Mario Williams released by the BIlls

[Hasselbeck]

This is the 1 FA that I think we need. As long as he is on a short term prove it style deal like Cliff did we need to make this happen.

Im tired of hoping we can draft a good leo. We need someone that can get pressure consistently.

Would be extremely shocked if Mario Williams did that. He's going to have suitors a plenty, many who will give him a lot more money than we would.

And if he's doing the 1-2 year deal on a contender thing, I think he'd likely choose Carolina over us given he's from North Carolina and went to school there.

 

[DJrmb]

This is the 1 FA that I think we need. As long as he is on a short term prove it style deal like Cliff did we need to make this happen.

Im tired of hoping we can draft a good leo. We need someone that can get pressure consistently.

Would be extremely shocked if Mario Williams did that. He's going to have suitors a plenty, many who will give him a lot more money than we would.

And if he's doing the 1-2 year deal on a contender thing, I think he'd likely choose Carolina over us given he's from North Carolina and went to school there.

With having to franchise tag Norman the Panthers are going to be looking in the bargain bin for pass rush help. I expect Williams to sign a deal very similar to DeMarcus Ware's 3/30m. If they want to, Seattle can afford that, Carolina can't.

Not saying it will happen, but it sure makes a lot of sense for both the player and the team...

 

[A-Dog]

We should absolutely make Williams our #1 target in Free Agency after taking care of our own guys.

He's won't break the bank like Suh but he's not going to sign a "prove it" deal either. He's a hair younger than DeMarcus Ware was when he signed for 3/$30M a couple of years back. Both enter FA coming off of down seasons, but Williams doesn't have the injury concerns that Ware did -- he's played all but one regular season game the past four years and the three years prior to last year (when Rex Ryan took over and changed Ware's role) he averaged almost 13 sacks a season.

Williams would fit perfectly in to our scheme where he could line up wide at the Leo position and go after the QB. Avril would play on passing downs opposite Williams and rotate in with Clark on mixed downs, keeping all of our ends fresh and our pass rush effective even with the 2nd unit in.

It'll probably cost more than Ware got ($10-12M APY for 3-4 years), and we'd definitely have to do something to keep Bennett happy (which already appears to be a foregone conclusion), but it's absolutely worth it and would go a long way towards re-establishing us a historically dominant defense.

Carolina doesn't have the cap room to compete for Williams on the open market... even though they could save some money by cutting Jared Allen they're right up against the cap.

Signing Williams will allow us to go BPA in the draft rather than rolling the dice on an edge rusher who would probably take a year or two to develop. I'd guess we'd take a LB relatively early to compete for a spot with KPL (Travis Feeney anyone?). I'm thinking OLine, DT, LB, OLine with our first 4 picks.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Jared Allen retired A-Dog.

 

[peppersjap]

We should absolutely make Williams our #1 target in Free Agency after taking care of our own guys.

He's won't break the bank like Suh but he's not going to sign a "prove it" deal either. He's a hair younger than DeMarcus Ware was when he signed for 3/$30M a couple of years back. Both enter FA coming off of down seasons, but Williams doesn't have the injury concerns that Ware did -- he's played all but one regular season game the past four years and the three years prior to last year (when Rex Ryan took over and changed Ware's role) he averaged almost 13 sacks a season.

Williams would fit perfectly in to our scheme where he could line up wide at the Leo position and go after the QB. Avril would play on passing downs opposite Williams and rotate in with Clark on mixed downs, keeping all of our ends fresh and our pass rush effective even with the 2nd unit in.

It'll probably cost more than Ware got ($10-12M APY for 3-4 years), and we'd definitely have to do something to keep Bennett happy (which already appears to be a foregone conclusion), but it's absolutely worth it and would go a long way towards re-establishing us a historically dominant defense.

Carolina doesn't have the cap room to compete for Williams on the open market... even though they could save some money by cutting Jared Allen they're right up against the cap.

Signing Williams will allow us to go BPA in the draft rather than rolling the dice on an edge rusher who would probably take a year or two to develop. I'd guess we'd take a LB relatively early to compete for a spot with KPL (Travis Feeney anyone?). I'm thinking OLine, DT, LB, OLine with our first 4 picks.

