Brian Nemhauser·
Morning After
··6 min read

The Morning After: Seahawks Roster Rebuild Starts Now After 42-7 Thrashing by Rams

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It was December 23rd. The dominant team in the division was playing the team that wanted to unseat them. The challenger had lost a close contest earlier in the year, and was primed for retribution. The champs never knew what hit them. They were dominated in every phase of the game. The final score read 42-13. Having lost four straight to the 49ers before that game, the Seahawks would go on to win 12 of 13 matchups, including the last nine. San Francisco actually won the division in 2012 despite that dismantling in Seattle, and were arguably the second best team in football the following season, but have not finished higher than 3rd in the division or won more than eight games since. Changing of the guard is not usually a subtle tap on the shoulder. It is more like a deck of cards cataclysmically collapsing in an instant. The loser is left to sort through the rubble and decide which cards to keep as they set out to recapture what was taken from them.

The Los Angeles Rams are a far superior team to the Seahawks. Aaron Donald is arguably the most dominant defender in football. Todd Gurley might be the best running back. Sammy Watkins is arguably their third best receiver. Greg Zuerlein is the best kicker. Johnny Hekker is the best punter. Even dopey Jared Goff deserves praise for a nearly flawless season. If I had a vote for coach of the year, it would go to Sean McVay, and all Wade Phillips does is build top-flight defenses. They entered this game ranked #1 in DVOA by Football Outsiders. There is a good bet they will retain that ranking after this game.

Seattle was outplayed in every facet. The defense will get most of the shame because the Rams offense scored 40 points, but they actually kept the game close for the first quarter despite tremendous field position by the Rams. The defense had the excuse of being short five of their best players. What was the excuse on offense? On special teams? There was none.

The offensive line was a disaster. Jon Ryan was exposed again for not having a strong enough leg while kicking into the wind. Neiko Thorpe and Jeremy Lane were dominated in coverage, rarely getting to within 10 yards of the returner. Even Duane Brown got two holding penalties on the first few drives.

 

This was a game that really set up to show you what a team the is totally reliant on Russell Wilson looks like. Many will take that as a shot at Wilson. The truth is this was a game that could only be competitive if Wilson was the best player on the field. He was nowhere near good enough. Even if he had played his best, do you really think the Seahawks could win consistently with a defense and run game that looks like that?

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Hiding behind the injuries is foolish. That’s part of the sport. It is not just an age issue, as some would suggest. Chris Carson, Thomas Rawls, C.J. Prosise, Paul Richardson, Tyler Lockett and others have been young and injured. Guys like Marshawn Lynch, Joe Thomas, and Tom Brady might have a thing or two to say about durability. More true than saying older players get injured is that injured players get injured. Folks who have missed time with injuries before are far more likely to miss time in the future. Seattle was very fortunate to not only draft incredibly talented players from 2010-2012, but very durable ones.

The 27 games missed for 2017 includes the next two games for players on injured reserve, but could rise higher still if players not on IR miss more time.

Building a championship team relies on so many things going right, and injuries are the one least in your control. I was too superstitious to mention the Seahawks injury good fortune after each season before last year. What has happened since the team won the championship is they have had to increasingly pay their stars in order to maintain their core, but have also become increasingly reliant on that core to perform. Subpar years or injuries hurt the team more substantially.

Michael Bennett is very clearly in decline. Cliff Avril likely will not play again, and if he does, it won’t be in Seattle given the cap space the team will gain by releasing him. Kam Chancellor will likely not play again, making the extensions he and Bennett just signed pretty significant mistakes in retrospect. Richard Sherman will play again, but the team very well be wise to move him and his contract if they can get quality draft picks in return.

Thomas has been terrific this season, but he does not strike me as a player who will want to raise young pups and be the last member of the L.O.B. in the building. If he does want to sign an extension, would it be smart for Seattle to do so? Ed Reed played until he was 35, and was a Pro Bowler until 34 and made his last All-Pro team at 32 years old. Thomas will be 29 next season. Keeping him for a few more years might make sense, but the team cannot afford more wasted cap dollars on injured or retired veterans.

