Little proven depth on D

[onanygivensunday]

So let's see we have ET, Kam, Sherman, Bmax, Wagner, Lane, Wright, Irvin, Smith, Bennett, Mebane, Avril, Mcdaniel. All played a significant role last year. There are probably 30 teams that would kill for that lineup. Oh and Quinn is back for year 2, Richard is still the DB coach and Carroll/Schneider are still running the best front office in the league. Yeah, color me not worried.

This ^. Well said.

Anybody still worried is just a worry-wort.

 

[hawknation2014]

LDE Michael Bennett, Jesse Williams, Michael Brooks
LDT Tony McDaniel, Greg Scruggs
RDT Brandon Mebane, Jordan Hill, Dewayne Cherington
RDE Cliff Avril, Benson Mayowa, Kenneth Boatright

The coaches seem determined to add at least one FA DL to improve our depth.

 

[CANHawk]

Getting very thin in a few positions. We are going to need sone rookies to start this year.
I believe in comPETE but we need to add.
2 Wr's
2 Cb's
1 RT
1 DE

We could still sign FA's to fill these holes. But it's looking life this Draft class is going to be much more important than last years.

Or more likely, last year's kids and guys already in the program get the chance to steep up and be the new depth guys..

Akeem Aguste, Tharold Simon, Deshawn Shead and Jeron Johnson will get to compete as DB's. Arceto Clark, Phil Bates, and the new guys chris Matthews and taylor price will compete at WR (and Christine Michael likely sees an opportunity to run back some punts). Bowie and Bates are already on board and experienced on the OL. Boatwright, Mayowa, and toomer will get to compete at Leo and Scruggs and Jesse Williams will be deep in the mix at 5T.

All those guys will of COURSE have heavy competition for roster spots from an insane amount of UDFAs, UFAs, reclamation projects, and of course the previously mentioned class of 2014. The group will be churned, the cream will rise and the very best will rise and make the 53. Same as always (in case you haven't been paying attention).

Of all the things this sport has to worry about, DEPTH might be the last thing I worry about on the Hawks.

 

[jhawk91]

I think we are definitely going the route of the patriots and keeping our core guys like Wilson, Sherm, and Thomas and relying on mostly drafting to build the team and getting a few free agents to fill needs when necessary. My worry is being too cheap and not budging at all on free agents and asking for pay cuts going to hurt our reputation with free agents and even our own guys possibly. Some of the cuts so far have made a lot of sense and some I'm iffy about letting certain guys go, especially without a solid back up plan in place

 

[CANHawk]

I think we are definitely going the route of the patriots and keeping our core guys like Wilson, Sherm, and Thomas and relying on mostly drafting to build the team and getting a few free agents to fill needs when necessary. My worry is being too cheap and not budging at all on free agents and asking for pay cuts going to hurt our reputation with free agents and even our own guys possibly. Some of the cuts so far have made a lot of sense and some I'm iffy about letting certain guys go, especially without a solid back up plan in place

You mean a back up plan that is blatantly obvious to the uninitiated troglodytes such as us. These guys are on another level and I don't think our FO so much as orders lunch without weighing all the options and having a back up plan.

Nothing done in the past week was a knee-jerk decision. nothing. These boys have a master plan that borders on the devine. Just have to relax and watch how it all plays out. I for one am enjoying the ride.

#winforever

 

[Grahamhawker]

A huge need this season is for some of the reserve d-linemen (Jesse Williams, Michael Brooks, Greg Scruggs, Jordan Hill, Dewayne Cherington, Benson Mayowa, Kenneth Boatright) to step up from unproven prospects to bonafide contributers. I'm sure there is a reason they have been kept around that may not be obvious (to me at least). As the roster stands right now, if we don't get solid contributions from at least 2 or 3 of those guys, it could be a long season for the d-line.

Granted, I don't have much intell- but with what I've seen I'm not sure I'd be willing to roll those dice...

