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Field Gulls - Your 2008 Seattle Seahawks

Discussion in 'Archive: The Arena' started by Lane_Winree, Aug 4, 2008.

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  1. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    With the pre-season among us, it's time to look at the 2008 Seattle Seahawks.

    2008 Defensive Starters

    RDE: Darryl Tapp - Emerged as a consistent, if unspectacular, defensive tackle. Will be challenged by 1st round pick Lawrence Jackson
    DT: Rocky Bernard - An above average, highly skilled tackle.
    DT: Brandon Mebane - A big run-stuffer. Doesn't excel in the pass rush, but that's where Craig Terrill comes in.
    LDE: Patrick Kerney - A freakin' tank.

    LOLB: Leroy Hill - He's always been a great blitzing LOLB, but last season he finally figured out how to cover. Above average, often shadowed by his LB mates.
    MLB: Lofa Tatupu - The key cog in the Seattle defensive turnaround. Had a breakout season last year, expect an even better season this year.
    ROLB: Julian Peterson - Want him to cover? Check. Line up at DE? Check. Blitz package? Check. What can't he do?

    FS: Brian Russell - Ugh. Just...go away. Consistently lost in coverage. The only thing he brings to the table is the ability to hit and hit hard.
    SS: Deon Grant - Sure there are better strong safeties out there, but Grant is a capable, consistent starter.
    CB2: Kelly Jennings - He's undersized, but he's great in coverage. Forces quarterbacks to find other targets.
    CB1: Marcus Trufant - Pro bowler who stepped up his game another notch last season. Expect him to lead the season in interceptions, and good luck finding a WR that can get past him.

    Dime Back: Jordan Babineaux - He can play multiple defensive positions. Granted, he can't play any of them well...
    Nickel Back: Josh Wilson - Backup cornerback, emerged last season as an asset in the nickel package. Health concerns continue to plague him.

    2008 Offensive Starters

    LT: Walter Jones - He's not the player he once was, but he's still one of the better left tackles in the game.
    LG: Mike Wahle - FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY SOMEONE WHO CAN REPLACE HUTCHINSON THANK YOU TIM RUSKELL
    C: Chris Spencer - Not sure what to make of him yet. He showed flashes of brilliance, but often looked lost. Hopefully the addition of Mike Wahle to his left will help him with the pass rush.
    RG: Rob Simms - There were points in which he looked good at LG last season. Most of the time, he looked lost. The team is hoping a transition to the less-demanding RG position will help him.
    RT: Sean Locklear - The best praise you can give an RT is to say nothing at all. Most of last season, we said nothing about Sean Locklear.

    Flanker: Bobby Engram - Engram had the best season of his career last season, but let's be honest. He's a slot guy. Pray that Deion Branch returns from the PUP list soon.
    Split End: Nate Burleson - We're going to miss DJ Hackett. Burleson is a very athletic reciever, he just blows routes like it's going out of style. If he can figure out Holmgren's offense this season, he's going to be great. If not, prepare to watch Hasselbeck tear out what little is left of his hair.
    Slot: Courtney Taylor/Ben Obomanu/Logan Payne/Bill the Hotdog Vendor - Someone is going to have to show something during the preseason. My money is on Taylor.
    Tight End: John Carlson - YES YES YES YES YES YES YES HOLMGREN FINALLY HAS A TIGHT END WHO CAN STRETCH THE SEAMS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    HB: Julius Jones/Justin Forsett/Mo Morris - One of these guys is going to be the odd man out this year. With Forsett's performance, expect Mo Morris to be looking for a new job before the regular season. Forsett and Jones will likely form an RB by Committee, and both will be huge improvements over Shaun Alexander. These guys still have the physical ability to rush, and unlike Alexander, opens up the game for the screen pass.
    FB: Leonard Weaver/Owen Schmitt - Supposedly this is a position that's up for grabs. Let me tell you who wins: Weaver. Schmitt is going to have a hard time adjusting to the pro-scheme, whereas Weaver has already proven to be a capable
     
  2. rechedelphar

    rechedelphar Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 29, 2004
    The Seahawaks are my favorite NFL team.
     
  3. imperial-dork

    imperial-dork Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Apr 2, 2005
    I tried to buy regular season tickets when they went on sale yesterday. No dice. :p
     
  4. darth_gersh

    darth_gersh Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    I will be up for the Green Bay and Rams games.
     
  5. Jedi Gunny

    Jedi Gunny Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    May 20, 2008
    Seattle is one of my favorite teams in the NFL, and they look good on paper right now. :D
     
  6. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    I honestly believe this is a better club than the 2005 Superbowl team.
     
