The State of the Seahawks

Written by William P. Tomisser | 25 September 2009

Now that I've written my preview of the Bears at the Seahawks with its mostly positive slant, I'll try and present the other side of the coin. All week long on the Brock and Salk show they've been talking about the state of the Seahawks right now and it hasn't been a pretty picture. John Clayton came on several times and re-inforced the ugliness of the situation.

Brock likened the state of the Seahawks to that of a category three hurricane. He felt it could get worse and we won't survive if the hurricane develops into a class five that brings wide destruction. It could also get better and turn into a tropical storm and dissipate and, if so, we'll likely survive the storm. Right now at this point in time though, we're in trouble and we're not sure what direction the storm will be taking.

Brock said that at the first of the season while we were still in training camp, John Clayton said the Seahawks would be okay if certain things didn't happen. Well, now those things have happened. Clayton said the Seahawks would be alright if certain groups of players didn't have enough injuries to render them ineffective. Those groups included the defensive backfield, linebackers, offensive line, and of course their pro bowl quarterback.

Well, Trufant is out, Wilson is out and we're back to Kelly Jennings as our starting cornerback with Fisher as the nickel and only backup cornerback. Tatupu and Hill are our two experienced hotshot linebackers and they're both potenially out, leaving us with Curry being our only starter left standing, and entering only the third regular season game of his career. We actually started a guy named Frye at left tackle last week -- no one had even heard of him until a couple weeks ago -- and a guy who wasn't even a center until last year was snapping the ball. Add to that the fact that our three-tech defensive lineman who was supposed to be our pressure and havoc guy up the middle is missing in action as well as our experienced fullback who was to lead our running backs to daylight and the Seahawks are looking a lot like last year's team already.

Clayton then came on the show and said that to his eyes the current situation is just as bad as it was last year, and with 11 starters out it could be worse. Last year 8 starters finished the year on injured reserve. Asked if he was pushing the panic button yet, he said: "yeah, a little bit." Right now the Seahawks are the most injury-riddled team in the league again for the second year in a row.

They then started talking about why the Seahawks are so injured and beat up for the second year in a row. Why are all these injuries happening to the Seahawks again? What factors could be causing the problem? Some listeners had written to the show and indicated they blamed Tim Ruskell for all the injuries because he drafted smaller, faster players who are unable to stand up to the rigors of a full NFL season against bigger opponents.

Brock and Salk both took strong exception to theories that blamed Ruskell's drafting and debunked those reasons as being totally inaccurate. Brock listed the players drafted over the last three years and to paraphrase him (but very close to an exact quote), he said:

"Aaron Curry and Max Unger this year. They're not small men by any means. The year before Lawrence Jackson's a 270 lb defensive end. John Carlson's not a small tight end. Red Bryant your 4th round pick is an enormous human being with very large hands. Owen Schmitt is not a small guy. In 2007 Josh Wilson, OK, maybe he's a little undersized for a corner but he's scrappy and physical. Brandon Mebane is not a small defensive tackle. Baraka Atkins is not a small end. Mansfield Wrotto is a very big man with a large cranium. Those are not small men. The last three drafts there's not one guy other than Josh Wilson who is in any way regarded as undersized. The year before that you draft Kelly Jennings who can run. Kelly Jennings is undersized but it's at corner where a lot of teams go undersized to get quickness and speed on their team. Rob Sims is not a small guy. As far as that argument goes, that's debunked."

It was pointed out that a lot of the injuries are to players who play where a lot of the heavy hitting takes place on the line of scrimmage. Also, when a large man hits you with a full head of steam, things break, snap, stretch, and twist no matter how big and tough you are. This football stuff is for real and being played by real men and the players are only human. The more aggressive a player plays, the greater the impact of the collisions. Sometimes your best players get injured because they are your best players and as such are playing as hard as they can go. They're pushing their bodies to the limit and at times they exceed that limit. They go beyond what their body can handle. Snap, crackle, and pop.

Some listeners tried to say the team wasn't properly conditioned but Brock wasn't buying that one either. Mora ran a hard camp this year that featured extra conditioning at the end of practices and everyone did a lot of work in the weight room, so that's not going to fly either. Brock's take on it? Bad luck. Simple as that. There's really nothing you can pin these injuries on except a run of bad luck unless you want to start believing in the Seahawks curse I wrote about recently. No one believes that one including me. This stuff happens in football and it happened again this year to Seattle. Mora has inspired these players to run through the proverbial brick wall and they are playing hard. That's what you want to see, but some of these injuries may be the players writing checks their bodies can't cash.

The two radio hosts did point out though that the injuries this year differ in one huge respect from last year and here lies the great hope for the season. So far none of them have required that we put the player on Injured Reserve. So far all the players hurt are expected to be back and will continue to play this season. Looking at the season schedule, if the Seahawks can manage not to get buried while the team mends, they have a favorable schedule towards the end of the season before they finish with a couple of tough games.

Mora noted that having injuries where you aren't putting players on Injured Reserve does hamstring the team somewhat because they can't bring in replacements. They have to keep those injured players on the team where they continue to take up a roster spot. They're going to have to depend on the players they currently have on the roster to get the job done until the injured players return to duty. That leaves them short handed in some areas of the team, but the Seahawks are dealing with it.

John Clayton also pointed out that they still play in the weak NFC West division where he said the 49ers haven't suffered any injuries yet, but when they inevitably do they don't have the backups to compensate like Seattle does. Being led by Hill at quarterback, they aren't a team that's going to be able to come back when they get behind in games, either. They have a tough part of their schedule coming up and Clayton doesn't expect them to continue to do so well.

