The Seahawks OL allowed one (YES ONE!!!) pressure on Sunday night -- a hurry credited to Cross. That gives them 61 pressures allowed by the OL (5 sacks, 11 hits, 45 hurries), with 12 penalties. At this time last year, the 2024 Seahawks OL had allowed 129 pressures (17 sacks, 16 hits, 96 hurries), with 33 penalties. Numbers from PFF Premium.
As a team, the Seahawks are tied for first in the NFL in sacks taken with 9, and tied for 3rd in sack rate (percentage of sacks/attempt) at 3.9%. Numbers from PFR.
Makes you kind of wonder why we're talking about shopping for a RG or C at the trade deadline. Is continuity > new player? I think it might be. I mean, what problem are we trying to solve? It's not pass protection if we're among the best in the league. Running fits are still not ideal, but if you start swapping players do you potentially solve one issue and introduce 2? You easily could.
If we add, I hope it's at iLB, S, CB, or WR......and probably in that order. O-line pieces ideally for depth in case of injury, but not to swap players.
Bradford is huge. He's strong. He's got Attitude and loves to fight. Rare traits. If John Benton saw nothing in him, he'd be elsewhere. Maybe he's not the fastest learner, but he's getting there while gaining a feel for the Group Dance and the kung fu hand moves. Now he is fast. And getting faster. Welcome to the Big Leagues, Tony.
“Elijah Arroyo has already caught as many touchdowns as what Noah Fant had in his last two Seahawks seasons combined.”
Oddly, Fant has three TDs this year and has more receptions than Barner. Throw out AJ’s 61-yd reception as an outlier and the two are having pretty much identical seasons as receivers.
Odd stat: The Seahawks have 3 taunting penalties, which is 33% (3/9) of all the taunting penalties thrown in the league this season. They've already tied the most taunting penalties by a team in a season for any team in the last 6 years.
They did say the refs are focusing on throwing those flags this season. One of those things they were too relaxed on in the past so they want teams to know they are throwing them when they are supposed to now.
Feels like it’s part of the edge the team has. And we had some in preseason too. Not something MM is totally cracking down on, given the attitude the team has developed. Should clean it up in the 2nd half, not to worry.
I am so big on this rookie class. And the last couple of year's classes too. There's no way we can resign everybody but that's a great problem to have. I loved Tory Horton coming out and he's showing he can play at this level. I wasn't that high on Nick E, but he's proving my concerns wrong. It's so odd seeing a giant wearing Russ' number. That play where he stopped the blocking wr with one arm and made the stop with his other was an "Oh, DAMN!" moment. It's great to have so much young talent. I wonder if any trade deadline moves will include some people who they think are less likely for them to sign to a 2nd contract. That could explain Mafe being mentioned in the same breath as Woolen.
Even though Collinsworth praised Bradford by name last night, replacing him with an NFL average guard would surely raise the floor more than any other position, barring a Myles Garrett type superstar. And the way we've been drafting, I'm not too keen on trading multiple first round picks. Though someone like him might make those picks in the 30s.
I do feel like we're a couple of players and some injury luck away from being legit Super Bowl favorites. The defense is everything we had hoped it would be and the offense might be even better than them by year's end if we can get the running game going. And we have the #1 special teams unit in the NFL! If you'd have told me this during the offseason, I'd have thought your optimism was going to make sports-watching a tough road. But so many of our changes have been working out.
I was sad when we fired Pete. A lot of fans were skeptical when we traded away Geno and DK. And there is no way we are where we are now had we not made each of these moves. And I'm hoping we make at least 1-2 more before tomorrow. Howie Roseman can't be the only one answering phones right now.
You're too kind but I am neither half the writer he is nor 10% as knowledgeable. I'm fine to stay in my lane as a fan, and WOW this is a great season to be a fan of the Seahawks!
Some may be a tad let down by the contrast between the first half and the fourth quarter. I was not. If we can play as close to a perfect half, in all three phases, as I've seen in, well, ever, why risk injury to our starters. Giving our back-up guys game reps is money in the bank. Just need a bit of tweaking by Kubiak and Benton on our run game. I love the smell of trophy polish in the morning!
Yes! MM AND JS are strategic thinkers. A long way to the playoffs. Particularly glad to see the O-line backups get some work. Our O-line is largely responsible for the Comoders being totally flushed.
