Great long-term offseason so far - thoughts

[HawkFan72]

Schofield failed his physical and is still an FA. Since we have not resigned him I am wondering what's up with him.

No way he failed his physical. Giants saw the backlash of the signing then paid their doctor money on the side to "fail" him. Same thing the Raiders did Saffold.

The Raiders took MORE heat when the Saffold deal was nixed. So your theory on that one doesn't make much sense.

 

[jblaze]

As far as I'm concerned, as long as we got Bennett back, I consider this a successful offseason. There was no way we could pay Tate 7m and his talents are not unique so I have no problem letting him walk. We signed one of McDonald/McDaniel and that's appropriate given the similarities and the guys we have from last years draft. Breno walked, was never really high on him. We can replace him in the draft. Thurmond and BB, we don't really need them as we have guys ready and battle tested ready to stand in.

The only frustrating part to me is not making any impact signings but only because it's not sexy. We really can't if we can't to keep our core in tact so I agree with the tactics, just as a fan, we love hot sexy signings and this isn't the offseason for that.

That said, our front office is doing everything exactly as you should with an eye to the future and extending our stars. We've tried to make a couple of pickups but we're unwilling to overpay so someone else can regret it in a year, not us.

I think things are going just as planned to be honest. You can see the strategy and I think it will work for the long term.

 

[joeshaney]

I half heartedly agree.
Our Cap situation is excellent. I have confidence we will have a solid draft to replenish depth, but we are short a 3rd rounder.

Positions I'm not concerned with:
QB. Done
Rb/Fb. Done
Wr/te. Not worried. We'll find a guy.
Secondary. Not worried. We'll find a guy.
Linebacker. Done
Dt. Not worried. Got plenty of guys.
___________
I am admittedly concerned about our oline and pass rush. I expect one of these needs will be addressed early in the draft, but as good as Pete and John are expecting them to strike gold on every pick is silly.

 

[Jville]

Thanks for your thoughts TDOTSEAHAWK

I'd like to offer a thought on the Salary Cap ..... then & now.

Last off season Pete and John decided to "go for it" and added key veterans in spite of incurring unsustainable cap costs. It was a good decision for all that are happy with a Seahawk Super Bowl victory. The question going forward, for outsiders in particular, was whether the Seahawks could return to a sustainable cap and remain a contender. In my opinion, they appear to be answering that cap question in the affirmative.

They have been busy, for example, creating room for Russell Wilson and other long term future contracts on the offensive side of the ball as indicated below.

Cap for all offensive players ......... $68 million in 2013 ....... $58 million in 2014 (current).

Cap ranking by position group ............ 2013 ............ 2014 (current)

Overall total for offense ...................... 2 ..................17
Quarterback .................................... 30 ..................30
Running Back .................................... 7 ................. 11
Wide Receivers .................................. 5 .................. 6
Tight Ends ........................................ 1 ................ 13
Offensive Line ................................... 1 ................. 12

 

[Hawks46]

From a larger viewpoint, we've retained almost all of our starters on a dominant SB winning team. The starters we lost were ones we didn't offer much to, so it was expected and likely prepared for. The FO sees something in the younger guys that got playing time last year, or they would'nt have let guys like GIacommini and Tate go.

One thing our FO and coaching staff have shown they're very good at is back end of the roster churn. They are constantly upgrading our depth, and using cheap or no draft picks to do it. Look at McDonald as an example: he was cut last year, and only showed flashes before that. He came back and played very well, now there's a lot of hand wringing about how we let him go. (For the record, I wanted to keep him as well, but I assumed we wouldn't be able to afford him). So it's not like teams swooped in, poached a bunch of our atarters and over paid them....we've pretty much let everyone go so far, or offered them value contracts that they likely wouldn't sign.

The only real thing to worry about is roster depth in a few areas, and we haven't even hit the draft yet, which is where our FO shines. We have a dominant corps of elite young players, and our FO is doing the obvious: working towards cap space to lock that good core of players up and improve our depth. I'm not worried until after TC when guys might look slow to catch on.

 

[CANHawk]

I'm still pretty into Carp as a run blocker. That dude is crazy strong and was straight up man-handling people at times last year. I'm glad he's still on board.

The secondary is still stacked. Jeron Johnson, Deshawn Shead, Tharold Simon and Akeem Auguste are all still in the mix and we've brought in Chandler Fenner and Terrance Parks to compete. And that's before the draft or cut down days. Only thing we should get is somebody with skills similar to what Maragos had as we're missing a real back up FS. We've still got pass rushers and the LB corps is unchanged. Defense will be fine.

All the offense needs is another body in the WR corps to take over for Tate. Other than that, offense is pretty much unchanged (maybe even better if Percy stays healthy). We have tons of cap to roll over to sign the big 3. We're in phenomenal shape. This is an amazing off season. happy as shit in how things are going.

