Russellmania VI

In just three preseason games Tyler Lockett has shown glimpses of greatness all over the field as he burst onto the scene with two return touchdowns and one receiving. The element in the return game he brings is one we sorely missed last year, but his receiving prowess has me even more excited. Tyler caught my eye about a month before the draft as I was reviewing the WR class of 2015, he was consistently rated in the 3rd-4th round and the evaluations were as follows:   Pros Has a knack for making explosives plays as a receiver and return man Perfectionist when it comes to Route-Running Intelligent player who has learned from his father Steps up his game when matched up against top competition across from him Cons Scouts are concerned he is to slightly built to be a full-time NFL Kick Returner Shorter than ideal Short arms and small hands with marginal catch radius Starting to sound familiar yet? The parallels to Russell Wilson are uncanny, both 3rd round picks ...

"What do you think about that Wilson guy?" C an I just start off by saying how awesome it is that we own the 32nd pick in the draft, the transformation that this team has made in the last 4 years is nothing short of amazing. We went from Kelly Jennings to Richard Sherman, David Hawthorne to Bobby Wagner, Charlie Whitehurst to Russell Wilson, what do all these Hawks have in common? They were found by John Schneider and Pete Carroll in the Draft. Make no mistake even though the Hawks have signed a few splashy free-agents the Draft is where they've laid the foundation that led us to Superbowl XLVIII. In last year’s column I highlighted the weaknesses that caused our defeat in Atlanta, and even though this past year we brought home that magnificent Lombardi Trophy it would be naive to say we have no areas to improve. Over the past few weeks I’ve come up with a comprehensive list of players that fit the Seahawks criteria, one thing to take into account is t...

Now imagine 67,000 12's with the same ferocity With the Playoffs bearing down on us a familiar fear grew within me, the fear of being disappointed. This had nothing to do with the team that I've come to love and respect these past four years; This had everything to do with Seattle. It began in 1995 when Mariners and Supersonics  were both so close to giving a championship-deprived city what they wanted, then Superbowl XL , and culminating with the hijacking of the Sonics  six years ago. It's gotten to a point where I self-consciously prepare myself to be disappointed in big games and I know I'm not the only one that feels this way. Then something amazing happens, gameday arrives. I walk through those gates to the deafening screams of an entire city and all prior doubts and fears are shattered . If there was a roman coliseum built for football this would be it, and our players are the perfect gladiators to cast away any team standing in the way for their conque...

Separation comes from preparation- R. Wilson Does it seem like this offseason lasted 7 years rather than 7 months or is that just me? As the dawn of the 2013 Seattle Seahawks season comes upon us I found myself thinking about the critical week 2 matchup against the 49ers and how it very well could be the single most important game of our season. At no point did I stop to think about this Sundays game. Why should I? I thought, it's the Panthers, a team we dispatched last year in Charlotte  before  we established our offensive identity. A team whose biggest free agent acquisition was Ted Ginn Jr. a top-10 kick returner at best. Yet as I watched more and more of the 2012 Panthers I realized that thought-process was a colossal mistake, this is not a Panthers team to be taken lightly. While we left Carolina with the W they certainly made us work harder than many of our 2012 matches. On 21 carries they held Beastmode to a slim 85 yards (4.0 ypc) all the while limiting t...

Dates to look forward to: Monday April 15 - Offseason Program : Activities limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only. This will be a good time to see what stages Chris Clemons, Walter Thurmond and other wounded Hawks are in recovery. Thursday April 25th - NFL Draft : Although the draft officially starts Thursday April 25th that is only the first round so it doesn't mean much to us but Friday at 3:30pm is the start of the 2nd round and our eventual first pick. (2nd and 3rd rounds on Friday, rounds 4-7 are Saturday starting at 9am) Monday May 20 - Organized Team Activities : On-field workouts may include individual player instruction and drills as well as team practice conducted on a “separates” basis. No live contact or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted. I am sure the NFL will keep a close eye on our OTA's as last year we violated the the "no live contact" part and where docked two OTA days. Tuesday June 11 - M...

Wrote this about a week before the Combine and now that it is officially over I plan on doing a Combine Review of these prospects, and few new players that caught my eye. Players to keep an eye on at the combine and into the draft : This is an incredibly deep year for WR's and DT's as well as one of the best years ever to be drafting in the late 20-30 range, at the other end of that spectrum it's an unfortunate year to have a lottery pick as there are no clear cut franchise qb's/other cornerstone positions (sucks for you Arizona!) A lot of people will say that we have enough talent at WR but the fact of the matter is if even one of Rice/Tate/Baldwin goes down we go from being "enough" to below average. Beyond that none of them have the ability to break a tackle and take a catch 80 yards for 6 so for those reasons I will definitely study this year’s WR class. Something that was evident throughout the season was the lack of pressure our Defense was able to...