Where have we taken a step back from last year?

[FlyingGreg]

Jaron Brown caught five touchdowns and excelled in run blocking. Could be better, but could be worse, too.

And he did that on 19 targets ALL SEASON. They hardly ever threw to him, oddly.

 

[Tinymac2]

Safety for sure. We started last year with Earl and Bradley.

Wide Receiver. Another year of age on the group and Doug coming off a down year due to injury.

 

[GetNjigbaWithIt]

I say they need another edge to pair with Clark, a CB to put some pressure on Griffin, and a Safety to compete with Thompson.

 

[chris98251]

The offensive line has taken a step back. Iupati is two years older than Sweezy and has ended the last two years on IR. He strikes me as a Mike Wahl, Robert Gallery kinda signing. He might play a handful of games but he won't play a whole season. The issue is that he and Fluker are in the same boat and their best backup Jordan Simmons is basically the C.J Procise of offensive lineman. We are gonna see a lot of players in those two guard spots this years. This is a step back

The secondary is also in a worse spot with the lose of Coleman. Also, look for Flowers to most likely have a sophomore slump. Further, teams have a year of film on Ted Thompson and will exploit him even more.

The RB position got potentially worse. It all depends on what we see from Penny. Mike Davis was a better back than him and unless Penny steps it up the one-two RB duo will be worse this year than last year.

So we are going to suck and might as well tank the season for higher picks next year so we can replace Wilson as well.

Good to know.

 

[uncle fester]

Last year’s safety group included an All Pro, and this year’s replacement is a guy who folks can never quite remember. So that can’t really be ignored.

D Line, as others have said - it’s a step back due to FA losses.

RB I think will be fine - injury risk aside - as the 3 headed attack last year may have been some way responsible for the over-indulgence in run first in every situation - having to give 3 guys their share?

Fanbase. When expectations are lower, you weed out bandwadoners and have a better fanbase.

Also - Boom...

 

[SoulfishHawk]

The O line has taken a step back??? Um, the Hawks were the #1 rushing team in the NFL :34853_doh:

 

[getnasty]

How many games did Earl play last year? He's a huge loss but it's not like he played last year.

 

[Popeyejones]

RB I think will be fine - injury risk aside - as the 3 headed attack last year may have been some way responsible for the over-indulgence in run first in every situation - having to give 3 guys their share?

That's strategy.

If Schotty was changing his offensive philosophy because he thought Mike Davis was just too undeniable to keep off the field he should be fired immediately.

 

[John63]

The O line has taken a step back??? Um, the Hawks were the #1 rushing team in the NFL :34853_doh:

Yes last year. Now we are talking this year with at least a new starter, another oft injured. Until we see we took a step back. Also as a reminder pass blocking while better was still not league avg.

 

[mistaowen]

I think offensive line will be fine. Iupati is a mauler in the run game and was above average in pass protection prior to the injuries. Sweezy is a mauler who struggled in pass protection. I'd say more than anything it's a neutral change with potential to be even better if Iupati stays healthy. They also like some of the younger guys waiting. Continuity is HUGE for the monsters up front, another season working together with Solari should keep this team in the top 5 running.

Safety is obvious but it's hard to go from All-Pro future hall of famer to guy who barely saw the field. Pete is very high on Tedric, probably more so than anyone on the board, but I think that's an area they'll keep putting capital towards solving.

Similarly with DB - wouldn't say step back but it feels they are comfortable with who they have in Griffin and Flowers and expect them to take a big stride forward this year with a full season under their belt. Coleman was a solid nickel but nickel CB's can only impact the game so much. Clearly liked what they saw out of King.

2018 was a year to remove bad contracts. 2019 will be the next wave stepping up. 2020 should likely be the resurgence with draft capital and only a few spots left to round out. They went all in with the LOB knowing it would come to an end soon and now it takes a few years to reset.

 

[thegreeninyoureye]

Cornerback, Safety.
Not sold on Shaq as a #1 corner.

My thoughts exactly I think he regressed! Maybe all the hoopla with him n his Brother caught up to him. Maybe he will grow since all that mess seemed to die down a little!

 

[getnasty]

Cornerback, Safety.
Not sold on Shaq as a #1 corner.

My thoughts exactly I think he regressed! Maybe all the hoopla with him n his Brother caught up to him. Maybe he will grow since all that mess seemed to die down a little!

New position for Shaq last year, i would think if anything he'll be better this year.

 

[WestcoastSteve]

Jaron Brown caught five touchdowns and excelled in run blocking. Could be better, but could be worse, too.

I think the issue is he's paid like a #3 receiver not a guy who can only perform in the red zone.

 

[Tical21]

It isn't that we have taken a step back, but there are factors at play.

1. The best teams are better than us. We have to get better at a faster rate than they are.

2. In general, sports teams improve. Players today are bigger and faster and stronger and more skilled than they were 20 years ago. Every year, teams and players are improving, so if you're mostly treading water, you're going to get passed.

We have some young players that figure to improve this season, but I'm not sure we have enough young studs to be able to get to where we need to go without another offseason.

 

[jammerhawk]

The metrics of whether the "best teams" are better depends upon who says they are "better". All things considered the team lost an extreme amount of genuine talent in a very short period of time. I doubt any team in the league could have recovered as quickly as the team did. However, they were about to lose them through the passage of time or through cap culling. They had some extreme bad luck with Avril and Kam. They persevered through the ego storms of Sherman and Bennett then Thomas but stayed true to their core philosophy and the team is presently better for that. Right now the team is getting better faster than the "experts" acknowledge and they grudgingly acknowledged last season when the "experts" predicted a 4-12 season for our viewing pleasure. As we see those prognosticators are as wrong as the can be right.

