Woolen's only problem I would worry about is if he is uncoachable. I think he responded to the demotion with plenty of effort, but there was that one play, and I noticed it at the time. It is sort of burned into my brain, and it seems to have actually scarred yours. But what if he said, "I was confused as to help out, and afraid of drawing a flag if I started pulling, and by the time I realized what I should do it was over." I mean that is what it looked like to me. He can be taught to anticipate better. He can be taught to tackle better, and to be more aggressive. Aggression isn't absolutely required for playing WR, but it is for a Seahawks CB. He's only played defense for 3 years or so. When the coaches give up on him is when I will give up on him.
From my memory, lack of aggression cost Woolen leaving about 4 INT's on the field. His natural skills got him that close to having 5 or six INT's on the season.
For my money, DK is an all pro receiver right now, and yes, I mean all pro which is higher praise than Pro Bowl. The test is, who would you trade DK for straight across? Cooper Kupp? Puca Nacua? Jefferson? Maybe. Adams? No. Hill? Yes, probably, but he's paid more. There are a couple of others that come to mind, and AJ Brown, I think, is one of the few who is comparable in most ways and better in some.
On many teams, DK would be getting even more yards and more TD's. Used like a tight end, DK would kill against LBers. And there is no one who has been more under rated in this league consistently than Lockett. I love Geno more than I did last year, but Geno's numbers are inflated by DK and Lockett and not the other way around. Though much of the blame is not so much Geno and Waldron/Pete. Personally, I believe it is Waldron's limitations and not Pete's. And that in not to say that Waldron is worse than average. He might be worse than average as a play caller.
Play calling is not discussed enough regarding the Seahawks because Pete is not the play caller. So when Pete hires an OC, that isn't the same as when McVay hires an OC. Or Reid. Those guys call their own plays. Pete is in a position to know if his DC is bad at calling plays. More so than evaluating an OC's abilities. But he should be good at both, and he needs to take more accountability for his coordinators performances.
He couldn't have affected that one play. He is tall, long-armed and thin. No reason for him to rush in and test a pec. I was encouraged by his attempts at physicality in the game, even of he got tricked. He made good efforts, but got beat by superior strength and leverage. I think he is coachable, in fact it was cited as why he did so well last year.
I'm not sure how good Riq Woolen ever was. Surely a lot better than his draft position would suggest, but I'm skeptical that he grows into a star at this point. He got a lot of picks last year, and made some great splash plays due to his length and speed. But he's lanky and easily pushed around, as being on the wrong end of a shadow realm highlight last week illustrated. Overall he looked pretty solid to me, at least in coverage. I usually rewatch games and feel like I see things I missed watching live, but this week I haven't had the heart to. This defense is awful and I don't want to see it again.
I've never been a "Fire Pete" guy and I have no plans on starting now. But a lot has to change. We completely revamped our D line and it looked better to start the season but as soon as 'Chenna went down, it's looked worse than last year's bad squad. If everything hinges on one guy, that's not good enough. We need more horses on the lines. I'm worried that Leonard Williams is going to want to sign somewhere he can win, and won't see Seattle as that place. We need inside linebackers who can cover and tackle. We need at least one if not two starting safeties seeing as we play with 3 on the field so much. And that's just personnel. I see no reason Hurtt should keep his job after 2 years of being near the bottom of the league. And I have little optimism that Pete will finally find the right guy seeing as none of the D coordinators have been much of an upgrade from their predecessors.
On offense, we need a QBotF, probably another RT, G, and line depth, and who knows which if any TEs we keep. I feel like WR and RB are the only spots in good shape. I'm not sure how many players we're up to now, but it's more than the draft picks we have and our cap situation isn't great for signing free agents.
Pete won't admit it, but we were in a rebuild from the moment we traded Wilson to Denver. Last year's team sneaking into the playoffs and the QB play of Geno gave us false hope. We played a 3rd place schedule and snuck out just enough wins to get our butts handed to us in the playoffs. We are a mid team with a few really good pieces. Just like 50% of the league. Not to sound like a downer but the road to having a championship team looks long and filled with potholes to me.
