ESPN piece on Seahawks Wilson breakup

Scorpion05

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It was a clear for a while. This shouldn't be a shock.
Russ wants to be great. He doesn't care as much if the team is great.
This isn't even that uncommon. A few people I knew worked with NFL QBs and shared with me personally that more QBs care about going to the HOF than winning a SB.

The big tell for me was when he set a goal of having a certain % completion rate for the season. You can see where there are a number of in-game moments where throwing the ball incomplete or with lower % could benefit the team while still hurting that goal. It was a weird goal to have, honestly.

BUT He does want to be great. And he is exceptionally talented/skilled. You can ride that to wins. But you need to be adept at handling that. Carroll used to be exceptional at this kind of thing. But his impact wears off over time. (Sort of like Wilson in that respect)
Again, the biggest error in this whole thing was Pete deciding to give the keys to his QB.
Understand why he did it, the NFL is pushing every advantage to the QB. You won't be able to win without a top-tier QB soon enough. Playing and winning the old way won't work.

We had Lynch and the LOB. We WOULD have ridden that to another 2 if not 3 SBs by focusing on that. But instead, we raced to put Wilson in the driver's seat. And he literally warned us, 'the separation is in the preparation'. We knew damned well that as soon as all the extraneous things that tug at a star QB's shirt happened, his production would go down too. Lynch and the LOB wouldn't have lasted forever, but 2-3 more years of them with Wilson would have gotten us 1 or 2 more SBs.
Now, I think Wilson knows this. He might be full of himself but he wants to be great. And that means he needs a coaching structure that facilitates his production, that allows him to prosper. Someone like a Reid, instead of a Carroll.

Wilson, in the right hands, is a HOF talent even now. He throws well on the run, has incredible accuracy on long passes, great ability to diagnose the defense post-snap, and seems to harden under pressure. But he is a home run hitter, not a guy that hits for average.

Carroll is a loyal guy. He wanted to support Wilson. But he wanted to support Wilson playing the way Carroll wanted. Carroll could not adapt to the new NFL. That was always the problem. The old way won't work anymore.
Both Carroll and Wilson are weirdly flawed in some of the same ways, but Wilson needed an offensive guru and Carroll wasn't one.
Lynch and the LOB were great in large part because they had such a mobile QB. The running game helped the defense become elite, and Wilson was a major part of that running game. Otherwise, teams could just stack the box and stop Lynch like they did before Wilson got here.

I also disagree that Pete ever gave the keys to Wilson. If anything, the article revealed that Russell Wilson had to beg to be able to pass the ball like any other quarterback. If Russell's first team was with Andy Reid, he would never have to even voice this frustration. We should maybe consider that Pete is the extremist here with how stubborn he has been with a specific style of play. It is exactly why the Broncos got rid of Vic Fangio.
 

Recon_Hawk

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Jodi with an "i" seems to be pinching pennies, though admittedly need more seasons to confirm this. But since Paul has died they've had a tons of cap space to make huge moves in 2020 and 2022, and instead chose to blow it on JAGs.

They blew $60M on JAGS in 2020, and then turned around and mortgaged the farm for Jamal Adams right before the season, claiming they needed more star power. (Pete then on record admitted that they were still trying to figure out how to use him early in the 2021 season. As a baffling side note.)

Could've gotten the stars with the cap space instead of mortgaging the farm and kept those draft picks. But it requires an owner willing to pony up and put large amounts of money into escrow. Using cash over cap. Jodi with an "i" is yet to do this and it is putting the Seahawks at disadvantage because of it.

Denver now has the richest owner in the NFL, and will utilize this cash over cap strategy to their advantage. having structured Wilson's contract in a way that is going to allow them to be aggressive in Free Agency in the coming years and have a loaded team year in and year out. Copying what the Rams have been doing.


Here's a vid on cash over cap for those unaware what it is:

Cash over Cap doesn't allow a team to be competitive "year in and year out" and that is not what the speaker of that video is saying. He's saying that it allows a team to stack their roster because they are delaying cap hits to future years through signing bonus allocations (and unmentioned void years). You can't keep kicking the can down the road. Accounting doesn't work like that.

A team like the Rams showed how it can be done to win a SuperBowl. Teams will eventually start using this method in addition to having a ton of cap room when they have young stud QB on their rookie contract and then really have a stacked roster. A roster so stacked that even teams with a good QB will have trouble competing. If you are a poor team that can never use the Cash over Cap method? Good luck. You'll always run into a team willing to sacrifice the future for the current season which creates a competitive disadvantage since they can't do this.
 
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Bear-Hawk

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There was a lot of excitement in Bears world when we learned that Bears were 1 of only 4 teams he would allow a trade under his “no-trade” clause. I have always wondered how close the Bears got to making the trade, but figured we just didn’t have enough to offer.
 

HawkRiderFan

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I only know football x's and o's from what I have read and watched on tv so I am no expert. Can someone explain to me how a mobile QB on your offence can help your secondary?
 

LeaveLynchAlone

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I only know football x's and o's from what I have read and watched on tv so I am no expert. Can someone explain to me how a mobile QB on your offence can help your secondary?
...by converting on 3rd down to keep your secondary off the field for extended time.
 

BASF

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I only know football x's and o's from what I have read and watched on tv so I am no expert. Can someone explain to me how a mobile QB on your offence can help your secondary?
The time of possession provided by the running game, which Wilson was a part of, kept the defense fresh.
 

TwistedHusky

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The LOB was just great. There is no disclaimer.
Remember our SB year, I think I read that 1 in 4 opposing possessions turned into a turnover. Do you realize how insane that is?

We all remember games where the offense barely scored and had to come back in the 4th, while the LOB kept the other team from scoring again & again.

Yes, the first few years - that offense was dangerous too. But after the 2nd SB, the LOB kept us in so many games.

How do you think we made all those '4th quarter comebacks'? We were behind remember?
That means not only did we have to score, but we had to prevent the other team from scoring too. The LOB did their job, sometimes to the point they had to endure possession after possession with little or no help from the offense. We ground them down, but they held firm most of the time.
 
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