Safeties- personnel questions

jammerhawk

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This is an area of the team where I again expect the team will be active in attempting to re-staff and to bolster depth.

There are 8 players on the present roster but two of these are unlikely to return, Chancellor and Thomas. Chancellor is finished as a player with his neck injury and is unlikely to ever play again. He will likely be treated as a post June 1 release so his cap hit can be spread out over two seasons. For him he was fortunate to have agreed to a contract guaranteed for injury and will get two plus seasons paid to him even though he was unable to play or practice. His loss was significant in terms of forcing the run and the genuine physicality of his play. I missed seeing him on the field he was underrated as a SS and game changing player. Thomas has burned his bridges here with the international high sign of peace and good will flashed at the Seahawks staff. He has contract expectations the team was unwilling to meet and which are inconsistent with the present salary expectations for safeties. He was a flat out stud here but seemed to often rely on his extreme athleticism rather than his smarts about the game. There he was not as heady as Kam was but still one of the very best FS in the NFL. There seems to be a great deal of bitterness against the team on his part but the team didn't cause his injuries and he's the guy who went to Dallas' locker room after the contest last season and that action created a crap storm for him. I loved his game and his ballhawking yet at times thought he made some huge errors in coverage. That said he's either the #1 or #2 FS in the NFL but has ended his time in Seattle as he wasn't 'ALL IN' as a Seahawks player was a whiner and and didn't protect the team. For me it's sad that he will be lost to the team and he may find that in another system he doesn't show as well. I hope for selfish reasons he gets a huge deal with another team, hopefully in the AFC, so we don't have to play him often. Wth him I truly think the team ought to have traded him away last offseason to ensure recouping a 3rd round pick or better but it wasn't to be. I hope JS can manage the FA signings to acquire at least a comp pick for him. I wish him luck elsewhere and thank him for his well paid seasons here.

Of the crew the present 2018 roster technically shows 8 players:

FS- 29- Earl Thomas (U), (RDNR), reported and subsequently activated to the 53 man roster, IR, 33- Tedric Thompson, 38- T.J. Mutcherson (E), IR

SS- 30- Bradley McDougald, 42- Delano Hill, IR, 24- Shalom Luani (E), 41- Marwin Evans (F), 31- Kam Chancellor, IR, (RPUP),

as can be seen Thomas is a UFA, Chancellor is reserve PUP and both are commented upon above. For them and us it is the sad end of an era with them being gone. Think historically the two of these players were the best FS/SS pairing I have ever watch play football. They were generational.

The present starting players McDougald and Thompson are not as talented as Kam and Earl but still very capable when healthy. They weren't as good as we expected in the Dallas game and were both exposed somewhat. Both are under contract for a few more seasons so they form a good base for Pete to work with. Thompson is thankfully quite instinctive which makes up a bit for his lack of raw speed and McDougald is a strong versatile defender and tackler who while smaller and less physical than Kam makes his presence known. He's certainly a solid acquisition by the FO This pairing could be improved with solid FS acquisition, but Thompson did quite well in his 1st season as a starter for the games he started and will get strong as he gains experience.

The depth is a bit of a hodgepodge Delano Hill started to come on with more playing time at the end of the season when the injury bug hit McDougald and Thompson, he certainly is becoming solid depth after almost 2 seasons of being a mild disappointment, but he couldn't crack the roster for one reason or another. The team traded a 7th to Oakland for Luani who is an ERFA and he sure didn't look like much more than just a guy but Pn' J see something in him he will likely be kept around to compete for job in camp with nothing guaranteed. We know little about Mutcherson and and Martin Evans except both are exceptional athletes, Mutcherson is also an ERFA and will likely be treated the same as Luani so he can be fairly assessed if healthy. Martin Evans has shown already he can play in the NFL and is signed on reserve futures basis so there is some depth here.

The team controls the destiny of all but Thomas contractually and so are in reasonable shape going into the offseason at S. Here I expect the team to continue to add depth to deepen the pile. If there is a S that they see value in drafting they will draft a S but will certainly chase the UDFAs for the players that aren't drafted that meet their draftable parameters.
 

chris98251

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We have a lot of Safety guys and McDougald is best at FS and enjoys playing it more, he tries to hit like a 255 pound guy at SS and that will wear him down fast. Why we need one of the bigger guys to take the SS and make it their own.
 

chris98251

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We have a lot of Safety guys and McDougald is best at FS and enjoys playing it more, he tries to hit like a 255 pound guy at SS and that will wear him down fast. Why we need one of the bigger guys to take the SS and make it their own.
 

sutz

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McDougald and TT don't scare me, at least. They were decent when healthy.