I’m not a coach and unlike half the fans in social media I don’t claim to be a film maven. I can only relate what I saw when watching the defense on All-22 of the Steelers debacle:
* Riq Woolen is targeted twice in the first quarter with one completion for about five yards. Otherwise, the Steelers don’t bother throwing against him. As the game goes on, Rudolph looks in Woolen’s direction as a first option a number of times and doesn’t make a throw. Eventually, the Steelers move George Pickens to left side in the third quarter because Woolen has him blanketed. In the first quarter, Woolen plugs a hole between two blockers to make a tackle and prevent what looks would have been a breakaway. Woolen looks bad on one run that is replayed over and over on social media. In general, though, he pretty much holds his blocks on runs to the defense’s right...
* Quit screwing around with Witherspoon and let him operate exclusively from the left side. We would see a lot of QBs who don’t want to throw to either the right or left of the defense. John Schneider, do your job and find someone else to play in the slot. If this means taking Brown off the field, so be it
* Get a couple of rangy thumpers at linebacker and *don’t* risk having to rely on an undersized guy for depth. Sunday, they would have been better off with Cody Barton
* Give up the fiction that Mike Jackson offers anything other than depth. Whatever his strengths (and however great a guy he might be), he is not a quality starter
My take on Bobby is that he’s likely still one of the better MLBs in the league even if not at his former HOF level. But only for two downs. He needs regular blows when what the team needs is a middle linebacker who can be out there for 99% of the defensive snaps. Reluctantly, it really is time to move on.
I think you hit it on the nose. They didn’t shy away from Devin bush who looked half a step behind everything. That guy should not come back next year and I think you’re apot on, Cody Barton (who should have been let go) might have could at least done moderately better. Nice thoughts on this one
Nice post. What you said is right on with one exception, they went to a 3/4 with 4/3 personel. No space eating nose tackle, no fast 4 LBs and no hard hitting free safety.
If Carroll decides to go back to a 4-3, he should change DCs. They do have a hard-hitting safety—he just can’t stay on the field. Ideally, they bite the bullet on Adams and Diggs and pair Love with a young, physical Day 2 pick.
The bigger point that this stuff can all be addressed. There’s no existential crisis here.
If lack of consistent effort and fierceness is a problem with Riq, can we hypothesize that he's only the most visible example of an larger team deficiency? And Spoon singularly represents the opposite?
Despite one play that gets replayed over and over on social media, Woolen wasn’t the problem in this game. Watch the All-22: I bet that 85% of the Steeler offense was to the defense’s left or center-left. They set out to make life miserable for Devin Bush on the ground and Mike Jackson in the air and pretty much succeeded. (Not that this was a heavy lift.) Meanwhile, Woolen shut down George Pickens so effectively that they moved him to the other side of the field in the third quarter and let some hapless depth guy trot around on the right.
Yes that one punt against the Steelers that didn’t hold up like his usual ones, rolled into the end zone, was atypical and pinning them on the 3 would’ve been much better
I think Michael Dickson as an alternate is a snub. Anger has had a great year but he gave up more absolute return yards (243 vs 210) on 17 fewer punts (44 vs 61). And at least half his games are in a dome.
If I were to select 3 Seahawks to the pro bowl is would be Spoon, K9 and Dickson with DK and Boye Mafe as an alternate.
Salary Cap Question:
Bobby Wagner gets a $750,000 bonus for being selected to the Pro Bowl, does that count against the Cap? What year?
Woolen's only problem I would worry about is if he is uncoachable. I think he responded to the demotion with plenty of effort, but there was that one play, and I noticed it at the time. It is sort of burned into my brain, and it seems to have actually scarred yours. But what if he said, "I was confused as to help out, and afraid of drawing a flag if I started pulling, and by the time I realized what I should do it was over." I mean that is what it looked like to me. He can be taught to anticipate better. He can be taught to tackle better, and to be more aggressive. Aggression isn't absolutely required for playing WR, but it is for a Seahawks CB. He's only played defense for 3 years or so. When the coaches give up on him is when I will give up on him.
