Tag Archives: Russell Wilson

Smith a better value than top-five QB in 2023

February 4, 2023 cc Leave a comment

Q&A series: We take a look at some big questions about the Seahawks’ salary cap situation and roster.

Today’s question: Instead of paying big money to Geno Smith, should the Seahawks draft a QB or go with Drew Lock and use cap space on other positions?

There remains a subset of fans and media who think the formula for winning the Super Bowl is a quarterback on a rookie contract and a team built around that player.

The main data point for their argument is the fact that no team has won a Super Bowl with a QB who has taken up more than 13.1% of the team’s salary cap. Russell Wilson, a former third-round pick with a cap hit of $681,000 when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, is the bellwether for that theory.

The fact is that, in the salary cap era (1994 to now), 75% of the time the Super Bowl-winning QB has been in the top three in team cap percentage, according to a 2022 study by Bookies.com. Three QBs on rookie deals have won it in the past 11 years, but most of the winners fell in the range of 10.6% to 12.3% of team cap.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to the trend.

If the Chiefs beat the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, Patrick Mahomes will become the first QB over 13.1% (Steve Young in 1994) to win it. Mahomes took up 17.2% of the Chiefs’ cap this season.

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Week 7: At L.A. Chargers

Carroll loves first place, but ‘the best is yet to come’

October 25, 2022 cc 1 Comment

The Seahawks have surprised everyone, leading the NFC West at Week 7 with a 4-3 record built on two straight good-looking wins.

Now everyone wants to take a pause to congratulate Pete Carroll and John Schneider. There are still 10 games left, but no one predicted the Hawks would be leading the division at this point (the closest we came was a 3-4 projection) with a quarterback who is playing better than the erstwhile star he replaced and a young defense that has seemed to find its way after a rough start.

Carroll is enjoying this rebirth, both of his roster and himself and Schneider, who could be seen in the SoFi Stadium suites Sunday excitedly watching his new young team beat the Chargers 37-23.

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Week 4: At Detroit

Hawks won’t always face defenses that bad, so theirs needs to improve

October 6, 2022 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks are in the thick of the division race – for now. But an average offense and horrible defense can’t keep them there.

Yeah, yeah, the offense put up 41 points Sunday in Detroit — against the NFL’s worst defense. That followed 23 against the league’s No. 25 scoring defense, Atlanta. But the Hawks were shut out by the NFL’s top scoring defense, the 49ers, after scoring just 17 (all in the first half) against Denver, which is a top-five defense.

So far, the Hawks have struggled vs. good defenses and scored well against bad ones. In other words, Geno Smith and Co. look like an average group that needs some help from the defense.

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Week 1: Denver

Don’t write off Geno & the Hawks so soon

September 13, 2022 cc Leave a comment

“They wrote me off; I ain’t write back though.”

That was Geno Smith after winning his first opening-game start in eight years, against Russell Wilson’s Broncos on Monday Night Football.

It also could be the entire Seahawks team, which felt a measure of vindication after beating the highly favored Broncos and Wilson, Seattle’s longtime franchise QB.

Smith was nearly perfect in the first half and then fizzled in the second thanks to DK Metcalf’s fumble and the Broncos owning the ball for over 20 minutes. But the defense rose up and showed how improved it already is — and signs of how very good it may become as this season goes on.

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CHAWK LINES, Week 1: Denver

Russell Wilson returns

September 11, 2022 cc Leave a comment

Russell Wilson’s first game with the Broncos will be against his old Seahawks. Here’s a good in-depth look from Brady Henderson of ESPN.com at why Wilson is no longer a Seahawk.

A big question is: How will Seattle fans greet Wilson? Cheers or boos? We expect a mix of both before the game and a very loud crowd when Wilson has the ball during the game. Pete Carroll seems all in favor the latter. Wilson said, “I know they’ll be rowdy. I know they will be excited. I know that. It’s ‘Monday Night Football,’ so it’ll be a special environment.”

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Schedule, Week 1: Denver

Just how many games can the Seahawks win?

September 6, 2022 cc 2 Comments

As the Seahawks prepare to start a season without Russell Wilson for the first time in 11 years, they are not expected to win more than four or five games.

In the Wilson years, the Hawks would have been favored to beat Denver, Atlanta, Detroit, Las Vegas, Carolina and the Giants and Jets while splitting their division games. That would equal 10 wins, with New Orleans, Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City the wild cards.

With no dependable quarterback, though, the Hawks currently are favored against only the Falcons, Panthers and the New York teams. Vegas has the over/under at 5.5 wins. The combined career winning percentage of Geno Smith and Drew Lock is .382, which would translate to six wins.

Is that really the best this team will be able to manage without Wilson?

It all depends on the running game, special teams, takeaways — and more takeaways. And probably putting Lock at QB.

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Trades

Reports: Seahawks, Panthers are favorites for Watson

March 11, 2022 cc 5 Comments

John Schneider certainly has a plan for replacing Russell Wilson. It sounds like it might start with Deshaun Watson.

The Seahawks reportedly are among at least half a dozen teams who have been doing their research on Watson’s legal situation, which involves accusations by 22 women that he sexually harassed or assaulted them during massage sessions.

A Texas grand jury declined to indict Watson on nine criminal charges related to some of those civil cases, and Watson is now expected to be traded in the next week.

Two reports indicate the Seahawks — to the disappointment of many fans — are a strong favorite in the pursuit of the talented but troubled quarterback.

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State of the team, The roster, Trades

Was the trade a good deal? And how quickly can the Hawks ‘reset’?

March 9, 2022 cc 2 Comments

Many Seahawks fans are understandably upset over the trade of longtime franchise QB Russell Wilson, not realizing that it is the best thing for the franchise (and for Wilson).

Some fans are so busy sobbing into their beers that they even think the Seahawks are counting on Drew Lock to be the new starter. Some think they got a bad deal from Denver (Lock’s presence might have some bearing on that). And almost everyone thinks the Hawks are now rebuilding.

Let’s take a look at each of those concerns and see where the Seahawks go from here:

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Franchise history, Free agency, Trades

It was time

March 9, 2022 cc 2 Comments

Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner joined the Seahawks on the same draft day in 2012. They won a Super Bowl together in their second season, and they were the last remnants of that championship team, so it was fitting that both were let go by the franchise on the same day – 10 years after they arrived.

Wilson and Wagner will go down as the greatest quarterback and linebacker in franchise history, both likely bound for the Hall of Fame for their record-setting play over the past decade. As everyone also knows, they were equally exemplary human beings during their tenure in Seattle. They were everything you want in players, on and off the field.

But life requires change, and all things eventually end. This always seemed the month we would say goodbye to both Wilson and Wagner.

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NFL Combine, Trades

‘Definitely’ no Wilson trade? That’s not what they said

March 3, 2022 cc 1 Comment

Local media and some nationalistas are now certain that the Seahawks are not going to trade Russell Wilson.

On the surface, that sounds right. This week, Wilson repeated how much he likes Seattle, Pete Carroll said they have “no intention” of trading Wilson and John Schneider has been telling teams he is not shopping the QB.

But they all certainly have left the door open to a potential split, each carefully couching his words in case a big trade comes along that satisfies everyone. We won’t be surprised if Wilson is dealt – in fact, we put it at 60-40 that he is. If it happens, it will seemingly come out of the blue – that’s how Schneider does it.

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