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2010 Preview:
This could be a decent team if Matt Hasselbeck regains pre-2008 form. He has his best chance to do that this year, as the Seahawks, this year, have put together their best offensive front since Walter Jones last played a full season. Russell Okung is very talented, but he’s also a rookie. Rookie left tackles have been a bit of a mixed bag in recent years. Ryan Clady, Jake Long, and Joe Thomas all had great rookie years, but Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe did not. Okung is probably better than what they’ve had in the last two years, and there’s a good chance he’s a lot better than what they’ve had in recent years, but if I were a Seahawks fan, I’d still be a bit nervous about their offensive front until I saw them in action. For what it’s worth, I called Okung the most NFL ready left tackle in this draft class. Having an offensive line coach like Alex Gibbs helps, but their offensive line absolutely needs to play well for Hasselbeck to have a good year and for this offense as a whole to have a good year.
Hasselbeck is old and injury prone and threw a lot of picks down the stretch last year because of bad protection. He looked completely shell shocked behind that line. If Okung can lead this line to be at least average, Hasselbeck could put together a solid year and that could be enough to win them this weak division. His receiving corps aren’t great, but he’s done it without good receivers before. I won’t predict Hasselbeck to lead this team to an 8 or 9 win division title, but it could happen.
Hasselbeck’s supporting cast certainly won’t do him many favors. I’ve already outlined the offensive line and the receiving corps, but those two branches may actually be his most talented. Their running game is banking on 193 pound running back Justin Forsett to pick up where he left off last year, Julius Jones to have a bounce back year, and Leon Washington to come back strong from a bad leg injury. They could trade for Marshawn Lynch, but Lynch struggled some in Buffalo last year. I believe if he was running as well as he was in his first two years in the league, he wouldn’t be on the trade block, even with his off the field issues.
Their defensive line is absolutely horrible. They had 28 sacks last year, which is bad enough, but then they lost Patrick Kerney to retirement. He was their team leader with 5 last year. Unless 2008 1st round pick Lawrence Jackson can step up in his 3rd year, they’re going to have a tough time generating more sacks than they had last year.
That doesn’t bode well for a secondary that really struggled last year, mostly thanks to their bad pass rush. They gave up the 3rd most passing yards through the air last year. Their defensive tackles also don’t give them much hope either. In addition to not generating any interior pass rush, they also ranked pretty middle of the pack in terms of stopping the run, and, with their linebackers being this team’s strong point, I don’t even think we can give all the credit to the defensive tackles for doing that.
They could win this bad division, if Matt Hasselbeck turns back the clock, but his supporting cast, even with a revamped offensive front, is still mediocre and that’s not going to do him any favors. I won’t predict them to do that, but at the same time, this division is so bad that it wouldn’t surprise me. I certainly would be less surprised if they won the division than if St. Louis or Arizona won it.
Projection: 6-10 2nd in NFC West
Power Ranking: 24
Last season: 5-11
Grade:
#6 OT Russell Okung (Oklahoma State)
Pete Carroll takes an absolutely no brainer with his first pick. I guess the Lions, Redskins, and Chiefs don’t have brains (though the Lions would redeem themselves). Okung is an NFL ready left tackle. He’s better than Jason Smith last year and reminds me a ton of Ryan Clady. Okung can step in and protect Matt Hasselbeck’s blindside from day 1 and that’s huge. Hasselback is old, injury prone, and shellshocked behind that line. If Okung can bring back the Hasselbeck of old, they could win this crappy division next year. I mean, someone has to, right?
Grade: A
#14 S Earl Thomas (Texas)
I don’t hate the pick because Thomas is a great player, but this is kind of the same deal with the Chiefs at 5. How much does a safety actually help you? I guess we’ll find out, but I personally would have gone with a need with more positional value and taken either Derrick Morgan or Jimmy Clausen. I guess Pete Carroll really likes Charlie Whitehurst because he passed on Clausen, who he heavily recruited while at USC.
Grade: B
#60 WR Golden Tate (Notre Dame)
I am actually shocked that Pete Carroll took a Notre Dame wide receiver over a USC one, Damian Williams, or even over a USC DE, Everson Griffen. There were better picks here, but it’s hard to argue with Tate, who has experience in the West Coast style offense that they want to run.
Grade: A-
#111 CB Walter Thurmond (Oregon)
The Seahawks traded down 7 spots from 104 to 111 in the LenDale White trade and still managed to get the better player. Huh? Thurmond is much better than Alterraun Verner who the Titans took at 104. Thurmond has first round talent, but his last two seasons have been plagued by injuries. If he can get his health right, he’s a steal and I think that was a smart risk by the Seahawks. Cornerback also was a huge need considering Marcus Trufant is often injured and led the league in pass interference penalties last year despite missing 6 games with injury.
