Tag Archives: nfl

News, Sports

Seahawks to End One of Seattle’s Three Great Sports Droughts?

The 2012 NFL Draft begins Thursday, and is considered to be one of the deepest drafts ever by people who consider these things. The Seahawks pick twelfth overall, and are expected to take a pass-rushing defensive end.

I am hoping they do. Getting a good, pass-rushing defensive end wouldn’t just address the weak link of the Seahawks defense, it would end a Seattle sports drought.

Every sports franchise seems to have one position they just can’t seem to get right. For the Mariners, it’s been leftfield, where they haven’t had an All-Star performer since 1981. During Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1989-99 reign in centerfield, 67 different men manned left for the Mariners. I made a Sporcle quiz to prove it!

Center was Sonics’ gaping hole–after they traded seven-time All-Star Jack Sikma in 1986. Post-Sikma until the move to OKC, Sonics fans groaned through a parade of mediocre replacements. If the Sonics had put $85 million into a decent mutual fund instead of wasting it on the salaries of Benoit Benjamin, Calvin Booth, and Jim McIlvaine, the team would’ve had plenty of money to remodel KeyArena.

The Seahawks’ great positional drought at defensive end hasn’t gotten as much publicity, but it has been just as pernicious.

After drafting and developing two of the best pass-rushers of the ’80s and ’90s–Jacob Green and Michael Sinclair–the Seahawks haven’t had a single decent young defensive end. The draft has been no help, coughing up such busts as Lamar King, Anton Palepoi and Lawrence Jackson.

As the Seahawks have gotten worse at developing pass rushers, the act of pass rushing has gotten more and more important. Teams throw more now than they did in the ’80s and ’90s, and more efficiently. Without pressure to disrupt a quarterback, a defense is doomed.

The Seahawks have relied on aging veterans to provide quarterback pressure. John Randle, Bryce Fisher, and Patrick Kerney all led the Seahawks in sacks and were out of football within three years. The Seahawks’ current Old Man of the Sack is Chris Clemons. He’s turning 31 this year, an age that is as foreboding for the careers of pass-rushing defensive ends as it is for those of swimsuit models.

Signing aging veterans to play such a critical position is expensive and risky. Younger players are more reliable, cheaper, and often more productive.

If there were ever a year for the Hawks to finally end their defensive end drought, this is it. The 2012 draft is deep and top-heavy with offensive prospects; at least one of the top pass-rushing ends should be available by the time the Seahawks pick twelfth overall.

The five consensus top pass-rushers on the board:

Melvin Ingram, 6-2, 264 lbs., South Carolina: Regarded by many as the top pass rusher in draft. Squat and powerful and could play anywhere along line potentially. Versatile, having played linebacker, defensive end, and even defensive tackle in college.

Quinton Coples, 6-6, 284 lbs., UNC: From a body-type and athleticism perspective, the most beastly pass-rusher in the draft. With great size and long arms, he’s compared to Julius Peppers. But those who study game film say Coples takes plays off. His dedication to the game is a question mark.

Upshaw

Courtney Upshaw, 6-2, 272 lbs., Alabama: Not blessed with the athleticism and body of some of the other prospects, Upshaw supposedly makes up for it with attitude–the “meanest player I ever coached,” according to Nick Saban. Here’s a good pro-Upshaw piece from Seahawks Draft Blog.

Whitney Mercilus, 6-4, 261 lbs., Illinois: Mercilus (what a name for a pass-rusher!) led the nation in sacks at Illinois in his first year as a starter. He’s still a raw prospect–a great pass-rusher, but poor against the run. With the importance of passing in today’s NFL, that may not matter.

Nick Perry, 6-3, 271 lbs., USC: The fastest of the bunch, the 2011 Pac-12 sacks leader ran an insane 4.64 40-yard-dash at the NFL combine (that’s faster than 12 running backs). Pete Carroll knows Perry well, having recruited him to USC. Shutdown Corner’s Doug Farrar points out that Perry ought to be ready for NFL-quality lineman, having faced likely top 5 pick Matt Kalil in practice every day.

The first round of the draft is Thursday at 5 p.m. PST, you can watch live on ESPN or NFL Network. The Seahawks’ twelfth overall pick will probably come around 7 p.m. (though of course they could trade up and pick sooner). For internet coverage, I recommend Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner blog. Rounds two and three are Friday at 4 p.m. PST, rounds four through seven beginning Saturday at 9 a.m. PST.

Will this drought finally end? Do your rain dances, people, so that we may soon see a flood of sack dances.

