If it was Hawks vs Tampa Bay in NFC championship game

[FresnoHawk52]

Seattle was the youngest team in the playoffs and had a 12-4 record. Seattle was not playing great, coaching great, and had a lot of injuries. No way we beat the Bucs in 2021. However due to the terrific cap shape we are in because Schneider passed on signing long term contracts in 2020 a crappy FA market and Seattle stuffing the roster in the 2020 draft with players like Cedrick Lattimore, Dallas, Robinson, Parkinson, etc.... things look real good in 2021 especially after Ford, Collier, Metcalf, Dickinson, & Alex Collins got better. 2022 Seattle has the 5th most cap space available with only 87 million on the books.

It's not just cap[ space we need to look at, it's how many key players are not signed and how many players are needed to fill out the roster with the talent we need.

CB, RB, DE, O LINE off the top of my head, two of those positions are high end cap costs, RB is going to be around 8 million I would think if we resign Carson, this year is also a year to bank more in FA then the draft due to the Virus and lack of scouting, games by college players sitting out and not playing a full schedule or not playing against top talent.

I agree with most of what your saying but we only have $86 million on the books in 2022, $51 Million on the books in 2023, and $0 on the books in 2024. A 4 year contract when we have zero on the books in year 4. A 3 year extension when we have zero on the books year 3. Money isn’t the issue! Finding & convincing Pro Bowlers to come to Seattle is the issue when Seattle has a reputation as one of the best organizations in the league to play for.

Don’t forget the Franchise is going down. The tag is adding up the top 5 salary’s over the last 5 years = 25 salaries then dividing it by 5 then multiplying it by the % of the cap for a certain year, let’s say the % used in 2018 for CB as an example. Tagging a RB is going to be way below 8 million & the tag for CB’s should be about $10 million.

This will help teams who are in position to use a Tag but don’t forget many teams are so screwed up from the Cap decline even the tag is too much for them.

We have Free Agents who are ? Chris Carson has injury issues & he looked slow & weak against the Rams in the playoffs, even Mike Holmgren notice Carson against the Rams. Shaquill Griffith isn’t a sure thing but we can tag him then trade him on a $10 million 1 year contract or tag him & play him.

Lack of scouting is definitely going to be an issue but probably not for the Seahawks. RW has 3 years left on his contract starting any rookie is going to be an issue if we’re trying to win a Super Bowl with the exception of RB.

 

[FresnoHawk52]

Easy W for Brady..not because of Brady but that D woulda been unstoppable. Like it or not the seahawks are on the decline

I thought RW might be on the decline & even though Bobby is too he’s still one of the best players in the league. DK is definitely on an upward trajectory. Carson is replaceable. Lockett was good. Brown was good & we can upgrade with Trent Williams, Pocic was ok & is replaceable with Corey Linsley or Austin Blythe, Shell was ok and is tradeable, Iupati is replaceable with Thuney, plenty of cap space to add a 3rd WR & TE. Our young DE’s looked good & we could easily move on from Green. Jarren Reed, Diggs, DJ Reed are tradeable. Trading Wagner is manageable because we could put Brooks at Mike on running downs & put Barton in at Mike on passing downs. But we would definitely need to resign KJ and draft a Will Linebacker like Ohio State LB Pete Werner to eventually replace BBK.
We were the youngest team in the playoffs with an NFC West title & a 12-4 record, things are looking good as long as RW can play at an All Pro level.

 

[FresnoHawk52]

Tampa Bay has been stacking their defensive line, linebackers, offensive line and wideouts/tight ends for some time now with high first round picks.

Many of you here should know Vita Vea as he was a UW Husky. He was a high pick. Granted he was hurt most of the year, he is a solid anchor at NT. Devin White was fantastic in coverage this year and has speed. Wirfs at tackle makes a huge difference protecting Brady. Arians allows his players to play to their strengths not necessarily to a style that limits them.

This allows them to play loose. Ariana also made adjustments since they played KC previously. Adjustments are key here. I don’t KC expected Tampa to play differently. Mahomes was rattled when he saw pressure and on the back end down the field was covered by 3-4 defensive players that Hill could stretch the field consistently.

