The Seahawks are caught between a rock and a hard spot — not that they would recognize or admit it, of course.
They are terrible drafters in the late first round, which is why it is always good when they move down from the 20s. If they do that this week, they figure to have a good shot at five picks on Day 2. The problem: They messed it up the last two times they had the power on Day 2.
Continue reading Looking at a big Day 2, will Hawks get it right this time?
John Schneider has had plenty of chances to find the next Russell Wilson or Tyler Lockett with third-round home runs since 2016, but so far he has struck out.
Amara Darboh (cut this week) is officially a bust — again. And Nazair Jones is headed that way, too, perhaps saved only by a move to IR (barring an injury settlement).
Is C.J. Prosise (the anatomy of injury for the past three years) finally finished, too? Can Lano Hill avoid the ax? And can Rasheem Green step up and avoid the avalanche of third-round busts coming out of Seattle?
The 2018 season originally was supposed to be the last hurrah for the Legion of Boom era Seahawks. But injuries in 2017 ruined that, so Pete Carroll and John Schneider turned 2018 into a youth movement instead — an audition for the core of Carroll’s next potential Super Bowl team.
The Seahawks surprised many (not us) by making the playoffs and then had an unnecessarily premature departure, but Carroll is confident he has created the foundation for his next Super Bowl window. Carroll already has re-upped through 2021, and he thinks he has most of what he needs to make a deep playoff push in the next three years.
“We come out of here with a great feeling about our future,” he said after the 24-22 loss in Dallas. “Our guys are excited about it. They know that we can do some damage in the playoffs. They know that we can go a long way …
“You can tell that the nucleus and the core of the team that you need to be a championship club is here. These are the guys that we’re going to build it around. I couldn’t be more adamant about that right now. That’s where we are.”
Continue reading Carroll says the core to ‘go a long way’ is here
Over the past three years, the Seahawks have drafted eight players in the third round — a league-best haul created by comp picks and draft trades that figured to help forge the next core of Pete Carroll’s team.
But it hasn’t so far — at least not as much as Carroll and John Schneider surely hoped it would.
With about 20 percent of this season complete, only one of those eight guys has become a starter and only two others are even contributing much.
That has to be disappointing after Schneider set up Seattle for some quality drafts in 2016 and 2017 — 11 picks in the first two days. Of seven third-rounders from those drafts, Shaquill Griffin is the only one to crack the first string (he has two interceptions this season).
As the Seahawks undergo the biggest roster reshuffle since Pete Carroll and John Schneider arrived in 2010, some are making the mistake of calling this the most important draft in the Schneider/Carroll era.
The simple fact is the last two drafts were more significant.
Every draft is important, but the Seahawks (with no picks on Day 2) are not set up for success in this one like they were in 2016 and 2017, when they had 11 picks in the first two days. Those players should be a big part of the team’s core in 2018-19. They need to come through this year — something Schneider has said more than once.
“Trust the process, man.” — John Schneider.
In case it wasn’t clear, John Schneider and Pete Carroll are going young on defense again — the same “process” they used in their early days, before the Legion of Boom became a household NFL moniker. And Schneider wants us to trust him and Carroll to do it again.
The trust factor has worn thin for a lot of fans amid a litany of mistakes by Schneider and Carroll over the past few years that sent the Seahawks on a steady slide. Yeah, 50-60 percent of fans (based on our polls) still have full faith, but the rest either no longer trust Schneider or are waiting to see how this year’s defensive demolition turns out.
Continue reading How long will Schneider’s ‘process’ of ‘resetting’ defense take?
Seattle used four draft picks on defensive backs — an apparent attempt at setting up LOB 2.0 down the road — and Pete Carroll said they “made a really good first impression” as rookie minicamp began Friday.
“They all moved very well. They all caught the ball really well. They looked fast. They just looked the part and felt very comfortable,” Carroll said.
“There’s a lot of play time behind these two safeties in particular and you can just tell,” Carroll said of third-rounder Delano Hill and fourth-rounder Tedric Thompson, who both reportedly were rated as second-round talents by Seattle. “They’re very savvy, very comfortable, communicated really well right off the bat, made a really good first impression.”
Carroll said third-round cornerback Shaq Griffin “can fly.” Griffin, who ran a 4.38 40, said the coaches told him to forget everything he learned at Central Florida.
Putting aside questions about Malik McDowell’s desire and Ethan Pocic’s position, the Seahawks accomplished all of their major goals in this draft: interior rusher, O-line competition, lots of DB depth.
They also added a couple of big receivers, which could be bad news for Jermaine Kearse, and replaced key role players Kelcie McCray and Tony McDaniel.
Asked if the roster is better than it was after the 2016 draft, Pete Carroll really couldn’t say that. The best he could do was: “I feel strong about it.”
He pointed out the three linebackers Seattle has signed, the O-linemen added via free agency and the draft, the two D-linemen.
“We’ve done some great stuff up front to make it more competitive. We’ve boosted the competition, obviously in the DB room but also at the receiver side of it. … I feel like it’s really going to be a competitive go.”
The Legion of Boom officially has been refreshed — thanks to an explosion of draft picks in Rounds 3-6.
As founding members Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman approach the twilight of their Seattle careers and DeShawn Shead recovers from a major knee injury, one of the big goals of this draft was to add to the secondary.
The Hawks accomplished that in a big way with the selections of cornerback Shaq Griffin and safeties Delano Hill, Tedric Thompson and Mike Tyson. It is the most defensive backs John Schneider has drafted — coming after none in 10 picks last year.
Continue reading Boom! Seahawks make secondary primary focus
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 