It is very very difficult for me to put much stock in a scenario in which Jamal Adams plays productively over a full season with the Seahawks. If only wishing could make it so, because cutting the guy is expensive in its own way. Re-sign Neal, and not sure what to do about Diggs. See if you can reduce his cap hit if you are going to keep him.
Tackling--absolutely agreed. Mostly bad all year, and as bad at the end as at the beginning. That said, speaking about the beginning, the prospect of yet another season of an awful defense early on, followed by wild, inexpicable fluctuations thereafter, is about more than I can take. Mixed feelings about Hurtt, at best, as a result.
I liked Nwosu, despite his proclivity to disappear from game to game. Not sure what he will command on the market. How many snaps did Taylor get yesterday? Why was Irvin playing so much over Mafe? The Pete Way is to play young talent into being good--where was that? Seems like another version of the disappearance of that DE from Syracuse last year...
Re-sign Geno for decent money. Do NOT franchise him. And for heaven's sake stop talking to reporters about doing that!! Don't shy away from picking a QB at 5, if you really like him. Not a fan of picking Carter at that point--far too inconsistent, with questionable work ethic. If it gets to 5 and you don't like the QBs available, probably Anderson or trade down.
You are correct about Geno. And yet, it’s very hard to upgrade from the 15th best qb. How do you do that? Take a swing in the draft ? Sure. Nobody is saying tho that AR has the winning vibe that they said about Russ when he was coming out. Which one is that guy?
Ithe question I’m asking after today was why did it seem like purdy had a day full of easy (20 yard!) throws vs Geno who seemed to have very few / none?
Yes, they need to keep all three safeties because none of them are exactly bastions of health, particularly Adams, so it's necessary to have that depth. We saw the big downgrade when even Neal went out, let alone Adams at the beginning of the year. The Josh Jones experiment went about as poorly as any secondary player the Hawks have had in the past 10 years.
Great season overall. I hope JS&PC make perfect FA decisions, draft wisely, and everybody stays healthy next year.
Me? I'm taking a pass on drafting a QB. Maybe trade down to pick up a '24 first round pick from Carolina. Get two front seven guys in round one, then a WR, and center in rd. two, and whatever awesome guys in any position that fall to the third round or lower.
I'd be happy to have Geno as QB next season but the expected price tag would make it a no-go for me. If Geno were to walk that's $30+ million that could be spent on both lines or LB and a QB prospect could be drafted. And then you could bring in 4 top prospects via the draft. And I believe in 2024 their cap situation is good with a lot of rookies and 1st year players hopefully making up the core.
I want the Hawks to be bullies again... they got pushed around today while giving up lots of explosive plays and that's not ever going to be winning football.
I went into this season as an strong proponent of the value of the rookie contract. Huge contracts seem to be the norm for certain positions. WR 1 & 2, Edge 1 & 2, CB 1 & 2, LT and QB. Typically teams have a superstar at another position or two as well (SS Adams for the Hawks and DT Donald for the Rams as examples).
That said, there is NO way to have huge contracts for each of these 8-10 priority positions. I submit the only way to keep from diluting the rest of the roster is to have a steady rotation of rookie contracts so there are about half of these being big deals at the most. Otherwise there will not even be enough room to field a decent team around your stars.
We can get away with paying a QB once we have the right balance of rookie deals to accomplish such but until then, we are way too tight on the salary cap. We have done this before - the right way when we drafted Russ. The wrong way while over-paying him.
Plus we just lost to a juggernaut of a 49'ers team who is playing a cheap QB. Brock Purdy has been so successful because of the team around him. This very average QB's team is Only leading the league in scoring over the last 6-7 weeks.
We kept this playoff game close but eventually got creamed by the combination of a game-wrecking D-line, pro-bowl LBs, quality back line defenders, a stout O-line without major holes and primo play-makers at all positions to go with an $870,000 quarterback.
Which 5-6 players can we do without in order to sign Geno for $30,000,000 annually? Sorry gang...it looks like 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington' - OR better yet, his camp will go for a deal that has only a $10M maximum cap hit in 2023. Fingers crossed.
