Did we really think this was gonna last forever?

Yeah, Russ almost pulled off another one, and I thought we'd done it again! No go, obviously.
This team is getting older, may as well admit it. The D has lost its edge, and the money has been pulled from the offense to keep the D intact. It's gotta give at some point, and now is the time where we just may have to pay the price. So now the "paid" defense has kicked us in the balls. There are decisions to be made in this coming off-season. What those decisions are I can't even really imagine. Those first glory years of the Carroll/Schneider administration were an aberration, aided by miraculous picks at bargain-basement prices, so we could spread the love out, financially. This is now how we are paying the price for it... How do the Patriots do it? They cut big names and replace. Hard decisions to be made. I forgot how hard losing was. And a big chunk or our "fan" base has never known losing. I'm in 'till the end. And I'll still be there if we become S.O.S. again. Hawks FOREVER! (Plus, this season ain't over! We could fix shit and catch fire. A part of me is almost expecting it!) GO HAWKS!

P.S. I think Earl Thomas missing is 85% of our problem on D. Yeah, he's THAT important!

One main decision will make the biggest single impact. Our D and random luck combined with flashes of elite skill on offense are not enough to carry a consistently incompetent OC any longer. We definitely need to draft OL more this spring too, obviously.

RolandDeschain":2psmazp5 said:

We definitely need to draft OL more this spring too, obviously.

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And immediately. We have maybe two more years of great/good defense. I'd say draft ALL o-line with first 3, no, ALL picks next April. Cheap and upside talent with still a husk of a good D. Oh, if only I called the shots over there at the Vmac! :lol:

RolandDeschain":7hx8p5i0 said:

One main decision will make the biggest single impact. Our D and random luck combined with flashes of elite skill on offense are not enough to carry a consistently incompetent OC any longer. We definitely need to draft OL more this spring too, obviously.

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It wouldn't bother me if we took 3 O-lineman in the first 4 picks.

Sadly, its probably time to rebuild. I say that because this is the first time i've seen players actually unhappy and seemingly not wanting to be here. Face it, theres drama practically every game. If Jimmy Graham doesnt demand a trade, i'll be 100% surprised. I just dont think the players are buying into Pete's philosophy anymore. One of the shortest windows ever and leaves us wondering what could have been if we had a competent OC throughout. At least we got one trophy out of the deal.

BlueThunder":2fsmz34w said:

Yeah, Russ almost pulled off another one, and I thought we'd done it again! No go, obviously.
This team is getting older, may as well admit it. The D has lost its edge, and the money has been pulled from the offense to keep the D intact. It's gotta give at some point, and now is the time where we just may have to pay the price. So now the "paid" defense has kicked us in the balls. There are decisions to be made in this coming off-season. What those decisions are I can't even really imagine. Those first glory years of the Carroll/Schneider administration were an aberration, aided by miraculous picks at bargain-basement prices, so we could spread the love out, financially. This is now how we are paying the price for it... How do the Patriots do it? They cut big names and replace. Hard decisions to be made. I forgot how hard losing was. And a big chunk or our "fan" base has never known losing. I'm in 'till the end. And I'll still be there if we become S.O.S. again. Hawks FOREVER! (Plus, this season ain't over! We could fix shit and catch fire. A part of me is almost expecting it!) GO HAWKS!

P.S. I think Earl Thomas missing is 85% of our problem on D. Yeah, he's THAT important!

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I agree, i just hope we dont sink into the abyss like the niners did.

hawks85":3ufmc960 said:

BlueThunder":3ufmc960 said:

Yeah, Russ almost pulled off another one, and I thought we'd done it again! No go, obviously.
This team is getting older, may as well admit it. The D has lost its edge, and the money has been pulled from the offense to keep the D intact. It's gotta give at some point, and now is the time where we just may have to pay the price. So now the "paid" defense has kicked us in the balls. There are decisions to be made in this coming off-season. What those decisions are I can't even really imagine. Those first glory years of the Carroll/Schneider administration were an aberration, aided by miraculous picks at bargain-basement prices, so we could spread the love out, financially. This is now how we are paying the price for it... How do the Patriots do it? They cut big names and replace. Hard decisions to be made. I forgot how hard losing was. And a big chunk or our "fan" base has never known losing. I'm in 'till the end. And I'll still be there if we become S.O.S. again. Hawks FOREVER! (Plus, this season ain't over! We could fix shit and catch fire. A part of me is almost expecting it!) GO HAWKS!

P.S. I think Earl Thomas missing is 85% of our problem on D. Yeah, he's THAT important!

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I agree, i just hope we dont sink into the abyss like the niners did.

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All i am thinking about is when the giants lost 6 in a row going into the playoffs and they were red hot during there first playoff game and just punched the pats in the mouth in the SB.

With all due respect to the OP, this is a defeatist attitude. Find me another roster in the NFL that has as much or more sheer talent as the 2016 Seahawks.

It's become a coaching problem. I didn't think so until now, but the coaching needs to be looked at. I'm not talking about PC and I'm not talking about anyone losing their job. But there needs to be accountability. We already know PC is extremely loyal to his staff. He fell on the sword for Bevell after 49. But at some point you've got to hold your coaches to the same standard as your players. I do think, judging by Sherman's recent antics and JG's demeanor after his TD, that there is serious resentment there. PC needs to fix that and now. I don't know what that looks like but something needs to be done.

Otherwise, the amount of talent and the results it produced will be underwhelming 10 years from now. One SB with this roster isn't good enough. It's just not.