 

Wagner should be fine for the next 2-4 years, but Wright is not as athletically gifted and the team should seriously consider letting him walk after next season. There is no way I would spend the money required to sign Sheldon Richardson to a big deal given his production this year.

The youthful parts the Seahawks defense can build around are Frank Clark, Shaquill Griffin, Jarran Reed, Nazair Jones, and Justin Coleman. Maybe Malik McDowell can add to that young core, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Of those players, only Clark and Griffin strike me as potential Pro Bowl players, and neither is particularly close to reaching that potential. My hope is the team tears off the band-aid and invests heavily in developing young players like Delano Hill versus spending free agent dollars on a guy with limited upside like Bradley McDougald.

There are no quick fixes to the roster problems the Seahawks face on defense. The offense is in better shape, but has their own issues. Don’t you dare spend money on Paul Richardson or Jimmy Graham. Both are too old and injury-prone to sink large dollars into. Keeping Brown around at left tackle makes sense. Let Luke Joeckel go to spend money elsewhere. Maybe George Fant returns and can be your right tackle. Maybe Chris Carson returns and looks like the featured back we hoped he would be earlier this season.

For the love of Seattle, please encourage Jon Ryan to retire. He is going to be 37 next season, and is ranked 31st of 33 punters in net average this year and will cost a ridiculous $3.2M in 2018. We already know that Blair Walsh won’t be back. Hekker was an undrafted free agent. Zuerlein was a 6th round pick. It does not take a lot to makeover your kicking game if you make it a priority.

There are still two games left to be played in this season. Seattle could win both or win none. It really does not matter much in the grand scheme of things. This group is not good enough to do anything interesting. This is not the Mariners. The goal is not to be kinda good every year. Every action needs to align to the goal of consistently competing for a championship. John Schneider and Pete Carroll will need to at their best to steer this ship back on course. It may take multiple seasons to get there.

 

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Brian Nemhauser
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33 Comments

  2. John Schneider. A couple of good drafts including Wilson. Other than that very mixed. Pretty bad free agent signings and failure to improve Oline year after year on him.

    1. Not convinced this is completely accurate.
      Biggest flaw has been his ability to hit a few guys BIG (see Bobby, Earl, Sherm, Kam, Clark, Wilson, even KJ) but come up short on plenty of middle tier guys who disappointed.

  3. Agree with all except Richardson. He is young and keeps Bobby clean. Unless his attitude has been poisened by Bennet, i would sign a good one year and option of out of it after if he would agree.
    In otherwords pay money he needs for year one but give flexibility to jettison him year 2

  4. I think they need to invest on the o – line , get the running game back to where it was with lynch . In the meantime rebuild the defense . Play .500 football for the next 2 years and rebuild .

  5. I also wonder if a coaching change is needed , it seems the Hawks are too worried about social issues then playing. That garbage at the end of the Jaguars game looks bad , It seems Carrol has lost control. Maybe a offensive guru like Mcdaniels could be brought in.

    1. Honestly, this is my thought too. Look at teams that have been consistently good and they have a QB and a QB-tailored offense to maximize the strengths of that franchise QB (namely the Steelers and Pats).

      Our defense isn’t going to age well with their physicality and honestly, our defense is really vanilla and only works when you have potential pro-bowlers who are hungry at nearly every position. We can’t keep that up and we’re paying too much to our defensive core to bring in much in the way of backups and that puts a LOT of pressure on the draft.

      I think our team would be honestly best off letting most of our expensive FAs go, cleaning house in the front office (JS can stay and bring in a young hungry offensive coach and an experienced DC to transition) and focus on tailoring an offense to what Russ does best and trying to keep the defense middle of the pack.

      I love Pete, but he’s proven that he’s not willing and/or able to adapt to the league that has figured us out and we’ve been playing with one arm tied behind our backs for 3 years now. The fact that we’ve still made the playoffs and won plenty of games we shouldn’t have only makes it more remarkable and if we had someone to maximize the talent and foster consistency on offense, we’d likely be right back to being awesome again.

