 WR spot, and I can't blame them for bringing Richardson along extremely slowly.

Next season though? Kearse should be #4.

 

[Tech_God]

Does it really matter what his ranking of a WR on the team is? Unless you name was Baldwin or Graham, the rest of the receivers on the team were fighting for scraps. I do not understand this contempt towards Kearse.
That being said, if he gets dropped from the team, I have no problem with that. It's a business and if we can get the same performance for less money, you all know that Schneider will not even hesitate to make that move.

 

[flyerhawk]

Lockett got hurt right as he was assuming the #2 WR spot, and I can't blame them for bringing Richardson along extremely slowly.

Next season though? Kearse should be #4.

I think Kearse may get cut. He really had a rough season. We can get someone off the scrap heap for less money.

 

[MKHawk]

I think Kearse may get cut. He really had a rough season. We can get someone off the scrap heap for less money.

We get basically no savings from cutting him for 2017. 2018? Yeah, he's gone. But I'd be surprised if he's shown the door next season.

 

[MKHawk]

Does it really matter what his ranking of a WR on the team is? Unless you name was Baldwin or Graham, the rest of the receivers on the team were fighting for scraps. I do not understand this contempt towards Kearse.
That being said, if he gets dropped from the team, I have no problem with that. It's a business and if we can get the same performance for less money, you all know that Schneider will not even hesitate to make that move.

Nominally? No. In terms of how many targets and opportunities he gets? It absolutely matters.

 

[Tech_God]

Nominally? No. In terms of how many targets and opportunities he gets? It absolutely matters.

He was targeted 90 times and only caught 41. Lockett caught the same amount of catches in 67 attempts. On paper, that is abysmal (for Kearse). However, on those missed catches, were they right in the numbers or in his hands? Was a bunch of these throws to him when Wilson was hobbled and throwing the ball to save his life? I wish there was a way to look at game film where you could filter it so you could see every pass attempt.

I recall some missed catches that were Kearse's fault but I wouldn't be surprised if it was found out that half of those misses were on Wilson. Anyhow, I do think Kearse will be off the team due to Schneider and Carroll's yearly adjustment of the cap.

 

[flyerhawk]

We get basically no savings from cutting him for 2017. 2018? Yeah, he's gone. But I'd be surprised if he's shown the door next season.

He's a roster spot.

 

[blstoker]

He was targeted 90 times and only caught 41. Lockett caught the same amount of catches in 67 attempts. On paper, that is abysmal (for Kearse). However, on those missed catches, were they right in the numbers or in his hands? Was a bunch of these throws to him when Wilson was hobbled and throwing the ball to save his life? I wish there was a way to look at game film where you could filter it so you could see every pass attempt.

I recall some missed catches that were Kearse's fault but I wouldn't be surprised if it was found out that half of those misses were on Wilson. Anyhow, I do think Kearse will be off the team due to Schneider and Carroll's yearly adjustment of the cap.

The things with Kearse is that he's the receiver who is the most active in getting to where Russell can get him the ball once Russell leaves the pocket. Due to this, when Russell throws the ball away it is dis-proportionally credited as a target for Kearse (I didn't even know that throw away passes are credited as a target to a receiver until researching Kearse's targets). I watched a 4 game stretch, and about 75% of Russell's throw away passes were given to Kearse as a target (watching play and checking corresponding game log on pro-football-reference.com). At that pace, I estimate that Kearse had somewhere around 15-20 targets were actually balls that were thrown away, over the course of the season.

The other thing that needs to be looked at when looking at completion percentage on targets is the type of routes that are being run by the receivers in question. Baldwin and Lockett run a lot of WR screens and quick hitting routes, where the shortest route that is usually on Kearse's tree is a 7-10 yard curl. Against Detroit, I believe 7 of Baldwins 11 catches were screen plays, and I'd venture that is a much higher total of screen plays than Kearse ran the entire season.

Kearse had a bad year, and I hope it's just an anomaly - but I think his numbers are actually worse than his performance really was.

 

[Anointed One]

He was targeted 90 times and only caught 41. Lockett caught the same amount of catches in 67 attempts. On paper, that is abysmal (for Kearse). However, on those missed catches, were they right in the numbers or in his hands? Was a bunch of these throws to him when Wilson was hobbled and throwing the ball to save his life? I wish there was a way to look at game film where you could filter it so you could see every pass attempt.

I recall some missed catches that were Kearse's fault but I wouldn't be surprised if it was found out that half of those misses were on Wilson. Anyhow, I do think Kearse will be off the team due to Schneider and Carroll's yearly adjustment of the cap.

He was benched during the season for a reason...

 

[HaroldSeattle]

He's a roster spot.

You might keep in mind that a lot of fans were thinking the same for Britt, good thing they held on to him, he worked out nicely this year.

 

[MKHawk]

He's a roster spot.

Right, but replacing him will make that roster spot cost more than keeping him. For a #4WR, unless we're getting a massive upgrade, which I think is unlikely, I'd be surprised if they moved on from him.