The Seahawks are already snooping around pre-released free agents. Ricky Jean Francois got everyone excited, but then he signed with Scot McCloughan — the man who drafted him in San Francisco.
There are a bunch of veteran defensive linemen already available, and we agree with Danny Kelly: The Seahawks are likely to explore that market closely.
Earl Thomas had his torn labrum repaired, and Tharold Simon apparently had shoulder surgery this week as well.
Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll together again?
Don’t count on it. Bush, cut by the
Detroit Lions on Wednesday, is
going to be 30 in March, and the Hawks have no room for him in their backfield.
But the dual news surrounding the former USC duo (USC is giving Carroll an honorary degree in May) took us on a trip down memory lane — back to 2010, when Carroll came to Seattle and the NCAA’s good ol’ boys showed once again what a bunch of corrupt hypocrites they are.
One little sheep actually bleated for the Seahawks to fire Carroll in the wake of the NCAA’s vindictive and heavy-handed sanctions against USC. We laughed at that bozo, knowing the NCAA to be one of the most unethical organizations in America and any of its sycophants (like Mike Florio and Steve Sarkisian) to be mindless chuckleheads. We were too busy explaining why Carroll was not Dennis Erickson, despite the seeming similarities.
A few months later, we ripped the spineless fools — especially Sarkisian — who backed the farcical, two-faced, money-grubbing, oppressive establishment and blamed Bush for pulling back the curtain.
We were never USC fans, but the fact is Carroll, Bush and company dominated on the field like no other team in the 2000s. Carroll went 97-19, won two national titles and lost one he could have won.
The NCAA can do whatever it wants on paper (it vacated the 2004 title and all 12 wins in 2005), but it doesn’t change what really happened.
With two national titles and one Super Bowl title, Carroll has proven without a doubt that he is one of the great coaches of this era. (Just imagine if he had finished his two championship losses properly: five titles.)
And he clearly is a better human being than anyone who has ever been part of or supported the greedy, phony, spiteful, evil empire known as the NCAA.
USC obviously thinks so, or it wouldn’t be honoring him twice in two days in May. Good for USC.
The Seahawks reportedly have offered Marshawn Lynch about $21 million over the next two seasons. Does he want to play though?
John Schneider and Pete Carroll both spoke at the Combine, about Lynch, the Super Bowl and the future.
Schneider revealed that Jeremy Lane suffered a torn ACL on the same interception play on which he also broke his wrist in the Super Bowl.
Among many topics, Carroll said they were working on hiring some assistant coaches at the Combine.
Speaking of Lynch, he had a good message for a crowd at an underground concert in Oakland on Thursday.
Russell Wilson also did some talking this week, taking the blame for the goal-line interception in the Super Bowl but reminding everyone that he is moving forward and thinking ahead, as always.
Pete Carroll and John Schneider have kowtowed to Marshawn Lynch for years, so why would anyone think they suddenly would take a tough-guy approach with him and set a drop-dead deadline for him to accept a new contract or declare that he will play in 2015?
Carroll and Schneider are not disciplinarians. They ask their players to do things; they never tell them.
In Lynch’s case, they have let him do whatever he wanted ever since they traded for him in 2010. He plays when he wants, he defies the NFL as he chooses and he grabs his junk whenever he is about to score. He has Carroll and Schneider by the balls, too.
Continue reading Lynch controls the action, and his bosses know it
A major myth has been propagated across the Pacific Northwest and the NFL in recent months. You know, the one that says the Seahawks need Marshawn Lynch in order to win a Super Bowl.
(This is completely separate from the idea that the Seahawks would have won Super Bowl XLIX if they had run Lynch one last time.)
The Hawks have been partly guilty themselves of spreading the nasty rumor, with Pete Carroll and John Schneider talking him up as a core player. They consider him such a key piece that they have offered the soon-to-be 29-year-old a pay raise and extension.
There is nothing wrong with that — they can fit it under the cap nicely and not lose much even if he does walk away after 2015 — but the fact is the Hawks don’t really need Lynch.
Continue reading Lynch is a study in sentimentality: Hawks don’t really need him
The Seahawks have the fourth-toughest schedule in the NFL in 2015, based on 2014 results. But it’s not as if a tough schedule is anything new for them. They had the No. 10 slate in 2013 and the No. 6 schedule last year — and we all know they should be 2-0 in the Super Bowl.
But they aren’t, so we are left to look forward to the 2015 season and wonder whether the Hawks can become the first team in the salary-cap era to play in the Super Bowl in three straight seasons.
Here’s an early look at that No. 4 schedule:
Continue reading How many games can Hawks win with No. 4 toughest schedule?
Pete Carroll loves to do things differently, and if he still wants to build a dynasty — even if he won’t say it in those terms — he certainly will get his chance to do it in a way it has never been done.
The Seahawks are the second team to ever follow up a Super Bowl win with a Super Bowl loss the next year, and if they are going to become a historically dominant team, they will have to get back a lot sooner than Washington did.
Continue reading Hawks can still build a dynasty this decade
The Seahawks have spent the last five years building one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL — a unit that has allowed the fewest points in the league for three years running and has been the main reason Seattle has reached back-to-back Super Bowls.
But, as we saw in the Super Bowl, the offense is a two-dimensional cardboard cutout — forced to rely largely on the determination of Marshawn Lynch (aka Beast Mode) and the freelance ability of Russell Wilson (aka DangeRuss).
When Seattle’s best offensive personnel grouping includes undrafted receivers Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Ricardo Lockette and fifth-round tight end Luke Willson — and the coaches think throwing to Lockette on the goal line to win the Super Bowl is the best play — the Hawks have a serious problem.
This offseason, that must change. It’s the perfect time for Pete Carroll, John Schneider, Darrell Bevell and Tom Cable to determine the future of the offense — to improve their receiving corps, find some reliable offensive linemen and otherwise make a concerted effort to fix a unit that has been running on the shoestrings of Lynch and Wilson.
Continue reading This is the perfect time to reset the offense
A big day for Kris Richard and the Carroll family was trumped by news that Lofa Tatupu is coming back.
For those who just became Seahawks fans in the last four years, Tatupu was the Bobby Wagner of Seattle’s first Super Bowl team. Tatupu played for Pete Carroll at USC and again in 2010, when Carroll came to Seattle.
Tatupu, a second-round draft pick in 2005, was part of a defensive overhaul that year that helped the Seahawks reach the Super Bowl (where they lost in controversial fashion).
Tatupu went to the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons as the middle linebacker on Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks, but the undersized player quickly wore down with a multitude of injuries.
After three straight seasons of double-digit wins, with one Super Bowl trophy already on the mantle, Pete Carroll had us believing. He had us talking destiny and dynasty.
And then one ill-fated play call put an end to it all — for a moment.
But, as Carroll tweeted Thursday, “One moment does not define you; the journey does. We will outlast this.”
He’s right, of course. The Seahawks are built to last. They have more Super Bowls in them.
“This is a championship organization,” Carroll told Matt Lauer of “Today.” “It’s an extraordinary time for us. We’re right in the middle of all the good, positive things that we can do. So this is what we have to deal with, and of course it’s going to make us stronger.
“Think how strong we’ll be coming out of this. Think how powerful our togetherness will be, our mindset will be as we know that we’ve shouldered this and we move forward and get back to what we want to do. … It’s a great challenge, but nothing could make us stronger.”
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 