What is your gut telling you?

[Mike D in 332]

I’m actually thinking 10 or more wins believe it or not. If they come out hot and have a nice September I like 10 wins and a wildcard. I actually think they will pound the rock effectively this year and have a really good pass rush.

I wanna be as confident as you. I just don’t see it. We have a lot of development in front of us. That doesn’t usually lead to wins.

 

[Mike D in 332]

You rest your case for what? The facts are that Seattle is not going to be a good team this season. I'm sorry if you cant accept that. And look at the schedule man,,,its brutal.

I think your ego is getting the better of you here

 

[Mike D in 332]

Mostly agreed. I never put much stock in pre-season performance, ESPECIALLY wins or losses, just in the effort shown. To be fair, I haven't seen any preseason so I don't know how much effort has been on display. I think we have 3-5 rookies with a shot at being good to great from the get go and we have some young veterans that have shown a lot of promise. My metric for a successful season will be becoming a team without our longtime leaders around. Russ may've shed that title in all but name but Bobby didn't and we need some people to take up that mantle on D. Probably wont be any one person either, complete packages like BW don't grow on trees. If by the end of the season we have an identity, a solid group of returning starters on both sides and new leaders then I'll be satisfied. I don't see more than 6-7 wins with our division and the AFCW accounting for 10 of our games, but the challenge will be trial by fire and we just may come out of this with a new look team with a great near future.

I like your post. I do think that Russ and Bobby as leaders had gotten to the point where they were limiting everybody to their own ceiling instead of allowing the culture to grow beyond their own cap organically.

 

[Mike D in 332]

Even regardless of the reasons why he wanted out, he's still not the Brady type to take a major pay cut (made up in other ways, no doubt) to let the team get better elsewhere. He's going to want close to $50M for his next contract and that simply wasn't going to happen here. Even if Russ was being completely honest about the trade, hes shown nothing to dispel the idea that he is going to once again be the highest paid player when his contract is redone. You can completely factor any relationship Russ has with fans, coaches or ownership out of the equation and it was still in the team's best interest to trade him. Unless he was going to get Payton or Belichick out here to be the coach, then maybe that would entice him to stay at a slightly lower rate, but otherwise he's going to get paid more than is remotely feasible to a rebuilding or even a retooling team. Take emotion out of it, it was still the right move despite the near certainty of a sub .500 season (maybe even 2). It sucks but it's the business of the NFL.

Russ‘s ego and desire to be the best player in the history of the NFL was once his biggest strength but for the Seahawks it became the team‘s biggest weakness

 

[pittpnthrs]

You're predictions, comparisons and justifications make it seem as though they are based more on a disdain for the coach of this team, its owner for supporting the team and not a player, and sour grapes over Russ being gone, than anything else.

It is disdain for the coach. Seattle had a QB that masked a lot of Carrolls issues. They dont now. Your about to find out how great Pete Carroll is. There's a reason his NFL track record is below .500 without Russell Wilson.

 

[pittpnthrs]

Can’t argue with the 7 win ceiling. Also can’t get on board with the “fossil” comment. If Pete has issues as a coach I don’t think his age is the problem. What you call the weakness I call a strength. He is experienced and committed. I like that. I would love to hear your specific issues with his coaching that you think are related to his age and why his age is making those the issues.

The game has passed him by. His philosophy is old fashioned and he tried to run it for years without the personnel to execute it. He meddles in everything even if it was working. His game planning in the post season has been an outright joke. He has outright admitted to not understanding what the other team was doing on more than one occasion. Heck he threw his cell phone instead of the red flag last season for a challenge. The guy is cooked. He needed to be put out to the pasture years ago.

 

[pittpnthrs]

Are you some kind of Pittsburgh Steeler plant? Your absolute confidence in such a negative outcome three years from sounds laughable to me. I am just as confident that Pete can build another contender as you are that we are screwed. When I say we, I mean the Seahawks because that’s my team!

They are my team too and thats why he needs to go. You cannot hold onto nostalgia if you want to move forward.

 

[pittpnthrs]

I think your ego is getting the better of you here

I think you mean common sense.

 

[Lagartixa]

Even regardless of the reasons why he wanted out, he's still not the Brady type to take a major pay cut (made up in other ways, no doubt) to let the team get better elsewhere. He's going to want close to $50M for his next contract and that simply wasn't going to happen here. Even if Russ was being completely honest about the trade, hes shown nothing to dispel the idea that he is going to once again be the highest paid player when his contract is redone. You can completely factor any relationship Russ has with fans, coaches or ownership out of the equation and it was still in the team's best interest to trade him. Unless he was going to get Payton or Belichick out here to be the coach, then maybe that would entice him to stay at a slightly lower rate, but otherwise he's going to get paid more than is remotely feasible to a rebuilding or even a retooling team. Take emotion out of it, it was still the right move despite the near certainty of a sub .500 season (maybe even 2). It sucks but it's the business of the NFL.

