Is it me? Or...

Can our defense continue to be dominant with any piece missing.

I understand that ET, is amazing. Love watching him play, and sherman well, I just love hos attitude. I know he's a bit too much at times. But the guy is a team player to the fullest. But, I've noticed especially with BB, and thurm gone. Maxwell has played beyond his expectations, and lane could easily jump in as well. When Irvin was gone and clem wasn't here, now kj is gone. We continue to dominate.

If you take away sherman and ET. Do you think we still would look good?

Without Irvin we just shuffle around KJ, Smith, Wagner, and that's still 3 pretty good LBs. Irvin's still learning the LB position, he's decent, but losing Irvin at that spot wasn't a killer. When Clem was out we still had Bennett/Avril not much dropoff there in fact maybe improvement at times.

Without KJ we see more Smith, so we don't lose much in run-stopping but I think we'll see the coverage chinks when we face a real NFL quarterback.

I think that 2nd corner benefits from Sherman owning his third of the field and with ET being out there to provide help. Lose either ET or Sherm and I think you see a big difference.

Seahawk4lyfe":2m2q0i5l said:

Can our defense continue to be dominant with any piece missing.

I understand that ET, is amazing. Love watching him play, and sherman well, I just love hos attitude. I know he's a bit too much at times. But the guy is a team player to the fullest. But, I've noticed especially with BB, and thurm gone. Maxwell has played beyond his expectations, and lane could easily jump in as well. When Irvin was gone and clem wasn't here, now kj is gone. We continue to dominate.

If you take away sherman and ET. Do you think we still would look good?

Click to expand...

I think it's because the 'hawks scouts and GM are very good at not only identifying talent, but identifying specific talent that fits what the defense wants to do. In this case, long limbed tall corners and lightning fast edge rushers.

In other systems, those players would be asked to do something else and play a differnt style and perhaps be less effective, but in Seattle they fit like a glove.

No ET = Supercharged V8 motor running on four cylinders.

We will motor along, but we ain't dropping the hammer on anybody.

Trenchbroom":2fxr9rq5 said:

No ET = Supercharged V8 motor running on four cylinders.

We will motor along, but we ain't dropping the hammer on anybody.

Click to expand...

Maragos is pretty fast and I think he's the backup for ET. Deshawn Shead is a monster. But Quinn would change the game plan without ET and would not be able to keep as many players on the line as we normally do,

There would be a drop off but I'm thinking we would be at 80%

I agree with most. I do know what Et. Is a big component. But i could see us starting lane and maxwell. And still doing fine. Not to say sherman and et are expendable. But i love seeing our depth step up time and time again.

To continue the conversation...being that a lot of people has Et being very important to us. Does he retire here? Or do we get the best years out of him and fill in the spot when his play declines?

ET is really the only one that I worry about losing. Sherm would hurt too, but ET gone would completely change the way we play defense.

Seahawk4lyfe":6a6u98sf said:

I agree with most. I do know what Et. Is a big component. But i could see us starting lane and maxwell. And still doing fine. Not to say sherman and et are expendable. But i love seeing our depth step up time and time again.

To continue the conversation...being that a lot of people has Et being very important to us. Does he retire here? Or do we get the best years out of him and fill in the spot when his play declines?

Click to expand...

I just hope he gets at least one more contract. He truly is the glue that holds this all together. I don't think there's another guy in the league that can play 1-high and allow our corners to press like ET can. Without him, a lot of things get little tweaks and adjustments that start to erode the effectiveness of the team. Even the LBs would need to take deeper drops, and the pass rush might drop off.

Seahawk4lyfe":3iot8shq said:

I agree with most. I do know what Et. Is a big component. But i could see us starting lane and maxwell. And still doing fine. Not to say sherman and et are expendable. But i love seeing our depth step up time and time again.

To continue the conversation...being that a lot of people has Et being very important to us. Does he retire here? Or do we get the best years out of him and fill in the spot when his play declines?

Click to expand...

When he's no longer good enough to play, he'll be cut. But I think that we will probably modify our defense slowly over time when that decline does come, and he'll be here a long time.

Whether he retires a Hawk is up to him, no doubt there will always be a team willing to take a flyer - it was clear Ed Reed was done in Houston, yet the Jets took a flyer on him (more likely for his influence and experience on younger players than his current ability). He could have retired a Raven but decided he wanted to keep playing.

Here's an amazing thing though - Thomas is the same age now as Reed was when he entered the NFL. He could play another 10 seasons and still retire younger than Reed is now.

Both Kam and ET have such specialized important roles on our defense, I'd be worried if either went down. We're able to only have to commit seven in the box because Kam is basically an extra LB on run support and crossing patterns.....and Earle is so fast he covers the entire field.

I think ET and Sherm make this defense run. ET allows a single high safety and Kam to play on the line or cover TE's in the slot, etc. Sherm takes away the teams best skill position player which is usually their #1 WR.

Kam is locked up for a while and ET will get his, Sherm too. This defense will be fine with those three guys and rotating in other role players over the years. As Pete said yesterday when talking about Max and Lane was that these guys are "system" guys. He brings them in for a year or so, they get coached up and their physical skills give them the ability to play our way. Pete has two philosophies when it comes to players. Sometimes he takes a guy who is so good that he changes his scheme a bit, or he brings in guys who fit his existing scheme. ET was one of the guys who changes his scheme. Max and Lane are examples of guys who he'll fit into his scheme. I think Sherman ended up changing his scheme a bit but wasn't drafted that way, he was a surprise and a pleasant one at that.

I think this defense will be good for a long time. It's a passing league now and our pass defense is going to be great for a long time. The other pieces I think you can cycle through every couple of years on relatively modest contracts and be ok salary cap wise.

I think our defense could defend Switzerland.

But, ET is the bolt and Sherm is the socket. ET holds us together while Sherm keeps us tight. I agree that both will get theirs. I hate to think about all this stuff in the middle of this run. I refuse to actually, so I stop now.

Hawks for Life.

W/out ET I fear our D turns to spaghetti. From ET to Maragos is more-so a cliff than a drop-off.

Don't get me wrong - I like Maragos - but ET is special (even if he sucks at tackling lol [apparently thats a well known fact and a big reason we lost to the niners - so I heard])

ClumsyLurk":ruxl2thz said:

W/out ET I fear our D turns to spaghetti. From ET to Maragos is more-so a cliff than a drop-off.

Don't get me wrong - I like Maragos - but ET is special (even if he sucks at tackling lol [apparently thats a well known fact and a big reason we lost to the niners - so I heard])

Click to expand...

Yea for a guy who is going to have over 100 tackles he must suck....not

Seahawk4lyfe":11rh2vbd said:

Can our defense continue to be dominant with any piece missing.

I understand that ET, is amazing. Love watching him play, and sherman well, I just love hos attitude. I know he's a bit too much at times. But the guy is a team player to the fullest. But, I've noticed especially with BB, and thurm gone. Maxwell has played beyond his expectations, and lane could easily jump in as well. When Irvin was gone and clem wasn't here, now kj is gone. We continue to dominate.

If you take away sherman and ET. Do you think we still would look good?

Click to expand...

Dude. Without ET we ain't phoning home. We won't be sniffing home field advantage. He's our Russell Wilson of the defense where Maragose is Matt Flynn. I like former badgers like Wilson and Maragose but not all badgers are gamers. Just ask former badger John Moffit.