What did you expect this year?

[Fresno Hawk]

I can see that argument. This assumes, of course, that Grubb's system isn't inherently flawed (or that he's capable of adapting to remove those flaws). I am not sure I share that assumption, but I understand it.

This year, one of the big benefits of keeping Geno is that we knew at least at a baseline level of what our offense was capable of. We fell off that level quite clearly and while we've seen flashes of Grubb doing something in a game here or a game there, there hasn't been any clearly identifiable growth curve. Many of the issues we saw in the first weeks of the season just popped up again in Weeks 15 and 16.

If we keep Grubb, we're basically dedicating a second year of Macdonald's tenure to trying to determine if Grubb can figure out how to coordinate at an NFL level, which was something we'd hoped to figure out by the end of this year.

This has pretty big implications for how seriously close we think we are to being a contender next year, what our next moves will be at QB, etc. It's honestly a massive decision that they are making here that has pretty big implications for Macdonald's tenure as HC.

If it were me, I would give him his walking papers. Then the question is who do we go after. I like one guy who is a head coach now, but won't be at the end of the season. And I think he could help Geno alot.

 

[Fernie Hawks Fan]

If it were me, I would give him his walking papers. Then the question is who do we go after. I like one guy who is a head coach now, but won't be at the end of the season. And I think he could help Geno alot.

Daboll?

 

[DarkVictory23]

If it were me, I would give him his walking papers. Then the question is who do we go after. I like one guy who is a head coach now, but won't be at the end of the season. And I think he could help Geno alot.

Yeah, I would to. Seahawks took a long-term gamble on Grubb hoping he could come in and prove to be one of those unique offensive minds who brings the innovation from the college game that catches the NFL off-guard, and we get ourselves set with a hotshot defensive mind and a hotshot offensive mind for the foreseeable future.

In retrospect, though, given the strides Macdonald made on defense, we probably would have been better off with just a middle of the road NFL offensive coordinator who might be vanilla but would have a coherent offensive strategy (and maybe a bit of an O-Line background). We were a top 10 offense with Shane Waldron, a guy who just got fired from his second straight team. We didn't need an offensive guru; we just needed a guy to keep the ship pointed in the same direction.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course (though I know there were some on here who made that same call when Grubb was hired, so kudos to them).

 

[toffee]

I expect the team to be better than last year's record, it's still possible.

 

[Natethegreat]

I expected 7 to 9 wins at best. It's an entirely different scheme both offensively and defensively. I thought we might even have 5 or fewer.

 

[Fresno Hawk]

Daboll?

Correct, some may not like him but he helped Allen, and helped Daniel Jones get paid. If Geno is staying please get a coordinator who can help him. Or maybe Pedersen, even though he is not doing to well in Jacksonville he did win a superbowl and has a track record of being good with QBs. I've also seen somewhere that Cleveland might be out on Stafanski, man that would be a good hire for the Hawks. Although if that's the case the Raiders, Giants and Bears would be fools not to go after him.

 

[PateratoWilson]

Good post. I expected exactly what is going on now. Not sure how anybody expected more.

I was expecting 8-9 wins myself. The fact we have a shot at division and playoffs is icing. I don’t know how good of playoff team we are but it’s a nice run. Looking forward to moving forward.

 

[Shane Falco]

I don't think wins/losses tells the whole story. I mean Hawks could win 9 games and we could feel pretty uncertain about the future or they could win 9 games and we could feel pretty good about their Future. Personally, I am looking for that feeling I got in the early PC days when you just knew something was building quite awhile before we even had our SB run.

 

[GeekHawk]

I expected at least 8 wins, and not even sniffing the playoffs. As it is right now, I'm just absolutely dumbfounded and flabbergasted at the panicked wailing, gnashing of teeth, and calls for "OH MY GOD, FIRE EVERYBODY AND TEAR IT ALL DOWN!" from some folks here. Geez Louise, take a chill pill and save it for next year if there's no improvement. Hell, we just might have 9 wins this year!

 

[GeekHawk]

I expected this to be an evaluation of talent and who stays with this team into 2025 and beyond geno smith is deffinitely not going to be with the seahawks next year

I disagree with your statement that Geno will definitely not be back next year. First off, he's already under contract for next year. Second off, for every bonehead f-up he has a moment of brilliance. Judging that just depends on if you're a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty person. Third off, you're not really going to find his equal in FA at his price, and you could easily find worse at his price. Fourth off, this was his first year under a first-year OC, so Mac will have every reason to bring him back. Even if we get a new 2nd string QB to replace the piece of dung that wears Howell's jersey, and maybe replace Geno year-after-next when he's a free agent.