I found the play of Brandon Pili and Cody White most encouraging, coming up from the Practise Squad and excelling with a forced fumble and a TD. Our Ready Squad guys are all exceeding my wildest expectations. Just making an NFL roster says you have Greatness in you. MM is a great Coach for making each and every one of our Rookies extremely confident in this Greatness, as we are seeing. Keeping Anthony Bradford in at #1 as our right guard tells every Rookie that the Coaches are patient with player development. The Coaches are supremely confident in their assessment that Tony has greatness. They recognize it takes some guys longer to realize it than others. So rest easy Boyz, you'll get your Shot. Be Confident in knowing this. Then go out and explode when rude change demands it. For all I saw last night, Bradford did just fine, along with all our new entries. Hell, even Riq Woolen got bit.
Woolen not used to hitting people like the way he did last night in the 4th quarter when he drew the penalty....don't think he's ever hit anyone in a 'taunt worthy' kind of manner.
So if we lead the NFL in explosive plays, are we naturally due for some regression? Or is this a repeatable process with a higher likelihood of positive outcomes? Cause it seems like a little column A little column B.
I think it's process driven. Personnel groups, narrow WR splits, common alignment on run and pass plays, staying stubborn with the run game even when it's not yielding much, and having your QB under center frequently. Motions, odd formations (they had JSN in the backfield more than once), and teams trying to take JSN away will create explosive plays for others. If you watch the second Horton TD, JSN is occupying 3 DB's while Horton is embarrassing Sainristil.
There may be a regression in the second half, but I'm optimistic the principles of the offense will stay the same, so the outcomes should be reasonably consistent. We'll see. I expected a longer, slower growth curve for the offense. Dead wrong on that one, and happy to be so.
Kubiak's finding great success creating explosive passing plays out of heavy formations. As long as opposing teams keep changing personnel to match, and JSN/Barner stay healthy, we should keep having success. Eventually someone will try a different tactic, and then maybe we'll get the K9 domination game. The more we run, even at 3.7 y/a, the more opposing defensive coordinators have to make the impossible choice of how they'd rather lose Kubiak.
We are adding hugely talented offensive threats in numbers others dream of. Beyond 3 WRs and a TE, they must now prepare for 6 or 7 serious threats on top of our run game. Sam is now reading his progressions with the added advantage of gaining a feel for how each man plays the position. Tory Horton was so open it could have been anybody. Drops and fumbles not allowed.
Snap count for this game if you don't get it anywhere else:
On offense, Bardford and Lucas played 100%. Guess they think the right side needed the extra work. The rest of the O-line and Sam played 94%, next highest was Barner with 84%. We had a big enough lead they rested/saved some people for the Arizona game. JSN did all his damage playing only 67%.
On defense, Okada played 100%, more work to get more experience or just holding the D together? Five other DBs played between 72%-89%. Seems like a lot of other players got in the game and people were being saved for the next game. Nice to have the luxury.
The rookies are crushing it. Might be the best Seahawks class I've seen in my lifetime. They really drafted with a specific vision for each player. However, I'm still in the coaches corner here. I think the improvements to this offense and especially the o line are from the top down and this staff is doing some great things with these guys.
Thanks SSJ for putting me in the newsletter! Correct me if I'm wrong but did you once say you were not a Seahawk homer or you just a very objective homer? I think only a homer could find all the interesting, obscure tidbits you do. Or maybe we just get the benefit of all your hard work you do on this job. BTW, good article on the NFC west at the other site. Thanks for all you do and happy to be a paying member. I recall once you had a mid-season upgrade, are you considering that again? Just wondering, may upgrade anyway if you don't.
Wow, saw a report the Saints are trading WR Shaheed to the Seahawks. Shaheed is a deep threat and is a free agent after this year.
OL report time.
The Seahawks OL allowed one (YES ONE!!!) pressure on Sunday night -- a hurry credited to Cross. That gives them 61 pressures allowed by the OL (5 sacks, 11 hits, 45 hurries), with 12 penalties. At this time last year, the 2024 Seahawks OL had allowed 129 pressures (17 sacks, 16 hits, 96 hurries), with 33 penalties. Numbers from PFF Premium.
As a team, the Seahawks are tied for first in the NFL in sacks taken with 9, and tied for 3rd in sack rate (percentage of sacks/attempt) at 3.9%. Numbers from PFR.
