Over the weekend, DeShawn Shead became the fourth Seahawk to get married this year. Earl Thomas had a blowout ceremony in April, and Russell Wilson and Jon Ryan married their equally famous women earlier this month.
That’s four rings for the Hawks this year. We’d like to propose they add another next February.
The Seahawks didn’t have a so-called “championship offseason” last year, and the results were pretty predictable: no championship.
Everyone hoped they could overcome all of the negatives — the loss of confidence in Pete Carroll after his asinine Super Bowl call, the silly fan backlash against Russell Wilson, the poor health of almost their entire secondary, the pointless holdout of Kam Chancellor, the idiotic coaching decision to start Drew Nowak at center.
It all added up to a disjointed start and disheartening finish. It was obviously too much to overcome for a team that had become fractured and really needed to be glued back together again.
The Hawks entered this offseason with more than a few concerns about their ability to bounce back. They needed to replace Marshawn Lynch, deal with unhappy campers Chancellor and Michael Bennett, rebuild their offensive line and fortify their defensive line.
At this point, it looks like they have put the glue in place for all of those fixes: Lynch was replaced by three draft picks; Chancellor made up with the team; Bennett sounds like he will come back ready to repeat his stellar 2015 season; the club replaced Russell Okung, Alvin Bailey and J.R. Sweezy with five linemen and Brandon Mebane with three.
Carroll says this offseason “almost feels like a rebirth.”
“We’ve been through a lot of stuff; we’ve been challenged by a lot of stuff,” he told 710 ESPN on Monday. “We’ve learned so much: winning and losing and then trying to come back again and still maintaining this huge standard and expectation. And we know it’s right there for us. Everybody feels it. That’s what is really fueling the energy around the building and why we’re so enthused. And then we hit it with this draft, so it’s feeling pretty good. Millions of things have to happen, but we’re in the right place right now.”
Let’s take a post-draft look at the roster and see whether that is true:
Pete Carroll told 710 ESPN this offseason feels like a “rebirth” after a “very challenging” 2015 offseason.
The Seahawks added five players from the minicamp and released A.J. Francis, Mohammed Seisay and three others.
Justin Britt is working at center as the coaches try to figure out what their line is going to look like. Don’t put much stock in it though.
Bob Condotta reviews the draft picks after the minicamp.
Rookie DTs Jarran Reed and Quinton Jefferson want to “wreak havoc any way we can.”
Trevone Boykin tops the list of the P-I’s six minicamp takeaways.
Boykin, a mini-Wilson, plans to “stay in his hip pocket.”
The running backs top six takeaways from Seahawks.com.
Asked about Michael Bennett and Kam Chancellor, Pete Carroll said, “Really, the guys who are under contract can’t be the first-priority guys right now, in any order. We are really digging in, trying to keep our team together. And that will always be the way we go about it. We love Kam and Mike … and we are going to do all we can to make sure they can stay with us.”
Hiring Doug Hendrickson shows Bennett’s Lynch-like strategy.
Carroll said Jimmy Graham might not be ready until the end of training camp. That shadows our thought that the Seahawks will take it slow with him.
John Schneider talked about Marshawn Lynch and other topics.
Lynch is headed to Egypt for American Football Without Barriers — a group co-created by former Seahawk Breno Giacomini.
The offensive line is a major point of emphasis this offseason, although Carroll and Schneider don’t seem to concerned.
Russell Okung says, “It’s very possible that I could stay here. But I know my value, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than that.”
John Schneider told 710 ESPN that Marshawn Lynch is leaning toward retirement. He also talked a lot about the offensive line in a KJR interview.
Lynch’s mom doesn’t think he is going to retire, although it seems more wishful thinking.
If Lynch does retire, the Seahawks could seek to recoup $5 million in bonus money — though they probably would not.
Jermaine Kearse says he won’t give a hometown discount. Does he think the Seahawks care?
John Clayton gave his projections for some of Seattle’s key free agents.
Rob Staton’s latest mock draft has the Seahawks taking a tackle in the first round.
Dave Wyman, my co-author on “Then Zorn Said to Largent,” is right when he says Michael Bennett has earned concessions (and Kam Chancellor has not).
Earl Thomas donated $15,000 to a homeless mission in Seattle.
The Seahawks gave the Cardinals some good advice about playing on Charlotte’s crappy field.