Not to be a sourpuss, but I'm a no on Ryan Neal getting starter money to come back. Abram has been pretty good and Adams well be back next year. Let someone else give Neal the money he deserves.
Not super stoked on Geno-at-all-costs. He's a good QB, and can lead a great team to great success. Seriously, imagine Geno quarterbacking that niners team, holy cow. But he has proven not to be that guy that can pull a W out of his ass when the team needs it. He's not prime Russell Wilson. The goal has to be building a team like the Niners: a team that dominates the trenches and has some great playmakers. The QB can literally be Mr. Irrelevant, it doesn't matter, so long as he can hit wide open playmakers given near infinite time in the pocket. I could do what Brock Purdy did today. We need to build up the team on each line to win every snap and make sure we have guys that can take it to the house if they get the ball in space.
I thought Waldron's 2nd half play-calling was uninspired and Lockett had a rare bad game. The Geno interception came when Lockett rounded off his route and made little effort to separate from coverage. K9 was good but didn't get used enough in the second half because of the score. If we had kept it close I think K9 would have gone over a hundred and broken a long one.
I was also disappointed in Hurtt's 2nd half. Did we blitz even once? Deebo makes a lot of people miss with his strength but yeh, the tackling was bad. Credit where credit is due, the Niners big plays were blocked perfectly. Woolen and Bryant need a year in an NFL weight room. Muse looked good out there and his zone coverage made a difference. Per PFF, with a lot fewer snaps, he was a our highest rated linebacker this year. I honestly don't know what to make of Brooks and Barton.
This game looked to me like the same old story. We just don't have enough talent in the defensive front seven. Nwosu is good but we need four of him for the OLB rotation. The down linemen aren't disruptive and our linebackers and corners don't get off of blocks well.
We're three starters from being really good on offense. Defense needs rotations so I estimate we're about eight players short on defense. Another year of maturity and a repeat of last offseason would make 2023 a Seahawk year to gleefully anticipate.
What a ride! It'll be fun to speculate about the next few months. Come what may, I have been very entertained by the Hawks and by SSJoe and the many comments from the readers. Let's keep it coming!
Big money for Geno? Big mistake! Hawks could get Derek Carr for a lot less and use the savings on proven veteran talent and use their high draft picks to fill holes at C, G, DT, rush end LB , WR and a young QB. ( if they fall in love with one ) Let some other QB. desperate team pay Geno.
They went 9 % 8 with a week schedule and exceeded all expectations.
Congratulations for making all the idiot talking heads eat crow.
Building a championship caliber team takes skill and luck. Lots and lots of luck. It's remarkable how Pete Carroll always seems to push his teams to perform at or above their level of talent but we've not had great talent since the decline of the LOB. Geno, despite performing far better than expected, remains underwhelming. I can't support paying him top dollar. If we do, I wouldn't want it to be on a long-term contract. Would like to see another great draft and the willingness to really open up a competition for QB. If Geno's not a part of that, so be it. Better than overpaying when so much comes down to successful allocation of limited cap capital.
While Geno may not have strengthened his hand today, Trevor Lawrence certainly is. He was the consensus #1 pick, many saying on the ilk of Andrew Luck. Yet here we are in his Year 3, he just threw his 3rd int of his first playoff game so his team is down 17-0.
Even a guy like him can be worse than Geno. Geno feeling pretty valuable to me right now...
The Seahawks had the Niners right where they wanted at halftime but the mistakes by Geno put them into catch-up mode and this team is not built for that. The red zone turnover just can’t happen.
The Seahawks deserve all the credit for making the playoffs but I just don’t think Geno is the guy you want for more than one more year, and if the Seahawks need a bridge QB for the guy they draft why can’t that guy be Lock? The one disappointing thing for me this season is that we never saw Lock run Waldron’s scheme in real time with the 1’s. His athleticism is greater than Geno’s and it is hard for me to not think he would have been at least as successful.
Thanks Ken for a great season and I agree the fun is just getting started!
Not going anywhere, looking forward to the next few months around here!
