All is quiet on the Western Washington front.
Your Seattle Seahawks flew to greater heights than most could dream and yet people are not satisfied. Local media and fans accept the 2010 Seahawks as overachievers. Meanwhile, the national media still thinks they stink and should hold the title as worst NFL team to ever make the playoffs.
Would the worst playoff team ever outscore the NFL's most prolific passing attack, the mighty New Orleans Saints? I think not. Hey national media, you do realize that the Saints were defending Super Bowl champs, right? But then what else should I expect from a body of so called "experts" that are so biased that they never believe any team West of Chicago can actually play sports?
You guys still here? Sorry, I had to get that out of my system before I recap the Seahawks dramatic run to the Divisional playoffs. Here we go...
First of all, I think the season was a success. Seattle won the NFC West and overcame the greatest odds a home playoff team ever faced. First-year head coach, Pete Carroll, got his players to rally behind him and to believe in themselves. Carroll's winning attitude permeates the locker room and should carry over into 2011.
This season was full of injuries to key players (Bryant and Unger), signings of players off the NFL scrap pile (Williams) and gritty play by men that wouldn't give in to their harassing injuries (Hasselbeck and Okung). Given the circumstances, Carroll and GM John Schnieder handled all the problems head on while improving on the fly.
Seahawks fans got a glimpse of what this team can do when things come together. Just think of what a couple good free agent signings, a productive draft and another training camp will do. Now that's exciting.
The offseason started off with a bang, well it was more of a firing with Offensive Coordinator Jeremy Bates getting let go. He was quickly replaced by a man named Darrel Bevell who was previously with the Minnesota Vikings. Bevell coordinated the dynamic Viking offense that included Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson.
Seattle's biggest improvement came in the form of Oakland Raiders ex coach, offensive line guru, Tom Cable. With a lot of wisdom and a little luck, Cable should turn Seattle's line into a force once again. An interesting note about Cable is that many of his Oakland linemen are free agents and would probably enjoy playing for Cable guy again.
Come April, Carroll and Schnieder need to make a major decision at quarterback. There is little doubt that Seattle will draft a quarterback. The question is, who and when? The who precedes the when because certain players will not make it past the first round and others will. Could it be the hometown kid, Jake Locker? He was supposed to be the first pick of the draft if he had entered the NFL draft last year. Did he improve enough in his senior year?
Or will it be Heisman Trophy winner, Cam Newton? The man can certainly play football, but can he play NFL style ball? His potential is very intriguing. Whomever the Seahawks draft at quarterback, they should expect to watch from the sidelines their first year because I believe Matthew Hasselbeck will reprise his role as folk legend one more time as he eases the rookie into the league.
Outside of the obvious need at quarterback, the next position to fill is a lock-down cornerback. Marcus Trufant is still valuable but he doesn't shutdown the opponent's best wide receiver often enough. Kelly Jennings is now a free agent and will surely find another team. The rookie Walter Thurmond is still an unknown asset, the book on him is yet to be written.
It just so happens that the league's premier free agent, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, is available and I truly hope Seattle and most importantly owner, Paul Allen, step up and do something huge. An acquisition like Asomugha would immediately upgrade Seattle's defense two-fold because he literally locks up his side of the field. Wouldn't that be nice...
Trust in Carroll and Schnieder to get things done and expect the unexpected this offseason.
No comments:
Post a Comment