Has the team improved

With the draft and free agency, do you personally believe the Seahawks have gotten better?

Improved? About the same? Worse?

How do you personally feel?

I think the offensive line has gotten better.

Everywhere else, not so sure.

Well, if all you care about is "all star" level talent, then you probably don't think so.

I think they have added mid-level talent and depth in several areas and in that way, yes, IMO the team is better. Many of our problems the last two years have been due to injuries and not having quality guys to step up when needed. In several areas, primarily in the secondary and D-line, I think the veteran help we've added plus the additional year of experience for the 1-2 year players will help a ton.

Maybe.

depth is improved hugely.

No.

They have gotten worse. No question about it.

As bad as our D was about getting any pressure imagine it without Clowney. Lol Pete might actually HAVE to let the team play offense in the first half to keep up. He’ll hate that.

Not really. Added a lot of names, but the OL and pass rush are still enormous question marks.

Has the team improved? So not counting improvement of existing players or rookies (because that's unknown):

QB- N/A- Not in the market
RB- Yes. Hyde is a solid RB2
WR- Neutral. Dorsett doesn't move the needle.
TE- Neutral. You'd think better, but everyone has injury issues.
OL- Worse. Lost Britt and Fluker. There are some interesting players, but unproven.
DL- Worse. Depth may be improved on the edge, but not the middle.
LB- Neutral. Brooks is an unknown.
CB- Better. Assuming Dunbar plays.
Safety- Neutral, because depth was already good.
Special teams- Neutral. Unless they finally take Lockett off special teams (please do).

2 better
5 neutral
2 worse

Teahawks":jb3xut81 said:

Has the team improved? So not counting improvement of existing players or rookies (because that's unknown):

QB- N/A- Not in the market
RB- Yes. Hyde is a solid RB2
WR- Neutral. Dorsett doesn't move the needle.
TE- Neutral. You'd think better, but everyone has injury issues.
OL- Worse. Lost Britt and Fluker. There are some interesting players, but unproven.
DL- Worse. Depth may be improved on the edge, but not the middle.
LB- Neutral. Brooks is an unknown.
CB- Better. Assuming Dunbar plays.
Safety- Neutral, because depth was already good.
Special teams- Neutral. Unless they finally take Lockett off special teams (please do).

2 better
5 neutral
2 worse

Click to expand...

Simple answer is no. Main reason are both lines. Lack of legit 3 wr and till shown otherwise same old game plan.

The trenches will have to be improved for the team as a whole to be improved . Hard to make an assessment right now .

I think we have but not significantly. I'm also hoping to pick up a veteran DE although I think we may have found some diamonds in the rough in the draft.

I understand what Clowney brings but, I'm not so sure we're going to miss him as much as I initially thought we would.


I'm all over the place here but, if we somehow manage to grab a Everson Griffin or Adams, and *fingers crossed* get a clean Gordon back....

Better to me generally involves 3 things to me:

1. Vets improving/entering their prime
2. 2nd year leap candidates
3. Day 1 rookie talent

As far as Scenario 3, I really think the only one likely to impact strongly is Lewis. I am very excited about him. But as a RG, how important really is that? Also, he slots in at a position we weren't exactly hurting at (Fluker). So I don't think we're better there, although from a cap/roster/youth perspective we are.

In fact, pretty much any rookie we added, kind of just is a reloading type prospect anyway (Brooks/Taylor/Parkinson). So not really thinking improvement so much as hoping for extension of what we have/had.

2nd year leap guys. Well, I think Metcalf has a real chance to elevate his game to an entirely new level. I'm hoping that happens, and just as critically -- Pete recognizes where his pro bowl caliber talent lies and leverages that aspect. Additionally, I think one of Blair/Amadi are going to seize a position and improve it over last year. Dunbar, isn't a true 2nd year guy, but he's basically a new addition that isn't a rookie. So I'd slot him in as a significant improvement at CB. Also expect Phil Haynes to seize the LG position and really make our IOL a position of strength on this team.

Vets entering prime. Well, we don't have a lot of those. Diggs, Griffin for sure. I'd also include Poona and Reed.

I'd say we have a handful. But too many candidates have fallen out of consideration: Dissly, Penny, Clowney -- even Ifedi. Players in their 25-28 years of age bracket that have experience.

At OT, I think we are considerably worse. I believe Shell is going to make us pine for the Ifedi days. Brown is still good, but age is problematic and we have to expect sometime in the next 24 months, his ability to play at his level is going to crater.

Right now, I don't see a lot of difference makers emerging from this roster outside of Metcalf. Feels more like we just kind of treaded water.

If this was a normal season, I would say:

OL is a giant question mark but looks scarily worse
DL looks worse (Both pass rush and run defense)
CB hopefully better (Assuming Dunbar plays)
RB slightly worse
WR a wash
TE a wash/question mark
LB question mark

Again, my biggest concern is safety and it feels we didn't do much to fix that. McDougald worries me as far as age/durability.

But it is hard to feel anything about what that means. Pretty impressed with the rest of you able to keep your excitement up. I must be in the minority just having a hard time feeling like this season will matter much.

Even if we have a regular season, it feels players will not have been able to do their typical off-season workout routines. I suspect leaguewide there will be more weird injuries and some will have impacts on who is in the playoffs. Will there even be regular games?

Maybe I am guarded, but it is surreal to be this close to August and barely able to get myself to expect much or care about training camp.

Are we going to have a regular season? Will it be truncated? Will the games all be played in certain locations like the NBA is proposing? Maybe that is veering off-topic, but it feels there is less concern about the team roster issues this year because I don't really expect much from the season anyway. Will the holes in the roster matter much if the season ends up wonky anyway?

