So the experts say the Hawks will suck this season?

[jammerhawk]

The team finished 9-7 last season but easily with a competent kicker should have finished 11-5 or possibly 12-4.

The only genuine losses of substance were Bennett, WR-Richardson, and Graham although you could fairly argue Graham had checked out. I believe that both O players have been replaced by positionally capable guys. The other losses were for us JAGs. It remains to be seen if Bennett’s loss can be effectively replaced.

For me I will remain optimistic until proven contrary.

Avril, Kam, Sherman, Richardson and Benett. That's a lot of really good players to lose from a defense.

Avril was hurt and out for half last season, so was Kam, and Sherman was gone for a bit less. I didn't think Richardson added much to our D but certainly is a good player. The D played adequately or better in the absence of Avril, Sherman and Kam who really hasn't been playing much over the past 2.5 seasons at any rate.

The 3 tech position that Richardson played may be able to be addressed by a platooning of players who may be fresher than Richardson was or Bennett was as well.

Long term the loss of Sherman will hurt but will the loss of his divisive behaviour?

To me I think the lost star version of assessment fails to recognize the potential talent of the younger players on the roster and underestimates the ability of the D to play at a high level, better than the "experts" assess.

Time will tell.

 

[SeAhAwKeR4life]

I hate to say it but I agre with the experts. You cannot lose that much talent on Defense and expect to gel right away. I think 7-9 is being optimistic for this year. Should see some sucess in a year or two but not expecting anything this year. :roll:

Wilson will be the reason for at least 5 wins single handedly though.

 

[Seymour]

Interesting couple of comments about 'Defense didn't drop off much without them".

Did any of these people watch the Rams destroy our team 42-7 at C-Link??

When was the last time something like that happened?

:snack:

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Shoot, watch the Houston game WITH a lot of the D still in there. Shredded our D. Titans shredded the D as well.

 

[Ad Hawk]

But this is all very interesting... we won 9 games this last season with virtually NO running game, and many injuries on Defense. I know there were games that were lost by a field goal that could/should have been wins, and a couple close wins that could have swung the other way. So we'll call it an authentic 9-win season.

But 9 wins with all those issues? Why should we expect less this year with a potentially better O-line development, fewer distractions, and several new high-motor, sound skill players added to the mix? If our RB stable stays uninjured and the o-line is merely serviceable, our Offense can be significantly better. The Defense has more youth, so there will be some mistakes made, but they also have some new sparks. Our Special Teams should see some real gains all around.

1-5 in the division? No way. We'll stay competitive, and I expect to see the team do better in the division, certainly, and probably 3-3 at minimum.

 

[Seymour]

Way too early for predictions, but my range at this point is somewhere between 6-10 and 10-6

 

[Sgt. Largent]

But this is all very interesting... we won 9 games this last season with virtually NO running game, and many injuries on Defense. I know there were games that were lost by a field goal that could/should have been wins, and a couple close wins that could have swung the other way. So we'll call it an authentic 9-win season.

But 9 wins with all those issues? Why should we expect less this year with a potentially better O-line development, fewer distractions, and several new high-motor, sound skill players added to the mix? If our RB stable stays uninjured and the o-line is merely serviceable, our Offense can be significantly better. The Defense has more youth, so there will be some mistakes made, but they also have some new sparks. Our Special Teams should see some real gains all around.

1-5 in the division? No way. We'll stay competitive, and I expect to see the team do better in the division, certainly, and probably 3-3 at minimum.

Unknowns are the reason.

Unknowns all the way across the D-line (other than Clark). Unknowns as to whether Earl can stay healthy and both Maxwell and McDougal can step in and not have a big dropoff from Sherman and Kam.

Unknowns in the run game, unknowns with whether Solari can fix the O-line issues.

Unknowns with the WR and TE corp, no more Richardson and Graham, who's going to pick up that production.

So yeah, it's not a crazy notion for some analysts and us fans here to not know if all this turnover is going to work. You're being optimistic that the young players taking over can produce, but you, we, no one knows that yet until we see it.

 

[NFSeahawks]

9-7 or 10-6.

 

[Ramfan128]

I would have put more resources into the OL.

But having said that, Seattle is still above the Niners rather easily IMO.

Even if you said Jimmy was on the same level as Russell, which would be asinine, the rest of the Hawks team is still better than the rest of the Niners team.

Looking at the Seahawks schedule, I don't think they will win less than 9 games, and they play a ton of road games to start the season - if they come out of their first 7 games at 4-3 or better, IMO they will win at least 10 games.

 

[Rat]

I see us as basically the epitome of a 8-8 team. We're going to be so average, casual fans will think we're coached by Jeff Fisher.

We have a franchise QB though, and that is worth quite a bit in the win column. I wouldn't be shocked if we won 10 games, but I wouldn't gamble a cent on it. This is one of those seasons where I think we'll just be so-so, but I would love it if I was wrong. There's just too much in the air to bet the almost no money I have on our record.

 

[CamanoIslandJQ]

Rashaad Penney was the RB that the Seahawks wanted in the draft. Why? (1) He's a downhill, one cut and go, North to South runner with the optimum size & speed for the position. (2) He had a fantastic Senior season of production as both a RB and returner. (3) The 2018 Seahawks draft supports that PC/JS are committed in fixing the running game based on the players that they selected.