Tampa Bay had a great game plan and the GOAT wins again.

I think Seattle needs to use this blueprint to build a new core. Tampa Bay has been stacking high draft picks for a while and it all came together the second they got Brady, the last chess piece.

Kudos to them.

I really hope Carroll can learn from them.

What do you mean by "stack high draft picks for a while"? How long is awhile and where are we going to get all of these high draft picks? And once we've taken how ever many years it's going to take to assemble this team of high draft picks that all meet or exceed expectations, where are we going to get a HOF caliber, elite QB to complete the plan? There aren't very many of those and the ones that do exist are rarely available.

That "blueprint", as you put it, doesn't sound very realistic to me. Especially for a team that never has high draft picks because they haven't had a losing season since 2011.

The Bucs are the quintessential "elite QB short of a championship" team, similar to the Vikings when they got Favre, except Favre was more washed up. They've already been known for having a great defense/d-line for years, then got literally the greatest QB of all time and got Fournette, AB, and Gronk to tag along. Their roster is absolutely stacked, one of the best all-around teams I've seen in my lifetime.

Don’t forget WR Goodwin was hurt & TE Howard was on IR. Will LB White improved a lot by playoffs missed tackles way down. Nice blend of young & old players. Not bad for an old dog coach.

 

[getnasty]

Tampa Bay has been stacking their defensive line, linebackers, offensive line and wideouts/tight ends for some time now with high first round picks.

Many of you here should know Vita Vea as he was a UW Husky. He was a high pick. Granted he was hurt most of the year, he is a solid anchor at NT. Devin White was fantastic in coverage this year and has speed. Wirfs at tackle makes a huge difference protecting Brady. Arians allows his players to play to their strengths not necessarily to a style that limits them.

This allows them to play loose. Ariana also made adjustments since they played KC previously. Adjustments are key here. I don’t KC expected Tampa to play differently. Mahomes was rattled when he saw pressure and on the back end down the field was covered by 3-4 defensive players that Hill could stretch the field consistently.

Tampa Bay had a great game plan and the GOAT wins again.

I think Seattle needs to use this blueprint to build a new core. Tampa Bay has been stacking high draft picks for a while and it all came together the second they got Brady, the last chess piece.

Kudos to them.

I really hope Carroll can learn from them.

What do you mean by "stack high draft picks for a while"? How long is awhile and where are we going to get all of these high draft picks? And once we've taken how ever many years it's going to take to assemble this team of high draft picks that all meet or exceed expectations, where are we going to get a HOF caliber, elite QB to complete the plan? There aren't very many of those and the ones that do exist are rarely available.

That "blueprint", as you put it, doesn't sound very realistic to me. Especially for a team that never has high draft picks because they haven't had a losing season since 2011.

The Bucs are the quintessential "elite QB short of a championship" team, similar to the Vikings when they got Favre, except Favre was more washed up. They've already been known for having a great defense/d-line for years, then got literally the greatest QB of all time and got Fournette, AB, and Gronk to tag along. Their roster is absolutely stacked, one of the best all-around teams I've seen in my lifetime.

Best all around team of your lifetime? Really?

 

[DarkVictory23]

I think Seattle vs. Tampa Bay looks similar to the Super Bowl but Seattle does slightly better. Tampa Bay did to KC what teams had been doing to Seattle since about halfway through the season which was sitting with two high safeties and daring Mahomes to hit short to mid and he failed. It was amazing how similar KC's offense looked to us at our worst in that game. Seattle would have failed to adjust as well (as we demonstrated throughout the year) but I think we use Carson enough to pull more time into the game and I do believe Russ would have managed at least one TD, which KC did not.

Otherwise, it's a blowout just like the Super Bowl.

However, I think the take that Seattle couldn't be competitive against KC is way off. I think we essentially had very similar quality offenses and our defense (by the end of the year) was better. I was as disappointed as anybody by how our season ended, but let's not get crazy by acting like our team was complete garbage.

Match-up wise, KC is not the type of team we should freak out over. Tampa Bay on the other hand, would do what LA did to us on defense and their offense was significantly better.

 

[AROS]

Seahawks 24 - Bucs 37