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?
Not long after Pete Carroll tried to quell any trade talk about Earl Thomas on Thursday, John Schneider made it clear the Seahawks are still listening.
“He’s a Seahawk. I don’t know what anybody’s talking about,” Carroll told KJR. “He’s a Seahawk and we’re happy to have him.”
Asked whether the safety would report for training camp, Carroll said, “He’d better be there. He’s on the roster. We’re counting on him.”
Asked why he was not at the offseason workout program, Carroll said, “Some guys make those choices. Not always do all of the players make it, for various reasons.”
A little while later, at his annual Ben’s Fund event, Schneider said Thomas would not hold out, but he also offered a much less optimistic take on the safety’s future with the team — basically the same stance the GM has had since the Combine.
Continue reading Schneider overrules Positive Pete on Thomas
We already knew the Seahawks were serious about ditching all distractions this year, and they apparently are poised to drop another.
Malik McDowell is the biggest draft bust of John Schneider’s tenure, and the GM apparently is ready to admit it a year after he made the defensive tackle Seattle’s top pick. McDowell, whose rookie year was smashed to pieces in an ATV accident last July, still is not ready to play football, so Seattle reportedly is going to release him. Pete Carroll and Schneider apparently don’t want to go through another year of answering questions about a guy who might never play in the NFL.
Continue reading What credit$ would Hawks get for dumping another distraction?
Richard Sherman is recovering from another Achilles surgery but expected to be ready for training camp, Chris Carson and George Fant are both on pace to return healthy and there are no new updates on Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril or Malik McDowell.
Those were the major injury updates from Pete Carroll at the Combine today.
Malik McDowell looks like he has a long way to go to get back into football shape, but it also appears he might be working toward it.
A post-haircut shot he posted on Instagram last week shows a trim but not very muscular McDowell in Miami.
But McDowell is working out, as his Instagram story on the mobile app showed. Riding in a car, a sweaty McDowell says, “These goddamn workouts are getting out of hand.” (H/T to SeattleZ12 on Seahawks Reddit for pointing out McDowell’s post.)
Seattle is willing to pay Earl Thomas top of the market, Bradley McDougald is 70 percent to re-sign and Michael Bennett is 70 percent to be let go, according to “nuggets” from Davis Hsu, a reliable champion of Seahawks scuttlebutt on Twitter.
Also from Hsu’s source: Cliff Avril has a better chance to play again than Kam Chancellor, it looks like Byron Maxwell will return and Malik McDowell apparently has made some progress as he recovers from his ATV accident.
Malik McDowell met with Pete Carroll and John Schneider and issued an apology (which surely was written by the team). He has two strikes, but he will get a third chance to show he is not a total screw-up and waste of a second-round draft pick. As Carroll said, “Let’s hope this isn’t an indicator of things to come.”
“My life and my kids are more important than football,” Cliff Avril told SI.com in a story on Week 4’s NFL bloodbath that included Chris Carson also being lost for the season. Avril, who had spinal surgery in November, seems likely to retire.
No Seahawks will be suspended for the ugly end to the game in Jacksonville. But fines could be coming. The NFL also issued a stern warning about attacking referees in any way (take note, Germain Ifedi).
Bobby Wagner (hamstring) is questionable for the NFC West showdown with the Rams this week. K.J. Wright (concussion) and Mike Davis (ribs) seem like they might be good to go.
In a cruel twist, the Seahawks could lose two of their star defenders to injury-forced retirement in the next few months.
Kam Chancellor will join Cliff Avril on the sideline for the rest of the season with a similar spinal concern, as Avril was set to have surgery to repair a disk in his neck. Pete Carroll said both will have to decide whether to try to continue their careers next year.
So now the Seahawks find themselves in a Marshawn Lynch situation again — needing to know the fate of these stars by early February so they can move forward with the rest of their roster.
Continue reading Hawks face a Lynch scenario with Avril, Kam
Dwight Freeney is going to play this week. Jeremy Lane just wants to play. Dion Jordan is finally practicing, but DeShawn Shead and Malik McDowell are not ready yet.
Those were the top takeaways from Pete Carroll on Wednesday, as the Seahawks brought in the 37-year-old former All-Pro Freeney, apparently demoted Lane and allowed Jordan to return to practice.
Freeney, who has 122.5 career sacks with four teams, said he had always wanted to play in Seattle since leaving the Indianapolis Colts in 2013.
“I think it’s a little something different on defense in this city,” he said. “Now that I am here, I already know how special a place this is.”
The Seahawks are going to “take our time” with Cliff Avril’s neck injury.
Rees Odhiambo is expected to play just a week after a scary chest injury landed him in the hospital overnight.
Marcus Smith has suddenly become a very important player.
Malik McDowell suffered a “really bad concussion” in his ATV accident in July, Pete Carroll said. McDowell will be examined in a couple of weeks, and Carroll still has not ruled out the team’s top pick playing this season.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 