Go hawks.

 

[theascension]

I think there's a very good possibility Kearse has a similar breakout year like Tate. Remember Tate's first couple years weren't great. Russell was really starting to favor Kearse especially deep down-field late in the season last year.

 

[jdemps]

The only frustrating part to me is not making any impact signings but only because it's not sexy. We really can't if we can't to keep our core in tact so I agree with the tactics, just as a fan, we love hot sexy signings and this isn't the offseason for that.

This.

Plus, we really don't know what we in the majority of our 2013 draft class. Williams, Hill, Simon either didn't play or were injured. This plus continued development of Bowie and Bailey. Hard to tell what these guy's ceiling is yet.

Almost like adding 2 draft classes in one year b/c, besides Willson, all these guys basically redshirted. Who knows, we could end up better than last year.

 

[Seahawkfan80]

I think I shall state it again what the coach and his manager says.....always compete. We will see some of the players drafted that are in decent shape and then there is the oofda...er ...uh....UDFA game. That is where the diamonds in the ruffian come from....and is where we will get our training fodder and as they say at that time.....Cream rises to the top....

So...in effect....those other teams in the NFL are gonna get creamed when we rise to the top again. Smirk.

 

[DavidSeven]

I said a while ago that a successful off-season would simply entail extending Thomas and Sherman and drafting well. Everything on top of that would be gravy. Re-upping Bennett, McDaniel and T-Jack has been that gravy. This is a very good off-season so far IMO and one that has gone about as I figured it would. Allen would've been cool, but I didn't really consider him a realistic option nor a prudent one at any price above Bennett's.

 

[-The Glove-]

This might be a crappy analogy, but I was talking to my coworker earlier about this and I said this team is like a well-tuned sports car. When PC and JS first got here, they had to pull out the engine and replace everything from top to bottom. Complete rebuild. Now that it's a fully built machine, all you have to do is tweak it here and there and do minor maintenance to the engine.

 

[Blitzhawk]

I agree. I think those w/ concerns are just more "vocal" for lack of better words. I get the feeling most of us are kind of just kicking back w/ our arms crossed nodding along saying "we good, we got this." I think we just got so accustomed to the old style of desperately chasing old vets trying to fill holes for the now. Even when this FO took over an aging, subpar talent, broken down team they had to clean house and go crazy making moves and bringing in large numbers to rebuild this team.

Now we are in maintenance mode as somebody called it in another thread. Priorities are to retain our best core guys while developing our youngins and restock our depth w/ new draft picks and UDFA's. I feel this FO strongly desires to be the development team. They want to recruit young talented players, train them up, keep the best ones, and give the rest a pat on the ass "good luck" heading them out the door. They can then integrate the new ones and so on.

As far as this season goes, we took care of Bennett as a priority and big part of our pass rush. We hate losing Tate, Bryant and Geac but I do not feel (as much as I love all these guys) any of them are irreplaceable. In fact, Tate and Geac probably opens spots for possible upgrades...remains to be seen. Would be great not to lock up some of our core guys coming up on FA status (ET/Sherm).

 

[scutterhawk]

I'm wondering what's happening with Schofield as well. He could be a spare Leo and give nice depth if he can be re-signed.

Nah, JS & PC will just go and poke a couple of sticks at a few cages, and VODKA!, er, um, I mean VOILA!, we'll have another beast or two that are Younger, Stronger, Faster, Meaner, hungrier to fill in the voids that Clem, and Schofield have left in their wake.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Can some of you guys explain to me why you want Carp gone as of right now?

Seriously, give the dude an effin break.

Carpenter was drafted during the lock-out year, people keep saying he's a bust, but they can't name any other linemen that were remotely quality from 25th pick to Mr. Irrellevent.

Two things Carp has over most of those other linemen you can't name is he's at least starting and still on his original team.

After Tyron Smith, Mike Pouncey, and Nate Solder it was a bad year for offensive lineman in hindsight... do the research.

What do you expect from a 6'5, 330 pound lineman coming off two years of shortened seasons and continuous rehab? For him to magically be in the greatest shape and ready to dominate. I don't think so. Instead he did what most giant players would do baloon in weight to 350.

So not only does he have to work himself back into playing shape, he has to deal with the injury psyche that tends to wall an oft-injured player in fear of getting re-injured which leads to some very tenative hot and cold play.

Him finsishing the entire season without any major drawback is a great mutual win for the Seahawks and for Carpenter.

Then you guys are all grabbing your pitchforks and torches taking rather unwarranted stabs at a player who was finally able to develop on the field and process the next step of his career... you guys are ready to burn a bridge with a player without even understanding the adversity he had to go through in his short career. Or understanding yet being an a-hole about otherwise.

