Russell Wilson is Holding Up His End -- It's Now Pete's Turn

[Fade]

This is not a fire Pete thread. Those weirdos can keep it moving.




This is more like a state of the Seahawks, and what needs to improve if they would like to win another Super Bowl in the next two years.

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The Seahawks are the #1 Passing team per DVOA, and the #3 offense per DVOA. Russell Wilson is more than enough holding up his end of the bargain. Especially when you factor in that they were not constructed to be a passing team. :shock:

So Wilson is killing it to say the least, and would win the MVP award if handed out today.


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So now, it's up to Pete to do what Pete does. Building championship defenses.

You have to give Pete these next two years to build his defense. If the defense keeps getting worse instead, and continues trending the wrong way. Then it will be time to move on, and Pete would agree with me.

Russell Wilson is holding up his end of the bargain. Pete's end is to build a championship defense. Put the two together and that should = a Super Bowl.

Defensive DVOA
2013 - #1 (GOAT)
2014 - 1st
2015 - 4th
2016 - 5th
2017 - 13th
2018 - 14th
2019 - 22nd (5 games)

Pete's defense has been trending down since they won the Super Bowl. 7 Seasons worth of games. Not a small sample.

This year, it has gotten even worse. While playing juggernauts such as the Bengals, Browns, Pittsburgh Backup, Rookie: Kyler Murray, Teddy 2 Gloves, and a struggling Goff.

Pete really needs to roll up his sleeves and figure this thing out. He can win another Super Bowl if he just does what he does. Build a Championship level defense.

Ken Norton I think is a big part of the problem. The other being not having filled the void that ET left. They had to restructure the defense to a predominant 2 high scheme.

People are going to harp on pass rush, but here is the thing. The coverage is so soft behind it that if the QB ever does feel pressure he can flick it out to his totally uncovered checkdown. It is hard to get sacks when it is that easy for the QB. And on a lot of throws the ball is coming out quick because it is so wide open.

This is the trend to watch the rest of the season. Not what's happening on offense. Russ has that covered. Pete has got to get this defense right.

 

[AgentDib]

NFL offenses are constantly making risk/reward decisions based on the game situation. In general, the expected value goes way up as they get more aggressive but with an increased risk of a very negative outcome. This is why we know to discount most of what happens in garbage time, why the Seahawks offense historically looks amazing once we fall behind by a lot, and why offenses tend to stop putting up statistics when they have a large lead to work with.

It helps our offensive stats if the defense gives up points because it means we are forced to get aggressive and take risks for more rewards. On the other hand, it hurts our defensive stats if the offense scores points because it means the opposing offense is forced to get more aggressive.

Assuming that what we really care about is Wins then it's important to acknowledge that defense and offense are inherently connected in this manner and as such a reductionist offense vs. defense discussion does not portray the real truth. Defensive and offensive performances must be evaluated based on game situation and both had significant room for improvement in the 1st quarter today. Similarly, when our offense started playing well our defense also looked a lot better.

Pete's upper limit is probably three? seasons but that's a function of his age and not the ranking of his defense. Despite what the vocal minority think Pete's philosophy has plenty to do with why we are excellent in offensive DVOA (as we often are). No matter how hard some people try to force it the story has never been Pete vs. Russ.

 

[BigMeach]

Let's see where the defense ends up this year, we are about to get back arguably our best defensive player and we're still meshing. I don't know if it's going to take 2 years for us to have a good enough defense to win with this offense, it could still happen this year. I'm optimistic.

That said, I agree we need to build an amazing defense. I'm just saying we might not be as far away as we've seen so far this year.

 

[Threedee]

Pete held-up his end when he fired Bevell and Cable. He was three years late in doing so, but, he did finally uphold his end.

 

[Uncle Si]

Can't wait 2 years..

 

[jammerhawk]

All that is missing is the pass rush. i have my fingers crossed that before long it will start to be a big positive factor.

The DBs could also be better, but today the D got 3 picks which was the difference after a totally awful 1st half. There is incremental improvement there. well in the 2nd half for sure.

 

[BigMeach]

All that is missing is the pass rush. i have my fingers crossed that before long it will start to be a big positive factor.

The DBs could also be better, but today the D got 3 picks which was the difference after a totally awful 1st half.

It is nice to see them capitalising on picks more. It seems every game we've played this year we've had multiiple opportunities but we've dropped them or missed them. If we can start grabbing and hanging on to those, it changes a lot. Let's not forget that one of the things the legion did well was not let those opportunities fall to the way side.

