33 Comments
Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 13, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

Joe is absolutely correct. I believe Seahawk leadership plans to contend for a Super Bowl in 2024 and 2025, therefore 2023 is still a critical draft for bringing that plan to fruition. Just not for 2023. I'm mostly concerned with John's ability to staff the new defensive approach with appropriate personel whether through the draft or free agency. Then there's our lack of a running game.

Poona Ford, Quintin Jefferson, Shelby Harris, Myles Adams, Brian Mone, and Al Woods are great rotational pieces but which one is the penetrating disruptor? Nwosu, Talyor, Mafe, and Irvin (with Robinson, Johnson, and Smith on IR) comprise our pass rush and run contain group. Who makes plays they aren't supposed to? Who limits the opposing OC? That's thirteen players but only two that could be starters on an elite defense. Two.

Pete Carroll said, ""They ran their game," Carroll said. "That's their running game. We were trying to knock them back, and we couldn't get it done. We tried everything that we had to get it stopped, and we were not able to stop them… Our guys are trying. They're working hard to get it done. We went through all of the process during the week to line it up so we knew what they were doing. We were not fooled by anything today. We were on it. But you have to play the line of scrimmage and get off the blocks and play together. Everybody has to fit together. It's always about those fits. It wasn't good enough. It just plain old wasn't good enough." The translation is we don't have adequate personel to withstand a pounding run game even if we know exactly what they're going to do.

What's odd about the demise of our offensive running game is the lack of information. You can find a plethora of articles on our inability to stop the run but nothing on why we can't run. The little available blames injuries to K9 but we couldn't run before that. Three things have changed in terms of the run game since Penny's dominant stretch. Obviously, there's no Penny, both offensive tackles and the center are new, and the run coordinator has changed. We were able to maintain decent running totals without Penny and with the new run game coordinator. Our 2022 run totals to date are, 76, 36, 112, 235, 151, 136, 213, 87, 158, 39, 65, 90, and 46. Denver and SF were the first two games and have excellent defenses but after that we were fairly consistent, not great, but consistent until the Tampa Bay game. The elephant in the room is that it appears that the rookie tackles, and maybe Blythe have run out of gas. I'll also note that Carolina showed us the value of wide recievers blocking and Shenault is a load. If anybody has a good analysis of what has happened I'd really appreaciate you sharing.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

A successful draft is a mid-league rated rookie starter. A wildly successful draft is a stand-out pick, either picked for obvious reasons (read high pick) or coaches saw something (3-5th round). Drafts that yield one of those guys dont make over teams in general but a couple years of those you do flip teams. Which to me makes the ‘23 draft super critical to get right and maybe even get a little lucky. Another solid draft of a stand out and a couple serviceable guys will fix a bunch of the woes. Because right now if the defense is not fixed doesn’t matter who the QB is. Might as well not risk your high pick on a position that has shown nearly year after year has top 10 pick busts. Getting defense right is going to be an all assault for draft, FA, and trades- and it still may take another year to do it.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

The Carolina Panthers lost to 3 NFC west teams. They beat only one.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

Agreed, and yet, I will still hold out hope for a one more draft turnaround. That's because I am an optimist and believer in J/P's ability to identify talent. Sure, they've bombed before. I close my eyes to that. I am not getting paid to do this. That would ruin everything about my fandom. I can close my eyes to reality and expect miracles. Or at least hope really hard for miracles. Miracles happen. I believe in miracles. Well, that is hyperbole but still ... I close my eyes to negativity.

While closing my eyes, and plugging my ears, I yell "nah, hah, nah .... I can't hear YOU!"

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

Thank you for that perspective. It totally makes sense to me and I feel a better understanding of how things tend to play out.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

The key to free agent spending and big trades is timing. Don't commit those resources until the roster you've built through the draft is ready to compete for the Super Bowl. That was the idea behind Harvin, Graham and Adams. This year's draft was great. Do it again and see where our holes are after next season. If we can accomplish back to back solid drafts and maintain decent QB play, we could be ready to sign and trade our way to a championship.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

To say something that might be obvious, I didn't see us in man coverage across the board making Sam Darnold beat us, 120 yds passing.

You are correct young players are rarely consistent impact players. When I started premier rugby at 19 honestly I was scared, and did barely enough to keep my spot in the side. When I was 22 with 3 years experience I was able to play solidly, two years after I could play very well.