Arizona has problems too and aren't going to be able to string together a bunch of wins in Clayton's opinion either so if the Seahawks can hang in there and not get too far behind while their players mend and return, they still have a decent chance to recover the season and still be competitive in the division and compete for the title.

Here's the way Brock, Salk, and Clayton broke it down over an hour or so of hashing it all out. This is the way they thought we could come out alright, assuming that our players come back healthy little by little and are ready to play by the Dallas game after the bye. This is a bunch of what ifs that Brock, Salk, and Clayton bandied about and I pieced together to make it more coherent. If you're not interested in speculation of what games we could win and lose then I suggest you skip the next three paragraphs, but to some of us what-ifs are fun.

The Seahawks should be able to beat the Jaguars at Qwest field in two weeks even with backups playing, giving them two wins minimum before the bye with the Rams win already in hand. After the bye, they have home games against the Lions, San Francisco, and Buccaneers which should all be wins. They play the Rams and Texans on the road and both of those should be winnable games, especially if they have their full team back and healthy. They should be favored to win those five games, so if they take care of business that will give them 7 wins. It then comes down to winning 3 of 8 remaining games against the Cardinals, Bears, and Titans at home and the Colts, Cardinals, Cowboys, Vikings, and Packers on the road.

They will be playing the Bears and Cardinals at home as well as the Colts on the road before the bye with injured players most likely still recovering and backups playing key roles. Even one win in addition to the Jaguars game before the bye would set the team up for success (like against the Bears Sunday or just before the bye against the Cards, as both games will be at Qwest). After the bye though, it is hoped they would be back to being at full health, which would give them a shot at the Cardinals, Cowboys, Vikings, and Packers on the road.  After those, the last game against the Titans at Qwest Field could become a barn burner and be for all the marbles. Those three additional wins out of the 8 difficult games would give them a 10 - 6 record and presumably the division crown. Brock, Salk, and Bill T. all say that all is not lost yet, Addicts.

Even though it's a little bleak right now, anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger and that goes for a football team, too. If we can beat the Bears Sunday or the Colts the following week, that will be huge. If we can manage a double header winning against the Jags and then beating the Cards in two successive weeks at Qwest, we'll be in excellent shape after the bye to compete for the division title and even home field advantage isn't out of the question if we're healthy at that point. If we come out of the bye at 3 - 3 or better, we'll still have a great shot at the division if we haven't suffered irreparable injuries and lost important players for the season.

As I see it, there are really two camps right now. One says the Seahawks are really in quite a bit better shape than last year because they have better backups who can come in and provide quality relief until the starters return. With no injuries bad enough to place any players on Injured Reserve, they should all return and the team should be back to full strength by the Dallas game after the bye or soon thereafter. This team could turn around in a flash and be as healthy as any team in the league.

The second camp says it's time to hit the panic button. We don't really know that Trufant will return this year. Walt is still potentially fragile even if he returns and he could be just one hit away from being done with his career. Some of these ankle sprains, hamstrings, and knee injuries could hang on for weeks. Matt could be out for half the season with this rib injury like he waslast year with his back and Seneca has never been able to come in and relieve Matt and win consistently for any stretch of time. The team is in bad shape with 11 starters out or not playing at 100% and the team will find it difficult to win many games while all these injuries keep our top players in street clothes or on the bench even against teams we're supposed to beat like last week in San Francisco. We need to find some quality replacements but none are readily available and we have to put guys on Injured Reserve in order to hire them. By the time we are able to field a healthy team, if ever this season, we'll be in such a hole record-wise that we'll have to win almost every game to make the playoffs and this team can't win on the road especially at 10 am on the East coast and we have several starts like that coming up.

There's probably room for middle ground where we get healthy more slowly and maybe lose a player or two for the year but largely are able to gut out the injury rash and get the team back on its feet eventually. If we can win a few games here and there to keep us from falling back too far, once the team gets back to being healthy we'll be in a real dogfight with Arizona and San Francisco for the division title and we'll need to pull off some gutsy road wins at the end of the season to take it but it would still be possible. That would make for a tough year on the fans too where the team will continually be on the verge of dropping too far back to be able to pull it out and the games will be nail-biters every week. Not a path for the faint hearted but a possibility for the fence sitters who can't decide which camp they belong in. Mora's tenacity makes this one a possibility because I don't think he'll allow the team to give up and they'll fight hard the whole year. That would harden the team if nothing else does.

So how do you Addicts see the team right now? Are we going to be okay, or are we pretty much in the same boat as last year? I listened to a lot of callers from the Brock and Salk show over the entire four hour broadcast from three days ago and there was a real split in opinions. More fans probably weren't ready to push the panic button yet than those who were, and most wanted to wait and see how the injuries played out before getting panicked. Some thought it would be hard to salvage the season. Others were still pretty positive, citing the lack of season-ending injuries as their reason to still be positive about things. Where are we here, Addicts? How do we see things progressing at this point? Are we still in good shape because none of the injuries are season ending so far? Do we have too many injuries for the team to remain competitive while players are mending? Just what is the state of the Seahawks?

Maybe Mora has the best approach: take it one game at a time. Better yet, one play at a time. Let's beat the Bears on Sunday and then worry about the next game. I can dig that! All this speculation is making me dizzy, too.

Hasta,

Bill T.