Big picture

I like looking at the big picture. Since I don't know squat (which is only a little less than anyone on this board) I am not going to speculate about the potential of rookies. I look at the team at the end of last year and our needs and compare what they have done to fix them. I give them a A-. They had a young O-line (biggest weakness) last year. They got a few free agents and will let the guys playing mature some more. They also added 2 draft picks as well to compete and see. Since there philosophy is not to pay much for o-line I feel they stick to it but did some things to help shore it up. Was as much as many wanted. No. That is just the way it is. I am glad they did not panic and blow a bunch of draft and spend a bunch on free agency to churn the O-line again.
They drafted to freshen up our D. As many great players as we do have we have grown thin as far as depth. This part of the ball is our bread and butter. Reload.
Our receivers and Running backs are in a good spot. Although some injuries we will be fine.

So other than picking different people in the draft (I am more concerned about filling positions) what would you have liked to see the front office do to help this team. Remember if you pick up a higher draft pick or get a free agent you must explain the loss of other picks and where we are getting the money.

Big picture, and I know this isn't popular, the offensive line wasn't our biggest problem. Our two biggest weaknesses were the lack of a dominant power runner, and the lack of interior pressure.

With no dominant runner to worry about, opposing defenses were able to key in on stopping our passing game, and they succeeded in making Wilson look mortal, and our line look below average. We don't need a top 5 offensive line to be successful, that isn't how we are built. We need an average line. I think we had that, but we didn't have a running threat to keep defenses honest.

The lack of interior pressure made our vaunted LOB look mortal. No one can cover an NFL receiver forever, and, while we had great edge pressure from Bennet and Avril, opposing QB's could just step up into the pocket. They had all day to throw against us.

I think we addressed both of these critical problems well. The Lacy signing has me particularly excited. I'm optimistic that our line will look better than the last few years, and our defense will regain the crown.

Great posts guys and I completely agree. I would add that not only were the defensive selections & FA signings made to shore up the depth but PC's need for specific skillsets to take our D where he wants and tried to take last year.

This team is gonna be fine and with good health and a little luck should be right in the mix to play in Feb. again soon. :2thumbs:

My hope going into the draft was for the first three rounds to have on OL and the rest defense. It came pretty close to that. The choice of a WR, I'm not thrilled about, but I can see where and how this player could add value to the team (if it had been another small WR, I probably wouldn't be much less happy about it). I could quibble about drafting a bit more offense in the later rounds, but seriously, the chances of any of those players making the roster are pretty slim even if they were defense.

So, in short, I feel pretty good about it.

HawkGA":1rexxyrn said:

My hope going into the draft was for the first three rounds to have on OL and the rest defense. It came pretty close to that. The choice of a WR, I'm not thrilled about, but I can see where and how this player could add value to the team (if it had been another small WR, I probably wouldn't be much less happy about it). I could quibble about drafting a bit more offense in the later rounds, but seriously, the chances of any of those players making the roster are pretty slim even if they were defense.

So, in short, I feel pretty good about it.

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Before we acquired more picks I was chanting DEFENSE hoping we might only take 1 Offensive player (a TE kittle)

But getting all the trade downs gave us ammo needed to address the Defense appropriately that had been neglected for a bit imo.

The biggest problems last year were injuries and Haushka. If RW hadn't been hurt and #4 had hit two chip shots the team easily would have had home field advantage. Even with that when Earl went down the season was essentially done. Sure you can beat Detroit but the team was not a serious contender without Earl against the NFL's better teams. Nothing to be ashamed about but the team hasn't had a viable fill-in for ET for his entire career. Same goes with RW. You lose either of them and you are done. A gimpy RW cost the team a game or two and the offense couldn't get on track without his dual threat and he was throwing poorly due to his injured legs. You can argue the OL caused his injuries but the fact remains without his usual elusiveness and/or threat teams were teeing off defensively. Injuries to the RBs didn't help either. Imagine last year without the injuries to RW, Rawls and CJ the OL would have looked a lot better. It may have been a blessing in disguise as it seemed to put a sense of urgency into PC/JS to upgrade the line.

If RW and the RBs are healthy to start the season the OL will look better and it doesn't matter who they line up. If the OL actually improves then it will be gravy. If the Hawks can find someone better than Terrill to fill in for Earl it should give the defense some confidence if he were to miss games.

