Kacyvenski Hopes Career Can Continue

by: Michael Steffes

While Isiah Kacyvenski hasn't been a Seahawk for a little while, this story deserves mention here. Kacyvenski was a key cog in the Seahawks special teams for several years, including the Super Bowl run in 2005. Now, he is just hoping he can get back in the league.

This article comes from his charity golf tournament. He is raising money for the children's home at which his mother lived when young. But back to football....

Kaz was unceremoniously released during the 2006 season. There was a numbers crunch after Shaun hurt his foot. The Hawks needed another running back on the roster. In order to get Marquis Weeks, who Holmgren subsequently refused to use, they had to release Kacyvenski. It was suspected that he was told the Hawks would re-sign him the next week. Instead the Rams made him an offer, promising time on defense as well as special teams. Mike Holmgren was not pleased.

Last year in camp with the Raiders, Kaz did serious damage to his knee. He is hoping he will be ready to play again around week 4 this season. That will be more than a year since the injury. Kaz meant a lot to the young linebackers that are all grown up in Seattle right now. At times both Lofa and Leroy have talked about his influence. There are some great quotes in the article about Isiah's presence in a locker room. If there was one player to bring back for a second tour in Big Show's final year, this would be my choice. Especially since we could easily find a role for him on special teams. END Read More!

Special Teams in Dire Straits

by: Michael Steffes

Profootballweekly's most recent blurb paints a doom and gloom picture of the Seahawks special teams. Currently this is one of the major concerns of the team heading into camp, along with the wide receivers. However, I am not so worried, it will come together. PFW says...

It’s bad enough that neither free-agent addition Olindo Mare nor seventh-round rookie Brandon Coutu has come close to making anybody forget departed PK Josh Brown, replacements must be found for the coverage unit’s top two performers (free-agent defectors Niko Koutuvides and Kevin Bentley), the new long-snapper is expected to be unproven sixth-round rookie Tyler Schmitt and a scramble is under way among a flurry of candidates to take over a huge portion of Nate Burleson’s return duties, as his role as a receiver has been greatly accelerated. Making matters worse is the untimely torn pectoral suffered by P Ryan Plackemeier while lifting weights that our sources tell us is likely to shut him down through training camp.

This is a bit over dramatic if you ask me. To say that Mare or Coutu are leaving a lot to be desired goes back to my argument for TJ Duckett. So far all they have done was kick field goals on an empty field. Wait until they get to the preseason and we will see if they can kick. To continue reading click...

As for Nate, well it isn't like he left the team. If they have problems finding his replacement, they can always hand the job back to him. They put Bobby back out there last year when Nate was struggling with certain aspects.

As for the gunners, the team expects Laury and Herring to step into those roles. They played well enough last year, and the team is likely to keep Mallard which will provide some veteran experience on special teams. I am not too worried about this aspect. All it takes is a guy who can run, tackle, and tries hard. Our team is full of try hard guys.

And finally, the team hopes Plack will be back by week 1, but if he isn't it won't be the end of the world. We can hem and haw about the snapping last year, but the truth is that Fudge was statistically one of the worst punters. His production was near replacement value, meaning a free agent could be brought in and do just as well. He is very good at pinning the team inside the 20, which would be missed, but overall his punting can be replicated easily.

One final thing that is mentioned is that Matt is the backup holder behind Fudge. I would be very surprised if that continues. They have the whole camp to get somebody ready. My guess is that it would be Seneca. He should be the holder anyway. A dual threat, run or pass, assuming Holmgren makes good on his words to try some fakes. Read More!

Special Teams - Do they matter?

by: Chris Sullivan

The other day, Michael posed the question -- what are your Hawk concerns going forward for 2008? For me, the biggest question mark is our Special Teams. Last year, as we all know, our long snapper situation made both Fudge and Assclown Brown look bad, but other than that they were... alright. I decided to do a little investigation into how good or bad they actually were, how we've ranked in the league over the last 5 years, and see if I can use some of that information to project how we might look next year.

To do this, I've utilized the incredible website, one of my favorites, Football Outsiders. They analyze the NFL game by game, processing every single play and assigning value to each result on all sides of the ball. They come up with a DVOA number -- Defensive-adjusted Value Over Average. The caliber of team you're playing comes into play, the situation -- is it 3rd and 19 or 3rd and 1 -- a 2 yard run has much more value in the second situation than the first! and so on. It's a great system, a little complex, but it seems to come up with pretty good numbers...

I spent about an hour crunching all the numbers, trying to show how important the Special Teams are only to find... they're not all that important. Correlations between the seeded playoff teams and special teams DVOA range from 0.04 (virtually no correlation) to 0.80 - very high correlation. What this means is, essentially, its a crap shoot.

I wanted to know how important Special Teams really is -- it sure feels important. In reality though, of the top 5 Special Teams DVOA ranked teams, only one (San Diego) made the playoffs. Of the top 10, only 3 made it. Compare this to the top 5 Defense (Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, San Diego) and Offense (New England, Indie, Jacksonville, Dallas and Green Bay); every single team in the top 5 made the playoffs. Read More!

The Final Pick

by: Michael Steffes

With their second pick in the 7th, #235 overall, the Hawks have selected Brandon Coutu, Kicker from Georgia. This pick has been projected once the Hawks acquired an extra 7th. Now we know the target. Coutu is one of the top kickers, and considering that Tim Ruskell knows the Georgia program very well from his time in Atlanta I am not surprised. Now we will see if he can beat out Mare. Read More!

