Category Archives: State of the team

State of the team, Week 6: Atlanta

Neal looked like a Seahawk, which is why Chancellor trained him

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atlanta-logoIn the lead-up to the NFL draft last spring, Florida safety Keanu Neal looked like the kind of player the Seahawks might consider late in the first round.

He had a lot of similarities to Kam Chancellor and seemed like he could be the formerly disgruntled Pro Bowl safety’s heir apparent.

As it turned out, the Seahawks had no shot at Neal — even if they would have considered taking a defensive back so high. Atlanta drafted him instead, at pick 17 — obviously Dan Quinn’s move to find his own Chancellor.

The interesting twist in this is that Chancellor actually reached out to Neal, despite not knowing him, and offered to teach the rookie how to train NFL style.

“He was a bit surprised,” Chancellor said of the text he sent the rookie. “He just was very thankful and grateful that I reached out to him. I said a few things to him, talked to him and asked him if he wanted to come train with me in the offseason. He was just a grateful kid.”

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State of the team, Week 6: Atlanta

After rough first month, O-line gets a few easier matchups

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atlanta-logoOne of the concerning themes of the first month for the Seahawks was the crazy caliber of defensive lines they had to face.

Poor performance by their reconfigured offensive line against the Dolphins, Rams and Jets was the only thing that stood between the Hawks and a 4-0 record.

As expected, the new unit got whipped in the first two games — except for that final winning drive against Miami.

But, the good news is the unit did a better-than-expected job vs. the Jets — allowing Russell Wilson, Jimmy Graham and company to score some points and the Hawks to enter their bye at 3-1.

Now, with the line’s tough start over, the unit has a fairly friendly three-game stretch before it gets difficult again. And the quintet should get better by the week now that Germain Ifedi is back.

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State of the team, Week 5: Bye

Hawks suddenly look like expected Super Bowl contenders

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“I’m really excited about what’s coming up. I think we have a hell of a football team.” – Pete Carroll, to 710 ESPN

After the first two weeks of the season – a 1-1 record and just 15 points scored — it sure looked like this was going to be a repeat of the Seahawks’ slow start in 2015.

But, overcoming injuries and tough matchups for their offensive line, the Hawks have quickly rallied to look much more like the Super Bowl contenders we all envisioned.

While some silly folks thought Russell Wilson should have sat out in New York, he instead overcame his leg injuries to play his best game of the season and lead the offense to a second straight good-looking performance – making it 64 points for Seattle over the past two games despite all kinds of injuries.

“We make a good step forward here,” Pete Carroll said this week. “We played well two weeks ago (in a 37-18 win over the 49ers), then we went on the road in a difficult setting and found our play again. So that kicks us into the bye thing, where we can really take a look at the end of the first quarter of the season and kind of see where we are. We still have a game out there that we wish we would have gotten, but we’re coming around. We’re moving forward and moving in a good direction.”

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State of the team, Week 4: At N.Y. Jets

Graham has answered all of the big questions

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new-york-logoThe Seahawks’ trade for Jimmy Graham in 2015 was met with a lot of raised eyebrows and just about everyone critiqued Graham’s every move in the offense last season.

When he suffered a torn patellar tendon against Pittsburgh in Week 11, the critics of the deal said, “I told you so.”

They said it again as the offense took off without Graham, setting team records behind Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin.

So, as Graham came back from the injury this year, the big questions were: (1) Would he be able to return to his old self, (2) would he and Wilson find the rhythm they had just discovered when he was hurt and (3) how would his return affect Baldwin?

The wins over the Niners and Jets provided answers to all of those queries.

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State of the team, Week 4: At N.Y. Jets

Cable hopes butt kickings will make his revamped line better

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new-york-logoThe Seahawks are finally going to have their so-called first-team line together, but that doesn’t figure to help them much as they face another stellar defensive line in New York.

Germain Ifedi hasn’t played an NFL game yet and will be slow to get back into the groove, so we can expect Leonard Williams, Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson to dominate the line of scrimmage the same way Miami and Los Angeles did.

In case you forgot, the Seahawks were horrendous on offense in those two games. They scored just 15 points, ran for just 180 yards (3.2 per carry) and gave up five sacks and 18 hits on Russell Wilson, who sprained an ankle trying to get away from Ndamukong Suh.

Usually one of the league’s best rushing teams, the Hawks have been a middling unit so far with their revamped line going against strong defensive fronts. Even in the blowout of San Francisco, they were barely above average — 127 yards on 31 carries (4.1 average).

Led by Williams, the sixth pick in the 2015 draft, the Jets are the third-ranked run defense in the NFL — much better even than the Dolphins and Rams. So the Hawks are going to go nowhere on the ground in this one either.

