Some things we've figured out the last two years:
1) Pete and John have a vision and a plan for the team, and it's a really, really amazingly good one. They have their own unique "Moneyball" formula and approach for putting the strongest possible overall team on the field
2) Pete and John are smarter than us, and have much better information to work with
3) Pete and John don't give a crap what all the loudmouths and pundits say, and just do their thing regardless of external hysteria in the media and fanbase. They make their decision, set their direction, and follow thru, letting the chips fall where they may. Usually they fall well.
4) Pete and John's decisions have historically turned out golden, even the ones we all thought were crap (or emotionally didn't like) at the time.
- Parting company with Mike Rob (then bringing him back in time for his ring
)
- Going with a short rookie 3rd rounder as a starting QB, and benching the expensive free agent QB
- Going cheap on the O-Line with rookies and rejects (aside from Okung and Unger) and somehow making it work, though it was held together with chewing gum and baling twine at times
5) When Pete and John bring in a big-name free agent (e.g., Terrell Owens), generally what happens is they can't beat out the younger guys enough to be worthy paying them (Antoine Winfield). We got some mileage out of Braylon Edwards last year, but that was about it.
6) Pete values special teams play much higher and factors it into roster decisions more than perhaps any other coach in the league; lots of starters play on special teams, and the backup guys who stick on the team are killer ST players, Farwell, Maragos, Lane, (emerging) Lockette, etc.
7) We can expect more surprises and "Huh? They did what?" moments from Pete and John this year in the personnel moves, and most of their surprising moves will work out fine or better.
A few other delightful things that Pete and John have brought to Seattle in their tenure:
- When key injuries strike, going with "next man up" players at key positions and having those players flat out do the job (with some O-line exceptions)
- When injuries strike, they adjust their scheme to plan B and use the talent they have available, and plan B often works out as well as plan A (and sometimes better)
- We feel like we match up physically, smack-down for smack-down, with any team we play, and physically beat most
- The way Pete rotates players, in the D-Line/Front Seven, keeps players fresher and seems to limit injuries
- The rotating O-line sucks at times, but the philosophy has produced mostly serviceable results at a bargain basement price, and allowed more resources to be spent elsewhere.
- Pete and his coaching team under his guidance (Cable, Bevell, Quinn, etc.) are collectively outstanding teachers, and get guys coached up to play well at an unbelievably rapid rate.
Obviously, an exception was last year when we lost Clemons in the playoffs and lost to Atlanta because we had no pass rush. This year, losing the big target of Sidney Rice seriously hurt our passing game against top-tier defenses in our division, and we winged it as best we could. (Thank God for the emergence of Jerome Kearse; not only does he catch, he even blocks punts) When we lost DB's for a few games at the end of the regular season, it was a total yawner, due to the depth and stellar (or at least serviceable) play of next-man-up players like Maxwell, Thurmond, and Lane.
All that said...
WR's
1. I Would love to see Tate back in a Hawks uni. Agree that it's a 50-50 proposition. Tate's YAC are amazing; he's like a RB. That said, Kearse's TD in the Super Bowl made me have to look twice to realize it wasn't Tate, but Kearse on that play. Also, Tate's punt returns were both reliable and fantastic, game-changing at times. Tate as a playmaker has won us about 2 games a season the last 2 years. This year, the first obvious play was the TD vs. the Rams, not the by-bye one, but the amazing broken tackle TD play at St. Louis that wound up being the game-winner on a tough night for the offense; pretty much a play that only Tate could make. (Though Kearse is having more moments... but still Tate is in a class by himself as a RB after the catch)
2. I hope they find a way to restructure Sidney Rice and bring him back, on a team-friendly deal. Can't imaging he commands much market value coming off an ACL and a statistically poor season. That said, Rice's value is more than his stats, as he draws #1 receiver coverage attention.
3. Can't imagine they would let Doug Baldwin get away. Baldwin won at least 2 or 3 games for us this year with unbelievable plays at crucial moments.
4. As others pointed our... our current WR's are the Legion of Smurfs, with the partial exception of Kearse. Pete, and Russell, love big, high-pointing WR's, where Russell can just toss the ball up as a 50-50 in a one on one situation, and know it won't get picked, and had a good chance to be a big play. Kearse has given us a lot of that this year. I expect we pick up a large target WR early in the draft.
DL
1. There are so many, many wildcards here. Who will take team-friendly deals, who will move on to "get paid"? How good are our backups, the Scruggs's and Hill's and Mayowas and such. Will the Monstar's knee ever be good enough to play on, and even if it is, will he still suck anyway? None of us seem to know the real story there.
2. It blows me away that some people can so easily talk about a guy like Brandon Mebane as being expendable. Dude has been an anchor, a rock on our defense.
3. We got lucky, had players really step up and gel as a unit. McDaniel & McDonald simply exceeded all incoming expectations with their play. We need to get lucky again this year.
4. We keep talking about Red Bryant... we'll see what they do this year with him.
I'm already getting worn out thinking about all the position groups. We seem to be well-stocked in the secondary, even if we suffer some losses. Shead, Simon, etc. may be ready to step up. But we need a passable backup for Earl. I have no idea if Maragos is or isn't. I'd love to see if Browner could play safety as Kam's backup. I'm expecting not, but stranger things have happened, and BB definitely brough a physical presence to the team. For the OL, I would like to think we pick up some depth in the draft... We saved a lot of money in that area this year, and it was overly exciting at times. RB's, I think we have one more year of Beastmode in his prime. We'll see what Spencer Ware and others can do this year. Hope CMike can get the issues with his game handled that kept him off the field, so we can see his running this coming year. Probably parting company with Mike Rob. Our linebackers and LEOs... Bruce Irvin had moments this year. We have so much speed in that group it's scary. Malcolm Smith is just one example. LB's are another area where we got really, really good value for money relative to player salaries.
Stopping here. I'm excited to see what Pete and John do, just thinking about this. With a SB win, it has certainly earned Pete and John some latitude regarding player personnel decisions.
