State of the Seahawks 2020 offseason

[flyerhawk]

So a disappointing loss for sure. I'm not sure what Pete needs to see before he really embraces the Let Russ Cook mindset. Seems like he's only willing to do it when we are down double digits. But I don't see that changing until PC retires. So no point fretting over it at this point.

Below is my view of how the team is set up positionally for 2020 and where I think we need to focus on.

QB - Obviously not much to do here. If Russ goes down we are done. So I'm fine with a late round pick or journeyman replacement but that's about it.

T - While I think it is time for Ifedi to move on, I wouldn't be shocked if he is back next year. He isn't likely to get huge money and I'm not sure what is out there at the T position that we could count on. Brown isn't getting any younger but hopefully Jones can take that job, or Fant.

G - I feel like we will fill this in with whatever players are around. For good or bad. Fluker and Iupati were serviceable when they were on the field.

C - I would like to see us go for a FA center. Joey Hunt also deserves praise for filling in but he's just to easy to push around. Justin Britt is adequate at C but that's about it and coming off injury. MAybe Connor McGovern or Glasgow.

RB - We are pretty set here assuming that everyone is able to come back healthy. Probably time to let Prosise go. It is concerning that both Penny and Carson tend to get injured but you can't invest that much into RB.

TE - One of our biggest needs in the offseason. This offseason really hums when we have a quality TE and, IMO, the NFL today is set up for teams to really exploit mismatches with athletic TEs. Dissly has been really impressive but the fact that he's been knocked out early in both of his 2 seasons suggests that health will be a persistent concern. And even if Dissly does come back healthy, we need another quality TE. Hollister filled in admirably but he's clearly limited in what he can do. IMO, we should use an early round pick on a TE if there are any that worth it. Austin Hooper would be an intriguing option as well.

WR - I like what we have but of course we could use another reliable possession guy. Lockett and Metcalf on the outside could be a ferocious pair next year if they stay healthy.

Pass Rushers - Clearly a position of need and one that is really hard to fill without spending a shit ton of money. Not sure if there are any FAs out there that we could get realistically. Chris Jones is almost certainly staying in KC. Shaq Barrett played his way into a huge contract.

Run Defenders - We are pretty good here.

LB - We need to draft a few guys that could challenge Kendrycks and Wright. But mid or later round picks should be fine.

CB - I trust PC/JS to find quality in the later rounds to fill out the position. Hopefully Umadi and Flowers can step to another level next year.

S - Loved Diggs. Very happy with him. Hopefully Blair can step up next year. McDougald is decent but not getting any younger.

Overall pass rusher and tight end are the biggest needs, IMO. OL is of course always a need but I don't see much value is spending early picks on it at this point.
K/P - Pretty solid at.

Honestly

 

[JMR]

Solid rundown. My top areas of concern:

• DL. The defense on the whole didn't play up to its perceived talent level except for a couple games (and even bad defenses will play well here and there), and I think it's primarily due to the DL. With injuries, suspensions, and youth, we just didn't put it together up front, and now the 2 surest things (Clowney & Reed) are both going to be free agents. Ziggy Ansah was a complete whiff. Rasheem Green was only 20 when we drafted him and I'm not close to giving up on Collier, so maybe there's some untapped potential with those guys. But we need insurance if they don't pan out and better depth even if they do. We finished the season with 4 straight games without an opponent turnover, and I think that's mostly on the DL. Gotta get better here.
• OL. Britt probably not coming back, and Iupati isn't durable. Ifedi may have had a better year than in '18, but he's a FA and Fant taking over there would be an improvement. I think our inability to run these past couple games was more about injuries at RB than poor blocking, but we still need more talent here and likely have to replace FA losses.
• Secondary. Ugo Amadi might work out at CB, but it's probably time to replace Tedric Thompson, Lano Hill, and maybe even McDougald with better options. Blair is a hitter, but there's something he's not picking up the way he should or I think he would have been on the field more than he was down the stretch. Diggs and Griffin are part of the solution going forward for sure. I'm not sold on anyone else, including Flowers.

I suppose we could have some work to do at TE, but I'm not worried in the least on RB, WR, QB, or LB.

 

[MrS]

Ngakoue from jax is an FA and as of now they have 1.2m in cap room for 2020.

I doubt we go there though, if anything we try to find a gem like we did with clemons.

Either way I think we need to make one FA splash signing on the OL or DL in addition to signing clowney.

If we can do that, our top three picks could go in almost any direction.

 

[uwdawgfan]

 

[JMR]

I rarely listen to John Clayton, but by accident I have his show streaming right now and I was surprised to hear him say he thinks Justin Britt will be back next season at a cap number currently $11.6M. I thought Hunt played well enough to put him at C and save a substantial amount of valuable salary cap. Sure, we can point to times when Hunt got steamrolled by Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox, but those guys do that to lots of centers. Maybe they extend Britt and spread out some of that money?

