WR Roster Battle

[HuskerHawk]

To me, the only battle is going to be for that last spot between likely Williams and Norwood. DB, Kearse, Lockett, Lockette, and Matthews (w/ Prich on PUP) are all locks. While I think he adds little as a receiver, Lockette has made plays when it counts, has ST versatility, and most importantly has two fans in Pete and RW. He is in zero trouble. Williams and Norwood are pretty similar in what they offer, and their performance in the preseason games will dictate who makes it imo.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

McGruff, I generally agree with your posts, but disagree a bit here. Ricardo was the blocking engine that enabled Beast mode Two, making three blocks on that run, and almost making a fourth. He is a high effort guy.

His elite to speed enables him to get down field to stop many returns before they can start, by forcing fair catches.

If paired with a healthy Richardson, those two going deep can draw away two safeties from the LOS, thus opening up both the running game, and the rest of the passing game.

I like the idea of two fast receivers, two ultra quick receivers, plus two tall receivers, to selectively saturate the defense with either speed, or quickness, or height.

Speed. Richardson and Ricardo Lockett.

Quickness. Baldwin and Tyler Lockett.

Height. Mathews and Norwood.

All three dynamic duos combined with Graham.

No offense but I dont think Beast Mode 2 matters all that much. Seahawks still win that game in a blow out and all the WRs are coached up to be excellent blockers. Hell, Paul Richardson for as much as fans griped about his size and thin physique showed he could block.

Lockette does offer elite speed and special teams with quality blocking but there is also no upside to his game and is under contract for a year.

If the Seahawks keep 6 WRs, Lockette probably makes the team. If the Seahawks elect to keep 5 which they very well could Lockette could be the odd man out simply because of upside and club control.

Lockett and Matthews probably take most of Lockette's snaps away at WR. Which makes his limited ability at WR less valuable.

I dont think its difficult to find a decent gunner, Lockette made big hits which made him popular but if you got guys that can do the job and just be assignment correct the drop off isnt that much.

Especially when you look at the bigger picture of the offense in whole. With Graham in the fold and all our other young WRs/TEs now becoming veterans with Wilson and Lynch leading the charge, one could expect this team to punt less and score more. Which makes an elite gunner less valuable.

And to add even if the Punting Defense isnt brilliant (and it really wasnt last year for the first half of the season), the Punting return game is likely going to be much more explosive with Lockett. And that in itself balances out.

 

[dadof3]

It's not too late to swing a trade with the Jags for Bryan Walters

 

[RiverDog]

I would love to see Mathews make the roster. In SB49, the Pats couldn't shut him down until they moved the taller, more physical Browner over to cover him. I love having players that force teams out of what they want to do, and not every team has a big, physical CB like Browner. Put Mathews and Graham on the field at the same time and it's going to create a mismatch somewhere. I don't think Russell has had two targets at 6'5 or taller in his entire career with us.

Drew Brees, the league's 2nd shortest starting quarterback, always had big, tall targets to throw to. IMO Russell is going to have his best statistical year this season, 4,000+ yards, 25+ TD's. He would be a great fantasy selection as he's going to add 600-800 rushing yards to his passing totals.

 

[hawk45]

I would love to see Mathews make the roster. In SB49, the Pats couldn't shut him down until they moved the taller, more physical Browner over to cover him. I love having players that force teams out of what they want to do, and not every team has a big, physical CB like Browner. Put Mathews and Graham on the field at the same time and it's going to create a mismatch somewhere. I don't think Russell has had two targets at 6'5 or taller in his entire career with us.

Drew Brees, the league's 2nd shortest starting quarterback, always had big, tall targets to throw to. IMO Russell is going to have his best statistical year this season, 4,000+ yards, 25+ TD's. He would be a great fantasy selection as he's going to add 600-800 rushing yards to his passing totals.

QFT.

Wilson may have best 50-50 ball in the league. He's been doing damage with UDFAs when they manage to high-point balls, Matthews was a preview of what happens when there is actual height disparity out there combined with athletic ability.

I for one am looking forward to easier-looking completions to Graham like how it looked with Matthews instead of every catch having to be a jump-ball high-point miracle catch by a UDFA (or Tate, who was worth a couple UDFAs by himself he was so good at it).

 

[RiverDog]

It will be interesting to see how much PT Lockett gets. IMO he's Tate II, a player that can contribute immediately on special teams and a 4th or 5th WR. Hopefully he learns how to run routes faster than Tate did.

 

[kearly]

This is the first time in a long time I have thought we actually had 6 good WRs on the roster.

Lockette isn't one of them.

Who are your 6? I was under the impression you didn't think Matthews was good. I agree, I think Lockette has a battle to make this roster.

It does seem like our 8th best WR is better than our 6th best WR last year.

 

[kearly]

I would love to see Mathews make the roster. In SB49, the Pats couldn't shut him down until they moved the taller, more physical Browner over to cover him. I love having players that force teams out of what they want to do, and not every team has a big, physical CB like Browner. Put Mathews and Graham on the field at the same time and it's going to create a mismatch somewhere. I don't think Russell has had two targets at 6'5 or taller in his entire career with us.

Drew Brees, the league's 2nd shortest starting quarterback, always had big, tall targets to throw to. IMO Russell is going to have his best statistical year this season, 4,000+ yards, 25+ TD's. He would be a great fantasy selection as he's going to add 600-800 rushing yards to his passing totals.

While it is concerning that a 30 year old Brandon Browner could shut down Matthews, there just aren't a ton of Brandon Browner types in the NFL right now. I am really interested to see if Matthews can continue to exploit short corners. He showed some good things, like high pointing the ball and showing strong hands.

 

[McGruff]

It will be interesting to see how much PT Lockett gets. IMO he's Tate II, a player that can contribute immediately on special teams and a 4th or 5th WR. Hopefully he learns how to run routes faster than Tate did.

