Seahawk's roster ranked 13th in the NFL

[jerseyhawksfan79]

I just wish the Huskies did.
Maybe that will change this year. I know Chip has been gone awhile from UO, but they have still pounded the Dawgs for far too long.

Hopefully the winds are shifting.

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

As for the Hawks, they went from the most talented team in the league to 12th best because they lost 2 lineman and a SAM LB?

What a lot of pundits don't realize is that while the OL may be really bad this year, it was REALLY bad last year. It would be difficult for a professional offensive line to be worse. You could grab 5 guys off the street and recreate what the line did last year. So, IMO, saying that this team is worse because of the OL doesn't make much sense to me.

Exactly ... You also can't judge draft picks until they actually get a chance on the NFL field..

 

[Uhsplit]

There were patient people on this board last year that hoped for and saw an OL that became quite good at what they do by mid season.
Go Cable

 

[MKHawk]

There were patient people on this board last year that hoped for and saw an OL that became quite good at what they do by mid season.
Go Cable

While true, the fact that it took them 9 games to get it together cost them a shot at any home playoff games and greatly impacted their ability to get back to the Super Bowl.

 

[Uhsplit]

While true, the fact that it took them 9 games to get it together cost them a shot at any home playoff games and greatly impacted their ability to get back to the Super Bowl.

I think it is unfair to blame the OL for last year's difficulties. Cary Williams was a disaster, Marshawn's ineffectiveness, a rookie DC, DB miscommunication in the Carolina game, giving up the lead late in games, ect.
There was lots of blame to go around for last years woes, not just the OL. Yet, I do agree they were lame early on.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

While true, the fact that it took them 9 games to get it together cost them a shot at any home playoff games and greatly impacted their ability to get back to the Super Bowl.

Can't afford the OL to take a half season to become OK again. Puts into too big a hole.

 

[FirebreathingMonkey]

John Clayton: Times are changing, and so is Seahawks' Legion of Boom


Since Pete Carroll put together one of the best secondaries of this era, the Seahawks defensive scheme has been pretty basic. It’s Cover One, Cover Three, incompletion or interception. Execution topped creativity. The formula has been successful.

But times change. Opposing teams have had four years to attack the Seahawks defense. Though it remains one of the best in football, top quarterbacks have had some successes. The QBR numbers of opposing quarterbacks have risen from 28.3 in 2013 to 44.2 in 2014 to 55.3 last year against the Seahawks.

Fortunately, Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard is ready for a response. This year, the Seahawks are building more complexities into the defense. Cover One and Cover Three are still the heart of this season, but this year, the Seahawks will implement more matchups against varied formations.

“We are recognizing how teams were putting their packages together for us,” Richard said. “Teams have come in and changed things up for us.”

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots come to mind the most when discussing how to attack the Seahawks defense. Brady is a master of working the middle of the field, throwing to tight ends or receivers in crossing routes.

“I believe the biggest thing teams were doing was maintaining control of the football,” Richard said. “The Patriots were trying to preserve as much time with the ball in their hands.”

Opposing quarterbacks were getting away from attacking the Seahawks with deep passes. Smart thought. Throw a fade on Richard Sherman and he may have a better chance of catching the ball than the intended receiver. What happened was more teams tried getting tight ends or pass-catchers in what they thought would be small holes in the defense.

Tight ends, for example, caught 71.4 percent (75 of 104 passes) against the Seahawks, the 10th highest percentage in the league. The best way to stop that is make adjustments.

Richard’s first mission is getting defenders to pay more attention to recognizing formations and situations. That plays to the team’s strength. Seahawks defenders are students of the game. Richard Sherman watches hours of tape daily. Earl Thomas reacts to formations and quarterback tendencies better than any safety in the league.

What Richard plans to implement is more matchups against specific formations. The Seahawks had particular problems covering tight ends. One solution was trying Brandon Browner in a hybrid safety-linebacker position. After losing Bruce Irvin to the Oakland Raiders in free agency, the Seahawks needed to be creative.

“Bruce is 6-3, 260 pounds and ran a 4.42,” Richard said. “But the one thing we have is awesome competition. We have guys who are tall, have the arm length and they all have speed. We have options who we place over there (at strong side linebacker).”

Browner can match up against big pass-catching tight ends or big receivers in the slot. Kevin Pierre-Louis could still be an option. They can go anywhere from Cassius Marsh to Michael Morgan to Eric Pinkins, a former safety turned linebacker.

The key plan is to matchup against offensive skilled players and their formations.

“You try to match up against the hybrid tight ends,” Richard said. “They really are wide receivers and big bodies and they are featured. If you put a corner out there, the corner might be small. If you put a linebacker out there, they may be too slow.”

Richard knows there is no need to panic. He has one of the most talented defensive group in football, and some of the young additions is making this one of the deepest defenses in football. Not going to the Super Bowl last season was looked as a missed opportunity.

“Last year was a humbling experience because of the missed opportunities,” Richard said.

His defense has returned to the field with more focus and intensity on the practice field.

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

I don't think PFF writers like Seattle anymore lol. They were the only site I could find that ripped Seattle for drafting Ifedi.

13th ranked? Outside of the O-Line they are nearly dominant in every position on defense if we're talking TALENT. Maybe they gave us top 5 defense and bottom 5 offense? lol...

