Category Archives: The roster

2023 is make-or-break for $70M man Adams

February 20, 2023 cc Leave a comment

Q&A series: We take a look at some big questions about the Seahawks’ salary cap situation and roster.

Today’s question: Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are the highest-paid safety tandem in the NFL and have the largest cap hits on the team in 2023. How is that hurting the team? And how long will that continue?

Recent salary guarantees for Seattle’s top-paid players served as the latest occasion for some fans to grouse about the team’s overinvestment in its safeties.

The Seahawks having the highest-paid safety duo in the NFL is nothing new. Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor once held that distinction, too.

But Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are no Chancellor and Thomas, and plenty of fans are understandably irked over Seattle’s waste of resources at the position – they have the highest cap hits on the team in 2023 at $18.1 million each, ahead of star receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.

Some who don’t understand capology – or the way the Seahawks operate — want the rehabbing Adams to be cut. That won’t happen, especially after part of his salary was guaranteed on Feb. 17. But you can bet 2024 will be a different conversation, if he does not play up to his $70 million contract in 2023.

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NFL draft, The roster

No. 3 receiver is not high on the need list

February 11, 2023 cc 2 Comments

Q&A series: We take a look at some big questions about the Seahawks’ salary cap situation and roster.

Today’s question: Should the Seahawks prioritize a No. 3 receiver with one of their top three picks?

Because Dee Eskridge has been a bust, there is a hue and cry by some for the Seahawks to prioritize a No. 3 receiver again this offseason — preferably with one of their top draft picks.

Should that really be a priority though? Over the front seven and interior offensive line?

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Free agency, The roster

‘A dream opportunity’: Roster review and offseason to-dos

January 29, 2023 cc Leave a comment

Pete Carroll and John Schneider clearly were happy they defied most expectations and put together a playoff team in 2022. But they know they have work to do, both citing the 49ers as their paragon as they enter the second half of a two-year franchise build using high draft picks.

As Schneider told Seattle Sports Radio, the 49ers are “the biggest, fastest, most physical football team in the National Football League. And we gotta get back to that. No questions asked. … We know what we need to do to attack this thing and take the next step.”

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The roster, Week 15: San Francisco

Hawks again need to build a defense to match the 49ers

December 21, 2022 cc Leave a comment

The 49ers have what the Seahawks need: The division title and the defense required to attain it.

Led by Nick Bosa, the 49ers have the best defense in the league – one that reminds some of the Legion of Boom that led Seattle to three division titles and two Super Bowls.

“They look just like us,” former LOBer K.J. Wright said on Seattle Sports Radio after the 49ers swept the Seahawks for the first time since 2011.

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State of the team, The roster

Post-bye review of the roster

November 23, 2022 cc Leave a comment

As the Seahawks get ready to play their final seven games, they are in a position few (if any) could have imagined – tied for first place in the NFC West at 6-4 and facing a coming three-game stretch that could see them hit nine wins before mid-December.

Geno Smith has been hands-down the most surprising player on the team – stunning everyone by leading the NFL in completion percentage (72.8) in a season that looks very likely to end in an unexpected Pro Bowl.

While Smith has yet to prove he can rally his team in the clutch – he failed in Munich against Tampa Bay – he has been a steady hand for most of the season.

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Preseason, The roster

Even with Lock sick, Geno can’t claim QB1

August 18, 2022 cc 1 Comment

Drew Lock still has a shot at Seattle’s starting quarterback position. So perhaps does Jimmy Garoppolo.

With Lock unable to start Thursday because of Covid-19, Geno Smith had his chance to lock down the position – and he didn’t do it.

In a terribly messy 27-11 preseason home loss to Chicago, Smith failed to lead Seattle to any points in the first half. The Hawks punted five times and missed a field goal off Smith’s drives. He hit just 10 of 18 passes for 118 yards – with 41 coming on a pass to Penny Hart. It was just the latest struggle for Smith to get his offense into the end zone (he also didn’t have a lot of help from a line that committed too many penalties and lost Damien Lewis to an ankle injury).

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Preseason, The roster

First game shows Drew Lock’s upside

August 15, 2022 cc Leave a comment

In the first game of the post-Wilson era, Drew Lock showed he probably will end up the starting quarterback and the Seahawks’ top rookies all showed early evidence that they will live up to the promise of draft day.

We think the Hawks could win eight or nine games, depending on the quarterback play, and the rest of the team sure seems capable of backing that projection.

Now we just need to see what Lock can do against starting defenses.

In a 32-25 loss in Pittsburgh, Lock showed more arm strength, zip, mobility and decisiveness than Geno Smith. Yes, he was facing the Steelers’ reserve defenders and lost the ball on a blitz sack late in the game, but he clearly looked like the more explosive quarterback.

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NFL draft, The roster

Building around QB spot: Roster report after the draft

May 4, 2022 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks may not yet know who their quarterback will be – Geno Smith, Drew Lock or someone else — but they certainly are building around that position.

For once, the Seahawks played the draft by the book – and the result looks like their best set of rookies in a decade.

They filled all of their most pressing needs except center — adding tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, running back Kenneth Walker, pass rushers Boye Mafe and Tyreke Smith and corners Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen. They tossed in a pair of receivers/possible return guys in the seventh round.

The Seahawks got proper value for every pick. Cross, Lucas, Walker, Mafe and Bryant look like five foundational players – four who should be starters now or quite soon. Woolen is an intriguing project as well.

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The roster, Trades

Metcalf trade always seemed possible; now it looks likely

March 26, 2022 cc 3 Comments

We’ve been talking about a possible DK Metcalf trade since December, and now everyone else is catching on to the idea that this could indeed happen — especially as the explosive wide receiver market has surprised John Schneider and the Seahawks.

In the first week of free agency, three receivers got deals worth at least $20 million. Then Davante Adams, who annually is among the three best receivers in the league, topped the market at $22 million per year after he was traded from Green Bay to the Raiders.

Then Tyreek Hill trumped that, getting $25 million a year from Miami as part of a trade from Kansas City.

Metcalf has not earned that much, especially after a disappointing 2021, but he certainly can argue that he should be paid more than the Bucs’ Chris Godwin ($20 million), the Chargers’ Mike Williams ($20 million) or Christian Kirk, whose deal with Jacksonville could be worth $21 million a year.

So, yeah, Metcalf may seek $25 million. And the Seahawks probably don’t want to pay it.

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Free agency, The roster

Jefferson & Coleman return to entirely different roster

March 23, 2022 cc 2 Comments

The NFL is a transient industry. Nothing has illustrated that more than the past two weeks of blockbuster trade after blockbuster trade amid the standard free agency movement.

But even Justin Coleman and Quinton Jefferson have to be surprised by the total lack of familiarity with Seattle’s defensive personnel as they come back to Seattle after three years playing for other teams.

They are reunited with exactly one defender: Poona Ford, who was an undrafted rookie when Jefferson and Coleman were key players for Seattle in 2018.

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