Category Archives: State of the team

What do Jeanpierre, Bennett mean for draft?

NFL draftWith the draft now a little over a week away, some of the Seahawks’ positional concerns were highlighted Monday with the news that (a) Michael Bennett did not show up to offseason workouts, (b) the Hawks re-signed center Lemuel Jeanpierre and (c) the Hawks hosted speedy wide receiver Chris Conley last week.

Bennett’s absence — likely tied to his sudden dissatisfaction with his contract — is nothing to be concerned about now and won’t be unless he remains absent when training camp begins in July.

The only mandatory team event between now and then is the minicamp June 16-18. But if Bennett remains away, he clearly won’t be following up on his stated goal of “trying to be a good Seahawk.”

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Schneider needs Wilson’s agent to be a team player

Wilson and SchneiderJohn Schneider sent a pretty strong message Wednesday about Russell Wilson’s contract, making it clear the Seahawks are not going to mortgage the rest of the roster for the sake of the quarterback.

Talking to KIRO Radio, he twice referred to football as the “ultimate team sport,” talked about keeping as many players as possible and said the Hawks need to “protect” themselves and “make smart decisions.”

The Seahawks are negotiating with Wilson’s agent, Mark Rodgers, but reportedly have not made much progress. Speculation is that Rodgers — a baseball agent — is working in baseball terms rather than football terms, not in sync with NFL economics. That was the fear when Wilson moved off veteran NFL agent Bus Cook and let Rodgers handle it.

“Every negotiation is unique … and this is no different,” Schneider told KIRO’s Dori Monson. “It’s the ultimate team sport. He’s our quarterback. We’d love him to be our quarterback. But the thing is we need to keep as many of these guys together as we possibly can.”

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Wilson, Chancellor & the gang enjoy Aloha spirit

The Seahawks are having a good time bonding on Maui (my favorite vacation spot).

Russell Wilson has been joined by 20 teammates, including new additions Jimmy Graham and Cary Williams and all of the team’s starting linebackers.

The other players in attendance, according to Seahawks.com (and photos): tight ends Luke Willson, Cooper Helfet and RaShaun Allen; wide receivers Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Kevin Norwood and Chris Matthews; running backs Demitrius Bronson and Derrick Coleman; cornerbacks Richard Sherman, Eric Pinkins and Will Blackmon; linebackers Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Mike Morgan; safeties Kam Chancellor and Dion Bailey.

Not surprisingly, Marshawn Lynch is not there. The guy’s a maverick loner, as we all know. Not sure why Robert Turbin and Christine Michael are not there. Earl Thomas, Paul Richardson, Jeremy Lane and Tharold Simon are recovering from surgeries.

Is Schneider becoming the new Bobby Beathard?

NFL draftDRAFT 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?

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Carroll’s State of the D-line Address

Michael Bennett (72), Bruce Irvin and Cliff Avril (rear) against San Diego in Week 2 (Getty)The defensive line was a major topic for Pete Carroll at the NFL owners meetings Wednesday, according to quotes passed along by Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times.

Among the tidbits Carroll shared:

He talks to Michael Bennett regularly, and Bennett has not said anything about wanting to be traded.

Bennett apparently is unhappy with his deal, which Carroll probably knows, but Carroll repeated what the team and John Schneider have said: Bennett has not asked for a trade.

“We communicate regularly and I’m in touch with where Mike is and what’s going on,” Carroll said. “He hasn’t mentioned a thing about any of that. It’s never been part of the conversation. I’ll probably see Mike this week, maintain what’s going on. Like so many things that happen, those things come out of somewhere, but they are not coming out of the conversations that we have had.”

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How serious is Bennett?

Michael Bennett and Drew RosenhausA year ago, before he re-signed with the Seahawks, Michael Bennett was asked whether he would give the Super Bowl champs a Dynasty Discount — i.e., take a little less money to stay on the NFL’s best defense and the new perennial Super Bowl favorite.

His reply: “There’s no such thing as a discount. This is not Costco. This is not Walmart. This is real life. There’s no discount, really, because you don’t go out there and give a discount effort. You go out there and give the best effort every day, you fight for your teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way you perform and the kind of teammate you are.”

But he did in fact give the Hawks a bit of a break, accepting a little less in a four-year deal worth $28.5 million, including $16 million guaranteed.

“I don’t think there’s any better situation, no matter how much money is involved,” he told 710 ESPN after signing.