  6. Thank you Brian, a bolder column than I expected, but spot on as far as it goes.

    Those that are parents and who made or will make the wrong choice of presents for your kids (in their minds) next week will likely see a similar face to that PC wore at the post game podium. He’s knows the team is in serious trouble (I think………hope…..?) but what will he do about it. He and JS have effectively mortgaged the future by being at (to over) the cap and spending next year’s draft capital to shore up multiple weaknesses this season. It wouldn’t surprise me if JS already has multiple “what if” matrices taking possible retirement/performance stimuli into consideration. If he took the kind of notes yesterday that a prudent GM should have he’ll have his minions amping up those scenarios this week. To be fair, this roster has far better talent depth than last year and probably the year before. I know………that seems counter intuitive after the enormously embarrassing display yesterday………but goes to a point I’ve pitched repeatedly this season. We have more than player talent problems, we’re wasting some of the talent we have through poor game scheming/coaching. I’ve said it before (again in the face of common belief), we don’t have bad coaches, we have coaches that aren’t good enough for our championship expectations. All things are relative. If we only faced competition at the league bottom half we’d be okay, but to advance in the post season you need to be better than that. Pete has what I call “White Horse Syndrome”………he believes with all his heart he can help anyone improve their performance/life…………in spite of themselves. It’s both an admirable quality and a curse. It’s what will likely keep him from making those hard choices that seem so much more evident after yesterday’s debacle. It will take some intervention from the likes of JS or maybe even PA (though that doesn’t seem his style). Some of us have been saying that there’s something wrong within the chemistry of this team for as much talent as they appear to have to be so repetitively lame in the games they lose. Each loss follows the same basic blue print of poor field position, it’s cousins excessive penalties and poor third down production, and weak red zone scoring (though yesterday they couldn’t even must that) with the defense giving up too many chunk plays. We probably got a glimpse of it in the twitter exchange between Earl and Bobby post game, though it could be as much frustration of the moment, except for the personal shot Bobby took. There’s plenty we probably are unaware of.

    Brian has enumerated some of the possible realignments that will/should happen above, and while I said the team has mortgaged the future, there’s room for remediation with judicious value exchanges. As just one example; Graham has had a record TD year, yet can’t seem to catch a ball that isn’t perfectly thrown. They appear to have given up on him blocking, and he’s a bit pouty. His $10m cap hit could go a long way toward hungry talent improvement with some smart choices. Smart choices ain’t easy, I know, look…….our O-line that earns little respect is made up of 3 first rounders, and 2 seconds. Yeah, the draft forever has been about a 50/50 proposition, but still………………

    Last “morning after” I invoked the Don Meredith sign off, and for any doubters, yesterday should be the clincher. There’s little joy in being correct about that sort of thing. Here’s hoping that serious of a butt whoopin’ makes a proper impression (if McVey hadn’t been classy in taking his foot off the pedal and put in the taxi squad it could have been even worse).

    To close on a brighter note………………….at least Blair Walsh was perfect at 1/1.

    1. If you look at the Rams and their draft position over the last ten years, it really is about time they were good, even great going forward with all the top ten picks they have accumulated.

      Seattle has been a patchwork of cheap pickups and attitude throw-aways around some aging studs for awhile now. With how hard they play, how physical their game plan is, that it all came unravelled so spectacularly on sunday was no surprise to me.

      They have been the bullies for so long, and when they in turn get bullied,….

      They need to trade up in the draft and get a difference maker, a stud O lineman, so they can have a competent running game going forward.

      Really, someone needs to get fired. Either Pete or JS needs to go. Or both.

      We right now have a schizo team, a Pete Carroll defense, where WAY too much money was spent re-upping his boyz. JS has to take the blame for the offense. RW is his boy and convinced PC of it. He shaped his offense around him and look what we have – a track team with guys like CJ Procise and Tyler Lockett who can’t stay off the injury table.

      Because all the cash went to the defense, and will with all these extensions….

      Welcome to Cap Room Hell.

      JS put us there, so I vote is the first one to go.

      1. I can appreciate portions of your arguments/comments, but would like to point out just a couple ideas to consider. Perhaps Brian will entertain some debate here on these matters in the future.