Seattle nearly mounted the comeback against Carolina who was home... and our runningback situation on a RUNNING team was extremely thin. Lynch running the wrong route allowed one defensive TD. I think if that game was played again (same roster) Seattle can still win that game.

New England, Green Bay, Carolina were top 3? Carolina I get but I'd take Seattle's defense over both New England and Green Bay and if Jimmy Graham/Wilson can get it together I'd rank Seattle's O right up there with NE/GB.

 

[JMR]

13 does seem a bit low, but trying to put objective rankings on an entire team where only a few positions have measurable production seems like it would be really tough and inherently inaccurate (margin of error).

I think OL and LB are the only 2 position groups where you can argue the team has less talent than last year, and that's mainly because on the OL we have no idea how good Ifedi & Odihambo will be....or how Glowinski will play compared to Sweezy. Irvin's loss is definitely a hit, but can anyone honestly argue he was better than 7th or 8th best starter on defense (Bennett, Avril, Wagner, Wright, Sherman, Kam, ET)? The other thing that could make this year's team interesting is how the passing game may be clicking a lot earlier than last year, and how much of an impact will new youth at RB have for the O.

So I guess the real question here with this ranking is has the rest of the league really passed us by? If this roster was top 3 last year (maybe it was ranked #1, can't remember), have ~10 teams really improved so much to jump ahead of ours? It seems like a stretch.

 

[FirebreathingMonkey]

The other thing that could make this year's team interesting is how the passing game may be clicking a lot earlier than last year, and how much of an impact will new youth at RB have for the O.
.

I'm having BIG hopes for Lockett

Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin says Tyler Lockett is ‘taking his craft to the next level’
By Brady Henderson, 710 ESPN Seattle | June 13, 2016 @ 11:36 am

Doug Baldwin is as qualified as anyone to talk about releases off the line of scrimmage, which may be what he does best as a wide receiver. So when Baldwin identified that skill when asked last week about the growth he’s seen this offseason in Seahawks teammate Tyler Lockett, his assessment carried plenty of weight.

“He’s continuously improving his game, and one of the things that we talked about in the offseason was working on his releases,” Baldwin said after the Seahawks’ Organized Team Activity on Thursday. “He’s so quick and he’s so fast that there’s no reason for guys to be able to put their hands on him at the line of scrimmage.

“So we’ve been working on that and he’s taken that to heart and he’s done an excellent of taking his craft to the next level. I’m really excited to see guys line up against him, other teams line up against him, to see what he has in store for them because he’s I think he’s ready to take it off.”

It’s not as though that was a weakness in Lockett’s game as a rookie last season, when he caught 51 passes (second on the team) for 664 yards (third) and six touchdowns (second) while also earning All-Pro honors as a kick returner. Brock Huard detailed in a Chalk Talk video how a key to one of Lockett’s touchdowns – a 24-yard score against San Francisco in Week 11 – was how he beat press coverage by getting off the line untouched.

Baldwin said last year that Lockett was a more polished receiver coming out of college than he was in 2011. He reiterated as much last week. His point about Lockett’s releases was that in a run-first offense like Seattle’s, fewer passes means less margin for error among the receivers.

“It wasn’t a huge issue,” Baldwin said. “But like we continuously say, as a receiver here, every opportunity matters so much. So if you get jammed at the line one time, that’s one time you don’t get an opportunity to catch the ball. So we just can’t have those at all.”

 

[HaroldSeattle]

I'm having BIG hopes for Lockett

Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin says Tyler Lockett is ‘taking his craft to the next level’
By Brady Henderson, 710 ESPN Seattle | June 13, 2016 @ 11:36 am

Doug Baldwin is as qualified as anyone to talk about releases off the line of scrimmage, which may be what he does best as a wide receiver. So when Baldwin identified that skill when asked last week about the growth he’s seen this offseason in Seahawks teammate Tyler Lockett, his assessment carried plenty of weight.

“He’s continuously improving his game, and one of the things that we talked about in the offseason was working on his releases,” Baldwin said after the Seahawks’ Organized Team Activity on Thursday. “He’s so quick and he’s so fast that there’s no reason for guys to be able to put their hands on him at the line of scrimmage.

“So we’ve been working on that and he’s taken that to heart and he’s done an excellent of taking his craft to the next level. I’m really excited to see guys line up against him, other teams line up against him, to see what he has in store for them because he’s I think he’s ready to take it off.”

It’s not as though that was a weakness in Lockett’s game as a rookie last season, when he caught 51 passes (second on the team) for 664 yards (third) and six touchdowns (second) while also earning All-Pro honors as a kick returner. Brock Huard detailed in a Chalk Talk video how a key to one of Lockett’s touchdowns – a 24-yard score against San Francisco in Week 11 – was how he beat press coverage by getting off the line untouched.

Baldwin said last year that Lockett was a more polished receiver coming out of college than he was in 2011. He reiterated as much last week. His point about Lockett’s releases was that in a run-first offense like Seattle’s, fewer passes means less margin for error among the receivers.

“It wasn’t a huge issue,” Baldwin said. “But like we continuously say, as a receiver here, every opportunity matters so much. So if you get jammed at the line one time, that’s one time you don’t get an opportunity to catch the ball. So we just can’t have those at all.”

Hoping Lockett has a break out year, that would be awesome.

 

[gohusk]

Whatever. Players have to go out and play the games no matter what the rankings and we have big play guys on our squad. Things will work themselves out.