Tom Cable just hopes these butt kickings will make his unit better down the road.

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State of the team, Week 3: San Francisco

Was that just a false start to season? Wilson’s health will tell

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san-francisco-logoPete Carroll viewed this week as a season reboot and — after his Seahawks blasted the 49ers 37-18 — he reiterated that thought: “It really feels to me like we’ve started.”

It’s easy to feel that way when you more than double your season scoring output, double your season touchdowns in just one quarter and tally a 100-yard rusher and two 100-yard receivers while continuing to play the same shutdown defense.

It’s easy to feel like you’ve started when your offensive line finally didn’t have to face a stellar defensive front and had a fighting chance. Although the offensive line committed three holding penalties, it played easily its best game of the three so far. The players apparently focused on fixing individual flaws on every play, a strategy that helped Seattle rack up 418 yards and convert 64 percent of its third downs.

But was it just a false start? Will the Hawks have to wait until Week 6 for their season to really start?

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State of the team, Week 3: San Francisco

Carroll: Season restarts this week

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san-francisco-logoA year ago, the Seahawks got off to a 0-2 start and soon found themselves at 2-4, two games behind Arizona in the NFC West.

They never made up that ground, failing to win the division for the first time since 2012, and ended up going on the road for both playoff games. It ended with a lackluster loss to Carolina in the divisional round.

Pete Carroll would like to avoid all of that this year by getting off to a better start. What’s that, you say? Too late? They are a mere 1-1, coming off a dud 9-3 loss to the division rival Rams?

In his Friday interview with Dori Monson, Carroll pointed out that all four NFC West teams are locked at 1-1 (it’s the only division where every team is tied) and this week is basically a restart for the teams in the division.

“When we started the season, we were all evened up; everybody’s all evened up right now,” he said. “It’s what are you going to do about it now that counts.

Continue reading Carroll: Season restarts this week →

State of the team, The roster, Trades

Joe Thomas? Still a fantasy trade

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san-francisco-logoThe Seahawks’ offensive line has endured a couple of rough games against stellar defensive fronts so far, and Bradley Sowell has been the most consistent problem player.

While we can expect Germain Ifedi’s eventual return to steady the right guard spot and Mark Glowinski and Justin Britt to continue to improve, left tackle is the one spot where there seems to be no help on the horizon. The Hawks are basically playing without a true left tackle this season.

Granted, Sowell will not have to go against great defensive lines like Miami’s or the Rams’ every week. And the coaches probably are counting on him holding his own against less stellar players than Robert Quinn.

But, in the wake of the slow-footed Sowell’s horrendous start to the season — three flags, one sack, one blocked field goal allowed, numerous pressures and hits surrendered — a lot of Seahawks fans are wondering once again whether John Schneider would make a deal for Cleveland All-Pro Joe Thomas.

The answer, like it was in the offseason, almost surely is no.

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State of the team, Week 2: At Los Angeles

O-line on Plan C as Hawks face Rams’ stud D-line

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“The best-laid plans of mice and men (oft go astray)” — Robert Burns, “To a Mouse”

at-los-angeles-logoAfter getting pushed around by the great defensive fronts of the Rams, Panthers and Vikings last season, the Seahawks knew they needed to beef up their offensive line if they were going to win the NFC this year.

So they signed 6-foot-7, 331-pound J’Marcus Webb and 6-7, 309-pound Bradley Sowell and then drafted 6-6, 324-pound Germain Ifedi, 6-4, 314-pound Rees Odhiambo and 6-2, 299-pound center Joey Hunt.

The original plan was to pair Ifedi and Webb on the right side to, as Pete Carroll put it, “get as big as you can get in football.” That, along with moving Justin Britt (6-6, 315) to center, was their strategy for dealing with the great defensive fronts they were set to face in 2016 — the Rams, Panthers, Dolphins, Jets, et al.

But, Robert Burns’ poetic proverb has proven true for the Hawks, who are on to Plan C — and possibly D — as they take their first crack at Aaron Donald, Robert Quinn, Michael Brockers and the rest of the Rams’ deep line.

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State of the team, Week 2: At Los Angeles

Rams have lost clock edge on Hawks

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rams-clockIt’s going to be a big party in Los Angeles on Sunday when the Rams and Pete Carroll return to play an NFL game there for the first time since 1994.

Carroll and the California Seahawks are excited to make the return for obvious reasons, but there’s another, more significant, factor that makes the Seahawks very happy and gives them a better chance to win.

As Darrell Bevell said, “I think we get to play at a normal time.”

That’s right: No more 10 a.m. starts for the Hawks when they play the Rams. This game will be played at 1:05 p.m., and every other game going forward will be no earlier than 1 p.m.

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