Tag Archives: Devon Witherspoon

The roster, Trades

The promising future of the Hawks this year and beyond

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As the Seahawks take a week off to rest, self-evaluate and prepare for the final 10 games, they are in great position – both for this season and beyond.

At 5-2, they are one of seven NFC teams with a winning percentage over .700 – and right where we thought they would be, positioned for a second-half run into the playoffs.

By DVOA, they actually are rated the best team in the league – thanks to the top-ranked special teams and the No. 2 defense. Their net point differential (plus-57) is fifth.

The Hawks are blowing away Vegas projections, which had the Hawks finishing with seven or eight wins (a 7.5 over/under). We had predicted at least 11 wins. Well, this team is on a pace for 12. Looking at the rest of the schedule, the Hawks look capable of a 7-3 finish – thus a 12-5 record for the season.

This is clearly a playoff team. The bigger question: What happens once the playoffs arrive? Do the Hawks have what it takes to go all the way?

Let’s look at what they have and what they might need to make a Super Bowl run this year and beyond.

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#SEAvsJAX, Injury report

Hawks still at 80%, but Macdonald should have winning plan vs. Jags

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One of these days, the Seahawks might field a full team – and we’ll see just how powerful they really are. For now, like so many teams around the league, they have to be content playing with about 80% of their top players – their battered secondary and pass rush still not full strength.

That was not quite enough against Tampa Bay last Sunday, but trust Mike Macdonald to have learned from that defensive meltdown (370 passing yards, 38 points allowed). Even if the Hawks are again without Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love, Macdonald likely will put his defense in position against Trevor Lawrence and the Jags in Jacksonville.

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Week 12: Arizona, X's & O's

Defense is now ‘locked in,’ but can Hawks find key to offense, too?

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Mike Macdonald finally has his defense playing the way we all expected. After three pretty dominant weeks against NFC West foes, including a 16-6 clampdown of Arizona in Week 12, that unit looks capable of holding down most offenses the rest of the way and helping the Seahawks make the playoffs.

But the offense is going to have to start doing its part.

Before we get to the offense’s problems, let’s start with the defense’s turnaround, which hopefully has not come too late.

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Week 7: At Atlanta

Have Hawks learned enough about selves to start a new streak?

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Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks finally got themselves a quality win – and they needed it big time.

With a surprising 34-14 blowout of a red-hot Falcons team that had won three straight, the Hawks avoided the dreaded four-game losing skid that might have been the death knell for any playoff hopes (just one team out of 15 in Seattle history had overcome a streak of four or more losses to make the playoffs).

And now the question is whether they can sustain it.

“It was inevitable that (adversity) would happen, so you want to see a rebound,” Julian Love said. “We’re still learning how to win as a team. … We’re still building; we’re still learning who we are as a team.”

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Franchise history, NFL draft, The roster

Is a new homegrown defense in the offing?

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Byron Murphy said he loved watching the Legion of Boom Seahawks when he was a kid. (For some of us a decade is not that long ago, but for a 21-year-old it was half his lifetime ago.)

The LOB was a dominant defense with a core that John Schneider put together mostly through the 2010-12 drafts: Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner, Bruce Irvin. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett (Murphy’s favorite player on that defense) were the only core outside additions. And that group of stars dominated the NFL from 2012 to 2016.

Schneider has not been able to replicate that magic over the past decade. He had the perfect chance to do it again in 2016 and 2017, but he absolutely whiffed on most of his 11 picks on Days 1 and 2. Ever since those failures, he has been patching together his defense with trades for veterans.

But, thanks to three straight years with high picks in the draft, maybe he finally is building another core – this time for Mike Macdonald.

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State of the team

After 3-1 start, Hawks need to become more than just survivors

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The Seahawks spent the first month of the season merely surviving — overcoming a decimated offensive line, injuries in their secondary, big passing numbers from opposing quarterbacks and poor third-down performance on both sides, among other things.

They managed to hit their bye week at 3-1, thanks to an OT win in Detroit and victories over Carolina and New York, which are a combined 1-9 after both lost yet again in Week 5.

The Seahawks used a stunningly stout run defense, some big takeaways and some great offensive coaching to make it through the first month. Now they need their offensive line and secondary to get healthy so they can fix issues that otherwise will cost them against the good teams they are about to face.

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NFL draft

Hawks go corner and receiver in first round, leaving DL to Day 2

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The Seahawks ignored the defensive line with both first-round picks, instead drafting a corner and receiver in the round for the first time since Pete Carroll and John Schneider arrived in 2010.

Despite fielding calls for the No. 5 pick, they took Illinois CB Devon Witherspoon — a guy they were said to love as the draft neared.

At 20, they ended up with Ohio State WR Jaxon Njigba-Smith, a guy who was often mocked to them.

The Hawks eschewed defensive linemen Jalen Carter and Tyree Wilson early and Nolan Smith and Myles Murphy late. (The Eagles ended up with Carter and Smith.)

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NFL draft

Looking at first-round options and overall strategy

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The NFL draft is two weeks away, and the Seahawks are finishing up their evaluations of players and starting to put together their final draft board.

John Schneider outlined upcoming steps on his radio show on Thursday: Scouts went over the board last week and coaches are meeting to go over it again this weekend. Next week, Schneider will hear from his medical team and let the analytics squad “pick the board apart” (he said that with a laugh). On Tuesday of draft week, Schneider and Pete Carroll will go over the board one last time.

Schneider said it’s time to “hunker down in the draft room with everybody and be able to study and continue to bounce things off each other and try to figure this thing out.”

So let’s figure it out with them.

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