Grade: A
#127 DE EJ Wilson (North Carolina)
They needed a defensive end, but EJ Wilson does not provide as much of a pass rush as they would like out of an end. He’s basically a poor man’s version of Darryl Tapp, who they traded for a 4th rounder. I would have liked to have seen them get someone who could get after the quarterback.
Grade: D
#133 S Kam Chancellor (Virginia Tech)
Chancellor is going to struggle against the pass and he’s pretty much an undersized linebacker at strong safety, but he’s a solid value here as they try to replace Deon Grant and he could actually start some in his first year which is something you don’t often hear about 5th rounders.
Grade: B
#185 TE Anthony McCoy (USC)
Pete Carroll takes his first Trojan, I don’t see what a tight end does for them considering they already have John Carlson and Chris Baker on the roster, but McCoy should have gone off the board about 2 rounds ago and he has huge upside so I can’t hate too much.
Grade: A-
#236 DE Dexter Davis (Arizona State)
They finally get a defensive end who can rush the pass rusher as Davis had 21.5 sacks from 2007-2008, but he’s very undersized at 244 pounds so I don’t see how he fits in a 4-3, plus, what was with his 3.5 sacks last year. Did he fall off the face of the earth? I’m not sure he’s much of an upgrade over Chris Clemons at nickel rusher.
Grade: B+
#245 FB Jameson Konz (Kent State)
I don’t see what the point of this pick was. Konz can play two positions, full back and tight end, even though he’s a bit undersized at both positions, but the Seahawks are already 3 deep at tight end with Carlson, Baker, and McCoy, and they already have a good young fullback in Owen Schmitt.
Grade: D
Overall:
The Seahawks drafted how they should have. They picked out their needs, found the best available at those positions at each pick, and picked between those guys. I didn’t completely agree with each of their picks, but I completely understand what they were trying to do, and they really did add talent at positions of need. They only had two picks I couldn’t understand, but those were late round picks, so it’s excuseable. The addition of Russell Okung is going to add a lot to the team right away, in addition for the future. I also like how they were able to manipulate their mid round picks to get veteran running backs on the cheap. The only possible issue I see with this draft is that they didn’t draft a quarterback. They did trade for Charlie Whitehurst this offseason, but he’s a 28 year old former 3rd round pick who has never thrown a pass in the NFL. If he doesn’t pan out as their quarterback of the future, they may look back at this draft and wish they had taken Clausen at 14. However, they probably will have a shot to take a quarterback of the future next year because Hasselbeck now has a left tackle to protect his blindside.
Grade: A-
Key undrafted free agents:
MLB Joe Pawelek (Baylor)
G Jeff Byers (USC)
DT DeMarcus Granger (Oklahoma)
OLB Reggie Carter (UCLA)
S Marcus Brown (Arkansas State)
Positions of needs:
Offensive Tackle:
Matt Hasselbeck has turned from borderline Pro Bowler to Marc Bulger in two years, thanks to many injuries and just an all around fear of getting hits. He’s become so skittish out there that he is just throwing the ball near his players to get the ball out of there and not take anymore hits and because of that he had his worst full season since his first year in town, 2001. Hasselbeck is not the longterm fix at quarterback and they’ll need to find one of those this offseason, but before they can do that, they have to find a true franchise left tackle to anchor their line because it appears that Walter Jones’ career is done. Otherwise, the same thing that has happened to Hasselbeck will happen to their young quarterback only instead of Marc Bulger syndrome he will get David Carr syndrome.
Drafted Russell Okung (#6)
Quarterback:
As alluded to previously, Hasselbeck is not their longterm quarterback. Even if he had had a good season last season, he wouldn’t be because he will turn 35 in September. Left tackle is going to be their most pressing need, but quarterback is also going to be important. If either Jimmy Clausen or Sam Bradford fall to the Seahawks at 6, I would be very surprised if new coach Pete Carroll didn’t draft him. Both would be good fits for Carroll’s scheme; Clausen ran a similar one at Notre Dame and Bradford has the accuracy and decision making to project to be able to run the offense in the pros.
Traded for Charlie Whitehurst, Signed JP Losman
Running Back:
With Jim Mora gone, its safe to say that Julius Jones won’t get 177 carries next season. I’m pretty sure Mora is the only guy on the planet who thought Jones was doing a good job. Justin Forsett did a great job late in the season, but at a 194 pounds, he’s hardly an every down back. They need a running back, who fits their zone blocking scheme, to supplement or compliment him.
