2014 Draft Class

[Hawks46]

Is this a new trend, is the "always compete" attitude at practice, too rough?
With all the injuries to last years rookie class and now this years class, should things change?

I know everyone one will say; we just won the Super Bowl and you want things changed!
I'm not saying things should change but, can we always afford to give rookies a redshirt year.
Wouldn't it be nice to have that extra depth?

You know, that thought occurred to me too, but I'm not so sure it's the case. It could well be a contributing factor, though. Look at it this way: during the previous regimes, even when we were good, we weren't good in almost every single position. We always had holes to fill, and so the new guys got more opportunities. That meant there was probably a whole lot less of a need to compete and outdo the competition. And Pete's mantra certainly draws more competition and higher-energy play, even at set positions, because everyone knows the best man starts, regardless of who they are or how much they're getting paid.

That's going to cause injuries. Is it more than usual? Maybe a little. Is it more than we're used to seeing? I think it probably is. But that's just this new Seahawks team, you know, the one committed to winning and bringing home the championships. I'll take it.

I'd take you one farther: in previous regimes, the starter was fairly entrenched. Holmgren was the biggest perpetrator of this. If a guy started in front of you, he was the starter. No amount of extra effort was going to unseat the guy.

Pete plays it different. He wants everyone to compete. It's been proven time and again, that if you come in out of shape, lack effort, or get ouplayed than you WILL lose your job. Draft status doesn't matter, and salary sometimes isn't a big deal either. Guys are going extra hard all the time trying to impress coaches to up their status.

As a former player (no where near the NFL) I could honestly say, in Holmgren's system, I would study hard, play hard and concentrate on making the best of my snaps, but I would temper my effort a bit to not get hurt or lose time.

In Carroll's system, I would go literally balls out. I would understand that the team would keep me around if I proved valuable in just one area. They would make a place for me somewhere, or at least redshirt me if I proved that I had the heart, attitude and physical skill to crush opposition.

On another note, I'm glad Pinkins looks like he's going to be redshirted. He was an intriguing prospect, but he was too raw to make the roster as is.

 

[Seafan]

I'm looking forward to watching KPL, Coyle and H. Miller in preseason. Imagine if they all make the roster. They could be special teams terrors.

 

[kearly]

This draft was a "hope to be wrong" draft for me and it still is. I'm just hoping Pete can turn picks like Richardson, Marsh, and Pierre-Lewis into Bobby Wagner type success stories, guys who are solid and quietly valuable. Pierre-Lewis would be the one prospect I have anything resembling illusions of grandeur for.

Kinda sucks that those are the same three guys that just popped up on the injury report, but a few bumps in bruises in early August isn't anything I'm too worried about.

 

[mikeak]

We don't NEED them. So anything small and you can let them sit out

You have quite a few players from last year that were never played. So drafting and not having to play them is a great luxuary. We are no longer drafting in the top 10 so there should not be any "can't miss prospects" that really hurt us by sitting out

 

[bigskydoc]

It seems to me that we have a fairly conservative medical staff that will pull a guy for a minor injury that could arguably be played through. In the grand scheme of things, this is a good thing. It complements Carroll's competitive push, but it might make it appear that we are having more injuries than in the past when the staff seemed more willing to let the guys play with minor injuries.

- bsd