Too bad about all the Thomas drama and sad to see him go, but I can't see any scenario where he plays for us again.

Not sure about the young guys. Guess I'll just have to trust Pete. He's the DB guru. He nearly always spends draft capital on a DB, so I'd expect some effort there.
 

TheLegendOfBoom

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Replace Tedric.

He cannot play deep safety that would allow the Seahawks to play their preferred cover-1 and cover-3 scheme.

Unless Thompson seriously improves as a ball hawk, they need to get another guy (draft) there.
 

Fade

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FS McDougald

&

SS Hill

Would be the starters as of know which would be fine. Left Corner is a bigger problem.

Hitting on a CB in the draft would be a big deal so Griffin could be pulled from the starting lineup.



The Safety position just seems bad because Hill got hurt at the end after playing well, and they stayed with TT for too long during the season.


STARTERS

LC Rookie CB
SS Hill
FS McDougald
RC Flowers
NB Coleman

Depth
CB Griffin
FS TT
 
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jammerhawk

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chris98251":vn69o2d1 said:
We have a lot of Safety guys and McDougald is best at FS and enjoys playing it more, he tries to hit like a 255 pound guy at SS and that will wear him down fast. Why we need one of the bigger guys to take the SS and make it their own.

I agree that McDougald is better at being a FS but he has said this season he prefers playing SS b/c he likes to hit and that is his preferred pposition. He for sure isn’t Kam but he causes WRs to check out where he is. Thompson is too slow to be ET but is a good backup, Frankly Hill will need to develop his instincts to be a good SS if ever. That said Hill looked better the last few games when he was finally able to crack the starting roster instead of being just depth. My question is ’Quem Griffin rightly positioned as a WOLB or might his genuine speed be better used as a SS? At this stage with him undergoing a positional change from SS it is hard to know whether his instincts could allow him to play SS as a pro.

Pure speculation but did Pete stash Griffin on the roster this last season to teach him to tackle like a LB and to learn how to cover TEs to prepare him for a slobberknocker SS role in the future?

Replacing Kam to me is more critical than replacing ET as the SS stuffs the run and erases TEs in Pete’s scheme. besides McDougald is not a bad replacement for ET, at least for now.
 

Tical21

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Fade":1u69luk3 said:
FS McDougald

&

SS Hill

Would be the starters as of know which would be fine. Left Corner is a bigger problem.

Hitting on a CB in the draft would be a big deal so Griffin could be pulled from the starting lineup.



The Safety position just seems bad because Hill got hurt at the end after playing well, and they stayed with TT for too long during the season.


STARTERS

LC Rookie CB
SS Hill
FS McDougald
RC Flowers
NB Coleman

Depth
CB Griffin
FS TT
Agree with basically all of this, except it creates a conundrum. McDougald, while clearly the best of the group at this point, doesn't fit the defense. Although he is a playmaker in the passing game in the curl/flat zones, our run defense suffered pretty greatly with him at SS. Hill kind of shored that up for a short time. So, I agree they are the best two, but McDougald isn't really a single-high safety either, and is probably at his best in a 2-deep defense. Accommodating that would signal quite a philosophy change. I kind of fear that we will be unable to significantly upgrade the position with so few resources, so we may have no choice but to try and mix-and-match the trio again in some way.

We'll have to bring in someone that is potential starter quality at CB, but I have a feeling that again, with few resources, we'll roll Shaq out again, at least at the beginning of the year.
 

chris98251

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jammerhawk":1aquofck said:
chris98251":1aquofck said:
We have a lot of Safety guys and McDougald is best at FS and enjoys playing it more, he tries to hit like a 255 pound guy at SS and that will wear him down fast. Why we need one of the bigger guys to take the SS and make it their own.

I agree that McDougald is better at being a FS but he has said this season he prefers playing SS b/c he likes to hit and that is his preferred pposition. He for sure isn’t Kam but he causes WRs to check out where he is. Thompson is too slow to be ET but is a good backup, Frankly Hill will need to develop his instincts to be a good SS if ever. That said Hill looked better the last few games when he was finally able to crack the starting roster instead of being just depth. My question is ’Quem Griffin rightly positioned as a WOLB or might his genuine speed be better used as a SS? At this stage with him undergoing a positional change from SS it is hard to know whether his instincts could allow him to play SS as a pro.

Pure speculation but did Pete stash Griffin on the roster this last season to teach him to tackle like a LB and to learn how to cover TEs to prepare him for a slobberknocker SS role in the future?