Analysis

by: Michael Steffes

Taking the long snapper in the sixth round seems like a curious pick. I have a hard time believing the Hawks wouldn't have been one of the more desirable locations for any free agent long snapper. However, considering now that the team spent a pick on him, he is likely to be the guy. Anytime you can get a contributer at this stage of the draft you are doing well.

There are a lot of players that I would have preferred. However, that is why I write a blog and Ruskell runs a team. If this is the guy the Hawks wanted, I have no problem taking him. Lets erase that issue from of our minds once and for all. I can get behind that mindset. That said, as Mike Mayock just pointed out, did the Hawks think someone was really going to beat them to the punch. It is a rare selection in deed, as most long snappers are undrafted, and the Hawks took one in the sixth. END Read More!

Just for Good Measure

by: Michael Steffes

It would appear that the Hawks are going to investigate all options when it comes to kickers, as well they should. The most recent name to be tied to the Hawks is former Ohio State kicker, Josh Houston. This is being reported by kffl.com.

As you can see via the link, Houston was out of work late last year, but received a tryout when Nate Kaeding got hurt and the Chargers needed a kickoff specialist. Houston was in camp last year with the Giants, and was previously kicking in the Arena Football League.

Exciting stuff, I know! END Read More!

More Names to Kick Around

by: Michael Steffes

In the name of all things special teams, Profootballweekly has a nice little blurb on the Seahawks and their signing of Olindo Mare.

Basically, they echo what this site, along with experts like John Clayton, have speculated on; that Mare is not guaranteed this job, despite his high base salary. Profootballweekly goes as far as to throw two more names from the upcoming draft into the hat, Brandon Coutu and Steven Hauschka. Click on their names to see their draft profiles, but in short, Coutu fits the bill of the big leg questionable accuracy guy, while Hauschka seems to be technically sound and more accurate, but no one is really sure about his range. END Read More!

Talking Shop With A Long Snapper

Just in case you were dying for some more special teams news, I found you this interview with Tim Lindsey. He was with Atlanta as a rookie after going to school at WVU. The Seahawks signed him to a reserve/futures contact after the year to come in and compete. He is heading to Seattle this week for the beginning of the offseason workout program.

And before you get yourselves all worked up, he was in Atlanta long after Tim Ruskell was gone. Anyway, here is the link to the interview. Hope you enjoy! END. Read More!

Mare to Visit Hawks

According to Mike Florio at Profootballtalk.com, Olindo Mare, K, formerly of the Saints and Dolphins is making a west coast trip. As part of this he is scheduled to meet with the Hawks.

Mare's season last year was simply awful. In fact, that is being generous. He was kicking in a dome and made just above 50% of his kicks. Unless the idea is for a minimum deal with only a promise to compete for the job, I don't see the value. What is does appear though, is from here on out the Hawks and Broncos will be battling for kickers. END Read More!

Snowball Effect

Well, it took a week, but the Seahawks finally got moving in free agency. Things certainly got interesting really quick, didn't they. With a pair of signings, the front office has managed to do two things.

1) Ruskell has completely revamped the running back position. Two new bodies in Duckett and Jones.

2) Created a lot more questions than he answered.

There are currently four running backs on the roster who don't contribute much on special teams. We all know that won't last, but when will it all get sorted out?

To continue....

For those of you expecting a trade, it would have to be Morris. Shaun would instantly eat up 125K more of cap space if he is traded. No such thing as a June 1st trade. He likely wouldn't have much value anyway because of all the speculation that he will be released.

Also, however, by signing Jones, the team has again eaten into it's minimal cap space. I saw John Clayton estimate that they have about 4 million in space. This is probably close. My spreadsheet has a little more, but I usually assume Clayton knows what he is talking about. At 4 million, the Hawks are going to need some room. They still have holes to fill.

The priority right now has to be on Marcus Trufant and getting him a long term deal. Ultimately, they may reward Tru beyond what they think he is worth because he is willing to work out a team centric deal that only counts 3 million in the 1st year. I would not complain if Trufant got his money, as long as he takes it in a way that best suits the team. By completing this deal and releasing Shaun, the team could clear 10 mil in cap space quick.


It appears that DJ Hackett is the odd man out this year. There has been so little talk about him it is scary. Almost no one could have predicted this. It is much like Pork Chop last year. He thought he would get a starting gig, but his injury history scared teams away and he came back on a one year deal. The longer it goes the closer Hackett gets to rejoining the Hawks on a 1 or 2 yr deal. Freeing up cap space could make this happen.

All this must also be augmented by improvements to the special teams. Right now they aren't looking so special. The team needs a new Kicker, new Long Snapper, and a New Captain. Even if they look to the draft, they will want a veteran kicker to compete in camp.

These are the moves that I look for the Hawks to make in free agency still. The key is Trufant's deal. That is literally the difference between a couple undrafted free agents making the team, or having solid depth. Lets hope that now that the teams biggest weakness has been addressed the team can turn its attention back to its own.
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Nasty Nate Burleson

Just for kicks.....

John Clayton posted a list of the top ten return men in the game. Nate checks in at #7. I would probably have him at #5. Cartright and Ginn Jr, are you kidding me??

Being that it was only a few short years ago that Scobey fumbled the opening kick off of the season, Peter Warrick was failing miserably at proving he still belonged in the league on punt returns, and does anybody else remember Kerry Carter?? The point is, lets be grateful for Nate (ful). At times, one could argue he is our most dynamic player.

My personal fave was his return in Cle when he did the Lebron James tribute after he scored! Read More!