News, Sports

Marshawn Lynch’s Game-Saving Shimmy

Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, auteur of the most exciting run in team history, today busted out the sickest juke this Hawks fan has ever seen. The play not only left one of the NFL’s greatest defensive players grasping at turf, it helped save the Seahawks’ 22-17 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Let’s take a look, shall we?

To set the thing up: With just over three minutes left, Seahawks have a 3rd at 5 at the Baltimore 46. If the Seahawks don’t get a first down, they’ll have to punt, giving the Ravens–who still have all three time-outs–plenty of time for a game-winning drive. Lynch starts in the backfield, takes a handoff fake from Tarvaris Jackson, and cuts into the right flat, where Jackson throws him the ball.

1) Lynch catches the ball at the Baltimore 44, three yards short of a first down, with two Baltimore defenders closing–one of whom is middle linebacker Ray Lewis, one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history. The other, at the bottom of the screen, is outside linebacker Jarret Johnson.

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2)  Here’s the same moment from an angle that will let us see Lynch’s juke better.

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3) As Lewis and Johnson (not in your picture) close in, Lynch plants his right foot as if he plans to cut back inside.

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4) Lynch sells the fake with his body, wrenching his head down and to the left as Johnson goes in for the tackle.

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5) But then, suddenly, Lynch wrenches his body back to the right. Johnson’s tackle corrals nothing but moist Seattle air. Lewis is likewise flummoxed.

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6) With Lewis and Johnson piled up at the 40, Lynch doesn’t not stop to rubberneck–he sprints upfield. And the result?

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7) That’ll be a Seahawks…FIRST DOWN!

A minute later, Lynch plowed through the Baltimore defense for yet another first down, this one the game-clincher. He finished with 109 yards, and here’s how tough those yards were–his longest run was just 8 yards. It’s Lynch’s second consecutive 100-yard rushing game, and he becomes only the second back all season to run for 100 yards against Baltimore’s stout defense. The Seahawks move to 3-6 on the year, and with a glimmer of hope left for the season–three of their next four games are at home, and all four are against last-place teams.

News, Sports

“Old” Seahawks’ Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Watching the Seattle Seahawks yesterday, I had a wicked flashback to Butch and Sundance frantically trying to evade a mysterious posse.

“Who are those guys?”

In their first two years in Seattle, Coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider haven’t just remade the roster, they’ve blown it to pieces. The change has been so drastic that even longtime fans don’t know who is on the field.

It’s a risky move because the team is flirting with the loss of  its connection to the fan base and, frankly, the community at large. When you move out the few players that even casual fans know, like Lofa Tatupu and Matt Hasselback, and replace them with journeymen and scrubs, it’s hard to care about what’s happening on the field.

Carroll and Schneider have countered such criticism by saying that “Every move has been made with an eye to making the team better.” Okay. But it’s sort of hard to take that seriously when you are watching brand new cornerback Brandon Browner get burned more badly than Starbucks coffee.

The roster churn has really hurt the pocketbook of the jersey-wearing fan. If you decided to buy a jersey with a favored player’s number a few years ago, your $100 investment is toast, unless you got a Marcus Trufant jersey five years ago like my wife did. She was sweating out this year’s final roster announcement after she saw her investment in a Lofa jersey go down the drain in July. Thank God, Marcus made the team.

The NFL has long been a sport where, more than any other, you root for the color of the jersey instead of superstar players. Unless your team has a Manning or Brady, your fans are in trouble. NFL careers don’t last as long as polyester: about five to seven years vs., like, forever. Player careers with the same team are shorter.

When you go to the Clink to watch the Hawks play this week, be sure to check out the jerseys. This year, you’ll see dozens of 8s for Matt, 51s for Lofa and none for anyone else on the team. There won’t, for example, be many Brandon Browner jerseys out there. And I wouldn’t advise a Charlie Whitehurst or Tarvaris Jackson purchase at this time. Not sure they will be having lengthy stays here.

Some fans are trying to finesse this dilemma by wearing the number 12, or playing it safe with a throwback Jim Zorn or Jacob Green jersey. But that reeks of pragmatism.

The Seahawks know there’s pain out there for the face-painting, jersey-wearing crowd. Just last week they sent out an email to all season-ticket holders urging us to

“Bring in your old non-rostered player jersey and receive 25% off any regularly priced jersey in the store.”

But don’t worry. The old jerseys, we are told, will be donated to charity.