Kris Richard, Bevell, and Cable need to get their shit together

Aside from that, I expect the Seahawks to be in the playoff hunt every year. And I am GRATEFUL for that. I will not take this for granted or act like a fair weather fan that just started loving the Seahawks in 2013. This team is one of the elites in the NFC and will always be in the conversation. We will always be a healthy team, draft pick, or trade away from taking it all.

We went to back to back Super Bowls and got one out of two. Unless you're the Patriots, that is GREAT. What we are expecting from the team at this point is Hall of Fame type consistency and greatness. And we're not always there, but we're a respect team and that satisfies me

Let's be honest, our draft picks have been very average. I wish we could draft better...

Rob12":21vtkfqg said:

With all due respect to the OP, this is a defeatist attitude. Find me another roster in the NFL that has as much or more sheer talent as the 2016 Seahawks.

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Defensive roster, not too many (Minny being one of them, IMO). Offensively, there are many that have better rosters. I'd say without RW, our offensive roster would easily rank in the bottom half, IMO.

We've simply poured more resources into our defense and willfully neglected the O-line because we took RW's strength (mobility) for granted to mask that deficiency. On top of that, the scouting/developing philosophy we have for the O-line simply doesn't/isn't going to work in the NFL. You can find diamonds in the rough here and there, but you can't base your O-line on a bunch of converted TE's being able to pack on pounds and moving DL's around.

But I agree with your overall summary. The coaching staff seems to be where a lot of this permeates. Talent or not, the game plan and implementation of it has sucked. I won't sugar coat it like you, though. PC is loyal, but it starts with him cutting ties with his buddies. I just don't see any other way. If not, we're going to need to hit on 2-3 starting caliber O-linemen in the 2017 draft to compensate for the current coaching. Short of that, we're going to keep beating our heads against a steel wall hoping it will crack, all the while some of the other teams in the NFC have over-taken us or shortened the gap.

But we do have Russ. We also have Graham an elite TE, Baldwin possibly the best slot receiver in the NFL, Lockett who is also a high end talent. Rawls is very good when healthy and while we don't have him now Prosise is being compared to David Johnson by some scouts. I really don't think our offensive skill guys are bottom third in the NFL. I think the are arguably top 10 and with a slightly below average line would still be putting up top 5 offensive numbers. We are stuck with an all time bad offensive line and its stifling the talent we have.

How can you design a game plan, if your offense consistently breaks down 1/2 seconds into the play?
Now, we can't even rely on Free Goal kicking anymore. We can't depend on PAT anymore, guys get pushed into the kicker... Punts get blocked. Kicks gets missed.
Too many mental mistakes. Not enough talent to compensate for these weaknesses ...

I can't believe the whining about a 10 win season. With the online we have that's a win. Yesterday was a fluke game. But it shouldn't surprise anyone after the crap Sherman pulled last week when the team should have been focusing on Az. This team can still go on a streak but it can also lose to anyone.That's how the NFL is structured.it's designed to have 32 teams that are average.

at least we play in the worst div in the nfl...makes it easier to win. not sure how much longer this will be the case.

RolandDeschain":gjhorl4m said:

One main decision will make the biggest single impact. Our D and random luck combined with flashes of elite skill on offense are not enough to carry a consistently incompetent OC any longer. We definitely need to draft OL more this spring too, obviously.

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The problem is.. Now that great depth we enjoyed for so long is gone. We're not just hurting on the OL, we have no RB depth, we have no WR depth, we have no DL depth, we have paper thin depth at corner if something happened there.

Previous years we'd have an injury to Wagner, Lane, Kam, on the OL, etc and we'd have guys to replace them. That's how this team would outpace the competition throughout the season, we'd survive slumps and rashes of injuries because we had the depth to do so - now we don't have that.

2017 is a huge year for sustaining this era. If we whiff on the offseason again with another average draft and quiet FA/trade period.. We'll only be one step closer to that window closing even more.

Cyrus12":1jiz1cfx said:

at least we play in the worst div in the nfl...makes it easier to win. not sure how much longer this will be the case.

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LA and Arizona won't be down for long. Other teams in the NFC are onto our model/schemes too. Simply put if we don't adapt, the Pete Carroll era will be great but not nearly as great as it could have been.

We're an average OL away from being elite, and even without out that I still don't fear any team in the playoffs. The defense is still great they just suffer from being on the field more due to a lack of running game and missing maybe the best defensive player in the league.

With how PC/JS think outside the box, it wouldn't surprise me if they drafted defensive heavy in the upcoming couple drafts, and start trimming down on some of our heavy contracts to some of the defensive vets. Chancellor, Bennett are the first that come to mind.

Then, utilize the free cap space to bring in offensive line free agents who actually have experience in the league and can block for longer than 2 seconds.

I completely agree with you guys that coaching (particularly the coordinators) needs improvement or change. If they keep Bevell next year, they might as well trade Graham because we could be getting equal production out of Willson or some other average tight end for a fraction of the cap space.

Preferably, I'd like to see the team part ways with Cable and Bevell just for the sake of shaking things up offensively. If Wilson has proven he can pick up new playbooks quickly (transferring to Wisconsin, being named team captain before he played a snap) so there's no real reason to doubt he can do it at this level. It's astonishing how the offense looks unstoppable in 2 minute drills, and so inept the rest the game

getnasty":b4k62ap1 said:

We're an average OL away from being elite, and even without out that I still don't fear any team in the playoffs. The defense is still great they just suffer from being on the field more due to a lack of running game and missing maybe the best defensive player in the league.

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I agree. I'm not afraid of any team in the playoffs and we can win against any of them. Good post.