 

[RichNhansom]

We won't be playing the barrage of top defenses like we did last year and hopefully we can have some better luck along the O-line health wise. Wilson also should be not only more experienced but those top defenses won't be as big a problem as they were last year. We will also start the season with a healthy (fingers crossed) Harvin. Will Christine Michael finally show us why we drafted him?

I think better offensive production is very likely and along with it potentially putting opponents into passing situations and that will help our defense also.

For the most part I really don't see any cause for alarm yet. Beyond this FO proving they can coach up and the existing depth makes it much easier to succeed for the new talent, the existing base of talent on both offense and defense are still currently among the leagues best.

 

[OffseasonChampions]

more pass attempts

Yep lets be like the Broncos and throw it every play, that sure worked in the Super Bowl. We just won a Super Bowl with the lowest amount of passing attempts of all 32 teams in the NFL. Unless our run game turns garbage and our defense collapses why would we change what just won us a World Championship?

 

[Blitzer88]

This is what also has me pretty worried. I mean I knew we were going to lose some of our guys to free agency but we have not filled any of the positions that we've lost. So far we are definitely not as deep as we were last year right now.

 

[CANHawk]

This is what also has me pretty worried. I mean I knew we were going to lose some of our guys to free agency but we have not filled any of the positions that we've lost. So far we are definitely not as deep as we were last year right now.

I always thought that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING worried you...

dude, our FA's weren't retained because they were too expensive. so running out in the first week and spending big bucks on FA's to replace the guys we couldn't afford in the first place don't make no sense...

we'll start to pick up bargain ufa's pretty soon. Let the stupid teams with GM's and Coaches on the verge of getting fired get in bidding wars and overspend on their false messiahs. we did that once. his name was TJ Houshmanzedeh. you don't really want to go THERE again, right?

 

[OffseasonChampions]

This is what also has me pretty worried. I mean I knew we were going to lose some of our guys to free agency but we have not filled any of the positions that we've lost. So far we are definitely not as deep as we were last year right now.

It's been 4 days, 22 hours since Free Agency began. Chill the f*** out. We have PLENTY of time.

 

[jhawk91]

It does have me slightly worried we haven't done much at all except sign a couple of our own, but I'm not ready to press the big red panic button just yet. I just sort of wonder if we let guys like Clemons and Bryant go thinking we could sign a FA or 2 cheap. We seem to be kicking the tires on just about everyone but not signing anyone because they end up asking for too much

 

[sutz]

This is what also has me pretty worried. I mean I knew we were going to lose some of our guys to free agency but we have not filled any of the positions that we've lost. So far we are definitely not as deep as we were last year right now.

I always thought that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING worried you...

dude, our FA's weren't retained because they were too expensive. so running out in the first week and spending big bucks on FA's to replace the guys we couldn't afford in the first place don't make no sense...

we'll start to pick up bargain ufa's pretty soon. Let the stupid teams with GM's and Coaches on the verge of getting fired get in bidding wars and overspend on their false messiahs. we did that once. his name was TJ Houshmanzedeh. you don't really want to go THERE again, right?

This. :13: If we wanted to spend big bucks on high priced FAs, we would have spent it on guys that were already in house.

Frankly, I don't think that Denvers D will be all that good. You can't just go out and buy a ton of talent and throw them on the field and think they'll make a team. It took us three years to get the LoB up to speed. Does anybody really think that paying tons of cash on old, injury prone D-linemen is an improvement? I don't.

 

[oldhawkfan]

For you chicken littles running around, worst case scenario for the d-line is that the front line guys play more downs than they did last year. The top two DE's from last year, Avril and Bennett are back. Look for their sack numbers to go up as they won't be platooning as much as they did in 2013. In FA so far, other than Tate no real starters have been lost. What I mean by real starters is guys who played most of the downs most of the year. Guacamole doesn't count at RT because he missed a significant number of games. Red and Clem were part of a rotation. Someone with more time than me can look up snaps played and percentage of time in the game to back this up. All is good in the world of PCJS.