        The Rams we just got humbled by have been drafting high for the better part of a decade as you noted, BUT it wasn’t until they made a coaching change coupled with a few free agent vet additions that they made the big swing from chronic loser to division leader/playoff contender. While that largely comports with the gist of your post it also makes my point that having scheming from the coaching staff that suits the player skills may be more important than the individual talent of each of those players. Which plays to my second consideration.

        The “patchwork of pick ups and cast offs…” may have a better track record than most who tout high draft picks as the holy grail to SB success. Here goes the tired refrain…………………..the Patriots have been a team that blends that “patchwork” approach with low picks (high numerical) in each round (usually) to end up in or near the SB every season. There are a couple other teams that are operating close to that method, but the Pats are almost singularly routinely successful………………….because it’s hard to do. I will circle back to my main theme…………….it’s about the coaching being coupled to the player talents, not just player pedigree alone. You probably get that, but it’s not a universal understanding/belief.

    2. I do like reading Uncle Bobs words. Here are my humble thoughts.
      Rams have done us a huge favour by beating the Xmas stuffing our of us.
      The three biggest success factors according to Vince Lombardi are
      1- good Health (so eat, sleep, train, love better, & stay away from booze, drugs, gambling, etc) &
      2- good Luck (which increases with sacrifices e.g. Brady gives Pats big discounts every year to pay for better OL’ers & surprise surprise he gets protected well) &
      3- Togetherness. (accusations that RW is not black enough did not help, RW is the future, so stop the bitching, please ! & be nicer to each other)

      We have been suffering bad luck ever since Kam tore his acl 80% on the last practice play before SB49.

      The social justice stuff (SJS) by M Bennett et al, has caused mental & emotional fatigue. Winning requires total focus. Its much easier to progress SJS after winning SB’s. Police will keep killing black men, as long guns are easy to purchase. Win 5 SB’s which will allow you to become president & then u can tackle the SJS. learn to walk before you run.

      Probably finish 9-7 this year. Unless Dallas’s Zeke E gets hurt &/or Hawks KJR &BWags & Naz J get healthy & JRyan gets his mojo back, then 10-6. I dont mind if we finsih 8-8 as it may get us a top ten draft pick.

      We will win SB 53!

      If we build around our 3 stellar durable players. RW, BWagz & ET3. Our 1st ballot HoF’ers.

      Need to get plenty of new blood in drafts 2018&9. As we may get a higher than usual pick, lets take a stud in 1st round.
      Extend DBrowns contract as he has been a star.
      Let CAvril MBennett JLane ELacey TRawls JRyan Walsh go via trades as they will lost it in a years time. Stock pile draft picks for the future.

      Give Fant &Rees O &Ifedi &Pocic one more year, (Britt was weak first two years & became a Pro B in 3rd yr).

      Keep Sherman & Kam C & Sheldon R & Jimmy G for one more year, the LoB deserve one last hurrah! Then trade em next year for more draft picks. Get em young & hungry & cheap & get lots of em. The future core group is RW DBrown JBritt Bwags ET3. Rest can be traded or let go for comp & draft picks

    3. You nailed it, Uncle Bob. I’ve been saying this sort of things for the past couple of years and got vilified/crucified for it. Even though Brian brought the “sledgehammer” to the table, but he won’t commit to “smash” everything, not just yet. IMHO, like everything in life, it starts at the top and the leadership. You can make “minor” changes but unless you have a solid vision, foundation, and a culture that embraced that vision, then the “band-aid” approach won’t work either; maybe in the short-term, but not as a long-term solution (long term in the NFL is about 5-6 years out). That is why you have to admire NE, love or hate them, and respect their consistency. Consistency is the separation between good and great.

      I don’t think JS or PC will go anywhere because they have an “excuse” for this year-injuries. However, if you go back to 1 or 2 years, you can see the team was already in decline with healthy players. Now, one more year older, do you still think they are the same players? They will make a few moves to “show” they are doing something but the result will be the same- maybe win 10-11 games, get into the playoffs, and get bounced in the second round. But as long, they don’t get embarrassed like yesterday, then it will buy them a couple more years with no championship insight.

