Tag Archives: Michael Bennett

December 24, 2015 cc Leave a comment

CHAWK LINES -- Rams at Seahawks.png

Bob Condotta runs down all of the records Russell Wilson is setting or could set.

We don’t care much about the overblown Pro Bowl, but the Hawks tied a team record with seven guys. Michael Bennett, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman and Tyler Lockett were very deserving.

K.J. Wright did not make the Pro Bowl, but he did get engaged this week.

Condotta also details the various scenarios for the Seahawks landing the No. 5 or 6 seed. Most people seem to think the only bad matchup would be Seattle as a No. 6 seed at Green Bay. But odds are the Hawks will end up the No. 5 seed at Washington or Philly.

The Seahawks have beaten the Rams in Seattle 10 straight times. Todd Gurley will get his first action vs. Seattle.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 15: Cleveland

December 21, 2015 cc Leave a comment

chawk lines -- Browns

Russell Wilson and Doug Baldwin added two more TD connections, continuing their historic streak.

Pete Carroll said the Seahawks’ 182 rushing yards vs. Cleveland with new running backs were a “really good statement.”

Marshawn Lynch is in a “race against time” to see if he can play again this season, Carroll told 710 ESPN.

Appropriately, Ahtyba Rubin made the playoffs for the first time by beating his former team.

As fully expected, the Cardinals won the NFC West and the Seahawks will be a wild card.

Michael Bennett came out during pregame introductions wearing a Darth Vader mask.

CHAWK LINES, Week 15: Cleveland

December 17, 2015 cc Leave a comment

chawk lines -- Browns

Bob Condotta analyzes the re-signing of Christine Michael.

Although Michael is back, Bryce Brown figures to get most of the carries Sunday vs. Cleveland.

Tyler Lockett, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor and Steven Hauschka are among the top two at their positions in Pro Bowl voting.

It looks like Chancellor will not play Sunday.

Here’s a look at the stats of the Browns (3-10) and Seahawks (8-5).

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Contracts, Franchise history, Free agency, Trades

Big-money acquisitions haven’t paid off

December 9, 2015 cc 2 Comments

Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice during a minicamp in June (AP) Now you know why John Schneider doesn’t pay big money in free agency very
often: It usually
isn’t worth it.

The release of Cary Williams this week was the latest example. It was the second straight year the Seahawks have gotten rid of a highly paid veteran addition during the season — and they probably set a record with this one, dumping Williams just 12 games into a three-year, $18 million contract.

A year ago, the Seahawks traded Percy Harvin — the pouting malcontent who for a time had poisoned the Seattle locker room.

Since he took over in 2010, Schneider has acquired nine big-contract veterans — defined as making $5 million a year or more — and six of them have not been worth it.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 12: Pittsburgh

November 29, 2015 cc Leave a comment

CHAWK LINES -- Steelers at Seahawks

Marshawn Lynch did not have a sports hernia and could be back in three weeks, Jay Glazer reported.

With Lynch out, Thomas Rawls is in the spotlight.

Today is Russell Wilson’s 27th birthday.

The Seahawks activated Jeremy Lane and again released Bryce Brown.

Find all kinds of previews of Steelers-Seahawks.

Cliff Avril says Ben Roethlisberger will be a challenge to bring down.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 10: Cardinals

November 10, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Paul Richardson is expected to make his season debut Sunday vs. Arizona.

Jeremy Lane is “one day at a time,” but Russell Okung is expected to play vs. Arizona after missing the Dallas game.

Ricardo Lockette returned to Seattle. Okung and Marshawn Lynch had stayed in Dallas with him last week.

Michael Bennett talks his usual goofy gibberish about his fine for hitting Matt Cassel and other things.

Nice feature from ESPN’s Sheil Kapadia on Cliff Avril, who lost his dad earlier this year and has been playing as well as ever this season.

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State of the team, The roster

Midseason position evaluation

November 9, 2015 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks have been highly disappointing this season as the combined effects of a Super Bowl hangover (i.e., not fully trusting Pete Carroll anymore), contract squabbles and new additions have yielded the worst-case scenario: a 4-4 record.

But, they won two straight before their bye and now have a chance to redeem themselves in the final eight games.

Let’s take a look at each position to see how it has performed, what it needs to do better the rest of the year and what it might look like next year.

QUARTERBACK

Russell Wilson is completing a career-high 68.8 percent, but that has done nothing to help the offense in the red zone, where Seattle is the league’s worst offense.

Wilson’s crew has been the main culprit in meltdown losses against Cincinnati and Carolina – games the Hawks should have won.

Wilson is in his fourth season now and should be playing at a consistently high level, but he is not. Some of that is due to the subpar OL in front of him, some of it is due to the inconsistent play calls, some of it is due to him.

Wilson needs to have more urgency. He needs to change plays more at the line. He needs to account for blitzers. He needs to move more to create better passing lanes. He needs to find his open receivers more quickly and get the ball out fast.

The Hawks have little room for error in the second half, and Wilson needs to play like it.

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State of the team, Week 8: At Dallas

Bennett says Hawks became complacent, selfish, unfocused

October 29, 2015 cc Leave a comment

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.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 8: At Dallas

October 28, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Apparently, Thomas Rawls is not going to be able to play this week. Why else would the Seahawks sign Bryce Brown? The Hawks lost Rod Smith off waivers to Dallas two weeks ago, so they had to look elsewhere for reinforcements this time. B.J. Daniels was released for the second time this season.

Pete Carroll says K.J. Wright is having his best season (he’s great at defending screen plays, and he’s apparently not the one giving up big yards to tight ends).

Paul Richardson’s pending return highlights the general lack of contributions from the 2013 and 2014 draft classes.

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It's bigger than football, State of the team

Remember when the Seahawks ‘slammed’ the door on Hardy?

October 26, 2015 cc Leave a comment

As Greg Hardy proceeds to melt down in Dallas right before our eyes – and right before the Seahawks play the Cowboys this weekend — it’s a good reminder that the Seahawks realized what a head case the mercurial pass rusher was and steered away from him.

If you recall, a report out of Dallas in March indicated the Seahawks were willing to match any offer the Cowboys made for Hardy, who was facing a domestic-assault case and a suspension (which ended up being cut from 10 games to four).

The Seahawks did admit to checking into Hardy, calling it their usual “due diligence,” but general manager John Schneider also said they had zero interest in Hardy once they learned the specifics of the domestic assault case.

“We talk about being in on every single deal so we don’t miss out on something,” Schneider said in May. “… Once we found out what was going on with that situation, we were done. It was over. But we had to find out what happened. We opened that door, we looked inside and we slammed it.”

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