Why I Am Still Content With The Hawks

[Mizak]

Play him against the Bills. Then let him rest for 3-4 weeks. Seahawks will definitely lose to the Patriots, and might lose to the Eagles. After that, it's their BYE. So why not?

 

[oldhawkfan]

Wilson wasn't even taped on his ankles yesterday. The ankle sprain is G O N E. The MCL merely needs stabilization and if you didn't notice yesterday, the brace was a LOT smaller.

The pec thing wasn't that bad. Everyone is making more of this than is there. Sure the MCL is limiting his running because of the brace, but he isn't getting time to set up and throw in the pocket right now because Gilliam is probably the worst RT in the league and we have a basketball player at LT. He doesn't have the lateral mobility to get far outside to throw on the run, but to me that is no reason to sit him.

He gives us the best chance to win every game.

^This.
Yesterday, we saw a much healthier Wilson. He was making moves that he couldn't even think about making a month ago. No taped up ankles tells me that the ankle sprain is all but gone. Or at least a non factor. The smaller knee brace tells me that the knee is progressing too.

Below are his career stats through yesterday. As bad as some think he is playing, he is on pace for the most yards (4141) he has ever thrown. His completion % is second only to last year at 65.6% vs 68.1%.

What is seemingly down this year is his TD passes, having only thrown 5. After 7 games last year, he had thrown 8. His INTs at the same time last year were at 5. This year, he has 2. These stats completely surprised me.

The only quantifiable stat that is off this year is his rushing stats. At this time last year after 7 games, he had 271 yards. This year, 44. From a 5.4 ypc to 1.7. Yikes!!!

However, as I stated earlier, he looked a lot more mobile yesterday and actually gained 11 yards from scrimmage. Not exactly vintage Wilson, but at least hes able to move around. His rushing yards Sunday were 1/4 of his total yards this year.

As the O-line progresses, I fully expect his game will improve.

Year Team G Att Comp Pct Att/G Yds Avg Yds/G TD TD% Int Int% Lng 20+ 40+ Sck SckY Rate
2016 Seattle Seahawks 7 241 158 65.6 34.4 1,812 7.5 258.9 5 2.1 2 0.8 59 20 4 12 111 91.5
2015 Seattle Seahawks 16 483 329 68.1 30.2 4,024 8.3 251.5 34 7.0 8 1.7 80T 60 9 45 265 110.1
2014 Seattle Seahawks 16 452 285 63.1 28.2 3,475 7.7 217.2 20 4.4 7 1.5 80T 54 8 42 242 95.0
2013 Seattle Seahawks 16 407 257 63.1 25.4 3,357 8.2 209.8 26 6.4 9 2.2 80T 49 10 44 272 101.2
2012 Seattle Seahawks 16 393 252 64.1 24.6 3,118 7.9 194.9 26 6.6 10 2.5 67 42 11 33 203 100.0
TOTAL 71 1,976 1,281 64.8 27.8 15,786 8.0 222.3 111 5.6 36 1.8 80 225 42 176 1,093 100.5

 

[LeftHandSmoke]

The best possible future is where RW plays, while continuing to get healthy (maybe with some rest during the week if necessary), and we win. And win. And win a lot!

It's not that far fetched, may as well go for it.

 

[kf3339]

First off, I disagree you are conceding the season if you sit Wilson. There's no reason to believe we couldn't win with Boykin. No, not a long term solution obviously but he seems to have the talent and athleticism to run the offense, sprinkling in read options with his mobility.

Our defense will always give us a chance to win each and every game. I think Boykin's mobility would change the dynamic and be a bit of a spark plug. More than anything I would love to let Russ rest and heal for two or three weeks. I think we would beat the Bills at home with Boykin, lose to the Patriots and probably lose to the Eagles. So that would make us 5-4-1. Not the best scenario but if I knew we would have a healthy Russ the rest of the season even at the sacrifice of two losses, I would take that in a millisecond.

I respect you Aros, but on this one subject I think... you are out of your mind..

That's a panic room decision, a concession to lose and it would not sit well with this team at all.

Glad you aren't making decisions, very glad.

Boykin is a project, I repeat, a project.

He's not an accurate passer, and he doesn't know the playbook.

Can you imagine the way that Patrick Peterson and Honey Badger would have feasted on him? It would have been a lamb to the slaughter. Oh my god, that game would have been 50+ to zip, and the Seahawks would have been humiliated on national TV.

The defense would not take well to giving up 50+ points and getting blown out, Boykin's confidence would have been shot for the future, it would have hurt the pride of this team and done irreparable damage to their mystique.


If we played Boykin against the Cardinal D, and then again in the dome in New Orleans, he turns the ball over at least 8 times over the last 9 quarters of football and we get blown out twice, and are 4-3 and have a completely shell shocked team who's championship mindset would be shattered, instead of team of being 4-2-1 and players being pissed off and searching for answers knowing they are "this close".

Furthermore, it would have ended the era of "domination" of our defense. You do not want these guys on the field for 45 minutes per game with no pride to play for, that would be a huge mistake.

I don't believe for one second that Boykin would be that much worse than Prescott at Dallas. I think you are giving too little credit that Boykin could have played much better in those games.