Makes you kind of wonder why we're talking about shopping for a RG or C at the trade deadline. Is continuity > new player? I think it might be. I mean, what problem are we trying to solve? It's not pass protection if we're among the best in the league. Running fits are still not ideal, but if you start swapping players do you potentially solve one issue and introduce 2? You easily could.
If we add, I hope it's at iLB, S, CB, or WR......and probably in that order. O-line pieces ideally for depth in case of injury, but not to swap players.
Bradford is huge. He's strong. He's got Attitude and loves to fight. Rare traits. If John Benton saw nothing in him, he'd be elsewhere. Maybe he's not the fastest learner, but he's getting there while gaining a feel for the Group Dance and the kung fu hand moves. Now he is fast. And getting faster. Welcome to the Big Leagues, Tony.
Well, to Bradford's credit, he *is* twice as good as Stone Forsythe....
“Elijah Arroyo has already caught as many touchdowns as what Noah Fant had in his last two Seahawks seasons combined.”
Oddly, Fant has three TDs this year and has more receptions than Barner. Throw out AJ’s 61-yd reception as an outlier and the two are having pretty much identical seasons as receivers.
Odd stat: The Seahawks have 3 taunting penalties, which is 33% (3/9) of all the taunting penalties thrown in the league this season. They've already tied the most taunting penalties by a team in a season for any team in the last 6 years.
They did say the refs are focusing on throwing those flags this season. One of those things they were too relaxed on in the past so they want teams to know they are throwing them when they are supposed to now.
Didn't the 2013/14 Seahawks have similar problems?
Feels like it’s part of the edge the team has. And we had some in preseason too. Not something MM is totally cracking down on, given the attitude the team has developed. Should clean it up in the 2nd half, not to worry.
It's the best kind of 15-yard penalty because no one gets hurt (except the opposing players' egos).
I am so big on this rookie class. And the last couple of year's classes too. There's no way we can resign everybody but that's a great problem to have. I loved Tory Horton coming out and he's showing he can play at this level. I wasn't that high on Nick E, but he's proving my concerns wrong. It's so odd seeing a giant wearing Russ' number. That play where he stopped the blocking wr with one arm and made the stop with his other was an "Oh, DAMN!" moment. It's great to have so much young talent. I wonder if any trade deadline moves will include some people who they think are less likely for them to sign to a 2nd contract. That could explain Mafe being mentioned in the same breath as Woolen.
Even though Collinsworth praised Bradford by name last night, replacing him with an NFL average guard would surely raise the floor more than any other position, barring a Myles Garrett type superstar. And the way we've been drafting, I'm not too keen on trading multiple first round picks. Though someone like him might make those picks in the 30s.
I do feel like we're a couple of players and some injury luck away from being legit Super Bowl favorites. The defense is everything we had hoped it would be and the offense might be even better than them by year's end if we can get the running game going. And we have the #1 special teams unit in the NFL! If you'd have told me this during the offseason, I'd have thought your optimism was going to make sports-watching a tough road. But so many of our changes have been working out.
I was sad when we fired Pete. A lot of fans were skeptical when we traded away Geno and DK. And there is no way we are where we are now had we not made each of these moves. And I'm hoping we make at least 1-2 more before tomorrow. Howie Roseman can't be the only one answering phones right now.
I always enjoy and respect your comments. I think "Seaside Chuck" could give Ken a run for his money.....🤣😂🤣
You're too kind but I am neither half the writer he is nor 10% as knowledgeable. I'm fine to stay in my lane as a fan, and WOW this is a great season to be a fan of the Seahawks!
Some may be a tad let down by the contrast between the first half and the fourth quarter. I was not. If we can play as close to a perfect half, in all three phases, as I've seen in, well, ever, why risk injury to our starters. Giving our back-up guys game reps is money in the bank. Just need a bit of tweaking by Kubiak and Benton on our run game. I love the smell of trophy polish in the morning!
I'm glad to not see MM ask our starters to idle down when the lead allows. Use it to give field time to our Support Guys.
Yes! MM AND JS are strategic thinkers. A long way to the playoffs. Particularly glad to see the O-line backups get some work. Our O-line is largely responsible for the Comoders being totally flushed.
I LOVE Sando’s tweet. it describes last night’s game perfectly.
