When the Seahawks surprisingly chose Christine Michael in the second round of the 2013 draft, it seemed a clear heir-apparent setup for replacing Marshawn Lynch.
As we wrote back then, Michael looked as though he could be the next Shaun Alexander — the highly drafted running back waiting to bump the veteran star from the roster.
But, two years later, Michael was sent packing and Lynch remained the main man — until now.
And now Thomas Rawls looks like the Alexander to Lynch’s Ricky Watters.
In case you hadn’t heard, the Seahawks are celebrating their 40th anniversary. They have put together a website to look back at every season and are unveiling them a few at a time.
The Seahawks had fans vote for their favorite 40 players this summer, and 32 of them were honored in person at halftime of the home opener on Sunday. We’re guessing the eight others are still playing — either with the Seahawks or with other teams (e.g., Matt Hasselbeck of the Colts).
It was great to see former stars Sam Adams, Shaun Alexander, Jordan Babineaux, Brian Blades, Chad Brown, the late Dave Brown (via wife Rhonda), Jeff Bryant, Dan Doornink, Kenny Easley, Jacob Green, Darrell Jackson, Norm Johnson, Walter Jones, Cortez Kennedy, Dave Krieg, Steve Largent, Warren Moon, Paul Moyer, Joe Nash, Rufus Porter, Steve Raible, Shawn Springs, Mack Strong, Robbie Tobeck, Marcus Trufant, Manu Tuiasosopo, Curt Warner, Chris Warren, Ricky Watters, John L. Williams, Dave Wyman and Jim Zorn.
Jackson, the top receiver on Mike Holmgren’s teams, raised the flag for the home opener. He said the Super Bowl XL loss still bugs him.
If you want some great stories from Wyman and Moyer on the teams of the 1980s and 1990s, you will love our book, “Then Zorn Said to Largent.”
The 0-2 Seahawks have an 11 percent chance to make the playoffs and a 1 percent chance to win the Super Bowl, history says (just three of 204 teams that started 0-2 have done it since the playoffs expanded in 1990).
One of those teams was the 1993 Dallas Cowboys.
Will Kam Chancellor play the role of Emmitt Smith, who similarly sat out the first two games in a contract dispute? Smith came back for Week 3 and the Cowboys won 12 of the final 14 games and earned a second straight Super Bowl win.
Continue reading Will Kam be to Seattle as Emmitt was to Dallas?
John Schneider’s worst draft pick is coming out of retirement.
John Moffitt was so bad that Schneider and the Seahawks actually changed the way they evaluate draft prospects largely because of him, focusing on football character over skill starting in 2014.
“There’s certain guys you spend a lot of time with, because you’re trying to figure out the man,” Schneider said before the draft last year. “What’s in his heart? What his personality’s like. Would he fit in in the locker room? There’s certain guys that we haven’t done that good of a job with, in my opinion, in the past.”
That’s a clear reference to Moffitt, who was traded by the team after Tom Cable got tired of his lackadaisical attitude — which it turns out was caused by his drug problem.
Moffitt started 15 games in 2011 and 2012, alternating with J.R. Sweezy toward the end of the latter year. Cable was never impressed by Moffitt, whose drug addiction apparently scuttled whatever ability or desire he had.
Moffitt always came across as a buffoon, running into trouble with the law and the NFL more than once. Apparently he has addressed his drug problem and wants back in the NFL. The Seahawks clearly are not an option.
We consider him the worst pick in Schneider’s six drafts. Here’s our bottom five:
DRAFT COUNTDOWN: Four weeks. A weekly look at draft-related topics involving the Seahawks.
The Seahawks will be in rare historical company in this year’s draft, becoming the first team in nearly 20 years to go three straight years without a first-round draft pick.
John Schneider’s deal for Jimmy Graham, which cost Seattle its first-rounder and Max Unger, means the Seahawks will become the seventh team in the modern era to go without a first-rounder in at least three straight drafts.
To recap how the Hawks have joined the select club:
–In 2013, they traded a first-rounder, seventh-rounder and 2014 third to Minnesota for Percy Harvin.
–In 2014, they traded down from No. 32 and picked Paul Richardson with the 40th overall selection, also adding a fourth-rounder in the deal with the Vikings.
–Last month, they sent Unger and their first-rounder (No. 31) to New Orleans for Graham and a fourth-rounder.