But, after being paid $10 million in 2014, Bennett apparently has decided he wants to head back to Costco and trade the deal in for a new one.

That will not happen. Seattle general manager John Schneider made that clear with his stance against Marshawn Lynch last year.

The question then is this: How much of a stink does Bennett plan to make about his contract? Will he push for the rumored trade to Atlanta? And when he doesn’t get it, will he hold out like Lynch did last year? Or for longer? Or, is he just seeing what he can get and willing to go back to work for the deal he signed just one year ago?

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Roster analysis: Hawks are already better

Jimmy Graham scores against the SeahawksTwo weeks into the new NFL year, the Seahawks are already a better team — despite losing four starters and nine players overall from their 2014 roster.

Re-signing Marshawn Lynch and adding one of the league’s best tight ends will make any team’s offseason.

Sure, the Hawks lost cornerback Byron Maxwell, center Max Unger, guard James Carpenter, tight end Zach Miller and five others via free agency, trade or cut. But they replaced Maxwell with Cary Williams and Will Blackmon and satisfied their tight end/receiver need with their stunning trade for Jimmy Graham.

They’re still looking for help along the lines but otherwise appear to be moving on to the big extensions for Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner — as well as the draft, where they will get even better via 11 picks.

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Hawks already try to identify Borlands

Chris BorlandChris Borland’s sudden retirement has caused a big stir among NFL observers, with some declaring this is a harbinger of the end of the game as we know it, forecasting a future mass exodus by players.

Others say Borland is an outlier who does not represent the future of the league. Many have supported his decision; some have criticized it.

In the end, it’s his decision — neither right nor wrong, just a personal choice he is entitled to make. (Although, if he always planned to play just one season and did not tell the 49ers or anyone else, that clearly was a selfish move and the 49ers certainly should make him repay the rest of his signing bonus.)

But the league is not ending any time soon. There will be no rush to the doors by all of the league’s current and future players. One man’s decision — certainly not the first or last such premature retirement — won’t change the game in some major way.

But it might change how teams evaluate players.

The Seahawks are already ahead of the curve on that one. They have made a point to focus as much on the psychological profiles of players as on talent.

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Carroll discusses his roster & Hawks watch comp picks add up

Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson plan to be clapping about their offense a lot this season (Getty Images)As the New Orleans Saints continued to revamp their roster Friday with yet another trade, the Seahawks — still basking in the glow of the deal that brought tight end Jimmy Graham from the Saints — simply looked within.

The news that impacted them was of players signing elsewhere, but they don’t care. No one will miss Bryan “Wave It Off” Walters, who signed with Jacksonville, and the Hawks didn’t need Shelley Smith, who got $5.65 million over two years from Denver or Stefen Wisniewski, who is a possibility but not a pressing need.

Pete Carroll has said several times this week, including on KJR Radio on Friday, that the Seahawks feel comfortable with some of their young linemen (Alvin Bailey, Patrick Lewis, Garry Gilliam, Keavon Milton, et al.) and think the draft is full of good linemen. Expect the Hawks to use at least two of their 11 picks on big guys.

They can only hope to come up with another J.R. Sweezy, the 2012 seventh-rounder who has played so much that he received $260,000 in performance bonuses from 2014 and got a CBA-mandated bump to a $1.54 million salary this year (as did Russell Wilson).

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Saints’ interest in Unger creates another shot at TE-focused offense

Jimmy Graham scores against the SeahawksIt turns out the Seahawks were not just getting rid of Max Unger in the Jimmy Graham deal.

Saints coach Sean Payton specifically asked John Schneider about acquiring the former Pro Bowl center, and then the two sides began talking about compensation.

The first-round pick the Hawks included in the deal made it seem as if Seattle had approached New Orleans about Graham, but that’s not the way it happened, according to Schneider and other sources.

“They had strong interest in Max,” the Seattle GM told 710 ESPN. “They really want to fix their center positon (and) concentrate on their defense. For us, it was, ‘OK, who are the players involved?’ (Graham) came into the fray and we started talking about it.”

The Saints apparently were still at odds with Graham over the franchise tag battle last year, when the tagged him as a tight end and he filed a grievance seeking to be tagged as a wide receiver, which would have paid him about $5 million more. He ended up signing a four-year, $40 million contract.

Now the Hawks have him for the final three years of that deal — assuming they don’t change it or he somehow doesn’t work out.

This is the latest — and perhaps best — chance for the Seahawks to create the kind of tight-end-focused offense they have tried in the past.

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