I have no doubt that Brady got his top-of-the-market money, but he was smart enough not to care about who had the highest annual average in his contract, because he knew that taking less on the books (and the remainder violating NFL rules to gain an advantage, i.e., the true "Patriot way" and the definition of cheating) would allow Belichick to build a better team around him and Brady would win more titles. While Wilson was as slick as Brady in going to a team that was strong everywhere except at QB and leaving his old team with a monster dead-money hole in its salary cap, I am not convinced Wilson will see official-contract-number issues the way Brady always has, and I wonder if Wilson thinks it'll be better for his "brand" if his contract gives him a top-of-the-QB-market annual average.

I really hope the Broncos give Wilson an extension sight-unseen (i.e., before seeing him play actual NFL games as a Bronco) and that that extension has a lot of guaranteed money and a top-of-the-market annual average, for the simple reason that I still really dislike the Broncos and The Teeth from the Seahawks' days in the AFC West. However, I fear the Broncos' new ownership is too business-smart to do that, and will wait and see how the team performs playing Russball before giving Wilson a cap-crushing extension when they've already got him under contract, and with just about nothing guaranteed, for two more seasons. I expect Wilson to squawk or have people in the media do it for him if he doesn't get a contract extension as soon as he'd like, but it just doesn't make business sense for the Broncos to give him a huge extension under the current conditions.

 

[Ozzy]

Seahawks twitter kept telling us this roster is very good so I guess we will see if they're right. I don't think its very good and this team will win 4-6 games is my guess. I hope I'm wrong though and this team surprises me. Honestly if Lock/Geno can even be average then they could push into the 7-8 win area but I'll be shocked. The moves made tells me that Pete thinks this team is very good though because you don't make those moves if you're truly trying to secure a high draft pick for a QB.

 

[Aircrew]

A month ago, I was pretty confident that this team would pull out 5-7 wins. Now, after what I've seen, I think we're a max 4 win team with the personnel we currently have.

 

[Chapow]

Seahawks twitter kept telling us this roster is very good so I guess we will see if they're right. I don't think its very good and this team will win 4-6 games is my guess. I hope I'm wrong though and this team surprises me. Honestly if Lock/Geno can even be average then they could push into the 7-8 win area but I'll be shocked.

If the Seahawks win 4-6 games, that doesn't necessarily mean that the roster isn't very good. It could just mean that the QB is bad.

In 2018 the Bucs had a pretty damn good team, but a pretty damn bad QB, so they went 5-11. In 2019 they were stacked. That was a really good team with a QB that just couldn't stop turning the ball over, and they went 7-9. They got rid of that very bad QB, picked up a very good QB, and went from a 7 win team to Super Bowl champions.

And no, I am not trying to compare the 2022 Seahawks to the 2019 Bucs. I'm just giving an example to show that judging the quality of a roster based solely on their win/loss record isn't very valid if that team has a bad QB. Again, the 2019 Bucs had one of the best rosters in the league but were only a 7 win team due to poor play from their QB.

The moves made tells me that Pete thinks this team is very good though because you don't make those moves if you're truly trying to secure a high draft pick for a QB.

Huh? What moves? Like trading a franchise QB for a bunch of high draft picks?

 

[scutterhawk]

So many ready to quit after watching a couple of watered-down preseason games.
It wasn't imperative that they win at any & all cost, it WAS "imperative" that the Coaches got to see players WHO put in the 'Do or Die Trying Efforts' to separate themselves from the rest of the 'Like Positional' players.
I think it's kind of silly to TRY & compare preseason skirmishes to actual Game Planned action.

 

[GemCity]

Russ‘s ego and desire to be the best player in the history of the NFL was once his biggest strength but for the Seahawks it became the team‘s biggest weakness

Sure

 

[GemCity]

If the Seahawks win 4-6 games, that doesn't necessarily mean that the roster isn't very good. It could just mean that the QB is bad.

In 2018 the Bucs had a pretty damn good team, but a pretty damn bad QB, so they went 5-11. In 2019 they were stacked. That was a really good team with a QB that just couldn't stop turning the ball over, and they went 7-9. They got rid of that very bad QB, picked up a very good QB, and went from a 7 win team to Super Bowl champions.

