Category Archives: State of the team

Coaches, State of the team, X's & O's

Familiar enforcers will drive Carroll’s club

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Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson plan to be clapping about their offense a lot this season (Getty Images)After a steady three-year slide that ended with Seattle out of the playoffs this season, Pete Carroll apparently is ready to re-forge control of his team and re-establish his principles.

Carroll recently said he plans to make his team more disciplined while rejuvenating a once-strong running game that is the identity of the offense.

To do that, he needed some new voices in his coaching staff. So he reportedly is bringing in some familiar enforcers who will command players’ attention and be loyal to Carroll’s approach to winning.

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Coaches, State of the team

Report: Allen was ready to chase big names if Carroll retired

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Rams Carroll Sept. 13“People talking about retirement. I ain’t old enough to think about retiring.” — Pete Carroll

On the last game day of the season, Jay Glazer reported Pete Carroll was contemplating retirement. Carroll quickly shot down that report with the above quote, but it turns out there was a little more to it.

A week before the season ended, Paul Allen apparently asked Carroll what he was thinking, and Carroll assured his boss he was “all in” on building the Seahawks back up.

According to Davis Hsu, the sneakily sourced Seahawks Twitter champion, Allen was worried Carroll would retire and was ready to go “big game hunting” to replace him. If Carroll had said he was going to retire, Allen apparently would have gone after Jon Gruden, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.

Also, if Carroll had retired, John Schneider would have left for Green Bay, per Hsu. But Carroll wanted Schneider to stay with him, so Allen formally blocked the Packers from talking to Schneider.

Carroll, 66, is signed through 2019, and it’s possible he decides to retire after that. With the big coaching shakeup he has performed this week, he is either trying to finish strong or build up another five-year playoff run.

Coaches, State of the team

Firings prove Carroll is serious about fixing Seattle’s offense

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Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson plan to be clapping about their offense a lot this season (Getty Images)The turnabout was a little surprising for the loyal-to-a-fault coach, but Pete Carroll’s actions made it clear he is serious about fixing an offense that has regressed from good enough to good for nothing over the past three years.

In one sweep of the ax, Carroll cut ties with longtime assistants Darrell Bevell and Tom Cable — and now Carroll will look for replacements who can be true to his three-star philosophy of running the ball, protecting the ball and making big plays.

Carroll obviously has replacements in mind, and the top guy for the offensive coordinator position appears to be John DeFilippo, the Eagles’ QB coach who helped turn Carson Wentz into an All-Pro in his second season.

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Coaches, State of the team

Carroll changes his mind about Bevell

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Darrell Bevell speaks to reporters WednesdayAlmost exactly a year ago, Pete Carroll defended Darrell Bevell for the umpteenth time, saying the many fans who wanted him fired “don’t know what they’re talking about. Darrell does a great job.”

But, after the Seahawks missed the playoffs for the first time in six years and put together their worst offensive season in Russell Wilson’s six, Carroll finally agreed with fans who have been asking him to make a change ever since that ill-fated call in Super Bowl XLIX.

With Bevell reportedly fired Tuesday night, after seven years as Seattle’s offensive coordinator, Carroll signaled that he understood big changes need to occur — that it is time to fix an offense that has been sporadic for most of Wilson’s career and finally bottomed out in 2017.

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State of the team, X's & O's

Will missing playoffs motivate Carroll to make changes?

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Cable and CarrollIf one positive comes from Seattle’s playoff streak ending after five years, it appears it might be Pete Carroll finally figuring out that it’s time to change some of his coaching approach (and maybe coaches).

“Unfortunately, the truth came out that you do get what you emphasize,” he said last week, admitting he has preached so much about finishing strong that he has ignored starting well. He also lamented Seattle’s team-record penalty count and poor running game and made fixes for those issues his offseason priorities.

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State of the team, The roster

Hawks are ready for defensive changes

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Draft -- Schneider and CarrollAfter two days of talking by the players and Pete Carroll, we’ve learned a few tidbits about the Seahawks’ personnel and upcoming decisions as they sit out the playoffs for the first time in six years.

A lot of people think the defense is in complete disarray and has to be rebuilt almost from scratch. Don’t tell that to Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright, Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Frank Clark, Jarran Reed, Nazair Jones and Shaq Griffin. Those eight are all under contract for at least 2018 and figure to key a resurgent Seattle defense next season.

Carroll said he views it like 2011-12, when he was developing his Super Bowl core.

“There is a young nucleus and a new nucleus of guys that have come to us,” he said, referencing Bradley McDougald, Dion Jordan and Terence Garvin. “They’re part of that (2017 draft) class (which included Jones and Griffin) as well and the class from last year. These are good groups of guys now, so we’re very optimistic about the roster.”

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State of the team, Week 17: Arizona, X's & O's

This has been Wilson’s worst December

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logo-arizonaA month ago, many were touting Russell Wilson as an MVP candidate. Then he had the worst December of his career.

The MVP chants were all based on the fact that Wilson has been Seattle’s entire offense this season. With a game left, he has represented 81.6 percent of the offense (4,312 of 5,286 yards). That number is just 0.2 percent off the league record (held, oddly, by one-time Seahawk Jon Kitna). Wilson also has accounted for 35 of the team’s 36 touchdowns.

But here’s the real lesson from those stats: Seattle’s coaches have put way too much on Wilson’s shoulders, and he finally collapsed under that pressure. In some ways, this has been his worst NFL season.

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Contracts, State of the team, The roster

Thomas bracing for departure, but Hawks will pay him

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Earl in DallasEarl Thomas is creating a lot of negative-energy waves as this season winds down. To some, it might seem like he is trying to build up a trade tsunami.

But it’s just Earl being Earl — the Pro Bowl safety who wears his heart on his sleeve and sometimes puts his foot in his mouth. And you can expect him to be a happy camper, with feet firmly on the ground, again as soon as John Schneider gives him another contract extension in the coming offseason.

Thomas’ contract — which has one year left — clearly is on his mind, and he seems to be bracing for Seattle to trade him in 2018 or lowball him and force him to go play somewhere else in 2019.

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State of the team, Week 15: L.A. Rams

End of an era? Not yet

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Logo -- Los AngelesTwo weeks ago, Seattle knocked off the high-flying Philadelphia Eagles, and it sure looked like the Seahawks were getting ready to spread their wings for another long postseason flight.

Even a 30-24 loss in Jacksonville last week did nothing to shake the faith — the Seahawks basically beat themselves thanks to Russell Wilson’s overly aggressive interceptions and a few other mistakes.

There was plenty of reason to think they could beat the Rams at home and take control of the NFC West. And even if they had lost by just a touchdown, it wouldn’t have been unexpected or created a huge stir beyond the uphill battle to make the playoffs.

But a 42-7 demolition has raised a ton of questions about the future of these Seahawks.

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State of the team, Week 14: At Jacksonville

Despite flaws, Hawks still can beat anyone — time to prove it

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Logo -- At JacksonvilleComing off their watershed win against the Eagles, the Seahawks had a chance to confirm they were ready for a big run into the postseason. All they needed to do was beat the NFL’s best defense a week after beating the best offense.

They couldn’t do it, though, and now they have to beat the Rams next week — and the final two on top of that — to assure themselves of a sixth straight postseason. If they lose another game, they will need big help to get into the playoffs in a loaded NFC.

As ugly as that 30-24 loss in Jacksonville was, the Seahawks showed enough for us to think they still could make a run to the Super Bowl — assuming Russell Wilson quits throwing interceptions and Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright don’t miss any time.

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