  7. Jedi Gunny

    Jedi Gunny Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    May 20, 2008
    Ow . . . that game last week against Buffalo was ugly. One can hope that they will turn around and play hard this week.
     
  8. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    Last week wasn't a talent issue, it was a freaking coaching issue.

    There's two great ways to counteract the blitz, and that's calling a draw or using the screen.

    Coach Holmgren must have forgotten about that.
     
  9. Zaz

    Zaz Jedi Knight star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 1998
    It's gonna be a long, long season.
     
  10. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    If you're panicking now, you shouldn't be.

    There's two easy things that can be done to improve this team, and I mean really, really, really easy.

    1) Bench Brian Russell, move Deon Grant to Free Safety, and play Jordan Babineaux at Strong Safety.

    Russell has yet to show up in deep coverage, despite the fact he's the Cover-1 Safety. He's slow, he's bad, he sucks. Bench him, because the cornerbacks can't do it all by themselves.

    2) Fire defensive coordinator John Marshall and replace him with someone who doesn't have an all-out blitz fetish on third and longs.

    Notice that every single time the Seahawks gave up a big play, it was on third and long? Yeah. That's Marshall's fault.

    Marshall loves Cover-1 and using his linebackers and D-backs to blitz the the quarterback, despite the fact that the front-four has been stellar this year. Marshall really loves to use Cover-1 and using his linebackers and D-backs to blitz on third and long.

    Here's the problem with that:

    Brian Russell is the Free Safety assigned to Cover 1 duties.

    Oh, and this: Cover-1 and all-out blitzes are stupid in third and long.

    See? That's it.
     
  11. darth_gersh

    darth_gersh Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    I was going to go to the Rams game but I don't feel like paying $90.00 for 2 0-2 teams.
     
  12. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    It's remarkable how many people think that 0-2 is the end of the world. Back away from the ledge, there's a lot of football left to be played.

    The defense, minus Brian Russell, is fine. The Offense just went off and signed Koren Robinson and traded for Keary Colbert. Branch and Engram will be back in two or three weeks to boot.

    If special teams can just get a gunner who can make a tackle, they'll be fine.
     
  13. darth_gersh

    darth_gersh Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2005
    Well, I am a Cowboy fan to start with. I just like to watch a game or two NFL games a year. I think I would rather save my money for the Packers/Seattle game. I not so sure how good Seattle will be this year, but with a weak division they certainly still have time to change things around.
     
  14. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    The Seahawks are a good team overall, but have been hurt by the play of their free-safety and special teams.
     
  15. rechedelphar

    rechedelphar Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 29, 2004
    Plus the Rams are perhaps the worst team in the NFL. The niners and Cardinals aren't that good. The Hawks can still make a godd playoff push.
     
  16. whiteeagle

    whiteeagle Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Dec 24, 2004
    The cardinals arent that good on the defensive side of the ball .... but they got one the top receiver tandems in the league. just as long as they keep leinart out of the lineup.
     
  17. Jedi Gunny

    Jedi Gunny Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    May 20, 2008
    Looking back at the beginning of the season, the Hawks are absolutely pathetic. :( Not only have they failed to become a powerful force this season, but they have only two total wins all season. Ouch.
     
  18. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    At the very least, we can be thankful the Seahawks aren't the Detroit Lions. At least this team has some talented players.

    Looking back through the games this season, I can't help but be very, very concerned with Matt Hasselbeck. If his back doesn't heal, he is done. He's lost all of the zip on his passes.

    Unfortunately this season has seen a crazy number of injuries. When you lose your starting QB for six games, your MLB for a game or two, have both of your secondary cornerbacks go down, just about everyone in the WR group, and your starting Left-guard, center, right guard, and right tackle for any stretch of games, you're going to be looking at a rough season.

    Bad luck with injuries and underperformance by players who should be playing better doomed the season.

    Now, I'd like to present the largest reason the defense has blown all year:

    Number twenty-five, starting free-safety Brian Russell. That's him bouncing off the ball carrier.

    The worst starting safety in the league. Russell is so unbelievably bad he's dragging the rest of the defense down with him. He's consistently late on his Cover-1 assignments, has no idea who to engage on blitzes (I saw him engage a left tackle once), and is otherwise slow and old. Cornerbacks have had no help over the top because Russell is just awful.
     
  19. Captain_Typho

    Captain_Typho Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2003
    Why couldn't the seahawks deliver my dolphins from evil? They were so close to beating new england.....

    [face_plain]
     
  20. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    I'd like to redirect your attention to Number 25 starting Free-Safety Brian Russell and defensive coordinator John Marshall. Marshall has this funny thing he does when he has a team at third and long. He calls a 7-man blitz that employs Brian Russell.

    On every third and long.