 

[Anointed One]

I rarely listen to John Clayton, but by accident I have his show streaming right now and I was surprised to hear him say he thinks Justin Britt will be back next season at a cap number currently $11.6M. I thought Hunt played well enough to put him at C and save a substantial amount of valuable salary cap. Sure, we can point to times when Hunt got steamrolled by Aaron Donald and Fletcher Cox, but those guys do that to lots of centers. Maybe they extend Britt and spread out some of that money?

I disagree... It wasn't just against Donald and Cox... He's a serviceable Center but not good enough to be a starter imo... He was getting blown up by AZ and Green Bay this week as well... He really hasn't done that well the past 4-5 weeks imo... He's not strong enough to run block effectively on a consistent basis and if thats going to be our identity, we need a new center...

 

[flyerhawk]

I disagree... It wasn't just against Donald and Cox... He's a serviceable Center but not good enough to be a starter imo... He was getting blown up by AZ and Green Bay this week as well... He really hasn't done that well the past 4-5 weeks imo... He's not strong enough to run block effectively on a consistent basis and if thats going to be our identity, we need a new center...

Pretty much agree with this. He's just too undersized and gets pushed around by big strong interior lineman like Cox and Donald.

11 million for Britt is unacceptable as well. Maybe if he accepts a restructured we keep him but he needs a major paycut to be even a consideration.

 

[Anointed One]

11 million for Britt is unacceptable as well. Maybe if he accepts a restructured we keep him but he needs a major paycut to be even a consideration.

Agreed... 11 million Britt shouldn't be paid... He's not at the level imo...

 

[flyerhawk]

Agreed... 11 million Britt shouldn't be paid... He's not at the level imo...

The problem is that his base is about 8. The rest is dead money. So even if we cut his salary in half he's still a 7 million dollar cap hit.

 

[Judge Fudge]

So a disappointing loss for sure. I'm not sure what Pete needs to see before he really embraces the Let Russ Cook mindset. Seems like he's only willing to do it when we are down double digits. But I don't see that changing until PC retires. So no point fretting over it at this point.

Below is my view of how the team is set up positionally for 2020 and where I think we need to focus on.

QB - Obviously not much to do here. If Russ goes down we are done. So I'm fine with a late round pick or journeyman replacement but that's about it.

T - While I think it is time for Ifedi to move on, I wouldn't be shocked if he is back next year. He isn't likely to get huge money and I'm not sure what is out there at the T position that we could count on. Brown isn't getting any younger but hopefully Jones can take that job, or Fant.

G - I feel like we will fill this in with whatever players are around. For good or bad. Fluker and Iupati were serviceable when they were on the field.

C - I would like to see us go for a FA center. Joey Hunt also deserves praise for filling in but he's just to easy to push around. Justin Britt is adequate at C but that's about it and coming off injury. MAybe Connor McGovern or Glasgow.

RB - We are pretty set here assuming that everyone is able to come back healthy. Probably time to let Prosise go. It is concerning that both Penny and Carson tend to get injured but you can't invest that much into RB.

TE - One of our biggest needs in the offseason. This offseason really hums when we have a quality TE and, IMO, the NFL today is set up for teams to really exploit mismatches with athletic TEs. Dissly has been really impressive but the fact that he's been knocked out early in both of his 2 seasons suggests that health will be a persistent concern. And even if Dissly does come back healthy, we need another quality TE. Hollister filled in admirably but he's clearly limited in what he can do. IMO, we should use an early round pick on a TE if there are any that worth it. Austin Hooper would be an intriguing option as well.

WR - I like what we have but of course we could use another reliable possession guy. Lockett and Metcalf on the outside could be a ferocious pair next year if they stay healthy.

Pass Rushers - Clearly a position of need and one that is really hard to fill without spending a shit ton of money. Not sure if there are any FAs out there that we could get realistically. Chris Jones is almost certainly staying in KC. Shaq Barrett played his way into a huge contract.

Run Defenders - We are pretty good here.

LB - We need to draft a few guys that could challenge Kendrycks and Wright. But mid or later round picks should be fine.

CB - I trust PC/JS to find quality in the later rounds to fill out the position. Hopefully Umadi and Flowers can step to another level next year.

S - Loved Diggs. Very happy with him. Hopefully Blair can step up next year. McDougald is decent but not getting any younger.

Overall pass rusher and tight end are the biggest needs, IMO. OL is of course always a need but I don't see much value is spending early picks on it at this point.
K/P - Pretty solid at.