How much money will we have in free agency if we tag or don't tag and pay Geno.

Make Brook Purdy beat us Thursday.

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Dec 12, 2022·edited Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

I expect a big shake-up during off season, on DL, front 7. They don't have the talent (bulldozers) in the trench to play 3-4. The inside linebackers are playing out of position and are not big enough to shed the blocks

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

I agree that the draft isn't going to save the defense, but I'm not sure a complete re-tooling of the defense through free agency is the answer either. Defense requires quite a bit of communication, teamwork, and scheme fit (as well as raw talent), and all of that can take time to develop. It is obviously impossible to feel optimistic about how our defense has performed, but I still feel like we need to wait and see where it goes from here. Even in a worst case scenario that the rest of the season is more of the same poor performance, I think a fire sale or spending spree is more likely to hurt rather than help us.

Instead, I see this as a multi-year project involving the draft, free agency, and small scheme adjustments. For the rest of this season, I'll be hoping for a small schematic improvement on defense. If we can add even 1 or 2 impactful players in the off-season and get a fraction of improvement out of our current roster, we'll be on the right track. If we manage to rinse and repeat that for 2-3 years in a row, our defense will be better (in theory).

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

I think if the plan is to go heavy in free agency then the Hawks will need to move on from Geno at some point in the next year or two and go with a QB on a rookie contract. Maybe they tag Geno next year, draft a rookie QB in 2023 and then grab some impact free agents in 2024, which would allow the 2023 rookies a year to improve.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

With all of our 2023 draft capital, we absolutely dropped the ball on Roquan Smith. Proven, dynamic, 5th-year playmaker in the middle of our defense for a 2nd & a 5th? Sign me up.

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Dec 13, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

Great reminder! And truthfully, a bunch of our rookies could take a slump next year. It takes time to see the most out of your players. Whenever we feel ready to contend I'd be happy to trade one of our ones for an immediate contributor.

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Dec 13, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

You have absolutely lost your mind and have zero credibility after this article. Cody Barton is not and NFL linebacker. The kid is constantly out of position, he's under sized, can't get off blocks, and is a total waste of space. I have coached football for over 30-years, and tear down the Seahawk games every week. One glaring deficiency is Cody Barton. The film don't lie. I can site example after example of Barton taking himself out of position, getting manhandled by guards, bouncing outside and getting kicked out of the B-gap, the list goes on and on. You folks all talk about he is 2nd on the team in tackles, true because nobody else is tackling. Look where his tackles are taking place. 15-yards down field after he gets a drive blocking guard taking him there. This entire defense is as pathetic as your opinion. Why don't you actually pull highlights up and see where Barton is play after play.

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

Hawks are currently fifth in free cap space for 2023 at $53m (as per https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space) but that’s before they pay Geno, which they will do unless he implodes, and have enough left in the bank for their draft picks.

The current rotation at DT and their annual salaries (plus length of contract) is

Poona - $6.2m (2 years)

Shelby - $9m (3 years)

QJeff - $4.7m (2 years)

Mone - $5.5m (2 years)

Woods - $4.5m (2 years)

So are paying this horribly underperforming unit ~$30m a year, and we will be in the hook for it next year too to my untrained eye. What chance of adding anyone in of substance in FA next year, and who might they be?

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

The way things are going maybe the Texans start winning games, Broncos keep losing games and we end up with the number one draft pick!

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Dec 12, 2022Liked by Seaside Joe

So, the key for next year is to rely on the same guys that worked the last couple years on building veterans through free agency on this year’s “championship” team. I don’t think I’d give them a passing grade. Are fans misguided by looking at Denver’s draft position each week? The Rams and 49ers seem to be doing well trading their top picks away so maybe the draft isn’t really any big deal.

I heard PC say several times in his post game interviews they the defense just wasn’t good enough. That’s kind of where I am.

Maybe the timing is off to pay Geno this year and we can save money to pay for better veterans to replace what we have. The 49er’s are heading to the playoffs with last seasons ISU quarterback, the Rams pulled Mayfield off the throwaway pile and in less than 2 days he’s their starter for the rest of the year, Sam Darnold may be able to look back at the game he played at Seattle and say that launched he HOF career

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