Nice pic of Fant

[Hawks46]

Well put Atylla. Context and perspective are important.

That Fant was even able to start, even with our bad OL, and flash at times....it's an amazing feat. Think about it....he played NO offensive line in college. None.

It stands to reason that if he takes to coaching well (tongue in cheek....Cable hasn't shown a history of great pass pro coaching) he'll see some quantum leaps in year 2, 3 and 4.

Actually having some experience next to him in Joekel will help as well.

 

[pittpnthrs]

Seeing that picture, heck with Fant. Throw Walter a jersey.

 

[Hyak]

Lose one of the above though, and we become the same hot n cold version of the last few seasons.

I'll say it again, if I told you at the beginning of the season:

1. Wilson would suffer a high ankle sprain in the first game of the year, and an MCL tear in the third game

AND

2. Michael Bennett would injure his knee and be out for 5 games

AND

3. Earl Thomas would break his leg in the 11th game, ending his season


That despite these injuries, we'd still win the division and were in command of the race for the 2nd seed in the conference heading into week 16. I think we'd have taken that to the bank. Nobody can convince me that we don't win those final two games if Earl doesn't go down. Losing him cost us the #2 seed. And with the investment at S in this draft, I think the team tips it's hand that they concede this.

Simply put, the three most impactful players on this team all were injured for extended time. No team survives that. Most teams completely collapse and end up drafting in the top 10.

We didn't just lose ONE of the above. We lost ALL of the above. And still managed to get to the divisional round. I don't get the sense that we as fans really appreciated just how rare of a performance last season was given the circumstances.

Injuries are pretty flukey. And although our core is another year older. They are still in their prime and still shouldn't be reasonably expected to break down year to year. It is possible that we lose one of the above. But I don't think just losing one of the above dooms this club at all.

We should feel confident that we won't see a repeat of the injury woes of last year. We'll still get injuries. That's part of the game. But we shouldn't lose our three most important players again. I'm also bullish on our second year guys. Not because they lit up the league last year. But we kept 9 rookies on the active roster. We might keep 9 more this year. The investment in youth last year should begin to be strongly felt this season.

The irony with the injuries were that the Seahawks statistically were pretty healthy compared to the league in general. I do worry about injuries being a factor as the core gets older. That said, the Hawks have done well to improve competition/depth across the board to hedge against it being the killer that it was last year.

 

[Seafan]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBMU5v-V0AAFOFi.jpg

 

[adeltaY]

That despite these injuries, we'd still win the division and were in command of the race for the 2nd seed in the conference heading into week 16. I think we'd have taken that to the bank. Nobody can convince me that we don't win those final two games if Earl doesn't go down. Losing him cost us the #2 seed.

Great post Attyla, I agree with your perspective overall. Gonna disagree with part ofthe point above though. I agree with Earl we beat the cards and lock up the #2 seed. Football Outsiders has a good article with some film that illustrates how important Earl is and uses some of those devastating deep completions Palmer made against the D to show how much his absence killed us.

There was absolutely no way we win in GB, Earl or no. Their OL straight completely blanked the pass rush and Aaron carved up the D at will and at ease. Five INTs didn't help either... Dom Capers defense was straight garbage last year but they seem to have Russ' number.