Now, if I could just find out what to do with my old Gary Payton jersey. That team so lost its connection to this town that it isn’t even here anymore. Let’s hope some of these new Seahawks players start playing well enough to warrant a jersey purchase, and stay long enough to at least let the polyester fade a bit.

News, Sports

Maybe the Seahawks Should Be Selling Jake Locker Jerseys?

Discounted Tatupu jerseysThe departure of aging stars Matt Hasselbeck and Lofa Tatupu may be a step forward for the organization, but it’s killed traffic to the Seahawks Pro Shop at Qwest CenturyLink Field. “Nobody’s buying anything,” a rave-green clad store employee confided yesterday afternoon while standing watch near a rack of heavily-discounted Tatupu jerseys.

Next to the Tatupu jerseys was a rack of Hasselbeck jerseys. Worth a buy at $30, as Hasselbeck is one of the Seahawks’ all-time greats. Just as it’s okay to wear a Steve Largent or Walter Jones jersey even though those players aren’t with the Seahawks, a Hasselbeck #8 will always be in style. (A Deion Branch #83, on the other hand, is as unfashionable as khaki shorts with black socks.)

Jerseys featuring the names of players currently employed by the Seahawks were in the rear of the store–and also on sale.

A replica jersey is an $80 investment, and there weren’t many names on that rack worth investing in. Maybe it’s best to wait until the Hawks work up jerseys for new free agent pickups Zach Miller and Sidney Rice.

Meanwhile, to prop up sales, I think the Seahawks ought to be promoting Jake Locker Tennessee Titans jerseys. Locker’s #10 was undoubtedly the best-selling Washington Huskies jersey of all-time, surely some Locker-lovers would jump at a version with their hero’s name actually on the back of it.

News, Sports

Seahawks’ Hiring Spree Begins Now; Will It Include Matt Hasselbeck?

I don’t care how many meetings, off-sites, or team-building events you’ve got on your Outlook calendar, there’s no way you’re busier than Seahawks GM John Schneider. He’s got nine months’ worth of work to do this week.

If Schneider’s annoyed, I wouldn’t blame him. His bosses (NFL owners) and their employees (NFL players) have been locked in a labor dispute since February–aka Schneider’s usual window to re-sign existing players and draft picks, woo veteran free agents, sign undrafted rookies, and broker trades with other teams. Now, Schneider must do all that in about seven days, and he won’t get a day of rest like that lazy, unionized God did.

This sucks for Schneider, but for football fans it’s thrilling. Instead of the usual slow drip of signings and trades that go on during the long NFL break, we’ll enjoy a monsoon of moves. The clouds burst today.

As of 7 a.m., Schneider (with heavy input from Seahawks head coach and “executive VP of football operations” Pete Carroll) can make trades, sign rookies, and negotiate with free agents. Seahawks training camp begins Wednesday. On Friday at 3 p.m., he may begin signing free agents to contracts.

Job one for Schneider and Carroll: Figure out who’ll play quarterback.

Quarterback is a position unlike any other in professional sports. Besides his responsibility for pre-snap adjustments, and the fact that he handles the ball on every play, the quarterback is seen as the de facto team leader–whether you’re playing on an NFL field or two-hand touch in the park.

Matt Hasselbeck, the Seahawks’ starting quarterback for the past ten seasons, is a free agent. Though aging and prone to injury, Hasselbeck provides stability, which could be appealing in this bizarre year. The man is a leader–Hasselbeck organized and led team workouts during the training-camp-less offseason, despite having no contractual obligation to the team. Yet Hasselbeck’s incumbency is not as critical as it might normally be. The Seahawks hired a new offensive coordinator in the offseason. Under former Minnesota Vikings OC Darrell Bevell, who prefers a run-heavy version of the West Coast offense, Hasselbeck must learn a new, if not entirely unfamiliar, playbook.

Given the compressed training camp schedule, a quarterback who already knows Bevell’s system may be a better fit. So you might be hearing the name “Tarvaris Jackson.” It’s a name you may have heard before–as the punchline to a joke.

Once a promising quarterback prospect for the Vikings, Jackson has never recovered from a comically inept performance in the 2008 playoffs, which compelled the Vikings to replace him with 97-year-old Brett Favre. Still, Jackson’s five seasons in Minnesota coincided with Bevell’s tenure there. If there’s one quarterback who could step in right now and run that offense, it’s Jackson. Well, Jackson and Favre, but let’s not go there.

The Seahawks have one quarterback under contract: Charlie Whitehurst, acquired last year as the presumed successor to Hasselbeck. Whitehurst did not impress coaches, to the point that the Seahawks had to develop a special “training-wheels” game plan for his emergency start in the pivotal Week 17 game against the Rams.