Our DE's are currently a strength so why would we be willing to eat up $10 million a year of our salary cap on another one? I'm sure that would make Michael Bennett happy! We can't have all the best players if we want to keep winning. How about we throw a couple of dollars toward the offensive line or sign our DT's which as of now we have very few under contract.

 

[CurryStopstheRuns]

We should absolutely make Williams our #1 target in Free Agency after taking care of our own guys.

He's won't break the bank like Suh but he's not going to sign a "prove it" deal either. He's a hair younger than DeMarcus Ware was when he signed for 3/$30M a couple of years back. Both enter FA coming off of down seasons, but Williams doesn't have the injury concerns that Ware did -- he's played all but one regular season game the past four years and the three years prior to last year (when Rex Ryan took over and changed Ware's role) he averaged almost 13 sacks a season.

Williams would fit perfectly in to our scheme where he could line up wide at the Leo position and go after the QB. Avril would play on passing downs opposite Williams and rotate in with Clark on mixed downs, keeping all of our ends fresh and our pass rush effective even with the 2nd unit in.

It'll probably cost more than Ware got ($10-12M APY for 3-4 years), and we'd definitely have to do something to keep Bennett happy (which already appears to be a foregone conclusion), but it's absolutely worth it and would go a long way towards re-establishing us a historically dominant defense.

Carolina doesn't have the cap room to compete for Williams on the open market... even though they could save some money by cutting Jared Allen they're right up against the cap.

Signing Williams will allow us to go BPA in the draft rather than rolling the dice on an edge rusher who would probably take a year or two to develop. I'd guess we'd take a LB relatively early to compete for a spot with KPL (Travis Feeney anyone?). I'm thinking OLine, DT, LB, OLine with our first 4 picks.

Our DE's are currently a strength so why would we be willing to eat up $10 million a year of our salary cap on another one? I'm sure that would make Michael Bennett happy! We can't have all the best players if we want to keep winning. How about we throw a couple of dollars toward the offensive line or sign our DT's which as of now we have very few under contract.

If you intentionally bypass fortifying a strength it then becomes a weakness.

Also, nowhere in his post did he suggest ignoring the areas that you find concerning. The team could sign Willams and one of our free agent DT's. He also addressed your concerns via the draft as well suggesting that the team select two offensive linemen and a DT with three of their first four selections.

 

[A-Dog]

Our DE's are currently a strength so why would we be willing to eat up $10 million a year of our salary cap on another one? I'm sure that would make Michael Bennett happy! We can't have all the best players if we want to keep winning. How about we throw a couple of dollars toward the offensive line or sign our DT's which as of now we have very few under contract.

Edge rusher is NOT an area of strength for Seattle. Avril is not built to hold up as an every-down DE and is not getting any younger. He's playing too many snaps and we've lost him to injury in key playoff games -- when he goes out our pass rush becomes impotent. Our current backup Leo, Cassius Marsh, has zero career sacks. On top of that all signs point to us losing Bruce Irvin in free agency. Pete Carroll has called out pass rush specifically as an area we need to improve. Losing Irvin and not adding someone as good or better is certainly not going to improve things.

 

[Basis4day]

Our DE's are currently a strength so why would we be willing to eat up $10 million a year of our salary cap on another one? I'm sure that would make Michael Bennett happy! We can't have all the best players if we want to keep winning. How about we throw a couple of dollars toward the offensive line or sign our DT's which as of now we have very few under contract.

Edge rusher is NOT an area of strength for Seattle. Avril is not built to hold up as an every-down DE and is not getting any younger. He's playing too many snaps and we've lost him to injury in key playoff games -- when he goes out our pass rush becomes impotent. Our current backup Leo, Cassius Marsh, has zero career sacks. On top of that all signs point to us losing Bruce Irvin in free agency. Pete Carroll has called out pass rush specifically as an area we need to improve. Losing Irvin and not adding someone as good or better is certainly not going to improve things.

When did we lose Avril in key playoff games? I recall him leaving against the 2nd quarter against the Panthers when we were already getting destroyed (Carolina didn't score in the 2nd half). And he went out with a concussion in SB49.

What were the others? You're phrasing makes it sound like it happens all the time.

Pete Carrol has said that we need to improve pass rush, but the interviews i recall he was referring to interior pass rush which we don't get much of other than Bennett.

