PUMPED and JACKED for the Passing Game This Year!

[onanygivensunday]

All that being said I am also nervous because these transactions never seem to work out for us. Branch, Harvin, Housh on and on I can't think of a single transaction for a receiver that was suppose to make a huge impact, ever work out. Hopefully Jimmy changes that for us.

My advice is don't expect Graham to have a huge impact... temper your expectations a bit.

Will he make a difference?... hell, yes... but he won't get the targets with Seattle that he got in NO.

And I expect that he'll start slow and build up his contribution during the year.

Jimmy will be fine and the offense will be better for having him out there.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

All that being said I am also nervous because these transactions never seem to work out for us. Branch, Harvin, Housh on and on I can't think of a single transaction for a receiver that was suppose to make a huge impact, ever work out. Hopefully Jimmy changes that for us.

My advice is don't expect Graham to have a huge impact... temper your expectations a bit.

Will he make a difference?... hell, yes... but he won't get the targets with Seattle that he got in NO.

And I expect that he'll start slow and build up his contribution during the year.

Jimmy will be fine and the offense will be better for having him out there.

Good advice but it's a reasonable expectation to think he'll get around 50 catches and 8-10 TD's while making our 3rd down and red zone efficiency go way up.

 

[Hawks46]

With this talk about the offense and the passing game..on the other side of the coin. If the offense is a lot more explosive and going down the field and putting up a lot more points. Will the D suffer just as a product of having to play more due to the other teams getting more chances to go down and score as well.

Negative. This will actually help our defense. When you can force the opposing offense to be 1 dimensional, it helps the defense, especially a defense like ours that studies things like WR tendencies, formational tendencies, and personnel groupings so well. It's easier to guess what they're doing, and when the defense guesses what the offense is doing....well you have us beating Denver in the SB.

Conversely, if our offense is more efficient and averages more plays per game, our defense will be well rested. Also less chance of injury the less snaps you're taking, and if teams try to go no huddle on us, it won't hurt us as bad not being able to substitute.

I go back to what Graham initially said. He's going to help the run game. If the defense wants to play cover 0, well Graham has proven that he's a nightmare matchup for most LBers and Safeties in the league. If you take a guy out of the box, then it opens things up for our run game (not just Lynch, but makes it easier for guys like Turbin and Michael to be more effective).

I think we see the same amount of passes, or maybe 5 more per game due to being more efficient. Better 3rd down conversion rates equals more offensive snaps, which will equal more run and pass plays. Russ was about 63% completions last year. Add in 5 more pass plays per game, and bump him up to 70%, and you have a good 5-7 more completions per game, which gets him to those "elite" numbers that a lot of fans crave.

Also, having a guy like Graham will sort of take Bevell out of the equation on a lot of instances. The coaching staff already trusts Wilson to ad lib as part of the offense, well now that Russ can ad lib, he can scramble around and hit a guy like Graham who can not only get open easily but win most jump balls. Russ has shown he's willing to chuck it up to WRs that can win jump balls, and Graham is the very best at that in the league.

I also think this opens things up for Matthews. If he even improves a little, we're going to see some production from him. People don't realize, but the CBs he was abusing in the SB weren't scrubs, they were fairly highly rated CBs that had started all year for the Patriots. Matthews just got a hold of a guy that was 5'10" and showed he was able to abuse the size matchup, and Wilson was willing to get him the ball.

Which is also a key component: Wilson getting guys the ball. Baldwin was open a lot in the SB but Wilson wouldn't throw it his way.

 

[Northwest Seahawk]

I definitely feel better about the position going into this year vs last year . The addition of Jimmy Graham and Matthews showing some real skill high pointing the ball with defenders draped all over him in the SB I think we are poised to be much better in the passing game.