    Now, every now and then a 7-man blitz on third and long is an okay decision. I'd prefer that they go into a nickel package to actually cover the receivers, but for the sake of the argument lets say that this particular blitz is okay to use every now and then. Here's the problem.

    Brian Freaking Russell.

    He's the safety used in the blitz package and he's awful. He's terrible at everything a safety is supposed to do. Why he's being used in this package instead of Jordan Babineaux is beyond me.
     
  21. The Great No One

    The Great No One Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2005
    i think that's three out of 20 posts dedicated to your utter and complete hatred of all things brian russell.

    sure one person can bring a defense down, but nowhere near this far. there are bigger concerns than just brian russell, for instance everyone knew holmgren was leaving after this season and it's like the air just went out of everything when the receivers went down. which is an amazing bad string of luck, i gotta admit. two positions have been literally cursed this season. running back at denver, and wide receiver in seattle. almost impossible to overcome the level of injuries the hawks had this year. i'd blame the season more on that and holmgren kinda just calling it quits to a degree than brian russell.

    :snoopy
     
  22. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    The WR situation has been overblown by the media for the most part. Bobby Engram has played for the most part of the season and has been fine, Deion Branch is still recovering from knee surgery but has been an adequate flanker when healthy. Nate Burleson has never been that great of a receiver. Jordan Kent and Logan Payne were never good. Courtney Taylor needs to see more snaps. More concerning than them is the bad play of Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace. When Hasselbeck has been playing, he hasn't shown the touch or zip he had last year and that's directly caused by the bulging disc in his back. If that doesn't heal properly, Matt Hasselbeck will be finished as a starting NFL quarterback. Seneca Wallace is a backup at best, nothing more.

    The injuries at wide receiver aren't making Hasselbeck underthrow his targets and throw weak passes in the red zone. Holmgren's WCO is dependent on quick timing routes. For the most part, the WRs that have been out there have been fine. The problem lies with the quarterbacks this year.

    Seattle needs to draft a quarterback in the first or second round. Matt Hasselbeck is 34 and has an injury history. He's not going to get any better than he ever has been, and odds are he is only going to get worse from here on out.

    Seattle also needs to replace Gil Haskell as the offensive coordinator and John Marshall as the defensive coordinator. Their playcalling is perhaps the most stale in the NFL. Everyone knows that on third and long the offense is going to call for a FB draw and the defense is going to call a 7 man blitz. Every time.
     
  23. The Great No One

    The Great No One Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2005
    those i'll give you. i figure with holmgren leaving the coordinators will likely be replaced. i doubt mora'll want them around in all honesty.

    i must admit, the seneca wallace experiment should be deemed something of a failure. and this seems like a good draft to go for a QB, since they'll have a highish pick. maybe they'll get lucky and end up with a matt ryan, or joe flacco.

    your comment on burleson isn't quite accurate, as he was extremely underrated last season.

    :snoopy
     
  24. Lane_Winree

    Lane_Winree Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 30, 2006
    Burleson is a special teams stud who really isn't that great of a route runner. He has a very annoying tendency to give up (or flat out screw up) on routes and get "creative." That's great if you're running an Air Coryell system. Unfortunately this is the WCO. Most of his success last year was due to the fact that most defenses were too busy covering DJ Hackett or Deon Branch. In that kind of a situation you could insert any random receiver at split-end or slot and get similar results.

    Even Burleson's contributions to special teams have been marginalized. CB Josh Wilson has emerged as a fantastic kick returner. Though he doesn't have as many return TDs as Burleson had last season, Wilson can be counted on to regularly get the ball out to the 40 or beyond in the kick return game.

    As for Wallace, I'm not sure if anyone ever projected him to be a starter. As a backup he's valuable because he's durable and doesn't cost much against the cap, but he just doesn't possess the physical tools and the smarts to be an NFL starting quarterback. He is what he is, I suppose. I'm not opposed to keeping him around because I don't expect (or want) a freshly drafted quarterback to be starting right away in the NFL. Let the draftee serve as the third-string quarterback and study the system for a season or two.
     
  25. The Great No One

    The Great No One Jedi Grand Master star 8

    Registered:
    Jun 4, 2005
    fair enough, as admittedly i haven't had much opportunity to see the hawks in the last couple years.

    and i'm not sure if starting a rookie is a bad thing or not. no one expected the falcons or ravens to have their current starters work out anywhere near like they have, and yet matt ryan is in the running for the freaking MVP award, and basically has the ORTY award sewn up already. what's crazy is i'm not sure ryan doesn't deserve both. so i'd be wary of saying you flat out don't want a rookie starting, especially if hasslebeck is done like seems may be possible. hope not, i always liked him. and unless i'm mistaken you definitely don't want wallace as the main option at QB.

    :snoopy
     
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