It is very very difficult for me to put much stock in a scenario in which Jamal Adams plays productively over a full season with the Seahawks. If only wishing could make it so, because cutting the guy is expensive in its own way. Re-sign Neal, and not sure what to do about Diggs. See if you can reduce his cap hit if you are going to keep him.
Tackling--absolutely agreed. Mostly bad all year, and as bad at the end as at the beginning. That said, speaking about the beginning, the prospect of yet another season of an awful defense early on, followed by wild, inexpicable fluctuations thereafter, is about more than I can take. Mixed feelings about Hurtt, at best, as a result.
I liked Nwosu, despite his proclivity to disappear from game to game. Not sure what he will command on the market. How many snaps did Taylor get yesterday? Why was Irvin playing so much over Mafe? The Pete Way is to play young talent into being good--where was that? Seems like another version of the disappearance of that DE from Syracuse last year...
Re-sign Geno for decent money. Do NOT franchise him. And for heaven's sake stop talking to reporters about doing that!! Don't shy away from picking a QB at 5, if you really like him. Not a fan of picking Carter at that point--far too inconsistent, with questionable work ethic. If it gets to 5 and you don't like the QBs available, probably Anderson or trade down.
You are correct about Geno. And yet, it’s very hard to upgrade from the 15th best qb. How do you do that? Take a swing in the draft ? Sure. Nobody is saying tho that AR has the winning vibe that they said about Russ when he was coming out. Which one is that guy?
Ithe question I’m asking after today was why did it seem like purdy had a day full of easy (20 yard!) throws vs Geno who seemed to have very few / none?
Yes, they need to keep all three safeties because none of them are exactly bastions of health, particularly Adams, so it's necessary to have that depth. We saw the big downgrade when even Neal went out, let alone Adams at the beginning of the year. The Josh Jones experiment went about as poorly as any secondary player the Hawks have had in the past 10 years.
Great season overall. I hope JS&PC make perfect FA decisions, draft wisely, and everybody stays healthy next year.
Me? I'm taking a pass on drafting a QB. Maybe trade down to pick up a '24 first round pick from Carolina. Get two front seven guys in round one, then a WR, and center in rd. two, and whatever awesome guys in any position that fall to the third round or lower.
I'd be happy to have Geno as QB next season but the expected price tag would make it a no-go for me. If Geno were to walk that's $30+ million that could be spent on both lines or LB and a QB prospect could be drafted. And then you could bring in 4 top prospects via the draft. And I believe in 2024 their cap situation is good with a lot of rookies and 1st year players hopefully making up the core.
I want the Hawks to be bullies again... they got pushed around today while giving up lots of explosive plays and that's not ever going to be winning football.
Big Money for Geno???
I went into this season as an strong proponent of the value of the rookie contract. Huge contracts seem to be the norm for certain positions. WR 1 & 2, Edge 1 & 2, CB 1 & 2, LT and QB. Typically teams have a superstar at another position or two as well (SS Adams for the Hawks and DT Donald for the Rams as examples).
That said, there is NO way to have huge contracts for each of these 8-10 priority positions. I submit the only way to keep from diluting the rest of the roster is to have a steady rotation of rookie contracts so there are about half of these being big deals at the most. Otherwise there will not even be enough room to field a decent team around your stars.
We can get away with paying a QB once we have the right balance of rookie deals to accomplish such but until then, we are way too tight on the salary cap. We have done this before - the right way when we drafted Russ. The wrong way while over-paying him.
Plus we just lost to a juggernaut of a 49'ers team who is playing a cheap QB. Brock Purdy has been so successful because of the team around him. This very average QB's team is Only leading the league in scoring over the last 6-7 weeks.
We kept this playoff game close but eventually got creamed by the combination of a game-wrecking D-line, pro-bowl LBs, quality back line defenders, a stout O-line without major holes and primo play-makers at all positions to go with an $870,000 quarterback.
Which 5-6 players can we do without in order to sign Geno for $30,000,000 annually? Sorry gang...it looks like 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington' - OR better yet, his camp will go for a deal that has only a $10M maximum cap hit in 2023. Fingers crossed.
Not to be a sourpuss, but I'm a no on Ryan Neal getting starter money to come back. Abram has been pretty good and Adams well be back next year. Let someone else give Neal the money he deserves.