    4. Excellent analysis,

      I would strongly implore Carroll to revisit his USC days and look at his coordinators. Why were they successful at the beginning of his run? All those guys, Kifgin, Sark, etc., we’re young bright minds who were innovative and clay ready to be molded. We have coordinators o; our team now who are being surpassed with the same formula by opposing teams. The vast majority of NFL talent and s pretty damn good. What separates great teams for good teams is: coaching, execution and in game adjustments. Well, we have been exposed in all three of those areas as lacking immensely and it has been going on now for 3+ years. It is time for Carroll & Schneider to call a “spade a spade.” Bevel, Cablle and Richard must go. Go find the next crop of young NFL coordinators who will take your philosophy of “Always Compete” and adapt it to their new age concepts. Please Pete, loyalty is good until it becomes the enemy of great. Also, your aging veterans of core players needs to be reassessed. Bennett, Sherman, Kam, Graham, etc., are past their expiration date on the team. They all have engaged in conduct counter to your team first mantra. Don’t get caught in the trap of, “I’m Pete, I can fix anyone.” These guys are pros and should not require that level of coddling.

  7. This may sound cliché’, but we need to get “hungrier.”
    That means an adding young players, who want to win, and want to get paid.
    Extending players in their late 20’s is usually a mistake, unless the player has a unique competitive drive, and will to win.
    Our core group on defense has been unique in that respect, and it’s kept them elite for longer than expected.
    That said, I don’t think paying Sheldon Richardson is wise. He is very good, not great… and I don’t trust his motor if given another large contract.
    Do not extend Graham, either. The franchise tag is a possibility with him, but he’s consistently fallen flat in the biggest games of his career. He’s slow, and doesn’t seem like a team player.

    This year has been a disaster in many ways. We are not in a position to turn this around quickly, and it can’t be overstated how much of a colossal error the Malik McDowell pick was.
    I hope that John and Pete are still hungry and motivated themselves to rebuild this team. I worry that some monumental changes might be approaching sooner than we thought they would.
    Pete doesn’t seem like the kind of coach to want a massive overhaul at this point in his career.

  8. Agree with everything in the column. But I have serious doubts about JS in the rebuilding process. There were a couple of great early drafts (Thomas, Wagner, Wilson, Wright, Chancellor, Sherman) but in the last four years had has drafted two impact players, Lockett and Clark. I think Griffin and Naz Jones can be very good, but the rest look like a lot of reaches and outright busts. Fingers crossed, but afraid the Seahawks are likely to spend some years on the outside looking in

      1. Why do people keep thinking Lockett is good? It’s been since his rookie year that he’s look “dangerous”

  9. The answers were right in front of us yesterday. The Rams made bold coaching changes and have become amazing in 6 months. The nfl has changed. The seahawks defense of 2013 started this change with a new style of defense that was big fast and smart . This defense was kryptonite to traditional offenses . Just look at last nights game both Dallas and the Raiders have old school traditional offenses that were supposed to dominate the league this year. Power running and short passing with dominant o lines. Both these teams have been disappointments they can’t move the ball can’t get anyone open can’t get separation . Does this sound like anyone you know? The hawks need to fire Beval/cable and get a new offensive system going sooner than later. Many of us had this figured out years ago but now is what matters. I think Russell is a perfect fit for today’s newer systems and now I will wait for the offseason changes to hit the wire. Go hawks

  10. Maybe Finally people will listen to me when I say Tom Cable has to go !!! He has had an enormous amount of input and say on who gets drafted , signed and picked up via free agency. The Hawks O-line is a freakin embarrassment and Ifedi is a bust ! I have been calling for and saying since 2014 that YOU must build a quality O-line , and that it is the most important unit after the QB on offense ! Everything that happened yesterday ( Defense blown gap assignments aside) could land at the feet of the O-line. They could not allow the offense to do anything and therefore put the whole team in dire straits. I have also been saying that the leadership ( Carroll and JS) by not providing a decent O-line were allowing the last chance with this group to make a run for a championship evaporate ! It is actually truly sad to have so many great and quality players on D notget the help they deserve on the offensive side! Jettison Graham , he is simply not needed and doesn’t appear to give 100% all the time ( don’t need those type of players)- bring back Kasen Williams and get rid of McEvoy !!!!! That was a Really STUPID move in the first place! Maybe in The off season you go back to the early years philosophy and bring 100 Free agents to find a bunch of hungry quality back ups and just maybe a starter or two! Defensively they are just not that bad with players that will return. But you have to find the replacements now ! The O-line will not get fixed without new direction !!!!!