Signed Quinton Ganther, Traded for LenDale White, Traded for Leon Washington
Safety:
Safety was a huge hole for them last year. Then they filled it with Lawyer Milloy. That would have been a good move if it were 2003. Milloy did horribly at free safety this year and was benched early leaving them, again with very little at the position. If Eric Berry falls to them at 6, they can’t pass him up unless either Bradford or Clausen fall as well, but otherwise this isn’t a huge need because of the safety position’s low positional value. They should target a young athletic safety in the mid rounds though.
Drafted Earl Thomas (#14), Drafted Kam Chancellor (#133), Signed Kevin Ellison
Defensive End:
Patrick Kerney just turned 33 and is coming off of his 2nd lowest sack total since 2000 with just 5 last year. Meanwhile, Lawrence Jackson at right end, a 2008 1st round pick, managed only 4.5 sacks last year and as a team they only managed 28. They need some young blood at the position.
Drafted EJ Wilson (#127), Drafted Dexter Davis (#236)
Cornerback:
Marcus Trufant led the league in cornerback penalties last year. That would be bad enough, but its worse when you consider he missed the first 6 games of the season with injury and still led the league in that category. Clearly his days as an elite corner are over and while their struggles against the pass weren’t all the fault of the cornerbacks, poor safety and D-Line play didn’t help either, upgrades at cornerback are needed.
Drafted Walter Thurmond (#111)
Defensive Tackle:
The Seahawks were again in the bottom half of the league against the run last year. The defensive tackle rotation of Colin Cole, Red Bryant, Cory Redding, and Kevin Brown might have had something to do with that.
Free agents:
QB Mike Teel- signed with Patriots
RB LenDale White- signed with Broncos
WR Nate Burelson- signed with Lions 5 years 25 million
WR Ben Obomanu (restricted)- resigned 1 year 1.1 million
WR Reggie Williams
OT Brandon Frye (restricted)
G Rob Sims (restricted)- resigned 1 year 1.1 million, traded to Lions for a 5th rounder
G Trevor Canfield- claimed by Lions
C Chris Spencer (restricted)- resigned 1 year 2.4 million
DE Darryl Tapp (restricted)- resigned 1 year 1.1 million, traded to Eagles for Chris Clemons and a 4th rounder
DE Robert Henderson
DT Cory Redding- signed with Ravens 2 years
DT DeMarcus Granger
OLB Lance Laury (restricted)
MLB David Hawthrone (exclusive rights)- resigned
CB Ken Lucas
S Deon Grant- signed with Giants 1 year
S Lawyer Milloy- resigned
S Quinton Teal
K Olindo Mare- franchised
Offseason moves:
Seahawks sign G Chester Pitts
Seahawks waive DE Robert Henderson
Seahawks sign S Kevin Ellison
Seahawks cut WR Reggie Williams
Seahawks cut S Quinton Teal
Seahawks claim WR Isaiah Stanback
Seahawks waive DT DeMarcus Granger
Seahawks cut RB LenDale White
Seahawks waive QB Mike Teel
Seahawks sign QB J.P. Losman
Seahawks sign S Quinton Teal
Seahawks announce retirement of OT Walter Jones
Seahawks re-sign S Lawyer Milloy
Seahawks acquire RB Leon Washington from Jets for 5th- and 7th-round picks
Seahawks sign G Ben Hamilton
Seahawks sign WR Reggie Williams
Seahawks sign S Kennard Cox
Seahawks sign G Mitch Erickson
Seahawks waive G Trevor Canfield
Seahawks re-sign WR Ben Obomanu
Seahawks re-sign MLB David Hawthorne
Seahawks re-sign C Chris Spencer
Seahawks sign WR Mike Williams
Seahawks announce retirement of DE Patrick Kerney
Seahawks acquire DE Robert Henderson from Lions for 2010 7th-rounder
Seahawks trade G Rob Sims to Lions for a 2010 5th-rounder
Seahawks re-sign G Rob Sims
Seahawks sign RB Quinton Ganther
Seahawks sign OLB Matt McCoy
Seattle trade DE Darryl Tapp to Philadelphia for DE Chris Clemons and a 2010 4th-round pick
Seahawks re-sign DE Darryl Tapp
Seahawks cut S Deon Grant
Seahawks sign WR Ruvell Martin
Seahawks sign TE Chris Baker
Seahawks re-sign K Olindo Mare
Seahawks trade QB Seneca Wallace to Browns for conditional 2011 pick
Seahawks tender DE Darryl Tapp
Seahawks tender WR Ben Oboamanu
Seahawks tender C Chris Spencer
Seahawks tender G Rob Sims
Seahawks tender ILB David Hawthorne
Seahawks franchise K Olindo Mare
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