toffee":1ld4tamh said:
I have three, all a bit of wishful thinking perhaps, but hey it's the off season.
Pocic: if he could lift his game, our offense could be a bit more stable. He was the weak link in our not too strong OL.
I 'd say the weak link on the OL has been Mike Iupati, who was bad when he was actually able to get on the field. And like many others, I think the Seahawks' OL gets a rep worse than its actual performance because of terrible sacks-allowed numbers, and sacks allowed have been shown to be at least as much a QB thing as an OL thing. The fact that the Seahawks OL did better in ESPN's pass-block win rate than in sacks allowed suggests the OL was doing its job better than the sack rate reflects, and the high sack rate was on Wilson more than the OL.
Wilson is certainly capable of doing quick passing. In addition to some great moments of that in the magical second half of the 2015 season, I think of the game against the Steelers in 2019, when Wilson's release time was super-short. He just chooses not to do so sometimes, and the result is a lot of sacks.
Anyway, I think Pocic has been better as a center than you appear to think he has, and I think he could have a good season or even a breakout season. I can imagine him having a really, really good season both in covering his individual blocking assignments and in his crucial role in the communication with Wilson and the rest of the OL before the snap, and that second part could help the whole OL play better. So I'd put Pocic on my list too, even though I don't think he was as bad as you do. He could break out, and that could help the team a lot.
toffee":1ld4tamh said:
Tre Flowers: if he could have the break out season we expected but didn't get in his sophomore season. Our secondary will vastly improve.
Flowers is a lot better than people around here have been saying he is lately, and I've always kind-of liked him since I saw the cute pictures of his tiny daughter wearing his helmet during training camp of his rookie season, but I don't see him as a candidate for a break-out season. He's a converted safety, and he's not really good at being a press corner. For one thing, his feet are a bit slow. On the other hand, he's pretty damn good at not getting beaten deep, and I think that's underappreciated. I've gotten pissed off watching other teams "dink and dunk" the 'Hawks to death, and Flowers was often attacked by teams taking that approach and gave up a lot of the infuriating short-yardage stuff. But there's value in a guy it's hard to beat deep, and I think Pete and his staff will find a way to take advantage of that while minimizing the effects of his weakness as a press CB. Let's not forget that in Flowers's rookie season, a lot of 'Hawks fans were saying he was better than Shaq Griffin and had more of a future. I think he can (and hope he will) be a valuable part of the Seahawks' defensive backfield this year, but I don't see anything that suggests he could have a breakout season. If you do, please let me know what it is.
Still, I agree that if any Seahaks CB were to have a breakout season, it would be a big deal for the team, and that does include Flowers.
toffee":1ld4tamh said:
Collier: he was billed as 2nd coming of Bennett, if he could come close to be Bennettish, opposing QB won't have as much time to pick on our secondary.
That's a good one. And I'd like to add Alton Robinson, Rasheem Green, and Darrell Taylor. There are decent reasons to believe each of those guys could have a breakout season, and just one young DE doing that could have a huge impact. Imagine if more than one of Collier, Robinson, Green, and Taylor did!
(now I'm snickering because "Collier, Robinson, Green, and Taylor" sounds like the name of a law firm, but it stays and I'm even pointing it out myself)