Nope

The two biggest issues last season was OL and DL. Team actually got worse in both areas.

Offense:
OL: at best same as last year, could be worse than last year.
Our LT and LG are a year older, new C and RT might just be as good. Not sure about RG.

RB: Better if Carson comes back strong
I think Hyde is as good if not better than Penny's last season, but will Carson be 100%?

WR: better
unless Gordon comes back, we are not really better, but Metcalf could breakout.

TE: better
If Uncle Will comes back 100% and stay healthy, but we have added depth in TE.

Defense:
DL: hard to say, could be worse than last year.
So many ifs, if Green, Reed, and Poona have breakout year. If Collier became useful? If the rookies can start? If the FA we signed ..... But we also lost Clowney.

LB: better

DB: better
Flower did have his problems, especially towards the end of the season and post season. But he was having a statistically better year before the last few games.

Yes. It has reshaped itself. Gaining Irvin, Taylor, Robinson and the other guy will offset losing Clowney. Brooks is going to solidify the LB situation even more. The CB position looks more talented and deeper. DT is a concern. The OL situation is better IMO. Waiting to see what shakes out at WR. If they bring AB and Gordon to the team, without the drama, it is a big score. I'm optimistic.

If we were to start the season today I would guess slightly worse. Both of our lines look worse on paper right now.

There have been a few improvement with our skill positions on offense, which is a positive. If we could get back Gordon or even a properly motivated AB then our receiving core would look strong. Adding Hyde gives us a better RB rotation and he seems to stay healthy. Our TE core is deep, but you have to wonder why so much draft capital went to what already seemed like a team strength.

But my issue is really about the O-Line right now. Brown is at an age where he could break down at any time. Same with Iupati. I don't see a lot of quality depth behind either of them. Our other three OL spots will have new players. None of them I would call quality starters today. We didn't draft the quality and amount of OL help that I thought would have been a given. Add in that there will be no real ability to bring that group into a realistic line unit before the start of the season makes me think our offense could struggle even with our skill players. Solari will has his hands full just to get them to be mediocre, let alone average. The one saving grace is that the rest of the league is probably in the same spot other than those teams that have veteran lines.

Our defense is another thing right now. Our secondary may be pretty decent if Dunbar can play and Blair takes a step forward as our SS, or possibly a a nickle CB. Our LB core is one year older and I doubt Wright holds up this year. Even Wagner seems to be aging even though he still makes plays. At least last year. Unlike some I don't hold out much hope for Brooks doing anything this year. So right now I would say the LB core is slightly worse going into this season.

That brings me to the D-Line. Face it right now this unit looks mediocre to bad. They so far lost Jefferson and Woods in FA, with no players picked up. Add in Clowney (if he signs elsewhere) and that just kills any sort of line hope. Yes, we may still add in a D-Line player or even two, but if we play today our line will suck. Again I have no faith in our D-Line rookies, or even Collier in his second year. He showed nothing last year and seems to have an entitlement attitude that may be a problem. While I like bringing in Mayowa and Irving that just doesn't seem to be even close to equal what we lost. Even our DT rotation looks really bad behind Reed and Ford. So I am just skeptical right now.

But again this is based on today. Who knows what will happen between now and the start of the season. The right FA moves and perhaps even a trade or two and things could look a lot better. But today, I see us missing the playoffs even with an extra wildcard spot. Our only saving grace right now is we have Wilson. He will do his best to keep us in games. That is if he doesn't get killed behind our O-Line.

So we will see.

I think the depth of the team has improved and it certainly needed that. However, we’re going to need guys to really step up along the DL to be a better team overall. So many questions with that group and a lot of wishing/hopeful thinking.

The offensive and defensive lines are HUGE concerns.

A bunch of Jabronis added on the O-Line.

Jack Squat added to the D-Line.

Hard to feel any confidence at all with both of those units.

hedgehawk":3ndzsv6b said:

I think the depth of the team has improved and it certainly needed that. However, we’re going to need guys to really step up along the DL to be a better team overall. So many questions with that group and a lot of wishing/hopeful thinking.

Click to expand...

There's an old saying in baseball when predicting how a player's going to play for the upcoming year, "just look on the back of his baseball card."

Meaning expectations for any player should be about how well he played last year. Sure some players exceed their previous year's stats, but some regress also.

So in general we're going to be as good as we were last year IMO, because the reality is we really didn't take any significant jumps in either free agency or the draft (that we know of yet, and therefore can't expect it).

For the last five years my opinion on improvement hasn't changed, doesn't really matter because this team is Russell's team, and has been for a long time. So we will go as far as Russell takes us, and right now with this questionable roster and insanely difficult division is about 10-11 wins, maybe 12 if we get lucky.

Not good enough to get a #1 or #2 seed that I think we need to ever get back to a SB.

IF there is a regular season, it feels that 49ers, Bucs, and Saints probably are in the top 3 NFC teams.

(Thank god the 49ers did not get Brady, because that likely meant getting Gronk - and Gronk & Kittles together would have been a nightmare for us.)

Next tier you have a jumble of teams like the Cowboys, Packers, & Vikings. Eagles and Rams are probably on a slightly lower tier, along with potentially the Cardinals (if they get better).

Where do we fall in this?

It feels we should have a better regular season, as we filled holes. But last year we played a large collection of teams without their starting QB. This means we could potentially be better but have the same or slightly worse regular-season record.

We certainly don't look to have added anything key for the playoffs, maybe Dunbar (but I don't see him as a field-tilting player).

Did we even close the distance with the 49ers? It feels like losing Clowney means we are less competitive against them, not more. I would put us in the 2nd tier with the Cowboys, Vikings, and Packers.