 

[Grahamhawker]

Over-reacting, saying the "sky is falling" is not really what I see here- I think most are being more realistic than that. And right now, there is no realistic way that the d-line is not much shallower than after the SB win. What the FO may have in mind to address that we can only speculate on. They may be happy with the reserve situation as it is now...or not. We will see.

I'm not entirely confident being an injury away from looking at Mayowa starting at Leo, Cherington at DT, etc. Not one of our reserve d-line mix has proven they are an every day kind of NFL player...yet. It may all end up fine, but for me it's not a comfortable situation right now. The proven rotation may have been a big reason for some of the d-line success last year; and we're a ways away from that until we add proven personnel or some of the reserves step up in a big way.

 

[rideaducati]

This is what also has me pretty worried. I mean I knew we were going to lose some of our guys to free agency but we have not filled any of the positions that we've lost. So far we are definitely not as deep as we were last year right now.

The positions were filled with LAST YEAR's draft and free agency. We didn't get to see some of those players because they weren't ready or were injured, but the positions were filled. There have also been futures contracts signed with promising players.

I don't understand the worry warts. Do players get better after they turn 30? Rarely. Do players get better in their early to mid 20's? Yes, that is where we see the MOST growth in players.

So far in free agency, the Seahawks have let two OVER 30 starters that were good, not great, leave. They also let BACKUPS in a couple positions leave for MORE MONEY THAN THEY WERE WORTH TO THE SEAHAWKS and a WR whose productivity will be replaced by a better WR acquired by trade prior to last season.

The sky is not falling. Keeping the same team is complacency. Complacency does not make the team better.

 

[onanygivensunday]

For you chicken littles running around, worst case scenario for the d-line is that the front line guys play more downs than they did last year. The top two DE's from last year, Avril and Bennett are back. Look for their sack numbers to go up as they won't be platooning as much as they did in 2013. In FA so far, other than Tate no real starters have been lost. What I mean by real starters is guys who played most of the downs most of the year. Guacamole doesn't count at RT because he missed a significant number of games. Red and Clem were part of a rotation. Someone with more time than me can look up snaps played and percentage of time in the game to back this up. All is good in the world of PCJS.

Red's snaps in 2013... 460
Clem's snaps............ 532
McDonald's snaps.......497

That's a total of 1489 defensive line snaps that have left the team.

Bennett's snaps in 2013 were 569... but his 2012 snaps while in Tampa Bay were 961... which is 392 more than he saw last year... so expect Michael to see more snaps next year.

On the offensive line, Giacomini's snaps last year were 534. By comparison, Sweezy didn't miss a snap and his total was 952. Okung's total was 425 and Unger's total was 753. Of the two rookies, Bowie played the most with 523 snaps.

Need anything else, just ask.

 

[vin.couve12]

I'm not going to get into this thread too much, because I don't really agree, but one thing worth stating with some significance is that Mayowa was kept on the 53 all year. On a line with as much talent as we had/have that's worth noting. There is something there.

 

[IndyHawk]

We won't be playing the barrage of top defenses like we did last year and hopefully we can have some better luck along the O-line health wise. Wilson also should be not only more experienced but those top defenses won't be as big a problem as they were last year. We will also start the season with a healthy (fingers crossed) Harvin. Will Christine Michael finally show us why we drafted him?

I think better offensive production is very likely and along with it potentially putting opponents into passing situations and that will help our defense also.

For the most part I really don't see any cause for alarm yet. Beyond this FO proving they can coach up and the existing depth makes it much easier to succeed for the new talent, the existing base of talent on both offense and defense are still currently among the leagues best.

The 4 top defenses in football may be in NFC WEST where we play 3 of them twice,I'd say it can be like last year ..

 

[chris98251]

We have a full compliment of guys that hardly stepped on the feild waiting in the wings or IR Practice squad that are slated to step in, we have a full draft, we have pieces that we are selectively pursueing in free agency. If nothing else guys like Bryant, Clemons, Maragos, Kam, Lane, Maxwell, Sherman, etc were all guys nobody gave a rats ass about till Pete put them in rolls they could succeed in.

I think his and Johns track record is pretty soilid to this point.