On the air, The roster

Avril has timeline, but does it work for Hawks?

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Avril on NFLNCliff Avril’s timeline for a decision about his career appears to be late April, and he reiterated that his recovery from neck surgery is more about regaining quality of life than about playing football again.

“It’s such a long journey,” he told 710 ESPN on Wednesday, a day after he talked to NFL Network. “This is supposed to be a four-, five-, six-month type of thing. So, once I get to that five-month mark and I’m seeing how I’m feeling … I’ll sit down with my wife and we’ll have the discussion.”

One problem: The Seahawks might need to have the discussion sooner than that.

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Contracts, Free agency, The roster

Avril teases about return, but what if he can come back?

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Salary cap logoCliff Avril has been teasing Seahawks fans with some wishful thinking for his return from a serious neck injury.

For the second time this month, Avril hinted that he might return to play.

“I believe so,” Avril told NFL Network on Monday. “Right now it’s all about recovery. I had surgery. I’m in the process of recovering. It’s a long process, a long journey. When I get to the end of that, then I’ll figure out what’s next.

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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

What does Carroll see in Schottenheimer?

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SchottenheimerA lot of people are not happy about the Seahawks replacing an average offensive coordinator with an average offensive coordinator, but we’re going to have to look past the stats and project a bit to see why Pete Carroll and John Schneider reportedly are hiring Brian Schottenheimer to replace Darrell Bevell.

Schottenheimer is an underwhelming pick to a lot of fans because he has not had a lot of success. In nine seasons as OC of the Jets and Rams, he had only one top-10 scoring offense — Brett Favre led the Jets to ninth in 2008. His running game hasn’t been very good; outside of three straight top-10 years with the Jets (2008-10), it never ranked higher than 19th. And he has never orchestrated an offense that has ranked higher than 11th — seven of the nine ranked 20th or worse.

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Free agency, The roster

Looks like Hawks are letting Shead become a free agent

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DeShawn SheadThe Seahawks apparently have decided to allow DeShawn Shead to become a free agent, which means either they are just being nice (quite possible) or they prefer to keep Byron Maxwell instead.

In November, we wrote about Shead’s unusual case, pointing out the CBA empowered Seattle to toll his $1.2 million contract to 2018. After the season (and two games played), though, Shead told reporters he would soon know his free agency status and the team could forgo the toll if it chose.

On Friday, he posted a message indicating he is indeed going to be a free agent. (H/T to Field Gulls for spotting this.)

“Having a good time working out this offseason! It’s a blessing to be able to hit this grind healthy,” wrote Shead, who spent almost all of 2017 coming back from ACL surgery. “It’s surreal that I’m a free agent, but I’m excited to see what the future holds and where I will end up!”

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Coaches, On the air, X's & O's

O-line expert: Cable & Bevell were passive, predictable

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Cable and CarrollTom Cable’s offensive line failed because it was passive and predictable and did not use the players’ skills as well as it should have, and the lack of creativity by Cable and Darrell Bevell made it easy for defenses to beat Seattle — according to some great analysis by former Seattle first-round tackle Ray Roberts on 710 ESPN.

Roberts confirmed what we have said for a long time: Cable’s zone scheme has not worked partly because the Seahawks have not incorporated enough pre-snap motion. There has been almost no misdirection to make defenses wonder what is coming.

“There’s no other thing for linebackers or defenders to read,” Roberts said of the running game. “They know exactly where it’s going and they can come right downhill and defend it.”

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Schedule

Hawks finally forced abroad; will NFL schedule properly?

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Hawks in London 2The Seahawks put it off for as long as possible, but their time finally came: They have to play in London in 2018. At least it won’t come at the expense of a home game.

Way back in 2005, Tod Leiweke, then Seattle’s CEO, said the Seahawks were not interested in playing abroad during the season — especially if it cost them a home game.

Before the 49ers and Cardinals played the first regular-season game outside the U.S., in Mexico City in October 2005, Leiweke said, “They didn’t need to ask us because they knew what the answer would be. Our football guys wouldn’t have been crazy about it. I think it’s one of those things where the guys who aren’t playing in it think it’s a great idea.”

That Mexico game kicked off the NFL’s international foray. The league has played in London since 2007, and the Seahawks have staved off the trip for 11 seasons. Hopefully they can avoid it for another 11 after 2018.

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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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