 

[A-Dog]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

 

[Basis4day]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

Irvin really only played one season as a DE/LEO and that was his rookie year. After that he moved to SAM, so i'm not really sure how Irvin fits into your opinion.

We can always use more pass rush, but i think the edge isn't where any potential FA dollars need to go to have success. We need more interior rush to collapse the pocket. Hopefully we'll get that with Clark and perhaps a resurgence of Hill and whatever happens in the draft.

I'd love to have Williams, but again, you're calling him THE target for the Hawks. Does paying another DE a lot of money when you have an angry Bennett really help he team with a lot of holes in other areas (O-Line)?

 

[titan3131]

if our pass rush becomes better then denvers and we win the SB with a godlike defense who the F cares if we give him 10 mil?

by being content wit hwhat we have you are going directly against the always compete mantra. If your not competing you arent trying and growing. And if you dont grow you will decline as we have for 2 years on defense. THATS THE FACT.

defense surged in 2013 and has declined since. More pass rush can hide some of our secondary woes...

 

[DJrmb]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

Irvin really only played one season as a DE/LEO and that was his rookie year. After that he moved to SAM, so i'm not really sure how Irvin fits into your opinion.

We can always use more pass rush, but i think the edge isn't where any potential FA dollars need to go to have success. We need more interior rush to collapse the pocket. Hopefully we'll get that with Clark and perhaps a resurgence of Hill and whatever happens in the draft.

I'd love to have Williams, but again, you're calling him THE target for the Hawks. Does paying another DE a lot of money when you have an angry Bennett really help he team with a lot of holes in other areas (O-Line)?

Irvin played SAM but also moved down onto the line at times on passing downs as an edge rusher.

I agree, inside rush is our biggest hole on the line, but outside rush is also something we need more depth at. Remember the Superb Owl season when we had Bennett, Avril, Irvin, and Clemons and how unstoppable they were? That's what we need to get back to, and that takes at least 4 capable pass rushers to sustain. Plus because of Bennett's versatility in a sense adding an edge rusher also bolsters the inside rush because Bennett is so effective inside and it would allow him to play more inside, where according to PFF Bennett was more effective than he was on the edge. So adding Williams allows you to play Bennett where he's more effective more often, and spell Avril more often as well. Best of both worlds.

 

[Basis4day]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

Irvin really only played one season as a DE/LEO and that was his rookie year. After that he moved to SAM, so i'm not really sure how Irvin fits into your opinion.

We can always use more pass rush, but i think the edge isn't where any potential FA dollars need to go to have success. We need more interior rush to collapse the pocket. Hopefully we'll get that with Clark and perhaps a resurgence of Hill and whatever happens in the draft.

I'd love to have Williams, but again, you're calling him THE target for the Hawks. Does paying another DE a lot of money when you have an angry Bennett really help he team with a lot of holes in other areas (O-Line)?

Irvin played SAM but also moved down onto the line at times on passing downs as an edge rusher.

I agree, inside rush is our biggest hole on the line, but outside rush is also something we need more depth at. Remember the Superb Owl season when we had Bennett, Avril, Irvin, and Clemons and how unstoppable they were? That's what we need to get back to, and that takes at least 4 capable pass rushers to sustain. Plus because of Bennett's versatility in a sense adding an edge rusher also bolsters the inside rush because Bennett is so effective inside and it would allow him to play more inside, where according to PFF Bennett was more effective than he was on the edge. So adding Williams allows you to play Bennett where he's more effective more often, and spell Avril more often as well. Best of both worlds.

Adding Williams would make the pass rush great. But it doesn't take into account the price tag making the entire scenario unrealistic. And there are bigger problems on the team that need fixing than edge rush.

 

[Tech Worlds]

We ain't won the superbowl since Chris Clemens left.

What we need is more pass rush.

 

[titan3131]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

Irvin really only played one season as a DE/LEO and that was his rookie year. After that he moved to SAM, so i'm not really sure how Irvin fits into your opinion.

We can always use more pass rush, but i think the edge isn't where any potential FA dollars need to go to have success. We need more interior rush to collapse the pocket. Hopefully we'll get that with Clark and perhaps a resurgence of Hill and whatever happens in the draft.

I'd love to have Williams, but again, you're calling him THE target for the Hawks. Does paying another DE a lot of money when you have an angry Bennett really help he team with a lot of holes in other areas (O-Line)?