 

[GeekHawk]

I don't think wins/losses tells the whole story. I mean Hawks could win 9 games and we could feel pretty uncertain about the future or they could win 9 games and we could feel pretty good about their Future. Personally, I am looking for that feeling I got in the early PC days when you just knew something was building quite awhile before we even had our SB run.

Don't forget it took more than a second year...

 

[Jazzhawk]

I expected 9 wins. I hoped for 10 wins. I want a division title.

 

[BirdsCommaAngry]

I expected pretty much what we got. I thought our 9 win season last year was a slight overachievement and even with overall improvements, we would probably be between 8-10 wins still. I thought the offense would be the stronger of the two units though.

 

[Wolfiegrrl]

My expectations:

Better on defense - check; took a while, but we got there after trading for Jones IV & Starting Knight. Spoon, Big Cat, and Love are leading these guys in the right direction. I imagine Jones IV will step up more next year when we extend him.

8 to 9 wins - check; we have talented players, a lot of hold overs, getting them all to drink Big Mac's Kool-aid has been a bit of a struggle. Growing pains suck, but we all knew a miracle post season wasn't going to happen.

Utilize JSN more - check; the dude is killing it!

Better OLine - fail; not yet; lots of injuries; tons of shuffling; still looking for an identity and operate effectively; can't open any run lanes; too many penalties; JS needs to get better players for the OLine or the Hawks need to find a GM that can suss out better Oline talent.

Better Offense Numbers - big fail here. Not sure if it's a Grubb problem or what, but I feel like Grubb doesn't have the guys he needs to run this offense yet. Sure we have some great pieces, but Grubb can't get them to operate as a whole unit. I'm spit balling here... Maybe the OC needs to be on the side lines getting in these guys faces? Maybe these guys miss Pete's Rah-Rah schtick, I don't know. But as the defense has gelled, the offense seems to have fallen apart. Perhaps we look for an NFL OC in the offseason? OR maybe we send Grubb to OC school... is there such a thing? And as I think about it... Grubb is using all hold overs from the Pete era except for Thomlinson and rookies Barner & Laumea. How much of Waldren's f-up offense is still in the minds of these offensive guys? If we're going to say Mike needs "his guys on defense", we should extend the same to Grubb.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Up and down rollercoaster, exactly what we're seeing. Lost some games the should have won, and won a few they could have easily won. Defense, for the most part, got better as the year went on. The play calling on offense is maddening, that needs major improvement. And we still get pushed around in the trenches, more so on the OL.

 

[DarkVictory23]

How much of Waldren's f-up offense is still in the minds of these offensive guys? If we're going to say Mike needs "his guys on defense", we should extend the same to Grubb.

It's fair to say, 'Mike needs his guys', though, because he inherited one of the worst defenses in the league. We didn't know how much of that was Hurtt and how much was talent. (Obviously, was a combo of both.)

Grubb inherited one of the better offenses in the league. They already proved they could be a top 10 offense with an OC who just got fired mid-season. If Grubb could just keep the ship pointed in the same direction, he should have been able to coast to at least an above average offense.

I mean, all Waldron really did was come up with a decent opening script and then hope Geno could keep things going for the rest of the game while he failed to come up with a sustainable run concept (and, I mean, to be fair, it ended up working out but clearly wasn't enough to keep his job).

As best as I can tell, the only thing Grubb has added to the offense was getting rid of the decent opening script.

 

[Shane Falco]

Don't forget it took more than a second year...

I feel like they started seeing solid results mid 2011. From then on the Hawks never lost a game by more than a TD all the way to the SB. And many of those games were closer than that still.

 

[pittpnthrs]

I can't get onboard with this team feeling like 2011 or the early Pete days with the QB position being in such limbo.

 

[Shane Falco]

I don't think they feel like that either.

 

[FreshBoxLive]

I don't think wins/losses tells the whole story. I mean Hawks could win 9 games and we could feel pretty uncertain about the future or they could win 9 games and we could feel pretty good about their Future. Personally, I am looking for that feeling I got in the early PC days when you just knew something was building quite awhile before we even had our SB run.

This is where I am at right now. I remember the day Pete got hired. I remember having zero doubt that we would run the ball and play great defense.