So is this just a one-time oddity, like the Houston Oilers from 1979 to 1981? Or is Schneider becoming the Bobby Beathard of this era?
Continue reading Is Schneider becoming the new Bobby Beathard?
Without a doubt, the worst part of the Seahawks last season was the return game — which is why many fans are taking notice every time a team cuts a return specialist these days.
In the last few days, Ted Ginn Jr., Jacoby Jones and Reggie Bush have been cut, but Seattle fans shouldn’t get too excited about any of them. The Hawks can do better.
They certainly need to.
In 2014, they ranked 30th in kickoff returns, at just 21 yards per attempt. And they were 25th on punts, at seven yards.
It was the most pathetic combined return performance by a Seattle team since the 2005 unit, which averaged 27.8 total yards behind kick returner Josh Scobey and punt returner Jimmy Williams and coincidentally also lost the Super Bowl.
You know you are horrible when (a) Bryan “Wave It Off” Walters is your best return guy, (b) it’s a victory just to hold on to the ball and (c) a touchback is typically your best kick return.
Continue reading The return games were pathetic, but free agents aren’t the answer
Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll together again?
Don’t count on it. Bush, cut by the
Detroit Lions on Wednesday, is
going to be 30 in March, and the Hawks have no room for him in their backfield.
But the dual news surrounding the former USC duo (USC is giving Carroll an honorary degree in May) took us on a trip down memory lane — back to 2010, when Carroll came to Seattle and the NCAA’s good ol’ boys showed once again what a bunch of corrupt hypocrites they are.
One little sheep actually bleated for the Seahawks to fire Carroll in the wake of the NCAA’s vindictive and heavy-handed sanctions against USC. We laughed at that bozo, knowing the NCAA to be one of the most unethical organizations in America and any of its sycophants (like Mike Florio and Steve Sarkisian) to be mindless chuckleheads. We were too busy explaining why Carroll was not Dennis Erickson, despite the seeming similarities.
A few months later, we ripped the spineless fools — especially Sarkisian — who backed the farcical, two-faced, money-grubbing, oppressive establishment and blamed Bush for pulling back the curtain.
We were never USC fans, but the fact is Carroll, Bush and company dominated on the field like no other team in the 2000s. Carroll went 97-19, won two national titles and lost one he could have won.
The NCAA can do whatever it wants on paper (it vacated the 2004 title and all 12 wins in 2005), but it doesn’t change what really happened.
With two national titles and one Super Bowl title, Carroll has proven without a doubt that he is one of the great coaches of this era. (Just imagine if he had finished his two championship losses properly: five titles.)
And he clearly is a better human being than anyone who has ever been part of or supported the greedy, phony, spiteful, evil empire known as the NCAA.
USC obviously thinks so, or it wouldn’t be honoring him twice in two days in May. Good for USC.
The news that the Chargers and Raiders are working on a deal to move to Los Angeles together raised once again the specter of the Seahawks moving back to the AFC — and, if the NFL does come calling yet again, Paul Allen needs to make the league pay in a major way.
A few months after Field Gulls posited the idea of the ping-pong move, 12th Man Rising brought it up again Thursday after the Los Angeles Times reported the newest development in the saga to get an NFL team back in Los Angeles.
Continue reading If NFL wants Hawks back in AFC, Paul Allen should make league pay for it
There is no Walter Jones in this group. No once-in-a-generation, first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Former Seahawks draft picks Shawn Springs and Kevin Mawae are among the first-year-eligible nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2015, announced Tuesday.
They join former coaches Chuck Knox, Tom Flores and Mike Holmgren and former running backs Shaun Alexander and Ricky Watters as nominees who coached or played for the Seahawks.
Those seven are among 113 total nominees — a list that will be whittled to 25 semifinalists in November and 15 finalists in January before the inductees are selected Super Bowl weekend.
The Seahawks have had a good run in the Hall of Fame recently, with career Seahawks Cortez Kennedy and Jones being inducted over the past three years. They join Steve Largent as the only career Seahawks in the Hall (and they shared a great moment before the Seahawks’ opener a couple of weeks ago).
But do any of Seattle’s current nominees have a chance to join that trio this year? Let’s take a look at each of the seven, starting with the coaches:
Continue reading Are any of Seahawks’ nominees elite enough for Hall of Fame?