Irvin played SAM but also moved down onto the line at times on passing downs as an edge rusher.

I agree, inside rush is our biggest hole on the line, but outside rush is also something we need more depth at. Remember the Superb Owl season when we had Bennett, Avril, Irvin, and Clemons and how unstoppable they were? That's what we need to get back to, and that takes at least 4 capable pass rushers to sustain. Plus because of Bennett's versatility in a sense adding an edge rusher also bolsters the inside rush because Bennett is so effective inside and it would allow him to play more inside, where according to PFF Bennett was more effective than he was on the edge. So adding Williams allows you to play Bennett where he's more effective more often, and spell Avril more often as well. Best of both worlds.

Adding Williams would make the pass rush great. But it doesn't take into account the price tag making the entire scenario unrealistic. And there are bigger problems on the team that need fixing than edge rush.

Your wrong. Period. If we sacked fumble on cam in the playoffs just once we win with the terrible oline.

 

[DJrmb]

Yes, the past two years our championship runs ended when Avril was off the field due to injury and we did not have an adequate replacement. We won the title the year before and Avril had an MVP-type game. So now we're in the same situation, giving Avril too many snaps, not having an adequate replacement, everyone is a year older AND the mediocre replacement we had (Irvin) will be gone too.

Irvin really only played one season as a DE/LEO and that was his rookie year. After that he moved to SAM, so i'm not really sure how Irvin fits into your opinion.

We can always use more pass rush, but i think the edge isn't where any potential FA dollars need to go to have success. We need more interior rush to collapse the pocket. Hopefully we'll get that with Clark and perhaps a resurgence of Hill and whatever happens in the draft.

I'd love to have Williams, but again, you're calling him THE target for the Hawks. Does paying another DE a lot of money when you have an angry Bennett really help he team with a lot of holes in other areas (O-Line)?

Irvin played SAM but also moved down onto the line at times on passing downs as an edge rusher.

I agree, inside rush is our biggest hole on the line, but outside rush is also something we need more depth at. Remember the Superb Owl season when we had Bennett, Avril, Irvin, and Clemons and how unstoppable they were? That's what we need to get back to, and that takes at least 4 capable pass rushers to sustain. Plus because of Bennett's versatility in a sense adding an edge rusher also bolsters the inside rush because Bennett is so effective inside and it would allow him to play more inside, where according to PFF Bennett was more effective than he was on the edge. So adding Williams allows you to play Bennett where he's more effective more often, and spell Avril more often as well. Best of both worlds.

Adding Williams would make the pass rush great. But it doesn't take into account the price tag making the entire scenario unrealistic. And there are bigger problems on the team that need fixing than edge rush.

The argument is not "Fixing the edge rush". The argument is adding to the edge rush would fix the inside rush which you yourself said was a need.

As for the 10M we aren't as strapped for cash this year as what seems to be the opinion around here. We aren't the Raiders with 40+ million to spend but we've got a bit of room already without even tapping into restructuring or moving contracts around. This FO has done a masterful job with contracts and the salary cap.

 

[ctrcat]

This is the 1 FA that I think we need. As long as he is on a short term prove it style deal like Cliff did we need to make this happen.

Im tired of hoping we can draft a good leo. We need someone that can get pressure consistently.

Would be extremely shocked if Mario Williams did that. He's going to have suitors a plenty, many who will give him a lot more money than we would.

And if he's doing the 1-2 year deal on a contender thing, I think he'd likely choose Carolina over us given he's from North Carolina and went to school there.

With having to franchise tag Norman the Panthers are going to be looking in the bargain bin for pass rush help. I expect Williams to sign a deal very similar to DeMarcus Ware's 3/30m. If they want to, Seattle can afford that, Carolina can't.

Not saying it will happen, but it sure makes a lot of sense for both the player and the team...

That was true for what seemed like an eternity but not anymore. They have more cap space and arguably less holes than any NFC playoff teams at present. DE is a need and Mario is possible but I very seriously doubt they pay 3/30 if that's what he wants. I think signing multiple mid-tier guys and/or extending Short a year early are more likely.

 

[nwgamer]

Williams is being kicked to the curb for his less than enthusiastic play as per his teammates as much as he just isn't worth the cash anymore. Classic example of got paid and stopped working hard. He stated he didn't like the scheme in Buffalo and then he basically gave up.