To me it's just laughable to wring our hands and crown the Cardinals as paper division champions, based on some FA acquisitions that may or may not wind up making their team better. Percy Harvin anyone? Cary Williams? Jimmy Graham? Two of those "splash" FA's, Harvin and Williams, made the Seahawks clearly *worse*, not better. While I can't fault Graham, and still have high hopes for him as a Seahawk, the offense actually *improved* after he went down with injury. Then there's splash FA Sidney "glass of" Rice, who got injured halfway through the SB48 season, got his ring, but was not part of the stretch drive, with pedestrian UDFAs Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse stepping up BIG at WR in key moments to get the job done.
Meanwhile, Pete & John are just quietly doing what they do, and ignoring the doubters. Think about some of the FA pickups that have been huge in one or both of Seattle's two SB seasons. Guys like Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Tony McDaniel, Kevin Williams, Chris Clemons, not to mention that Lynch fellow back in 2010 and Zach Miller.
Granted, we "won" the offseason between 2012 and 2013, with the signings of Avril and Bennett. The media thought we "won" the offseason with the Percy Harvin signing; after that, it was "yes, indeed, with the addition of Percy Harvin, Seattle should now be favored to win the Super Bowl." Harvin nursed and malingered an "injury" pretty much all season, and really contributed little or nothing. I agree with those who say SB48 would have been 36-8 without Harvin. FA pickup Tony McDaniel wound up being much more important to Seattle's success than Harvin; McDaniel came to Seattle as a slightly-below-average DT who seemed to play above-average in Seattle's scheme.
Last year was just a fiasco on so many different levels, as others have pointed out above.
The biggest parts of that fiasco were Cary Williams and Kam Chancellor, who between them, cost us at least 3 wins. Not to mention, we had rookie DC Kris Richard running the defensive show, with maybe a few growing pains there, PLUS, not having Richard's direct attention, leadership, and continuity focused on the secondary. I never felt Richard "got" how to rotate DL effectively the way Dan Quinn did; maybe this year he'll improve there.
Seattle's success under Carroll has been about guys massively outplaying their contracts. Paying big for free agents very often violates that model. I, for one am very glad Seattle chose not to tie up lots of salary cap in "name" FA signings who are less likely to massively outplay their contract than draft picks or "no name" FAs with something to prove. The reality I see is that high-priced free agents get injured at pretty much the same rate as all the other players. Around the league, plenty of $5M+ free agents were on IR by playoff time, with mostly under-$1M guys on the field in their place. Pete's approach is all about coaching up and inspiring lots of those $1M guys to complete and play like a $5M guy.
I happen to think our OL will be average by mid-season and above-average by season's end. Granted, the first half-dozen games could have some scary moments; we just need Russ to survive while making chicken salad out of that initial group. Glowinski, Sokoli, Sowell, Webb, I think there are three opening day starters in those 4 names. Add a couple good prospects in the draft, plus other guys who might suprise (Nowak?) and we might have something. Sometimes I wonder what Cable's uncensored account of coaching OL in Seattle would be, sharing the reality he is dealing with.
OL questions aside, I happen to believe we have numerous guys who are going to surprise us and come on this year and outplay their contracts. What if this is the year Tharald Simon gets and stays healthy? Maybe KPL finds his niche. Some of our big-contract guys backslid and/or got injured last year, what if this is the year Sherman, Kam, and Graham stay healthy and outplay their contracts? I think Sherman has a lot of upside over what we saw last year. Kam, healthy and with his mind right, could and should have a great year. Jeremy Lane was a huge "keep" for us and I expect him to outplay his contract. Kearse, Baldwin, Lockett, Rawls will continue to outplay their contracts. CMike with his head screwed on straight? Look out!
What if the 2016 'Hawks as a whole just have that "it" factor, that chemistry, that was so totally missing last year, yet so totally present in 2013 and the second half of 2014? I'd argue that Pete and John are dramatically increasing the chances of that by the way they've handled Free Agency so far. Let Arizona "win" free agency. Then we'll face them at the end of the season with playoff seeding on the line, and see $50M of their salary cap on the sidelines in street clothes, while we have five $1M guys playing like $5M guys, and we exploit matchups at positions where Arizona's "next man up" is more like "man off the street". That's the scenario I expect to see, a game that looks like Seattle's late-season dismantling of the Cards last season in the desert. The key is not to give away 3-4 games (thus the division) on the front end of the season like we did last year.