If they can actually get the interior pressure they've been longing for the entire defense is going to look better.

The rankings paint a picture that is big, our O Line SUCKED, you should be able to run the ball with a NFL caliber back at least average, not leading the league but with enough respect to at least make the defense account for it with a decent line, we could not do that. When our RB's are getting contact before they cross the line of scrimmage and have to break tackles for positive yards let alone a 3.5 to 4 yard pick up there is a problem. Defenses were able to play down hill on us all last year.

Whether that's skill or O lineman not I a scheme to benefit their skill set it doesn't matter, it existed until they started to mix up the scheme with a power run blocking scheme to go along with the ZBS late in the year. That's when Reese was involved and when we started to show production again on offense.

Which also happened to coincide with Reese stepping in to the offense and Wilson having started on the road to feeling healthier .

chris98251":1e6x34r5 said:

The rankings paint a picture that is big, our O Line SUCKED, you should be able to run the ball with a NFL caliber back at least average, not leading the league but with enough respect to at least make the defense account for it with a decent line, we could not do that. When our RB's are getting contact before they cross the line of scrimmage and have to break tackles for positive yards let alone a 3.5 to 4 yard pick up there is a problem. Defenses were able to play down hill on us all last year.

Whether that's skill or O lineman not I a scheme to benefit their skill set it doesn't matter, it existed until they started to mix up the scheme with a power run blocking scheme to go along with the ZBS late in the year. That's when Reese was involved and when we started to show production again on offense.

Which also happened to coincide with Reese stepping in to the offense and Wilson having started on the road to feeling healthier .

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Russell got hurt in game one so of course defenses were playing downhill all season which is exactly what I said. The offense didn't have a chance to offer any balance from that point on until he got healthy enough to become a threat to run again. The OL has been mediocre for a long time but with Lynch and RW in the back field it didn't matter. Lynch was the master at breaking tackles behind the line and getting positive yardage.

The interior of the OL looked good in preseason and then Ifedi got hurt before the opening game and RW got hurt week one. The OL looked horrible after that and didn't start to look better until RW got back to full strength. Teams that took advantage of Russell's immobility destroyed the Hawk offense. Teams that couldn't looked like the 9ers.

The offensive line play was terrible all season. Our QB and all of our running backs were injured as a result. Only Britt showed any real improvement. We let a couple of guys from the unit go elsewhere and replaced them with free agent guys who failed elsewhere. I have seen little evidence that our staff can fix and develop those guys so it seems as if we are in for
more of the same.

Our OL hurt the team badly last year, but it wasn't a talent issue. It was an experience issue which combined mental errors with poor technique. I think this will get better just due to experience. Our OL was ridiculously athletic so if we just the right hat on the right guy, things get much better.

Big picture, I see the Seahawks going for larger, more physical WR's that are good at making contested catches. The FO knew they couldn't overhaul or fix all our problems on the OL with this draft, so they hedged. Graham and Darboh are good at boxing guys out and making the contested catch. We also have McEvoy and we went after a few other WRs in the 6'1" 210 lb mold. If Wilson has to throw a few passes up, these guys can possible bail him out from pressure due to OL mistakes.

Big picture on defense: We doubled down on pressure. We added guys with versatility, as well as length and athleticism, and upgraded our depth for guys like Reed. This is going to hopefully shape up like the NY Giants superbowl runs where the DL bailed out an average secondary. Anyone that steps up and wins the RCB opposite Sherman is likely to be inexperience in terms of game starts (I don't see Lane winning that job). if teams get time, they'll pick us apart again, so we're not going to give them time.

Experience? We have added two new pieces to that inexperienced line and early reports have possibly everyone at a different position. We have the same coach that couldn't get them in place last season coaching the same system they couldn't execute last season. Simply being athletic won't get it done either. We were athletic last season too. Athletic gets them to their second blocking assignments before they have completed their first block. We only have one viable QB on our roster. How is this sound planning?