Hell you could make the argument that the D did all it needed to today and if the offense had scored touchdowns instead of field goals this game wouldn't have even been close...

 

[AgentDib]

It's also a little ridiculous to separate their contributions when Pete just gave Russ the richest contract in NFL history. I doubt you would view Pete more favorably if he had traded Russ for picks and we were a worse team overall but with a better defense. Pete bet on Russ instead and that looks like a pretty good decision so far.

 

[JustTheTip]

This is not a fire Pete thread. Those weirdos can keep it moving.

What if I don't want to keep it moving.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Draft Pass rushers and quality play making DB’s. A lot of them. I’d mainly focus on defense.
I’m more interested in the “plug and play” types that you don’t have to develop for a year
Or 2. A college shutdown corner would be nice.

Draft another Dissly type TE, in case he’s not ready to go next season.

 

[John63]

Draft Pass rushers and quality play making DB’s. A lot of them. I’d mainly focus on defense.
I’m more interested in the “plug and play” types that you don’t have to develop for a year
Or 2. A college shutdown corner would be nice.

Draft another Dissly type TE, in case he’s not ready to go next season.

Might want to add some Olineman that can pass block

 

[iigakusei]

One thing I a noticing is the missed tackles. It seems like everyone is doing it too. That and we need Wagner to pick it up. He has looked completely average to me.

 

[chris98251]

I think we are still experimenting with a flex type defense with the 3 LB's and bringing our Slot guy along and figuring it out, Blair and Amadi and the whole Safety situation.

Getting Reed back will help get the D line Rotation figured out in a couple weeks, but again couple weeks. This is a season of change on defense and guys finding their place. It will be ugly at times as they have failures in rolls and need to switch stuff up.

 

[Mad Dog]

Maybe if we hadn't failed at drafting useful OL we would have had more draft picks to apply to D. But it is what it is. OL in college just don't show what you need to see to predict good results in the pros.

But I'm hoping one of Blair or Ugo upgrades Lano and Tedric eventually.

We will be needing pass rushers moving forward so that's got to be a focus in the off season.

 

[TwistedHusky]

We do not have the horses to field a great defense.

Expecting this team to have a great defense with this personnel just because 'Pete has good defenses' should be offset by the 'unless Ken Norton is your DC' caveat.

Our secondary is pretty average, if that. We have good LBs, but nothing our DL is good, not great. We knew that going in. It is actually looking better than it is because of all the interceptions right now.

We need to score 28-30 points to win a game this year. We seem on pace for this. And so far we have only the 1 loss, where the Saints scored 33 against us. Understandable because again, we don't have a good defense.

Pete by himself isn't going to be able to fix this defense, only another DC will be able to do so. And even then, without the great defensive players - being a great defense is extremely unlikely.

 

[bmorepunk]

If they can't get the points allowed down, it's going to end badly. They could have a good record going into the playoffs, but right now they're averaging almost 25 PPG allowed and that's too much. If they can get it down and the offense keeps playing well they could be pretty good.

But Twisted is right; it just seems like they're missing too much talent right now to be anything other than average on defense. The way that probably changes if is a couple of players start to improve drastically in the secondary, and that isn't the most likely thing to happen.

 

[LTH]

At the end of the game vs the Browns I had two concerns;

1. Pass rush
2. Wilson is taking some big hits (very concerning to me)

Im not going to pretend I am a great X's and O's guy because Im not... I leave that to the pro's because it's really too complicated for the fans to completely understand whats going on, why the decisions are being made that are being made. There are too many factors that we dont know about.

On paper Our pass rush looks good (personal wise) but clearly they are underperforming. I think i read they had a total of 10 sacks on the year. At this point I think it's still reasonable to buy into the assertion that the whole D is learning to play together but if they dont pick up the pace soon its reasonable to think there is a problem.

I have never thought the secondary was drastically under performing. Yes, they could be better but they are playing good enough to win. The biggest problem I had with the D was takeaways. but they secondary performed admirably vs the Browns the coverage was decent for the most part and they were in position to get 3 INT's... I see improvement with our corners both Shaq and Flowers are playing well IMO.

It feels to me like the players are not totally comfortable with the scheme. I think we will know by the end of the 49er game exactly if there is a problem with personal... at This point the Hawks are 5-1 and there are some legitimate questions on D but the Hawks keep winning. Wilson is a huge part of that but I dont agree that he is the sole reason why the Hawks are winning as this is a team sport through and through.