Frankly, I suspect that both JS and PC learned some valuable lessons with Harvin, Graham, Sherman, Bennett, and sadly Avril and Chancellor. The failed bet made upon McDowell was extraordinarily expensive in terms of lost draft capital salary and personnel. We hear the Pete Prisco's of the world talk of power rankings, FA winners and losers, and rate drafts, by some mystical metrics. In short a popularity contest is created and they pat themselves on the back. Success as fairly measured over time is curiously unrecognized. Here the team is "better than" any other team in the league except the Patriots. That success is measured since the arrival of the present FO. The FO and coaching staff lost focus and direction for a while, but they are back

In our team's history of this management crew we've seen some miracles with picks and some huge failures. The hits have been more frequent than the losses and the personnel decisions have been better than ever before for this team. In that XLVIII wonderful season the team had success and health along with more than a little plain simple luck. Along with that the team had depth and numerous young guys waiting to be great and they just were. Success brought more than a few problems and the FO slipped at the end of the year and the fallout killed a potential dynasty. The team lost it's mojo and they bickered while some coaches were revealed as non performing and repeatedly unable to meet their stated goals. The disaster of the season before last happened and the team has now with changes made got it's mojo back and looked to be coming on at times last year. The 4-12 wonder was 11-7 last season after they lost to the Cowboys in the 2nd round of the playoffs and we all thought they had a good season. Better for them will be them winning the division, with heath and a little plain simple good luck they will have success.

I think they have lots of good young players who are bigger or faster or smarter just unrecognized. It's that royal jelly they have found before that they just need to find again. This team reminds me of the team that lost to Atlanta they have the ability be special. Yes, there are a few areas of concern, yes there are some areas of weakness, yes the number of draft picks is down but they are almost through the misery of the retooling and could actually be a lot "better" than the "better teams" are alleged to be. The team demonstrated their ability to get "better" faster last season.

I don’t believe they have stepped backwards at all.

 

[TwistedHusky]

We barely made the playoffs this past year.

The year before we missed them entirely.

We should be a wildcard this coming year.

We don't look to have stepped back at all, though we probably haven't improved much. Not enough to matter.

We aren't a top tier team by any stretch, but we are in that 2nd tier, maybe close to the 3rd - but still in the 2nd.

I don't see that changing. Maybe once Wilson gets extended (if?), we drop a tier because we cannot afford to paper over some of the holes allocating so much of the cap to one position will create. But this is going to be somewhere between 7 wins and 10 wins depending on the health of the players.

The loss of Coleman hurts but expecting our defense to be anything better than decent is probably asking a lot. This is not a defense that is going to scare anyone. However, our focus on the run game will probably keep the defense off the field and keep the games close (if we bother to score TDs in the first halves).

As fans, we should still get to see enough wins to make watching the games worthwhile. And at least they will not be that borderline unwatchable types of games we had a few years ago. Hopefully, the days of our kicker being our leading scorer are dead or at least no longer an issue.

 

[jammerhawk]

Opinions vary.

The team returned all but one player of their core from last season.

The players lost, save Coleman, were not likely to make the team or be on the team this season for various reasons.

The OLine is secure and beginning to appear to have some depth. The RB corps are demonstrably strong. There is depth at WR and some young players ready to take a step forward. The depth at TE is good.

On D there remains a depth issue at DE, & DT the strength of this draft. The LB corps appear to have some depth albeit somewhat dependent upon health and maturing of younger players. The team has two qualified starters at CB and good depth though we will need to see what happens at NCB. The safety numbers look to be in need of some additions to compete and this also is a deep area of this draft. The team is very good at identifying and developing DBs.

I think the team could easily with some good fortune find itself in the mix for the divisional championship as the Rams are not as strong as some think they are.

Have they stepped back? I think not.

 

[chris98251]

Lets look at the opinions of the Seahawks before we made our run.

LCB and RCB, a WR conversion project and a retread from the Canadian football league.

Safety a big guy that should play linebacker in the NFL will be difficult to find a position for him, slower then most and has issues in recognition, a Smallish but very fast guy that may not hold up in the league.

Our D line a DT moved to DE, a retread from Philly, interior wise Mebane who is smallish and can get over run and a rotation of non descript guys in the other spots.

At Line backer a 5th rounder and a guy inside that is to light to hold up and may have issues getting separation, a fast guy that is better edge rushing on the other side that has recognition issues.

On Offense Okung is oft injured and can't hold up, a patch work of other guys that seems to rotate players in and out week to week. A problem child from Buffalo at running back that undisciplined and lost his starting job, a bunch of non descript WR's that may not even make another team and a QB that is too short to succeed in the NFL.

Given those descriptions and what I see here today as far as what people are thinking I think we are in a lot better shape.

After all that team that had all those issues was molded into a pretty good team.

 

[hawxfreak]

I would also say the coaches know the
team better and themselves which might be worth a game or two itself

 

[John63]

with the news about Baldwin the answer is yes we stepped back until we prove otherwise, we have no clue if Baldwin will fully recover, will Moore take that next step, will the new oline person mesh well, will Fluker stay healthy and that is just the offensive side. So until we prove otherwise we took a step back