Not super stoked on Geno-at-all-costs. He's a good QB, and can lead a great team to great success. Seriously, imagine Geno quarterbacking that niners team, holy cow. But he has proven not to be that guy that can pull a W out of his ass when the team needs it. He's not prime Russell Wilson. The goal has to be building a team like the Niners: a team that dominates the trenches and has some great playmakers. The QB can literally be Mr. Irrelevant, it doesn't matter, so long as he can hit wide open playmakers given near infinite time in the pocket. I could do what Brock Purdy did today. We need to build up the team on each line to win every snap and make sure we have guys that can take it to the house if they get the ball in space.
I thought Waldron's 2nd half play-calling was uninspired and Lockett had a rare bad game. The Geno interception came when Lockett rounded off his route and made little effort to separate from coverage. K9 was good but didn't get used enough in the second half because of the score. If we had kept it close I think K9 would have gone over a hundred and broken a long one.
I was also disappointed in Hurtt's 2nd half. Did we blitz even once? Deebo makes a lot of people miss with his strength but yeh, the tackling was bad. Credit where credit is due, the Niners big plays were blocked perfectly. Woolen and Bryant need a year in an NFL weight room. Muse looked good out there and his zone coverage made a difference. Per PFF, with a lot fewer snaps, he was a our highest rated linebacker this year. I honestly don't know what to make of Brooks and Barton.
This game looked to me like the same old story. We just don't have enough talent in the defensive front seven. Nwosu is good but we need four of him for the OLB rotation. The down linemen aren't disruptive and our linebackers and corners don't get off of blocks well.
We're three starters from being really good on offense. Defense needs rotations so I estimate we're about eight players short on defense. Another year of maturity and a repeat of last offseason would make 2023 a Seahawk year to gleefully anticipate.
What a ride! It'll be fun to speculate about the next few months. Come what may, I have been very entertained by the Hawks and by SSJoe and the many comments from the readers. Let's keep it coming!
Big money for Geno? Big mistake! Hawks could get Derek Carr for a lot less and use the savings on proven veteran talent and use their high draft picks to fill holes at C, G, DT, rush end LB , WR and a young QB. ( if they fall in love with one ) Let some other QB. desperate team pay Geno.
They went 9 % 8 with a week schedule and exceeded all expectations.
Congratulations for making all the idiot talking heads eat crow.
Building a championship caliber team takes skill and luck. Lots and lots of luck. It's remarkable how Pete Carroll always seems to push his teams to perform at or above their level of talent but we've not had great talent since the decline of the LOB. Geno, despite performing far better than expected, remains underwhelming. I can't support paying him top dollar. If we do, I wouldn't want it to be on a long-term contract. Would like to see another great draft and the willingness to really open up a competition for QB. If Geno's not a part of that, so be it. Better than overpaying when so much comes down to successful allocation of limited cap capital.
While Geno may not have strengthened his hand today, Trevor Lawrence certainly is. He was the consensus #1 pick, many saying on the ilk of Andrew Luck. Yet here we are in his Year 3, he just threw his 3rd int of his first playoff game so his team is down 17-0.
Even a guy like him can be worse than Geno. Geno feeling pretty valuable to me right now...
Kenneth great article on SBN about Geno as comeback player of the year.
Isn't Nwosu on a 2 year deal that includes this and next season?
Playing Adams LB would be a clever Move, his caverage ability is meh anyway... Or even Edge?
C, G, LB, Edge, WR, QB - there are many needs.
The Seahawks had the Niners right where they wanted at halftime but the mistakes by Geno put them into catch-up mode and this team is not built for that. The red zone turnover just can’t happen.
The Seahawks deserve all the credit for making the playoffs but I just don’t think Geno is the guy you want for more than one more year, and if the Seahawks need a bridge QB for the guy they draft why can’t that guy be Lock? The one disappointing thing for me this season is that we never saw Lock run Waldron’s scheme in real time with the 1’s. His athleticism is greater than Geno’s and it is hard for me to not think he would have been at least as successful.
Thanks Ken for a great season and I agree the fun is just getting started!