From my memory, lack of aggression cost Woolen leaving about 4 INT's on the field. His natural skills got him that close to having 5 or six INT's on the season.
For my money, DK is an all pro receiver right now, and yes, I mean all pro which is higher praise than Pro Bowl. The test is, who would you trade DK for straight across? Cooper Kupp? Puca Nacua? Jefferson? Maybe. Adams? No. Hill? Yes, probably, but he's paid more. There are a couple of others that come to mind, and AJ Brown, I think, is one of the few who is comparable in most ways and better in some.
On many teams, DK would be getting even more yards and more TD's. Used like a tight end, DK would kill against LBers. And there is no one who has been more under rated in this league consistently than Lockett. I love Geno more than I did last year, but Geno's numbers are inflated by DK and Lockett and not the other way around. Though much of the blame is not so much Geno and Waldron/Pete. Personally, I believe it is Waldron's limitations and not Pete's. And that in not to say that Waldron is worse than average. He might be worse than average as a play caller.
Play calling is not discussed enough regarding the Seahawks because Pete is not the play caller. So when Pete hires an OC, that isn't the same as when McVay hires an OC. Or Reid. Those guys call their own plays. Pete is in a position to know if his DC is bad at calling plays. More so than evaluating an OC's abilities. But he should be good at both, and he needs to take more accountability for his coordinators performances.
He couldn't have affected that one play. He is tall, long-armed and thin. No reason for him to rush in and test a pec. I was encouraged by his attempts at physicality in the game, even of he got tricked. He made good efforts, but got beat by superior strength and leverage. I think he is coachable, in fact it was cited as why he did so well last year.
I'm not sure how good Riq Woolen ever was. Surely a lot better than his draft position would suggest, but I'm skeptical that he grows into a star at this point. He got a lot of picks last year, and made some great splash plays due to his length and speed. But he's lanky and easily pushed around, as being on the wrong end of a shadow realm highlight last week illustrated. Overall he looked pretty solid to me, at least in coverage. I usually rewatch games and feel like I see things I missed watching live, but this week I haven't had the heart to. This defense is awful and I don't want to see it again.
I've never been a "Fire Pete" guy and I have no plans on starting now. But a lot has to change. We completely revamped our D line and it looked better to start the season but as soon as 'Chenna went down, it's looked worse than last year's bad squad. If everything hinges on one guy, that's not good enough. We need more horses on the lines. I'm worried that Leonard Williams is going to want to sign somewhere he can win, and won't see Seattle as that place. We need inside linebackers who can cover and tackle. We need at least one if not two starting safeties seeing as we play with 3 on the field so much. And that's just personnel. I see no reason Hurtt should keep his job after 2 years of being near the bottom of the league. And I have little optimism that Pete will finally find the right guy seeing as none of the D coordinators have been much of an upgrade from their predecessors.
On offense, we need a QBotF, probably another RT, G, and line depth, and who knows which if any TEs we keep. I feel like WR and RB are the only spots in good shape. I'm not sure how many players we're up to now, but it's more than the draft picks we have and our cap situation isn't great for signing free agents.
Pete won't admit it, but we were in a rebuild from the moment we traded Wilson to Denver. Last year's team sneaking into the playoffs and the QB play of Geno gave us false hope. We played a 3rd place schedule and snuck out just enough wins to get our butts handed to us in the playoffs. We are a mid team with a few really good pieces. Just like 50% of the league. Not to sound like a downer but the road to having a championship team looks long and filled with potholes to me.