The Seahawks ARE NOT GOING TO CUT HIM. At least NOT in this moment of time. They most likely will however encourage James Carpenter to use his first true off-season that is rehab-free, surgery-free, lock-out and really commit to his health and fitness.

They'll likely give him a weight target and a body fat target, they'll tell him to work on his footwork and endurance basically get his athleticism at an all time high as best as he can basically slimmer, stronger, faster and more flexible.

They'll push him throughout OTAs and TC and tell him to compete and use his contract year as leverage to get his 100% effort if not more.

And James Carpenter will either put in the work that is asked and expected of him and if he doesn't the Seahawks will then look to cut him.

But looking at the positive outlook is just more rewarding and a healthier James Carpenter at a lean 315-320 pounds sandwiched between a hopefully healthy Okung and Unger just sounds like a dominant left side.

Seahawks win either way I guess... its really up to Carpenter if he wants to win too. We'll see though.

 

[Cartire]

Can some of you guys explain to me why you want Carp gone as of right now?

Seriously, give the dude an effin break.

Carpenter was drafted during the lock-out year, people keep saying he's a bust, but they can't name any other linemen that were remotely quality from 25th pick to Mr. Irrellevent.

Two things Carp has over most of those other linemen you can't name is he's at least starting and still on his original team.

After Tyron Smith, Mike Pouncey, and Nate Solder it was a bad year for offensive lineman in hindsight... do the research.

What do you expect from a 6'5, 330 pound lineman coming off two years of shortened seasons and continuous rehab? For him to magically be in the greatest shape and ready to dominate. I don't think so. Instead he did what most giant players would do baloon in weight to 350.

So not only does he have to work himself back into playing shape, he has to deal with the injury psyche that tends to wall an oft-injured player in fear of getting re-injured which leads to some very tenative hot and cold play.

Him finsishing the entire season without any major drawback is a great mutual win for the Seahawks and for Carpenter.

Then you guys are all grabbing your pitchforks and torches taking rather unwarranted stabs at a player who was finally able to develop on the field and process the next step of his career... you guys are ready to burn a bridge with a player without even understanding the adversity he had to go through in his short career. Or understanding yet being an a-hole about otherwise.

The Seahawks ARE NOT GOING TO CUT HIM. At least NOT in this moment of time. They most likely will however encourage James Carpenter to use his first true off-season that is rehab-free, surgery-free, lock-out and really commit to his health and fitness.

They'll likely give him a weight target and a body fat target, they'll tell him to work on his footwork and endurance basically get his athleticism at an all time high as best as he can basically slimmer, stronger, faster and more flexible.

They'll push him throughout OTAs and TC and tell him to compete and use his contract year as leverage to get his 100% effort if not more.

And James Carpenter will either put in the work that is asked and expected of him and if he doesn't the Seahawks will then look to cut him.

But looking at the positive outlook is just more rewarding and a healthier James Carpenter at a lean 315-320 pounds sandwiched between a hopefully healthy Okung and Unger just sounds like a dominant left side.

Seahawks win either way I guess... its really up to Carpenter if he wants to win too. We'll see though.

Is he your best friend or something?

Who cares what other picks were available. No one is debating the draft pick or comparing it to others. But what you fail to mention in any of your argument is his actual ability. He has been piss poor. Nothing more to add to that.

 

[idahohawk]

Agree w/ the OP. This bandwagon needed to be thinned out anyway.

I say any "fans" who start in with "the sky is falling" themed thoughts, should turn in their bandwagon cards immediately. We just won the freaking Superbowl for crying out loud. Get a hold of yourselves.

Sack up and enjoy the ride. This is the good part. We are finally playing with house money after 4 decades at the table.

 

[ImTheScientist]

Schofield failed his physical and is still an FA. Since we have not resigned him I am wondering what's up with him.

No way he failed his physical. Giants saw the backlash of the signing then paid their doctor money on the side to "fail" him. Same thing the Raiders did Saffold.

He failed it bro.

 

[ImTheScientist]

Agree w/ the OP. This bandwagon needed to be thinned out anyway.

I say any "fans" who start in with "the sky is falling" themed thoughts, should turn in their bandwagon cards immediately. We just won the freaking Superbowl for crying out loud. Get a hold of yourselves.

Sack up and enjoy the ride. This is the good part. We are finally playing with house money after 4 decades at the table.

:13:

 

[RolandDeschain]

He failed it bro.

Whether a player fails or passes a physical is "at the physician's discretion", which is the language in the CBA. It's completely subjective; if you don't think a team can just hint to a doctor if they want a player to fail or pass and have the doctor do it, well, I don't know what to tell you.

Here's a little supporting evidence:
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2014 ... ctive.html
http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2013/ ... al-salary/

 

[Smelly McUgly]

But we didn't win the offseason championship like we did last year.