We had to pay Russ, and could no longer afford an extra $10-25Million per year of talent.
We had Richard Sherman on a rookie contract. Bobby Wagner too.
Jeremy Lane on a cheap rookie contract.
Brandon Browner cheap also.
Kam was on his 2nd contract, but still affordable for the talent and impact.
We had Earl Thomas on a cheap rookie contract through 2013.
Even a guy like Walter Thurman, who was good when healthy, and cheap.
So the entire Legion of Boom, basically on the cheap.
We had a cheap, mostly-shit O-Line that could run-block but not so much on pass-blocking. Remember Bowie and Bailey? We had Okung healthy and effective a couple of those years. We had Max Unger.
Russell was young enough and fast enough to escape from opponent pass rushes.
We had Marshawn in his prime. We had Russell and the Read-Option as a legitimate threat that created more opportunity for Marshawn. We had the speedy Bruce Irvin on a rookie contract. KJ was cheap too, at that time. It just goes on and on, plenty I've missed I'm sure.
I don't have the patience to tally it up here, but we may have been as much as +$40M or more to the good compared to most other teams, with all our cheap young talent. Maybe someone has a payroll-to-DVOA chart for the offense and defense for the 2012, 2013, 2014 seasons.
With that margin, could afford free agents like Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett, Chris Clemons, proven vets on prove-it deals.
We then proceeded to piss away a good chunk of that margin with the Percy Harvin fiasco, the Jimmy Graham mostly-waste, and then kept around an underperforming Tom Cable. We had guys like Sherm and Kam get injured and had a lot of our salary cap tied up in broken-down players.
This team just hasn't been physically talented enough in key areas for a long time, because we don't have so many players widely outperforming their contracts like in the 2012-2014 heyday.
As a wide receiver, would you rather go up against Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner, and worry about getting de-cleated by Kam Chancellor, and not be able to get deep on Earl Thomas? It sounds a bit easier and less dangerous if you are instead matching up with Shaq Griffin, Tre Flowers, Bradley McDougald, and Tedric Thompson. (Pre-Diggs)
Recall that Pete is in many ways, a college coach at heart. We seem poised to have a wave of young talent for cheap and cap to bring in talented free agents. The next couple years is shaping up to be another golden era of Seahawks success, with another Owl, if Pete and John play it right. We hit on DK. We've got Russell with a few more prime years. DK. Chances are good we'll sign Clowney for a couple more years. You absolutely KNOW that Pete and John won't make any more trades as boneheaded as Percy Harvin, or draft picks as stupid as Malik McDowell. They'll make mistakes, sure, but smaller ones, from bad luck, not from bad player evaluations. (Harvin and McDowell were preventable mistakes IMO, and Pete/John have learned the key lessons) We have some young O-Line talent that is going to keep improving. (Phil Haynes, Anthony Simmons, others) We have some young D-Line talent that is due to truly develop, and Pete will get more in FA. Yes, there are holes.
We can have discussions about the post-2014 years, Pete "losing the team", locker room division, etc., but the reality is the 2012-2014 Seahawks teams had a ton of guys outplaying their contract$ by wide margins. We haven't had that outplaying-the-contract situation so much since 2014. We are poised to have that again next year and the couple years after, if Pete and John play their cards right.
If Russell doesn't throw the pick on the goal line in SB49, and we win, I think the years after that are still roughly about the same. The same forces that knocked the team down a peg were still in play. At best, maybe we make it to the NFCCG one more time, from attracting free agents who bet on the Seahawks being their best shot to get a ring.
How many more plays did we need, this year, to get to the Owl? Well, we needed 6 more inches on one play, and to actually show up for AZ at home. We needed a Malik Turner catch instead of a drop. We needed Russell or a RB or TE to see the unblocked GB blitzer on 3rd down, and slow him down. We were 3 or 4 higher-quality players and a few depth players short of having a 2013-like year, and a trip to the Owl. We have a better overall coaching staff now than in 2014, but significantly less overall talent. Solari > Bevell, Schotty > Bevell. Kris Richard > I-don't-know-who-it-even-is. (But Norton < Quinn)
It wasn't the SB49 loss psychodrama, it was the fundamental structure of the team, salary to talent/value that has kept us down a notch or two from the glory years, more pretenders than contenders. Rams did their version of that this year, and it wasn't pretty for them. Still, a couple key injuries, and we might well be in this year's NFCCG. Chris Carson, Will Dissly, Penny, untimely Brown injury, etc.