I’m not a coach and unlike half the fans in social media I don’t claim to be a film maven. I can only relate what I saw when watching the defense on All-22 of the Steelers debacle:
* Riq Woolen is targeted twice in the first quarter with one completion for about five yards. Otherwise, the Steelers don’t bother throwing against him. As the game goes on, Rudolph looks in Woolen’s direction as a first option a number of times and doesn’t make a throw. Eventually, the Steelers move George Pickens to left side in the third quarter because Woolen has him blanketed. In the first quarter, Woolen plugs a hole between two blockers to make a tackle and prevent what looks would have been a breakaway. Woolen looks bad on one run that is replayed over and over on social media. In general, though, he pretty much holds his blocks on runs to the defense’s right...
*...of which there weren’t many. Pittsburgh attacked the Seahawk left almost exclusively. Rudolph picked on Mike Jackson and the ground game went right at 234-lb Devin Bush, who left at least one Steeler observer unimpressed: https://steelersdepot.com/2024/01/chris-hoke-unimpressed-by-devin-bushs-17-tackle-performance-he-had-a-lot-of-jumping-on-the-pile/
Going forward:
* Quit screwing around with Witherspoon and let him operate exclusively from the left side. We would see a lot of QBs who don’t want to throw to either the right or left of the defense. John Schneider, do your job and find someone else to play in the slot. If this means taking Brown off the field, so be it
* Get a couple of rangy thumpers at linebacker and *don’t* risk having to rely on an undersized guy for depth. Sunday, they would have been better off with Cody Barton
* Give up the fiction that Mike Jackson offers anything other than depth. Whatever his strengths (and however great a guy he might be), he is not a quality starter
My take on Bobby is that he’s likely still one of the better MLBs in the league even if not at his former HOF level. But only for two downs. He needs regular blows when what the team needs is a middle linebacker who can be out there for 99% of the defensive snaps. Reluctantly, it really is time to move on.
Mike Jackson should be tried at strong safety. He hits good and has the speed.
I’ve wondered this myself.
I think you hit it on the nose. They didn’t shy away from Devin bush who looked half a step behind everything. That guy should not come back next year and I think you’re apot on, Cody Barton (who should have been let go) might have could at least done moderately better. Nice thoughts on this one
Nice post. What you said is right on with one exception, they went to a 3/4 with 4/3 personel. No space eating nose tackle, no fast 4 LBs and no hard hitting free safety.
If Carroll decides to go back to a 4-3, he should change DCs. They do have a hard-hitting safety—he just can’t stay on the field. Ideally, they bite the bullet on Adams and Diggs and pair Love with a young, physical Day 2 pick.
The bigger point that this stuff can all be addressed. There’s no existential crisis here.
Nicely done.
I think we might can put our collective finger on where it broke down: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6db5MJTIcFY&pp=ygURa2ogd3JpZ2h0IHBvZGNhc3Q%3D. Start at about 34:09 "when the coaches started to shift..."
If lack of consistent effort and fierceness is a problem with Riq, can we hypothesize that he's only the most visible example of an larger team deficiency? And Spoon singularly represents the opposite?
Despite one play that gets replayed over and over on social media, Woolen wasn’t the problem in this game. Watch the All-22: I bet that 85% of the Steeler offense was to the defense’s left or center-left. They set out to make life miserable for Devin Bush on the ground and Mike Jackson in the air and pretty much succeeded. (Not that this was a heavy lift.) Meanwhile, Woolen shut down George Pickens so effectively that they moved him to the other side of the field in the third quarter and let some hapless depth guy trot around on the right.
FWIW, Paul Moyer described in detail how the Steelers worked over a certain undersized linebacker.
It’s as much of a problem with veteran leadership. Where are the players who are holding him accountable?
Is it too easy to say Wags? Diggs?
Yes that one punt against the Steelers that didn’t hold up like his usual ones, rolled into the end zone, was atypical and pinning them on the 3 would’ve been much better
I think Michael Dickson as an alternate is a snub. Anger has had a great year but he gave up more absolute return yards (243 vs 210) on 17 fewer punts (44 vs 61). And at least half his games are in a dome.
I would like Dickson in there. I wish he had a few more pins this week honestly.
Dickson for MVP!!!.....
.... but when your punter (no matter how good) is seriously in the running for MVP on your team, your team has a problem.