Lockett is WAY more polished as both a route runner and a receiver at this point. I would be shocked if Lockett isn't our 3rd receiver to open up the season, and if he isn't a starter by mid season.

In another offense, Lockett is probably a candidate for OROY . . . not sure he'll get the looks in our offense to accomplish that feat.

 

[Tical21]

I would love to see Mathews make the roster. In SB49, the Pats couldn't shut him down until they moved the taller, more physical Browner over to cover him. I love having players that force teams out of what they want to do, and not every team has a big, physical CB like Browner. Put Mathews and Graham on the field at the same time and it's going to create a mismatch somewhere. I don't think Russell has had two targets at 6'5 or taller in his entire career with us.

Drew Brees, the league's 2nd shortest starting quarterback, always had big, tall targets to throw to. IMO Russell is going to have his best statistical year this season, 4,000+ yards, 25+ TD's. He would be a great fantasy selection as he's going to add 600-800 rushing yards to his passing totals.

While it is concerning that a 30 year old Brandon Browner could shut down Matthews, there just aren't a ton of Brandon Browner types in the NFL right now. I am really interested to see if Matthews can continue to exploit short corners. He showed some good things, like high pointing the ball and showing strong hands.

Pete was on with Mitch and had some cool comments about this. He was saying that Matthews actually didn't show up big in practice. He doesn't have the same advantage in practice that he has over all of the other teams. It dawned on Pete after the Super Bowl that our tall corners just matched up with him really well, and the other teams don't have answers for him like we do. So this year, they're just going to assume that he is going to be able to dominate shorter corners, and see how that works out.

 

[netskier]

Last year the 239 pound Browner pressed the 218 pound Matthews at the line of scrimmage to slow him down a lot, but did not totally stop him. Mathews added twelve pounds this off season, so now weighs 230 pounds, giving him more strength to break free. Iirc, Mathews caught a none yard pass while being defended by Browner.

The bigger issue with Mathews appears to be mentally showing up ready to play. Coaches comments indicated this recently. He disappears for days at a time.

This is a shame because the combination of Graham and Matthews could not be covered by any known pair of defenders in the NFL.

 

[Scottemojo]

This is the first time in a long time I have thought we actually had 6 good WRs on the roster.

Lockette isn't one of them.

Who are your 6? I was under the impression you didn't think Matthews was good. I agree, I think Lockette has a battle to make this roster.

It does seem like our 8th best WR is better than our 6th best WR last year.

Mathews has even the coaching staff under the impression that he is a gamer. Maybe he is. I can see a taller slow guy looking bad in practice vs this group and good on game day.
Baldwin, Kearse, Lockett, Richardson, Kasen WIlliams, Kevin Smith, and Norwood (whose talent of sitting in zones is not going to be well used in this play action scheme) are all better than Lockette. Plus Matthews, and I have a hard time seeing Lockette on this roster.

But I thought he would get cut last year too.

 

[QuahHawk]

My pre-preseason WR roster guess

1.Baldwin
2.Kearse
3.Lockett
4.Matthews
5.Norwood
6.Lockette

(PUP) Richardson

If we have no WR injuries, I think they might IR Richardson. Next year when Kearse and Lockett go in FA he gets his chance again.

I could also see the hawks let the competition play out between Kearse, Matthews, Norwood, and Lockett where the loser gets traded or cut to get Richardson back on the field.

 

[rideaducati]

McGruff, I generally agree with your posts, but disagree a bit here. Ricardo was the blocking engine that enabled Beast mode Two, making three blocks on that run, and almost making a fourth. He is a high effort guy.

His elite to speed enables him to get down field to stop many returns before they can start, by forcing fair catches.

If paired with a healthy Richardson, those two going deep can draw away two safeties from the LOS, thus opening up both the running game, and the rest of the passing game.

I like the idea of two fast receivers, two ultra quick receivers, plus two tall receivers, to selectively saturate the defense with either speed, or quickness, or height.

Speed. Richardson and Ricardo Lockett.

Quickness. Baldwin and Tyler Lockett.

Height. Mathews and Norwood.

All three dynamic duos combined with Graham.

These are my six choices at WR too. I think Norwood might get knocked off by another young guy, I just have no idea which one. I think Kearse will be among the first cuts which will make the WR battle pretty fun to watch play itself out.

 

[QuahHawk]

Matthews looks like he belongs.

Norwood does not.

Lockette didn't do anything to help/hurt himself, but his lack of playing time says more about his job security whereas Norwood got out there most of the game and didn't show much.

Kevin Smith and Kasen Williams would be nice practice squad guys.

 

[hawkfan68]

Norwood didn't look good very good in yesterday's game. I know his opportunities were limited and he had a subpar QB (Archer) throwing to him but he didn't do anything to help his QB either. Kevin Smith played well and I believe has moved ahead of him. I wished they would have given Kasen Williams more playing time. He's got good size and if the practice reports are true, he's having a great camp so far.

 

[AgentDib]

Common speculation at this time of year is that the guys who don't get a lot of playing time are the ones that teams already have thoughts about putting on the practice squad. Sometimes that is made too much of but it does seem to happen every season with a couple of guys.

 

[RiverDog]

The WR battle could come down to which player does better on special teams, and last season Lockette looked pretty darn good on kick coverages.

Richardson's injury was more serious than first thought, so he may not have the same explosiveness he had prior to his injury. He might be the odd man out.

 

[Ozzy]

Don't count out Smith either. Huard claims the staff absolutely loves him. It's a long shot but every once in a while Pete shocks us.

 

[SeaChase]

BJ was looking pretty good. He definitely has value to keep around. But I don't know if he has the skills to be a starting WR.