Home field already on the line as Hawks open with familiar Pack

September 9, 2017 cc 1 Comment

One game won’t decide a season, but — if the Seahawks and Packers are really the two best teams in the NFC, as Vegas thinks — home-field advantage might already be on the line when they open the season Sunday.

And that means the Seahawks are going to need to buck some bad history at Lambeau Field.

The Seahawks have lost seven straight games in Green Bay, by an average of 18.9 points. That includes last December, when Russell Wilson threw five interceptions in a 38-10 blowout that was the Hawks’ worst loss since 2011.

As we have chronicled previously, the Seahawks and Packers have been one of the best non-division rivalries in the NFL for the past two decades. This will be the sixth meeting in six years and the 14th since 1999 (the Hawks are 4-1 at home, 1-7 at Lambeau).

On top of that, they still have a thriving pipeline — Eddie Lacy the latest to go from one team to the other. He’ll face his former Packers teammates Sunday.

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CHAWK LINES, It's bigger than football

September 7, 2017 cc 1 Comment

CHAWK LINES -- Bennett incident

Michael Bennett posted a letter describing a frightening encounter with Las Vegas police.

TMZ released a video showing Bennett being handcuffed by the cop.

Las Vegas police held a press conference in which they said race played no factor in how they dealt with Bennett.

Video clearly shows the cop holding a gun on Bennett as he prepares to cuff him.

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Contracts, The roster, Trades

DT notes: McDowell back, Richardson’s future

September 4, 2017 cc 1 Comment

While rumors continue to circulate that Malik McDowell might never play again, Pete Carroll said the Seahawks’ top pick (35th overall) will return to the team “with really no demands on him” so “he has a sense of coming to work.”

Carroll also confirmed what was pretty clear: The Sheldon Richardson trade was driven largely by the loss of McDowell, as the team sought an interior rusher for this season (and beyond).

“That was an area we really were excited about him coming in and adding in,” Carroll said of McDowell, “and then when we realized we weren’t going to have him, it just made us look in earnest to see if we could find some way to help that spot.”

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Contracts, Free agency, Trades

Big trade will help Hawks keep window open

September 4, 2017 cc 1 Comment

Some observers think Seattle’s big move to add Sheldon Richardson is a sign that team brass thinks the Super Bowl window is closing.

Quite the contrary: The Richardson deal will help the Seahawks in the future as much as it helps them in the present.

We previously talked about Young Sheldon’s expected impact as a one-year Big Bang rental, but the deal also gives Seattle a lot of flexibility as John Schneider and Pete Carroll decide how to configure their roster for 2019 and beyond.

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State of the team, The roster

Analysis of Seattle’s initial 53-man roster

September 2, 2017 cc 1 Comment

The bottom of the roster is going to change over the next week and beyond, but once the Seahawks finally announced their initial 53 (and the corrections that followed), a few things were immediately clear:

**They powered up their defensive line with former first-round picks Sheldon Richardson and Marcus Smith, who replaced Ahtyba Rubin and Cassius Marsh. But they have only eight linemen for now.

**They switched up at backup quarterback, going with the safer Austin Davis over the mercurial Trevone Boykin.

**They kept 10 offensive linemen for now, with undrafted guard Jordan Roos making it and the Hawks acquiring Isaiah Battle from Kansas City. That seems likely to change.

**Seattle upset a few people by not keeping local favorite Kasen Williams. He and Pierre Desir were initially listed as waived/injured, but the team apparently screwed up. Both were just waived — no injuries.

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The roster, Trades

Big Bang Theory: One-year rental works for all

September 2, 2017 cc 4 Comments

Richardson It took John Schneider almost six months into the league year to do it, but he pulled off the big bang we thought he would.

Every odd year since 2011, he has made a stunning signing or trade — and he obviously is hoping Sheldon Richardson turns out more like Jimmy Graham than Percy Harvin or Sidney Rice. Even if it’s for only one year.

The deal that sent Jermaine Kearse, a 2018 second-round pick and a seventh-rounder to the New York Jets for Richardson and a seventh is Seattle’s Big Bang Theory: Add a Young Sheldon and create a universe in which Seattle’s defense goes where no defense has gone before.

For one year anyway. This is almost surely just a one-year rental. And it works best that way.

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Preseason, The roster

Backup QB choice: Big plays both ways or just play it smart?

September 1, 2017 cc 1 Comment

Last year proved pretty definitively that backup QB is one of the least important positions in Seattle.

They went with a rookie behind Russell Wilson, who then refused to miss a start despite major knee and ankle sprains that had him functioning at around 50 percent or less for much of the season.

If Wilson didn’t miss a game last year, it seems unlikely he will ever miss one (barring an ACL injury or something similarly major).

So this summer’s battle between incumbent No. 2 Trevone Boykin and Austin Davis is not really a big thing. Still, the Hawks need a second passer and need to make a choice.

The question Seattle coaches must ask themselves: Do they want a guy who makes big plays both ways or a guy who makes smart plays? Because that is the difference between Boykin and Davis.

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Preseason, The roster

Which position gives for McKissic?

August 31, 2017 cc Leave a comment

As they prepared for their final preseason game, the Seahawks seemed to have made some key roster decisions.

The report that they are looking to trade Jermaine Kearse basically confirms that J.D. McKissic will be on the 53-man roster after Saturday’s cuts. It also could mean they are clearing a spot for Tanner McEvoy to join receivers Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett, Paul Richardson, Kasen Williams and Amara Darboh.

With the do-it-all McKissic now counting as a running back, the Seahawks seem locked in on these positional numbers: QB 2, RB 6, TE 3, DL 9, LB 6, ST 3. And most of the decisions are made at those spots, with backup QB maybe the only position of contention (if David Bass and Marcus Smith are the final two D-linemen and D.J. Alexander is a keeper at linebacker).

So the fluid positions appear to be WR (5 or 6), OL (8 or 9) and DB (9 or 10) — with one of those groups destined to go light a player.

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The roster, Trades

Why the Hawks are shopping Kearse

August 30, 2017 cc 2 Comments

It made too much sense for them not to try: The Seahawks reportedly are shopping Jermaine Kearse.

The Seahawks don’t want to keep more than six receivers. Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett and Paul Richardson are the other veterans. Kasen Williams has played his way onto the team this preseason, and Amara Darboh, who has struggled with injuries, figures to stick because the Hawks won’t throw away a third-round pick this early. And Tanner McEvoy is a 6-foot-6 target who can throw passes and block kicks.

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