Honestly

I really don't think that pass rush is a issue as much as we need a "finisher". Someone who can clean up after Clowney initial QB rush and get the sack.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Pass Rushers - Clearly a position of need and one that is really hard to fill without spending a shit ton of money. Not sure if there are any FAs out there that we could get realistically. Chris Jones is almost certainly staying in KC. Shaq Barrett played his way into a huge contract.

IMO the biggest need by a New York mile. Clearly need to resign Clowney, but the Seahawks need a pass rusher like the rest of the division has . 49ers with Bosa and Dee Ford, Rams with Donald, Cards with Chandler Jones who has 19 sacks. Games where the Seahawks exerted pressure on the QB the defense looked way better and blitzing isn't a sound answer to the problem, especially with a secondary that isn't the greatest in the first place, much less with all of them one on one on a island.
No idea how they find a stud pass rusher, but that is the big need. Get a stud pass rusher ( To combine with Clowney)and the rest of defense looks half way good as a result. Suddenly Norton quits looking like dud DC.

 

[Screamin12th]

IMO the biggest need by a New York mile. Clearly need to resign Clowney, but the Seahawks need a pass rusher like the rest of the division has . 49ers with Bosa and Dee Ford, Rams with Donald, Cards with Chandler Jones who has 19 sacks. Games where the Seahawks exerted pressure on the QB the defense looked way better and blitzing isn't a sound answer to the problem, especially with a secondary that isn't the greatest in the first place, much less with all of them one on one on a island.
No idea how they find a stud pass rusher, but that is the big need. Get a stud pass rusher ( To combine with Clowney)and the rest of defense looks half way good as a result. Suddenly Norton quits looking like dud DC.

I agree with this also a OLB that is solid at rushing the passer also. We saw how the Hawks Many times would drop Clowney into Pass Coverage because a team would line a TE over him to make him "his man". We need more flexibility on the Edges and we have zero right now. If i was the Hawks in this draft i am looking for Stud OLB, DE and a SS/LBer hybrid. If none of those guys are there i am picking BPA no more reaches. They do not have the players or talent on the Defense to play "Pete's" Defense at a high level. They need a monster of a man up front on the line also, lets get these linebackers clean so they are not making tackles 7 yards down the field because they had to fight off a block.

 

[Screamin12th]

how about this guy for a sleeper pick at Strong Safety? 6 foot 2, 220+ running a 4.45 40.

 

[Dolemite censored]

Good discussion.

I think the elephant in the room is the need for an adaptive, innovative DC. Ken Norton Jr. is not that.

A new DC should be in place in sufficient time before the upcoming draft to help evaluate and choose defensive talent.

 

[Anointed One]

The problem is that his base is about 8. The rest is dead money. So even if we cut his salary in half he's still a 7 million dollar cap hit.

May be tough to bring Fant back as well... He said today that he wants to start at LT for a team... Problem is, we already have a LT... He could leave for his payday...

 

[Judge Fudge]

IMO the biggest need by a New York mile. Clearly need to resign Clowney, but the Seahawks need a pass rusher like the rest of the division has . 49ers with Bosa and Dee Ford, Rams with Donald, Cards with Chandler Jones who has 19 sacks. Games where the Seahawks exerted pressure on the QB the defense looked way better and blitzing isn't a sound answer to the problem, especially with a secondary that isn't the greatest in the first place, much less with all of them one on one on a island.
No idea how they find a stud pass rusher, but that is the big need. Get a stud pass rusher ( To combine with Clowney)and the rest of defense looks half way good as a result. Suddenly Norton quits looking like dud DC.

I wouldn't mind Moss of Penn State

 

[flyerhawk]

May be tough to bring Fant back as well... He said today that he wants to start at LT for a team... Problem is, we already have a LT... He could leave for his payday...

The Hawks will need to make a decision on whether he can be a viable starting LT then. I honestly don't know.

 

[blstoker]

The problem is that his base is about 8. The rest is dead money. So even if we cut his salary in half he's still a 7 million dollar cap hit.

$2.9 million ($1.25 Signing bonus, 1.667 million option bonus). Cap savings would be $8.5 million.

 

[flyerhawk]

$2.9 million ($1.25 Signing bonus, 1.667 million option bonus). Cap savings would be $8.5 million.

Right. 3 million cap hit regardless of whether we keep. If he restructures at half the salary he would still be a 7 million dollar cap hit.

 

[blstoker]

Right. 3 million cap hit regardless of whether we keep. If he restructures at half the salary he would still be a 7 million dollar cap hit.

Ok, when I read cut his salary, I just interpreted cutting him. Long day at work, didn't catch the "in half" portion of the sentence.....