Had the Seahawks somehow drafted Sequan Barkley, (who, last season had a total of 56.5% of the rushing yards that Penney had) everyone here would be thrilled. The Seahawks brass clearly picked the better running back - for their system. IMO; In their rookie years, Penney will out-perform Barkley in rushing and return yards, Barkley may catch a few more passes but overall Penney will be the better of the two. I say this with confidence after watching a lot of film on both players. To my eye, Barkley is a bit soft and tries to avoid hits as much as possible which is different from Penney and it may end up being a problem or at least, indicative of future injury possibilities for Barkley due to said softness.

After the preseason games, where I'd expect Penney to really shine, many here will change their tune on both Penney as a RB and the "projections" of Seahawks win loss record will suddenly be much higher. Currently, IMO I can't see anything worse than 11-5 & likely better than that. Penney is the guy that will make many here forget about Marshawn Lynch after he destroys the competition. We, as Seahawks fans shouldn't be listening to the National Media about how bad the Seahawks drafted, primarily because they don't know crap & we know better, this was an excellent draft and the coming WINS will bare that out. Penney is going to be a real BEAST on his way to OROTY.
:smilingalien:

 

[JGfromtheNW]

:179422:

Quite the Kool-Aid to be sippin' on.

I think prolly about 9-7 again. I don't think we get back to the top of the NFC West until the Rams start shedding players they can't afford anymore.

 

[AgentDib]

There are lots of things that could go wrong with our team in 2018 but that's true of every team in the NFL. The Rams just won the division last year for the first time since 2003. Remember how short lived the 49ers and Cardinals reign as NFC West champions were the last time each of them won the division? The NFL is up and down and up and down and up and down...

Our expected win total is probably around 8 but 5 wins or 12 wins are also completely plausible at this stage of the season.

 

[KiwiHawk]

Avril, Kam, Sherman, Richardson and Benett. That's a lot of really good players to lose from a defense.

When we faced the NFL's #1 offense last year (Philadelphia), how many of those guys played?

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Avril, Kam, Sherman, Richardson and Benett. That's a lot of really good players to lose from a defense.

When we faced the NFL's #1 offense last year (Philadelphia), how many of those guys played?

Most of the same guys who got their clocks cleaned by the Rams at home.

That's really what was the end of our dominant defense, the wild inconsistency...........which at it's source was age, injury and less than total commitment to what Pete was preaching.

So yes, we should expect more wild inconsistency out of this new group of players. To think it's 100% how we played against the Eagles, and 0% of how we played against the Rams isn't being realistic.

It's both, thus why most of us think it's not going to be much better than 8-8 or 9-7.

To truly dominate on defense you need talent AND depth, and right now the talent is in question, and there's zero proven depth.

 

[Seymour]

Avril, Kam, Sherman, Richardson and Benett. That's a lot of really good players to lose from a defense.

When we faced the NFL's #1 offense last year (Philadelphia), how many of those guys played?

Most of the same guys who got their clocks cleaned by the Rams at home.

That's really what was the end of our dominant defense, the wild inconsistency...........which at it's source was age, injury and less than total commitment to what Pete was preaching.

So yes, we should expect more wild inconsistency out of this new group of players. To think it's 100% how we played against the Eagles, and 0% of how we played against the Rams isn't being realistic.

It's both, thus why most of us think it's not going to be much better than 8-8 or 9-7.

To truly dominate on defense you need talent AND depth, and right now the talent is in question, and there's zero proven depth.

I'd say more like we got our clocks pissed on personally.

Translation to the second highlighted sentence is: Guys flat out quit giving a shit and had their own agenda.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Avril, Kam, Sherman, Richardson and Benett. That's a lot of really good players to lose from a defense.

When we faced the NFL's #1 offense last year (Philadelphia), how many of those guys played?

Most of the same guys who got their clocks cleaned by the Rams at home.

That's really what was the end of our dominant defense, the wild inconsistency...........which at it's source was age, injury and less than total commitment to what Pete was preaching.

So yes, we should expect more wild inconsistency out of this new group of players. To think it's 100% how we played against the Eagles, and 0% of how we played against the Rams isn't being realistic.

It's both, thus why most of us think it's not going to be much better than 8-8 or 9-7.

To truly dominate on defense you need talent AND depth, and right now the talent is in question, and there's zero proven depth.

I'd say more like we got our clocks pissed on personally.

Translation to the second highlighted sentence is: Guys flat out quit giving a shit and had their own agenda.

I don't think "got our clocks pissed on" is a saying, but it's definitely more colorful.

I also disagree with quit giving a sh#$, I think that was the sad part of the decline of guys like Sherman and Bennett.....................they actually were trying, they just didn't have it anymore. Or at least didn't have it to the level we were used to seeing. There was certainly some discontent and animosity towards Pete, but IMO it wasn't why they stopped being as effective.

Which is the NFL, a player's window of dominance, especially on the defensive side of the ball is not very big.

 

[Seymour]

Ya, I always wondered where "clean your clock" came from as it really makes no sense relating to getting your ass kicked.. So...like always, question everything. :twisted:

Agree on not caring actually too. I think a couple of guys quit at times though.

 

[rcaido]

KJ Wright was out in the Rams game & Wagner was not even close to recovered.

 

[Zeearend]

Currently I am going for 8-8 or 9-7. There's lots of work to do, but in contrast to last year when we unexpectedly lost a lot of key players, in 2018 the Hawks making the change in players part of a plan for next season and beyond.