Hasselbeck, who made $5.75M last season, may well get offers approaching that from other teams–money that in the rebuilding Seahawks’ case would be better invested in younger players. Then again, Hass did throw 4 TDs in a playoff game last January. Jackson hasn’t thrown 4 TDs in a game since 2008. Whitehurst hasn’t thrown 4 TDs in his entire NFL career.

Other possibilities:
—Kevin Kolb, who was Wally Pipped by Michael Vick, and now wants a trade. The Seahawks will surely be in on the bidding for Kolb, but may not be able to match desperate Arizona, still shell-shocked from Year One of the post-Kurt-Warner era.
—Matt Leinart, who won the Heisman Trophy under Carroll at USC but flopped in Arizona.
—Carson Palmer, another former USC Heisman winner who’s had more NFL success (though not as much since his 2008 elbow injury). Palmer has demanded a trade from Cincinnati.
–-Vince Young, who won 30 of 47 starts as the Tennessee Titans QB but will be released due to his emotional instability.
—Donovan McNabb, if the Redskins release him from his massive contract (he’s actually younger than Hasselbeck).
—Kyle Orton, a solid starter for Denver the last two seasons, now on the trading block with Tim Tebow ready to take over.
—Rex Grossman, who has, at times, been a competent NFL quarterback.

Complicating things even more, any free agent QB the Seahawks sign–even Hasselbeck–couldn’t practice with the team until August 4.

Besides finding the person who’ll be the most important player on the team, Schneider must also decide whether to resign several Seahawks who started last year but are now free agents. These include defensive line star Brandon Mebane, starting safety Lawyer Milloy, starting offensive linemen Chris Spencer and Sean Locklear, and kicker Olindo Mare.

The action will come in Twitter-time. Follow ESPN’s Mike Sando (@espn_nfcwest), or the Seattle Times’ Danny O’Neil (@dannyoneil) for breaking news. For in-depth, Seahawks-centric analysis, check out Field Gulls or the inadequately-named Seahawks Draft Blog. And once the downpour’s over, I’ll be back to try to make sense of it all. Unless the Seahawks sign Brett Favre, in which case I’ll have drowned myself in an Occidental Ave. puddle.

You can buy that pin (illustrated by Mad Magazine’s Jack Davis) for $15 at Seattle’s Gasoline Alley Antiques. Here’s all their Seahawks memorabilia.

News, Sports

NFL Draft Recap: Seahawks Get Bigger, Smarter

John Moffitt
"An intelligent player"

Pundit grades for the NFL draft are out, and the national football media has about as much love for the Seahawks draft picks as the official Libyan media has for NATO.

What say you, Clifton Brown of The Sporting News? D! ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr? D+! FOX Sports’ Adam Caplan? D!

Seahawks drafters Pete Carroll and John Schneider get low marks for failing to pick a quarterback and for the crime of “reaching,” draft parlance for picking a player who most teams thought would go later in the draft.

Yet, in the rainy sky of morning, it’s plain that the Seahawks followed a clear strategy: Get bigger, and get smarter. Let’s chat about it, shall we? We’ll start with size.

Take cornerback, where the Seahawks’ primary starters were both 5-foot-11. The Hawks took Stanford’s Richard Sherman, who’s 6-foot-3, and 6-foot-1, 210-pound Byron Maxwell of Clemson.

Or wide receiver, where the Seahawks made their biggest “reach” of the draft, taking Georgia’s Kris Durham. Durham wasn’t among the 329 draft-eligible players invited to the NFL’s Scouting Combine–but he is 6-foot-5, a head taller than most of Seahawks receivers.

The Seahawks’ top two picks, offensive linemen James Carpenter and John Moffitt, aren’t necessarily larger than their roster counterparts, but they represent a dedication to building the team around the largest position group.

And these dudes are sharp! Moffitt touted himself on a conference call with reporters as “an intelligent player.” Sherman lasted six years at Stanford, so you know he’s smart. Durham was First-Team Academic All-American and won UGA’s Scholar-Athlete award. ESPN’s scouting report lauded Wright as a “well spoken and valued representative for the program.”

Ironically, the Hawks draft smart guys and get near-failing grades. What’s going on here is that the graders were looking for a research paper and the Seahawks turned in a first-person narrative. They didn’t draft based on the pure numbers, they drafted based on their own biases, their belief that bigger and smarter will help win games. For the sake of all throw-able objects in the vicinity of my television, let’s hope they’re right.