The biggest issue last season was coaching. Our line was atrocious and our QB and RB's got injured due to that, but our coach still ran the same ZBS scheme as if we still had a healthy Lynch back there pounding the ball and a Russell Wilson that was still capable of running. It was just a poor job by the coaching staff when they refused to adapt and preferred to run into the same brick wall over and over again. People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough. Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

nash72":1djp0js0 said:

People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough. Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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This has already been proven to be rubbish. ToP stats have hardly changed over the last 5 years.

nash72":g7pmxjvx said:

The biggest issue last season was coaching. Our line was atrocious and our QB and RB's got injured due to that, but our coach still ran the same ZBS scheme as if we still had a healthy Lynch back there pounding the ball and a Russell Wilson that was still capable of running. It was just a poor job by the coaching staff when they refused to adapt and preferred to run into the same brick wall over and over again. People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough. Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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Experience and practice equals reps, reps and more reps.

So you're mad at our coaching staff because new/rookie OLmen were struggling to learn our system and they didn't just change everything up and go to a different system in mid season ?

Sounds legit.

nash72":19ls1gjn said:

People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough.

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Well in football if the Defense stops the opponent from converting on 3rd down they can get off the field. Every QB that beat us did the same thing to beat us, 3rd down step up in the pocket avoid the edge pressure - With Malik getting a double team and still pushing the pocket we will be getting MANY MORE SACKS on 3rd down. And less almost there sacks.

But please continue posting your crazy takes - I need a good laugh.

bigskydoc":21kzxn3u said:

Big picture, and I know this isn't popular, the offensive line wasn't our biggest problem. Our two biggest weaknesses were the lack of a dominant power runner, and the lack of interior pressure.

With no dominant runner to worry about, opposing defenses were able to key in on stopping our passing game, and they succeeded in making Wilson look mortal, and our line look below average. We don't need a top 5 offensive line to be successful, that isn't how we are built. We need an average line. I think we had that, but we didn't have a running threat to keep defenses honest.

The lack of interior pressure made our vaunted LOB look mortal. No one can cover an NFL receiver forever, and, while we had great edge pressure from Bennet and Avril, opposing QB's could just step up into the pocket. They had all day to throw against us.

I think we addressed both of these critical problems well. The Lacy signing has me particularly excited. I'm optimistic that our line will look better than the last few years, and our defense will regain the crown.

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Mirrored my thoughts exactly...Good Post. :2thumbs:

Hawks46":2pm63z9s said:

nash72":2pm63z9s said:

The biggest issue last season was coaching. Our line was atrocious and our QB and RB's got injured due to that, but our coach still ran the same ZBS scheme as if we still had a healthy Lynch back there pounding the ball and a Russell Wilson that was still capable of running. It was just a poor job by the coaching staff when they refused to adapt and preferred to run into the same brick wall over and over again. People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough. Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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So you're mad at our coaching staff because new/rookie OLmen were struggling to learn our system and they didn't just change everything up and go to a different system in mid season ?

Sounds legit.

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Yeah I am. Remember in 2015 when the offense got opened up midway though the season and we we're putting up big numbers?

nash72":lv0koqjw said:

Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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Yeah by adding more OL than any other team in football the last 3 years, that sure shows they are hell bent on never addressing it.

:lol:

UK_Seahawk":lkibi7vl said:

nash72":lkibi7vl said:

People want to blame the defense for not getting pressure and holding teams down, but when your on the field for 90% of the game, it gets tough. Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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This has already been proven to be rubbish. ToP stats have hardly changed over the last 5 years.

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I am not sure of the TOP stats but I do believe the main guys took a lot more snaps than they did previously. This is probably due to a lack of depth. This was one of the reasons for the dominance during the Bowl year. A well rested rotating D. I feel the addressed this in the draft. Give us a little more depth and a little more push up the middle and we are crushing it again.

Hasselbeck":la5l3ape said:

nash72":la5l3ape said:

Oh, and the Oline will again be terrible this season since they refuse to fix it. Signing players that were bums at their position before isnt fixing the problem, its adding to it.

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Yeah by adding more OL than any other team in football the last 3 years, that sure shows they are hell bent on never addressing it.

:lol:

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I was reading ESPN's post draft power rankings and thought this was hysterical.

Earl Thomas didn't retire. Richard Sherman didn't get traded. Russell Wilson has probably healed from all the injuries he suffered last season behind John Schneider's revolutionary four-man offensive line. So all that is good news. The bad is that the Seahawks didn't do much about the line. Again.

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revolutionary four man offensive line