  11. This is a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ article. The Seahawks have been decimated by injuries, its that simple. What team do you know of that can survive losing an All-Pro CB, MLB, and Pro-Bowl level OLB, DE, and SS? All of them so far have been durable as well. The OL criticism is justified, but the Seahawks did lose out on TJ Lang in the off-season and Jockel was the 2nd choice.
    We don’t need to gut the team, the SB window is still open.
    Losing Jockel, Lacy, Rawl, Avirl’s contract will help clear a lot of salary cap. Getting Fant at RT, putting Ifedi back RG, and signing a new LG will help. D Brown hopefully resigns for a decent price.

    McDougal has been playing great in place of Chancellor, making him expendable as well. Sherman is worth bringing back. Sherman with Griffin and E Thomas helps us have an elite secondary.

    The lack of depth is a direct result of years of success. It would be disappointing to miss out on the playoffs, but the pieces are still in place for another run. I’m not looking to sack the GM for a sever rash of injuries ruining the season.

  12. Team needs to get rid of

    Michael Bennett – high cost and massive performance decline (good job calling that out in the pre-season Hawkblogger you nailed that)

    Cliff Avril – decrease performance and expensive. Hopefully retires from a money standpoint and because he seems like a fantastic human being and would hate to see him ruin his life with an injury.

    Kam – performed decrease and expensive. He’s just the type of player that will drop off the map one day when we can’t bring it anymore (and he can’t). Also seems like a cool dude who I would hate to see get a terrible injury.

    Richardson – just don’t sign him. He’s good not great this year and will ask for the salary of a great player (which he’ll prob return to after he leaves). It was worth the risk but didn’t pay off, get that comp pick.

    McDowell – just get rid of this guy so we don’t have to keep hearing stories of him screwing up.

    Joke-El – no just no. He’d be fine if he was young and made 2 mil. Nope.

    Other players
    Earl – keep him. don’t overthink, just keep him
    Bobby – keep him
    KJ – keep through contract then move on
    Richard – look for a trade if you can’t get good value keep him until contract runs out then don’t resign
    RW – I’m willing to think about trading him but after 5 minutes of thinking it’s clear that is a BAAAD idea. Keep.
    Lockett – don’t resign
    Paul Rich – don’t resign unless it’s on a bargain deal because nobody else wants him (a la Kearse)

  13. Brian, you are spot on. I think that part of the problem is PC and his kumbiya ways. Sherm said it himself.

    It works with young guys one time. Then it gets old. The older guys who have been around a while need to find a different motivation. Hard to do.

    The pain starts now. We rebuild while we still have a great quarterback. Go young, take our lumps, and get these guys to believe in one another again. It won’t be easy, especially with some of the contract extensions we gave out, but the longer we put it off the tougher it will be.

  14. I could see Carroll retiring. We’ll see. Bennett should have been gone already. Cable and Bevell need to go if nothing else just to give some new coaching blood a chance.

    Kam and Avril gone. Jimmy gone. Keep Sherm and Bobby.

    Much fail attributed to oline but I get tired of seeing Russ bail out of proper pockets because he gets happy feet, those aren’t on the line. Also his consistency in not seeing the open receiver or running back in the flat. Which, could be a height issue. If so trade him and for value and pray for Sam Darnold via draft.

  15. I am pretty shocked by the turn everyone has made. The team is getting older, yes, and got shellacked, yes, but this is the same team, although injured, that everyone was so excited about to start the season. They added Richardson and Brown and they were Giant Killers, handling the Eagles with ease. Everyone just needs to calm down…including you Brian.