Pete Carroll told NFL Network this game in Minnesota will show whether the Seahawks really have turned the corner.
Can the Seahawks replicate the 1998 49ers, 2001 Patriots and 2011 Giants — all 6-5 teams that won the Super Bowl?
Despite throwing the fewest passes in the league, Russell Wilson is on pace for almost 4,000 yards.
Tom Cable said the offense is helping Wilson much more: “He’s a special quarterback, and when you do it right for him …”
Gregg Bell says the Seahawks’ offensive line has been the key to the Seahawks’ season “U-turn.”
The Seahawks hopefully learned a lesson from the failed Drew Nowak experiment.
Doug Baldwin leads NFL receivers over the last three weeks — perhaps inspired by Marshawn Lynch’s comment that the offense had looked “unfamiliar.”
Marshawn Lynch wants to play vs. the 49ers but appears to be a game-time decision.
Paul Richardson is out with a hamstring injury, which is too bad considering he showed what he brings with a 40-yard catch vs. Arizona.
Earl Thomas criticized Seattle’s commitment and will to win, saying, “We need to give it up for each other.”
With Bruce Irvin out a couple of weeks with a sprained knee, Frank Clark is expected to get more playing time.
Clark talked to 710 ESPN about his days as a gang member when he was a kid in Los Angeles.
Russell Wilson insists his big contract and high-profile relationship with Ciara have not distracted him.
The Seahawks are looking to prove this week that they really have awakened from their early-season doldrums and have returned to Super Bowl contenders.
For the record, Michael Bennett has not experienced any hangover — even though he was unhappy with his contract last offseason and considered holding out, as Kam Chancellor actually did. Instead, Bennett has played as well as ever (a bunch of early offsides penalties notwithstanding) — and is coming off a 3.5-sack effort against San Francisco that earned him recognition as the NFC’s defensive player of the week.
In a couple of recent interviews, the always candid Bennett said he chose not to hold out because he is determined to help lead the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl. And he shed some light on the causes, as he sees them, of Seattle’s ridiculous 2-4 start.
To sum it up, Bennett said the team became complacent, greedy, selfish, unfocused — all while getting younger because it has lost some key veterans over the past two years. He said this incarnation of the Seahawks had to learn how to handle losing and needed to regain the trust, chemistry and confidence that had disappeared since the last Super Bowl. He also hinted that XLIX still lingered in the minds of the Seahawks — proof that Pete Carroll did indeed damage his team’s psyche with his stupid call on the goal line at the end of that game.
Continue reading Bennett says Hawks became complacent, selfish, unfocused
As the Seattle Seahawks seemingly sleepwalk through this season, with little sign of their previous hunger to win and killer instinct, it is fair to wonder whether the players have tuned out Pete Carroll and whether he can regain their ear before the season really does spin out of control.
Back-to-back Super Bowls, contract concerns and Carroll’s game-losing call in the last title game all could be culprits in the Seahawks’ late meltdowns that have resulted in a 2-4 record.
Carroll surely lost some players with his ill-fated decision to throw the ball rather than run it with Super Bowl XLIX on the line, and it is clear he has not gained back the confidence of all of them.
On top of that, he has a new defensive coordinator and the Legion of Boom has not been itself.
Kris Richard, the DC, took the blame for the communication breakdown that resulted in Carolina tight end Greg Olsen being wide open to win the game Sunday.
“I stand up and I absolutely accept full responsibility for what happened at the end,” Richard said. “It will not continue. We must get better and we are examining each and every single possible thing we can do to fix it, again, starting with me.”
On the field, though, it starts with the Legion. And, as Earl Thomas said, “We’re not being ourselves. I think we’re distracted.”
Continue reading Can Carroll recapture his ‘distracted’ team?
Sounds like a Seahawks fan tried to give the Panthers a taste of what it feels like to be playing in the early morning. Not cool.
The Panthers always come along at a critical point for the Seahawks.
Even former Seahawk Kevin Norwood — now a Panther — thinks this game is pivotal.
Dave Boling thinks the Seahawks will use Carolina as a springboard again.
Tight ends are still a problem for Seattle — and Greg Olsen is coming to town.
Rob Rang has three key matchups, including Olsen vs. Kam Chancellor and Kevin Pierre-Louis.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 