As for the mystique of this team? Get serious. That ship has already sailed.

 

[Reaneypark]

I'll panic when we have lost five games. Until then, I'll be more and more miffed with each loss. I think things will get right on Monday.

 

[jdemps]

I have to say that I truly believe benching Russell Wilson is the wrong move at this point in time. He's close enough to healthy to be effective at short runs to convert 1st downs and move in the pocket, I.E. the bare minimum Russell Wilson ground game contribution. However, I think think that the reason for optimism going forward and the reason that we're all himming and hawing are the same.

The ground game.

It's been ineffective and underutilized. We're near dead last in yds/game and yds/attempt and most other metrics you can find. On top of that, this year, only 28% of our first downs have come from rushing plays (down from >40% the last 4 years). We can't sustain drives because we're often behind schedule from penalties and suspect run blocking.

But I think we're about to turn the corner, potentially as early as this week, and here are a few reasons why I think that could be the case:
1. Thomas Rawls: He's either coming back this week or next week. I expect to see him bring a physicality and YAC that this team, especially the O-line, feed off of.
2. George Fant: The first quarter was rough, but the dude has some punch in the ground game. The best we could expect with Sowell is a stonewall. I've seen enough tape of Fant to think that he can consistently get push on rushing plays. Think Webb vs. Ifedi at RG. He's raw but there's WAYYYY more upside there than Sowell ever had.
3. Russ is getting healthier. He scramble 3 times last week. Picked up a first down using his legs for the first time in weeks. If you have to respect Russ's running, Defenses can't crash down on running plays as hard and can't play man without a spy, leaving one less in coverage.
4. Prosise. He's sneaky fast and I want to see him get more carries.

Less related to the running game but....
5. October is over. We always come together starting in November for the stretch run.
6. If the season ended today, we'd be the 3 seed and as I write this, the Vikings are down 2 scores to the bears.

 

[Seafan]

This team doesn't have what it takes to overcome Bevell. They used to have it but not anymore. Bevell could get better. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Siouxhawk]

Bevell will get the ground game rolling again. He's done it before and he'll do it again.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

They don't have what it takes to overcome? 35-9 after Nov. 1st during Wilson's time. That seems like some pretty good adjusting.....

 

[Hawks46]

And here is the thing,

If you don't bench Wilson?

Then we beat the Bills, lose to the Patriots and lose to the Eagles. Having the EXACT SAME RECORD but instead of having Wilson, hopefully, healthier.

This isn't about Boykin being better than Wilson, clearly that is not the case. This is about doing whatever can be done to get Wilson off his injured limbs so he can heal faster. Unless you believe that whatever you witnessed yesterday was Wilson at 100%?

As shared before, it was terminal stupidity to play him in that Rams game and even in the 49ers game. But you cannot put the swarm of bees back in the bottle so, we have an injured QB that looks like he is healing but still isn't 100% but is also playing behind what I think is the worst OL in the history of the Seahawks, and so accordingly, is at risk almost every time he touches the ball.

If you disagree with the assessment, maybe the Bills game swings the other way and we have one more loss but, I think even the most fan-clouded person would not pick us to beat the Pats or the Eagles.

Actually I have a hard time arguing with that. It is counter intuitive to what I believe in looking at this roster, but it's not wrong.

We just lost to the Saints. And we're going to beat the Patriots, at their house ? Getting Rawls back and Sowell back for that game make literally no difference. We're going to lose that game, because the defense can't win it by themselves. Because we scored 15 points against the Saints defense, and the Patriots defense is the 3rd best in the league.

And resting Russ against Philly is a smart move too. They've beat up much better OL's than ours and beat up their QB's as well. With Russ's limited mobility, he's going to either have to throw half of his passes away, or he's going to end up hurt somewhere else. Keep in mind, he has three injuries, but no one is talking about that pec muscle. What happens when he gets a shoulder sprain ? He's likely out the rest of the season.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

No one's more loved than the backup QB when the team's losing.

If you trust Pete, and you SHOULD trust Pete because he's forgotten more football than all of football knowledge combined...........when he says a 50% Russell is more effective than an undrafted project rookie, then that's a fact.

And if Russell's injuries wouldn't get better if he played? Then Pete would sit him.

 

[LeftHandSmoke]

^^ Another big, more recent and important, difference between Dak and Trevone is that Dak is deep in the groove, has the hot hand right because of game time NFL/Cowboy experience. Boykin has had absolutely none of that.

No one's more loved than the backup QB when the team's losing.

If you trust Pete, and you SHOULD trust Pete because he's forgotten more football than all of football knowledge combined...........when he says a 50% Russell is more effective than an undrafted project rookie, then that's a fact.

And if Russell's injuries wouldn't get better if he played? Then Pete would sit him.

Bingo

 

[seahawkfreak]

Russell is fine. Not being 100% is not the test. He is the leader of the offense and is still productive. Is he playing as well as he normally does,,,, no of course not, but again not the determining factor. It seems everyone on this wagon thinks that RW is just going to get hurt worse because he is hurt now, which is just the wrong way to view this.

In football and any other sport, if you are still better than your backup and can play,,,,you play!