BirdsCommaAngry
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- Jan 13, 2013
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Why aren't we as good now as we were during 2013-2014? In our pursuit of an explanation for these differences, we've taken to looking to what we had back then and comparing it to what we've lacked in recent years. Among what we now lack and what may be responsible for the drop-off of the Seahawks is Scot Mccloughan, the now GM of the Redskins. We're starting to argue he was the mastermind behind the construction of our Super Bowl seasons and we're mistaken due to the explanations we omit.
There's reason to believe Scot was an important aspect of the Seahawks rise to champion and perennial playoff team. Our best drafts coincide with his involvement with the team. When the 49ers were making noise under Harbaugh, their success coincided with Scot's involvement with building their team. Similarly, Scot's struggles with alcoholism paint a picture of his departure from both the Seahawks and 49ers as happening due to personal problems rather than his ability in evaluating players. What we've got is an explanation to our question of why we aren't as good now as were a few short years ago. We were better until shortly after Scot Mccloughan was involved with our team.
But is that the only explanation? Absolutely not.
During the construction of our Super Bowl teams, we had numerous other advantages in addition to the flawed but talented Mccloughan. Pete Carroll was fresh of his stint with USC and from these experiences he was potentially much more knowledgeable of the collegiate players entering the NFL than any other coach at the time. John Schneider's rise to general manager would presumably involve less and less work in evaluating players - his early years here would represent the peak of his combined individual scouting knowledge and ability to act on that knowledge. We had an inside scoop on the draft no other team had.
Draft position and FA opportunities are also a significant factor. Our two best drafts occurred in 2010 and 2012. These were also the two drafts where we selected the highest with our first pick coming at #4 and #15 respectively. In every other draft, we've been making picks from less advantageous positions. Similarly, the 2013 off-season presented a wacky situation where an abnormally high number of talented pass-rushers were hitting FA while also being undervalued by many of the interested parties. We were able to nab Bennet and Avril to overhaul a needed position at a bargain - an opportunity teams are seldom allowed to have and one we might not win a Super Bowl without. We had comparatively more advantages and opportunities to build a team than we have had more recently.
There are psychological explanations as well. A general goal of our minds is to pursue goals, such as high performance in competition, but also to pursue everything we do with simplicity and efficiency through minimizing effort. Among the goals for a general manager, head coach, and scouts are goals like winning championships, winning ________ of the year awards, establishing a legacy, getting a promotion, or simply keeping a job. In pursuit of these goals, we can do some remarkable things.
Conversely, there are also goals surrounding personal needs, such as a need to feel competent and capable. When we won the Super Bowl championship in 2013, what our guys experienced was a very clear piece of evidence of how competent and capable we are. In addition to these tremendous feelings are also some unfortunate effects. Due to our minds' prerogative for simplicity and efficiency, this evidence also suggests we don't need to try as hard or put in as much work to feel competent and capable. We can feel good about what we've done in the past rather than work hard toward achieving goals in the future - a way of feeling good which is desirable because it requires much less effort.
Undoubtedly as successful competitive professionals, JS, PC, and co. have likely been able to resist much of the temptation to rest on the successes of the past, but not all of it can be resisted. In psychology there's also another general suggestion about the workings of our minds. We can resist and override much of what's influencing us but we're never completely immune to life's influences. Our guys don't need to try as hard now to still feel great about their professional capabilities.
Overall, we're pursuing an explanation for our current decline and commonly turn to Scot Mccloughan as the answer. This explanation is mistaken because it likely attributes more to him than the numerous other factors and explanations for why we were able to accomplish more during 2013 and 2014. Among the other explanations are those touching on the numerous other advantages we had in player acquisition during PC's early years. Our drop-off also coincides with aspects of how our minds tend to work. In pursuit of this explanation of the current Seahawk decline, we're attempting to understand, learn, and ultimately, even grow a little as people through exploring answers to complicated "Why?" questions. If I've succeeded, we'll be doing this wonderful process slightly more knowledgeably.
There's reason to believe Scot was an important aspect of the Seahawks rise to champion and perennial playoff team. Our best drafts coincide with his involvement with the team. When the 49ers were making noise under Harbaugh, their success coincided with Scot's involvement with building their team. Similarly, Scot's struggles with alcoholism paint a picture of his departure from both the Seahawks and 49ers as happening due to personal problems rather than his ability in evaluating players. What we've got is an explanation to our question of why we aren't as good now as were a few short years ago. We were better until shortly after Scot Mccloughan was involved with our team.
But is that the only explanation? Absolutely not.
During the construction of our Super Bowl teams, we had numerous other advantages in addition to the flawed but talented Mccloughan. Pete Carroll was fresh of his stint with USC and from these experiences he was potentially much more knowledgeable of the collegiate players entering the NFL than any other coach at the time. John Schneider's rise to general manager would presumably involve less and less work in evaluating players - his early years here would represent the peak of his combined individual scouting knowledge and ability to act on that knowledge. We had an inside scoop on the draft no other team had.
Draft position and FA opportunities are also a significant factor. Our two best drafts occurred in 2010 and 2012. These were also the two drafts where we selected the highest with our first pick coming at #4 and #15 respectively. In every other draft, we've been making picks from less advantageous positions. Similarly, the 2013 off-season presented a wacky situation where an abnormally high number of talented pass-rushers were hitting FA while also being undervalued by many of the interested parties. We were able to nab Bennet and Avril to overhaul a needed position at a bargain - an opportunity teams are seldom allowed to have and one we might not win a Super Bowl without. We had comparatively more advantages and opportunities to build a team than we have had more recently.
There are psychological explanations as well. A general goal of our minds is to pursue goals, such as high performance in competition, but also to pursue everything we do with simplicity and efficiency through minimizing effort. Among the goals for a general manager, head coach, and scouts are goals like winning championships, winning ________ of the year awards, establishing a legacy, getting a promotion, or simply keeping a job. In pursuit of these goals, we can do some remarkable things.
Conversely, there are also goals surrounding personal needs, such as a need to feel competent and capable. When we won the Super Bowl championship in 2013, what our guys experienced was a very clear piece of evidence of how competent and capable we are. In addition to these tremendous feelings are also some unfortunate effects. Due to our minds' prerogative for simplicity and efficiency, this evidence also suggests we don't need to try as hard or put in as much work to feel competent and capable. We can feel good about what we've done in the past rather than work hard toward achieving goals in the future - a way of feeling good which is desirable because it requires much less effort.
Undoubtedly as successful competitive professionals, JS, PC, and co. have likely been able to resist much of the temptation to rest on the successes of the past, but not all of it can be resisted. In psychology there's also another general suggestion about the workings of our minds. We can resist and override much of what's influencing us but we're never completely immune to life's influences. Our guys don't need to try as hard now to still feel great about their professional capabilities.
Overall, we're pursuing an explanation for our current decline and commonly turn to Scot Mccloughan as the answer. This explanation is mistaken because it likely attributes more to him than the numerous other factors and explanations for why we were able to accomplish more during 2013 and 2014. Among the other explanations are those touching on the numerous other advantages we had in player acquisition during PC's early years. Our drop-off also coincides with aspects of how our minds tend to work. In pursuit of this explanation of the current Seahawk decline, we're attempting to understand, learn, and ultimately, even grow a little as people through exploring answers to complicated "Why?" questions. If I've succeeded, we'll be doing this wonderful process slightly more knowledgeably.