And no, I am not trying to compare the 2022 Seahawks to the 2019 Bucs. I'm just giving an example to show that judging the quality of a roster based solely on their win/loss record isn't very valid if that team has a bad QB. Again, the 2019 Bucs had one of the best rosters in the league but were only a 7 win team due to poor play from their QB.



Huh? What moves? Like trading a franchise QB for a bunch of high draft picks?

Cmon now….PC doesn’t need a good QB. The hood .net folks tell you that.

 

[scutterhawk]

If the Seahawks win 4-6 games, that doesn't necessarily mean that the roster isn't very good. It could just mean that the QB is bad.

In 2018 the Bucs had a pretty damn good team, but a pretty damn bad QB, so they went 5-11. In 2019 they were stacked. That was a really good team with a QB that just couldn't stop turning the ball over, and they went 7-9. They got rid of that very bad QB, picked up a very good QB, and went from a 7 win team to Super Bowl champions.

And no, I am not trying to compare the 2022 Seahawks to the 2019 Bucs. I'm just giving an example to show that judging the quality of a roster based solely on their win/loss record isn't very valid if that team has a bad QB. Again, the 2019 Bucs had one of the best rosters in the league but were only a 7 win team due to poor play from their QB.



Huh? What moves? Like trading a franchise QB for a bunch of high draft picks?

Russ was bound & determined to leave Seattle & you expected that they what, NOT to go after as many "High Draft Picks" as possible in a trade??
I think what PNW25 was referring to was the '22' foundational Draft picks made by Pete & John to retool the Offensive line.

 

[Chapow]

Russ was bound & determined to leave Seattle & you expected that they what, NOT to go after as many "High Draft Picks" as possible in a trade??
I think what PNW25 was referring to was the 22 Draft picks made by Pete & John.

What? How on earth did you get that out of my post?

 

[TwistedHusky]

I hate that narrative that Russ was bound and determined to leave. That we couldn't keep him.

I doubt Russ would leave if he was the man and we gave him the keys to the franchise. Seattle is a bigger media market than Denver. Not only that but there is more money here.

Russ likely left because he wanted to be in an offensively focused team with an offensively focused coach. That would be Denver right now.
(Denver's defense has clearly gotten worse. But they still have an exceptional OL and will do better with worse offensive weapons.)

It was a choice between Pete and Russ. Russ did not leave for no reason. The only people that are making that excuse right now are Pete's camp, but it only came to a head when they extended Pete for more years. Russ likely would have stayed if they did an Aaron Rodgers with him.

So now we have Pete. This year is probably a wash. The likely best case is we find another star QB using JS' secret QB powers and then start the engine again.

But if Pete fails here, and that is likely - we are going to really regret letting an exceptional, even if flawed, QB go for a coach that every bit of data screamed was going to fail.

Russ might be a piece of work. Agreed. But so is Rogers. Green Bay made it work and so they are still a playoff team. We didn't and in fact doubled down on our aging, less effective, maybe propped up by the QB for the past 5 years, head coach.

We will see. But it has to work since it is all we got. The record this year hardly matters. It is where we go from here that does, and ALL of that HINGES on getting a star QB. Not even to be a SB team but to be something like the Steelers, a regular playoff threat.

 

[SmokinHawk]

I predict a record ranging from 3 and 13 to 5 and 11. Not expecting much in the way of good things from the offense as we have not improved in any way. The defense will be ok early in games until they get gassed after numerous 3 and out series.

 

[Ozzy]

If the Seahawks win 4-6 games, that doesn't necessarily mean that the roster isn't very good. It could just mean that the QB is bad.

In 2018 the Bucs had a pretty damn good team, but a pretty damn bad QB, so they went 5-11. In 2019 they were stacked. That was a really good team with a QB that just couldn't stop turning the ball over, and they went 7-9. They got rid of that very bad QB, picked up a very good QB, and went from a 7 win team to Super Bowl champions.

And no, I am not trying to compare the 2022 Seahawks to the 2019 Bucs. I'm just giving an example to show that judging the quality of a roster based solely on their win/loss record isn't very valid if that team has a bad QB. Again, the 2019 Bucs had one of the best rosters in the league but were only a 7 win team due to poor play from their QB.



Huh? What moves? Like trading a franchise QB for a bunch of high draft picks?

No like signing a few veterans at a slightly increased cost instead of playing a younger guy to see what you have. They aren't bad signings but they only make sense if you think you can win this year or at least be competitive. Russ was far from the only move they made.