The Hawks are winning because they are a solid football team and they are playing well enough to win as a team. To look at it any other way I would not understand...

So far the Hawks have exceeded my expectations of how good I thought they were going to be. I see no reason to think they will not continue to grow and get better as the season progresses.

Edited; for punctuation

LTH

 

[Fade]

This is not a fire Pete thread. Those weirdos can keep it moving.

What if I don't want to keep it moving.

It's about not having thread derailment, and realistic solutions.

You are more than welcome to spew, "fire Pete" in other threads discussing such. Or even better yet, create an elaborate, compelling thread of your own on why Pete should be fired.

 

[Fade]

We do not have the horses to field a great defense.

Expecting this team to have a great defense with this personnel just because 'Pete has good defenses' should be offset by the 'unless Ken Norton is your DC' caveat.

Our secondary is pretty average, if that. We have good LBs, but nothing our DL is good, not great. We knew that going in. It is actually looking better than it is because of all the interceptions right now.

We need to score 28-30 points to win a game this year. We seem on pace for this. And so far we have only the 1 loss, where the Saints scored 33 against us. Understandable because again, we don't have a good defense.

Pete by himself isn't going to be able to fix this defense, only another DC will be able to do so. And even then, without the great defensive players - being a great defense is extremely unlikely.

They have more talent than bottom 10 though. They are currently a bottom 10 defense. I am/was not expecting elite, I was expecting avg, with a hope they could be playing a little above that line in the 2nd half of the season. This defense has under performed to that commonly held expectation.

I was fairly confident Pete could improve this unit over the course of the next 10 games, but then I went and looked at the numbers, and the defense has literally gotten worse every year, for seven years straight.

So now I don't know what to think. Outside of maybe he can have them play as the 16th best defense from here on out, and that would improve their overall ranking from 22nd, and get them to 17th ish. Still worse overall for the 7th straight year, but a definite improvement from the start of the season.

I fully expect some fairly major changes next off-season. Norton will be removed if improvement doesn't happen the rest of this year. And I expect them to go get a real FS so they can properly run the defense they way it should be run.

 

[Spin Doctor]

We do not have the horses to field a great defense.

Expecting this team to have a great defense with this personnel just because 'Pete has good defenses' should be offset by the 'unless Ken Norton is your DC' caveat.

Our secondary is pretty average, if that. We have good LBs, but nothing our DL is good, not great. We knew that going in. It is actually looking better than it is because of all the interceptions right now.

We need to score 28-30 points to win a game this year. We seem on pace for this. And so far we have only the 1 loss, where the Saints scored 33 against us. Understandable because again, we don't have a good defense.

Pete by himself isn't going to be able to fix this defense, only another DC will be able to do so. And even then, without the great defensive players - being a great defense is extremely unlikely.

They have more talent than bottom 10 though. They are currently a bottom 10 defense. I am/was not expecting elite, I was expecting avg, with a hope they could be playing a little above that line in the 2nd half of the season. This defense has under performed to that commonly held expectation.

I was fairly confident Pete could improve this unit over the course of the next 10 games, but then I went and looked at the numbers, and the defense has literally gotten worse every year, for seven years straight.

So now I don't know what to think. Outside of maybe he can have them play as the 16th best defense from here on out, and that would improve their overall ranking from 22nd, and get them to 17th ish. Still worse overall for the 7th straight year, but a definite improvement from the start of the season.

I fully expect some fairly major changes next off-season. Norton will be removed if improvement doesn't happen the rest of this year. And I expect them to go get a real FS so they can properly run the defense they way it should be run.

Safety is definitely a huge issue at the moment. I would go so far as say it is the weakest position on our defense. Both McDougald, and Tedric Thompson are struggling, not only in pass coverage -- but also with tackling. Tedric kind of reminds me of Jermaine Kearse in that from time to time he'll make big plays, but also struggles with doing the basic things right. Another person compared him to Babineaux, which is a very apt comparison. Blair White has potential, but missed training camp, and as a result makes some boneheaded plays, or looks lost whenever I see him. I was honestly surprised when we passed on Savage, but I think they were afraid that no pass rushers would be available.

Either way I think our secondary will be a thorn in our side all year long with or without Reed. Another issue I'm seeing is Norton Jr. We're running some really weird coverages. I'm seeing LBs on WRs, Ziggy Ansah dropping back in coverage 10 yards off the LOS. Some of the packages and coverages we're running are non-sensical and often times we have bad mismatches on the field.