Tag Archives: Darrell Taylor

Contracts, NFL draft

How will Hawks make cap room for rookies and the rest?

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Upon completion of a draft that added 10 players to Seattle’s cap-strapped roster, John Schneider was asked whether he needed to make any contract-related moves to sign the rookies.

Schneider’s answer: “We’re OK right now.”

“Right now” is the operative phrase, as the Seahawks definitely will need to create about $4 million in space to sign the rookies before training camp. By the time the season starts, they also will need about $6 million for practice squad and injury moves. And they probably are budgeting about $2.5 million for Al Woods or another veteran D-lineman – which they need very much.

All told, the Hawks need about $12.5 million in added cap space.

So where do they get it?

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Week 3: Atlanta

Until Hawks figure out how to run 3-4, losses will keep coming

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The Seahawks are losing games the way they would like to win them: On the ground. Until they get that figured out, they will keep losing – because Geno Smith and the offense are not a come-from-behind bunch.

The Hawks are 1-2 – with an emotionally charged prime-time win over Russell Wilson’s Broncos followed up by a self-inflicted blowout loss to the 49ers and a defense-driven home defeat to the Falcons.

The Hawks are headed to Detroit to face a high-scoring Lions team (32 ppg) that lost a shootout to the undefeated Eagles in Week 1 and had the Vikings on the ropes until late in the game last week.

The Hawks are still trying to find their way on defense, which bodes poorly for this week, obviously.

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NFL draft

Comp picks no longer a priority for Seattle

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John Schneider has stopped playing the comp game.

As the deadline for compensatory signings passed this week, the Seahawks once again ended up with a zero in the comp column. The 2022 draft will be the fourth time in five years that the Seahawks won’t have any comp picks – quite a reversal for a team that used to play that game as much as anyone.

As we wrote last year, Schneider wasn’t getting much out of those picks anyway. But why has his strategy changed?

The quick answer: Seattle has lost few quality UFAs and largely has decided signing veterans to replace departing players is better than angling for a fourth-round pick the next year.

Let’s delve deeper into it though.

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NFL draft

What to expect from Seattle in this draft

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Click the logo for our packed draft page.

We’re a week away from what is likely to be one of the least consequential drafts in Seahawks history, but you know John Schneider will do everything he can to make it a lot more interesting than it has any right to be.

In the end, you know he will be a lot more involved than his three current picks, the smallest draft stock in the league, indicate he will be.

It’s usually pretty hard to predict what the Hawks will do in the first round – as we all know, they tend to overdraft players who struggle to contribute. But we can look at Schneider’s trends and the makeup of this draft and make an educated guess about what he might do April 30 and May 1. So here we go …

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Franchise history, NFL draft, Trades

Schneider’s future should depend on Adams & Taylor

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The spotlight is on Seattle’s GM this week as the Seahawks and Jamal Adams face the Jets and Darrell Taylor’s future remains a mystery.

John Schneider’s job security, quite frankly, should depend on two things: Whether he re-signs Adams and whether Taylor ever plays. If neither happens in 2021, the last year of Schneider’s deal, the GM should not be re-signed.  

This is not just about the two big moves to get those guys this year — deals that cost the Seahawks five high draft picks. It’s about a GM who has had a lot more failures than successes over the past seven years, who is still living off his historic 2010-12 drafts, who has whiffed at the top of his last eight drafts way too often, who rarely makes good decisions in free agency, who is not very creative with the salary cap and who for several years has been making it up as he goes, with no long-term plan.

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NFL draft, The roster

Cheap Hawks swapped Thomas & Clark for 3 pass rushers and a guard

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Draft logo 2020Once upon a time, the Seahawks had the NFL’s top-paid players (or close to it) at three defensive positions, along with the No. 2-paid quarterback.

In 2019, they made Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner the league’s top-paid QB and middle linebacker — but they have not been interested in paying anyone else in that stratosphere since 2017, when they gave Kam Chancellor another top-three deal.

They didn’t want to pay Earl Thomas and Frank Clark in 2019, and they don’t want to pay Jadeveon Clowney this year.

Basically, they don’t want to pay elite pass rushers. So they used Thomas and Clark to draft a few. And, like it or not, they are counting on those swaps to work out.

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NFL draft

Hawks hit one big need, but missed two

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Draft logo 2020The Seahawks hardly did a thing we expected them to in the draft.

They had three major needs – edge rusher, defensive tackle and offensive tackle – and we also expected them to move down from the first round to end up with five Day 2 picks in a draft that was especially loaded in the second round.

But, they didn’t accomplish most of those things. In fact, it’s the first time since 2015 that they did not address two of their top three needs in a draft.

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NFL draft, The roster

Will grit and chips help rookies play big roles?

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Draft logo 2020The Seahawks have long claimed they look for rookies with “grit” who have overcome early life challenges. They think it gives those guys an edge and makes them better competitors.

“All come in with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove,” Pete Carroll said, repeating what he and John Schneider say every year.

They got “grit” guys again on Day 2 of this draft, moving up to take pass rusher Darrell Taylor and then moving down and picking guard Damien Lewis. Both overcame rough childhoods that included their dads being imprisoned (and Taylor’s mom died of breast cancer when he was a high school sophomore).

Carroll and Schneider think those hurdles — plus years of big-college experience — prepared these guys to play in the NFL as rookies, especially in a year when there will be no rookie minicamp and prep time likely will be minimal.

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