    1. Not quiet sure where your getting your info, there weren’t too many people pumped about this team pretty season, optimistic sure but in reality we haven’t seen the same hunger pre sb, since winning. There have been exceptional performances where no team would live with the hawks, to say we dominated the Eagles is nothing short of lunacy. This is a poor year in the nfl and we haven’t made a dent in it. Drastic changes are required and not in 3 years time

  16. Dear Brad, I couldn’t disagree more.

    Dear, Paul Allen, please help the Hawks again. Bring back
    innovation and accountability to this team. It’s past time to clean house. And please stipulate that Scott Mcloughlin is rehired.

  17. While I love Kam chancellor and love/hate michael bennett, both of those signings were based on emotion and not patriot style pragmatism. They were clearly done to try to win 1 more super bowl this year and while it looks terrible after that game, everyone (including you) was singing their praises after that eagles whupping.
    Let’s hope Schneider has some magic in this next draft because we need lineman to compete with the best. We’ll always get db’s and linebackers i think but we have a blind spot with the trenches. we need a difference maker on either side of the ball for next year to compete with the best.

  18. I think we were all singing the praises of this team, because the
    talent was apparent. But after the Eagles game, the Hawks quit the short passes that had worked so well, and went back to the long
    developing, deep pass routes. A head in the sand approach, given the continued problems with this offensive line. (At this point, I don’t blame Bevell, anymore. He’s just trying to keep his job.)

  19. I just reread your post, Brian, and I agree that the Hawks should resign Duane Brown for 2-3 years and let the rest of the Free Agents get their big bucks elsewhere. Except for McDougald, maybe. Keep Mac D, or draft more safeties. Because who knows what we have in Hall and Tedrick? Maybe the coaching staff knows, but their evaluations have erred often of late.

    Main thing is, we get some innovative coaching that knows how to give players their best opportunity to succeed. Instead of just talking about it. (Jimmy Graham would be a prime example of NOT using players correctly, until much too recently).

    And, right, good luck with any new coach the Hawks bring aboard. It’s a dice roll, but I bet the right coach is out there, waiting for an opportunity to set the NFL on its ear, just like Pete did five years ago. It’s either a new coach, Pete evolves, or the Hawks continue to disappoint. (Going to the playoffs is great, unless you should be
    going to the Super Bowl, and now no playoffs at all).

    How good would the Hawks be today if they had hired Sean McVay last year?

  20. Rowdy Yates nailed it. I dont know if Scott Mcloughlin would/could come back, the great drafts the Hawks had were his doing. JS has to take the fall for the state of the team, bad drafting, continually trading out of the 1st round &, the biggest errors of all, trading day 1& 2 draft picks for high priced, under performing vets, creating salary cap hell..

    1. McCloughan has taken his skills to the general market by forming a scouting firm that sells his abilities/observations/evaluations to anyone willing to pay for them. The Hawks may take advantage of that, but won’t have exclusive benefit as they once did.

  21. Thanks, Dave. I think a lot of us have nailed it. Except for the Status Quo crowd, which seems to be dwindling. I’m reminded of how Tim Ruskell’s aura faded, gradually and suddenly. (If there’s a third way, I can’t think of what it would be).

    Interesting to know, Uncle Bob, re McCloughlan’s services.
    (I wonder if Mac’s drinking problem could be traced, in part, to an inability to cope with monster egos while sober).

    I wasn’t going to post anymore. I waited a day and now I can’t stop.
    I feel for the Twelves who are clinging to the hope that we make the playoffs. It’s been a great ride that should have lasted longer.

    Is it just me, or has Russell Wilson’s game face changed?

    I read @ .Net that Tom Cable recently waited until Rawls had suited up for a game before informing Rawls that he was inactive again. Sorry, I don’t have a link.

    I happened to recall the other day that in the middle of winning the Superb Owl, Marshawn asked Pete if it was okay to score more points. A joke, yes, but, in retrospect, only partly a joke, I think. The perfect game for Pete, I believe, is a close win with a stone-walling fourth quarter defense. Myself, I miss the excitement of an offense that used to create lopsided scores. In other words, I don’t blame Russ or Bevell for the slow starts that have become the norm.

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