Replacing Kam to me is more critical than replacing ET as the SS stuffs the run and erases TEs in Pete’s scheme. besides McDougald is not a bad replacement for ET, at least for now.

The interview I seen said it's just the opposite, he likes FS because he can roam and make a big play.
 

getnasty

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I'd perfer putting Mcdougald at SS, he not fast to begin with and only gonna get older so i like it suits him better. Plus i love how he has a nose for the ball around the LOS.
 
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jammerhawk

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There are 29 Safeties that we will all see in the later stages of the combine. As this is an area of team need we need to look at these guys or even some of the bigger CBs b/c several of these guys must be on the team's radar. Many draft 'experts' predict that the team will pick a S in this years draft. If so there are few that are interesting and while several may get drafted early there are a 3-4 who fit the team's present parameters and may be within range of the team's picks in the 4th and 5th rounds.

My sense is we all need to talk about these guys more.
 

sutz

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jammerhawk":1jeeozfg said:
Many draft 'experts' predict that the team will pick a S in this years draft.

Considering we've drafted a DB in virtually every draft of the P&J era, that's a pretty safe bet. Pete loves his DBs and likes to keep a few in the pipeline. :mrgreen:
 

Own The West

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jammerhawk":8jcxfezp said:
Pure speculation but did Pete stash Griffin on the roster this last season to teach him to tackle like a LB and to learn how to cover TEs to prepare him for a slobberknocker SS role in the future?

Replacing Kam to me is more critical than replacing ET as the SS stuffs the run and erases TEs in Pete’s scheme. besides McDougald is not a bad replacement for ET, at least for now.

I've been wondering about Shaquem at SS myself. Chancellor was a LB with 4.6 speed. Quem is a LB with 4.3 speed. 90% of Kam's problems (especially later in his career) were that he couldn't get to the play in time. Quem doesn't have that problem and he's struggling at LB because he can't shed blocks.
 

knownone

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Own The West":343j0bs4 said:
jammerhawk":343j0bs4 said:
Pure speculation but did Pete stash Griffin on the roster this last season to teach him to tackle like a LB and to learn how to cover TEs to prepare him for a slobberknocker SS role in the future?

Replacing Kam to me is more critical than replacing ET as the SS stuffs the run and erases TEs in Pete’s scheme. besides McDougald is not a bad replacement for ET, at least for now.

I've been wondering about Shaquem at SS myself. Chancellor was a LB with 4.6 speed. Quem is a LB with 4.3 speed. 90% of Kam's problems (especially later in his career) were that he couldn't get to the play in time. Quem doesn't have that problem and he's struggling at LB because he can't shed blocks.
I don’t know about this. One of the reasons Quem didn’t get a lot of playin time this season is because of how lost he was in zone coverage. I can’t imagine Pete placing his faith in Quem being the future at SS when Delano actually looked good last season.

I think Quem is better suited as 2 down weak side linebacker that can rush the passer on 3rd down. His game reminds me of Leroy Hill more than Kam.
 

Jville

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/Jason_OTC/status/1103380534066065408[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/MattVerderame/status/1103410054819123201[/tweet]
 

Jville

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vigilantgrrl":4priki9w said:
I want Taylor Rapp!
Such an economy of words. But, good to hear your thoughts. :2thumbs: A Bellingham, WA box safety and special teams possibility I presume.

[urltargetblank]https://thedraftnetwork.com/player/taylor-rapp[/urltargetblank]
[urltargetblank]https://draftwire.usatoday.com/2019/02/25/taylor-rapp-nfl-draft-profile/[/urltargetblank]
[urltargetblank]https://www.hogshaven.com/2019/2/28/18238194/taylor-rapp[/urltargetblank]
 

Tical21

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I actually thought Rapp was better as the single-high than he was in the box, but not sure if he has the range to play there in the NFL.
 
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jammerhawk

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For me I’d prefer Marvell Tell of USC. Tremendous length, long arms, exceptional short area quickness, explosive athleticism, and great character (team captain). He seems to me to be the prototypical Pete style coverage S/NCB. He looks to be a potential S —> CB conversion. Will be very interested to watch for his pro day numbers to see what his 40 and his 60 Shuttle numbers are.

Here’s a combine profile:
https://www.nfl.com/prospects/marvell-t ... 748836f714

I’d certainly not turn down Rapp however.
 

Jville

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^^^
Holly explosive-ville. :shock: Those are some eye popping numbers on Marvell Tell. Nice position projection.
 

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