Defensive backs take part of their traditional pregame huddle before taking the field for warmups.
Brian Nemhauser·
Coaching AnalysisJohn SchneiderThe Front Office
··1 min read

Seahawks Front Office: What else did we learn this weekend?

A few meta-learnings about our new front office:

1) Pete Carroll will not just pick guys he is familiar with
This may seem like a small thing, but remember that both Holmgren and Ruskell had a habit of trading with teams they had a former relationship with, and taking players who they were familiar with. I always found this limiting. It limits risk, but also limits potential reward by narrowing your field of view.

2) The genius of this past weekend shines a new light on the Whitehurst deal
We all felt that too much was surrendered for Whitehurst. It felt like a rookie mistake. I was buoyed by the fact that we didn’t get suckered into overpaying for Brandon Marshall, and was further emboldened by the weekend’s events. If you step back and look at all the moves the Hawks have made, including letting Deon Grant go, trading Daryll Tapp, etc., it’s hard not to see a pattern of competence emerging. And if Whitehurst really is worth what they gave up for him, that trade may end up being the best move of them all.

3) Patience
While I may have been anxiously looking for trade-back opportunities to pick up more draft picks, the Hawks waited…and waited…and waited. And then they nailed a value pick each time. There was no appearance of desperation looking for the pass rushing DE we all know we needed. If felt like this was a multi-year plan, and not just some guys hoping to fix everything on a 5-11 team in three days. Finding a Chuck Darby-like veteran that can play a year for us at DE should not be so hard on the remaining free agent market. If the young player isn’t there that we need, don’t try to invent him.

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One Comment

  1. The more I look at this, the more impressed I am with Schneider and Carroll. For all the rah-rah bluster, they seem to have devised a solid plan and stuck with it. During the FA period, they let some guys go that apparently weren't worth the money. I understood about Sims and Nate, still not sure about Tapp – but they had a plan.

    They picked up some value free agents, filled some needs. Pulled the trigger on the Whitehurst deal.

    They brought in Brandon Marshall but refused to overpay. Stayed out the McNabb deal, didn't show any interest in Ben.

    On draft day, they clearly had scenarios at work, options that they could go to and seemed to be ahead of the game all day.

    A month ago, I was worried about this team. I figured draft day would see is get a high-profile player and a bunch of washouts. Instead, we have as many as 6 or 7 solid contributors.

    Thanks to the signing of Hamilton and now Okung, the Oline is dramatically better. Now with White and Washington added to Forsett and, say, Rankin, the running game is solid. We'll have Matt throwing to WRs TJ, Branch, Tate with a little help from Butler and TEs Carlson, Owens and McCoy.

    The defense will be far better as well with Thomas in the backfield and hopefully Thurmond recovers. Some help up front from Vickerson and Dexter Davis.

    Not all the draftees will make it, in fact, many won't. The Williams boys are very long shots, there will be some injuries and disappointments, some of the FAs will leave, virtually all of the unsigned picks won't make it. At some point, Clipboard Jesus is going to have to show us what he has.

    But – This has been a fascinating couple of days and weeks. No, we didn't magically jump from a 5 win team to a home field bye in the playoffs. But. We now have some light at the end of the tunnel and a .500 season and maybe, just maybe 9 or 10 wins and a division title are at least in reach.

    Looks like the FO has a plan and I like it.

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