I found the play of Brandon Pili and Cody White most encouraging, coming up from the Practise Squad and excelling with a forced fumble and a TD. Our Ready Squad guys are all exceeding my wildest expectations. Just making an NFL roster says you have Greatness in you. MM is a great Coach for making each and every one of our Rookies extremely confident in this Greatness, as we are seeing. Keeping Anthony Bradford in at #1 as our right guard tells every Rookie that the Coaches are patient with player development. The Coaches are supremely confident in their assessment that Tony has greatness. They recognize it takes some guys longer to realize it than others. So rest easy Boyz, you'll get your Shot. Be Confident in knowing this. Then go out and explode when rude change demands it. For all I saw last night, Bradford did just fine, along with all our new entries. Hell, even Riq Woolen got bit.
Follow up on explosive plays:
We had 6 of 21 passes go for between 20 and 26 yards. One pass went for 60 yards so 7 of 21 for at least 20 yards.
Those 7 plays accounted for 200 yards, 60% of the total pass yards.
Woolen not used to hitting people like the way he did last night in the 4th quarter when he drew the penalty....don't think he's ever hit anyone in a 'taunt worthy' kind of manner.
He did his best Spoon impression!
Keep doing that, but just don't stand over your victim next time.
So if we lead the NFL in explosive plays, are we naturally due for some regression? Or is this a repeatable process with a higher likelihood of positive outcomes? Cause it seems like a little column A little column B.
I think it's process driven. Personnel groups, narrow WR splits, common alignment on run and pass plays, staying stubborn with the run game even when it's not yielding much, and having your QB under center frequently. Motions, odd formations (they had JSN in the backfield more than once), and teams trying to take JSN away will create explosive plays for others. If you watch the second Horton TD, JSN is occupying 3 DB's while Horton is embarrassing Sainristil.
There may be a regression in the second half, but I'm optimistic the principles of the offense will stay the same, so the outcomes should be reasonably consistent. We'll see. I expected a longer, slower growth curve for the offense. Dead wrong on that one, and happy to be so.
Kubiak's finding great success creating explosive passing plays out of heavy formations. As long as opposing teams keep changing personnel to match, and JSN/Barner stay healthy, we should keep having success. Eventually someone will try a different tactic, and then maybe we'll get the K9 domination game. The more we run, even at 3.7 y/a, the more opposing defensive coordinators have to make the impossible choice of how they'd rather lose Kubiak.
We are adding hugely talented offensive threats in numbers others dream of. Beyond 3 WRs and a TE, they must now prepare for 6 or 7 serious threats on top of our run game. Sam is now reading his progressions with the added advantage of gaining a feel for how each man plays the position. Tory Horton was so open it could have been anybody. Drops and fumbles not allowed.
A team could lead the league wire-to-wire, or a team could regress. If you're first for half of the season, that's pretty awesome no matter what.
Snap count for this game if you don't get it anywhere else:
On offense, Bardford and Lucas played 100%. Guess they think the right side needed the extra work. The rest of the O-line and Sam played 94%, next highest was Barner with 84%. We had a big enough lead they rested/saved some people for the Arizona game. JSN did all his damage playing only 67%.
On defense, Okada played 100%, more work to get more experience or just holding the D together? Five other DBs played between 72%-89%. Seems like a lot of other players got in the game and people were being saved for the next game. Nice to have the luxury.
The rookies are crushing it. Might be the best Seahawks class I've seen in my lifetime. They really drafted with a specific vision for each player. However, I'm still in the coaches corner here. I think the improvements to this offense and especially the o line are from the top down and this staff is doing some great things with these guys.
Thanks SSJ for putting me in the newsletter! Correct me if I'm wrong but did you once say you were not a Seahawk homer or you just a very objective homer? I think only a homer could find all the interesting, obscure tidbits you do. Or maybe we just get the benefit of all your hard work you do on this job. BTW, good article on the NFC west at the other site. Thanks for all you do and happy to be a paying member. I recall once you had a mid-season upgrade, are you considering that again? Just wondering, may upgrade anyway if you don't.
Seaside Joe strives to be a non-biased Seahawks fan. Thank you!
SSJ definitely puts in the work!
We tied with the Rams for beatdown of the day. They beat NO by 24 points also but the NO qb was playing in only his second game.
Follow up on the 4 QB stat post:
In 2007 Tom was was undefeated and lost the SB to NY.
In 2009 Payton lost the SB to NO.
In 2018 Drew lost the conference final to LA who lost the SB to NE.
Although they didn't win the SB in the years mentioned they were all SB winning QBs.