Tyrel Dodson Released

[4XPIPS]

Not sure what to make of this. Dodson wasn't costing us much, but who knows what John and Mike are trying to do at this point. I guess we are going younger with Knight and Drake. We are having problems shutting the run down, and I guess through team evaluation it's good riddance to the two linebackers who were signed in the offseason and went through our entire camp, and now Baker and Dodson are gone. It's a head scratcher, but I just have trust Mike MacDonald is identifying the right players that fit his style of defense.

[Aseahawkfan]

If you're backers aren't good, the run defense won't be good. The D-line usually goes hat on hat against the O-line making plays as they can, but the LBs are supposed to hit the holes when the D-line and O-lien are hat on hat and kill the runner. We haven't had that happening for years. We used to think when the D-line was weak that it was the D-line letting O-line get to the second level too easily and create huge holes. But we upgraded the D-line and the run defense still sucks. I imagine whatever Mike Mac is seeing indicates the backers are not doing the job, not reading the blocking and hitting the holes and runner fast enough like Bobby and KJ used to do.

They're trying to patch it this year, but I think LB will be a draft priority next year.

[NorthHawk]

Lots of priorities next year. I hope LB isn’t going to become another blind spot like IOL.
They need to attack both areas in both FA and the draft.

[4XPIPS]

If you're backers aren't good, the run defense won't be good. The D-line usually goes hat on hat against the O-line making plays as they can, but the LBs are supposed to hit the holes when the D-line and O-lien are hat on hat and kill the runner. We haven't had that happening for years. We used to think when the D-line was weak that it was the D-line letting O-line get to the second level too easily and create huge holes. But we upgraded the D-line and the run defense still sucks. I imagine whatever Mike Mac is seeing indicates the backers are not doing the job, not reading the blocking and hitting the holes and runner fast enough like Bobby and KJ used to do.

They're trying to patch it this year, but I think LB will be a draft priority next year.

I don't disagree, the d-line to our linebackers have played "inconsistent" at best.

However, the underlying problem may lie within the operations of the Seahawks organization. We all know now that Pete ran the show before he was kicked to the side. So with John and Mike working together for the first time, it's starting to show some flaws with in the system. So, who is miss evaluating the prospects? Not often a new HC dumps a player that isn't a fit for the team, when the player wasn't with the team previously. Quite often a new HC comes in, and previous starters are phased out of the team for one reason or another, and it could be scheme fit, could be attitude, or it just could be the player isn't bought it. An example would be when Gruden took over the Raiders, and Khalil Mack was exiled, which at the time Mack was still a top tier player.

However, Dodson and Baker were not with us last year, so there has to be some sort of player fit that Mike was hunting for, and John and his staff of scouts must have mis evaluated "the brief", because these players were brought in as veterans who can work in Mike's system, and now both are gone. So where is the fall out? John has been in the front office for quite sometime, so I am thinking the blame falls on him because we have seen how successful Mike can be at running defense, but we are dumping players we have taken to evaluate and scout, and we are dumping them midseason, then it's valuation problem, scouting problem. or possibly John doesn't have his scout team in tune with what Mike is needing.

I picture it like Mike is the Chef of a restaurant, and John is the restaurant manager, and he is buying the wrong supply of goods for what Mike needs to be a successful Chef.

[NorthHawk]

It’s been going on for years so I think it’s more on Schneider than a new coaching staff.
It’s up to the GM to assemble and direct the scouts so if they are continually missing picks then either they need better direction or need to be replaced. A decade of whiffs on the OL would suggest the GM is the issue.

[Aseahawkfan]

Schneider and Pete drafted Brooks as the heir apparent to Bobby. Brooks showed some promise, but didn't turn out to be Bobby. So they let him walk and Bobby walk due to age.

I don't know how after one year you can call John on this myself and Mike just got here. Our talent had fallen apart for years with Pete and John trading draft capital for players that didn't work out. Who's fault was that? I think it was more on Pete myself as John has always valued draft picks and Pete wanted the quick turnaround to get back to the Super Bowl. But maybe it was John and I guess we'll see.

I wasn't expecting a rebuild quickly. I'm one of the few on this board to think this apparently, but I do think we had a very bare cupboard when Mike MacDonald came in. I think many Seattle fans greatly overvalued our talent. Our talent level is near the lowest in Seahawks history when Mike MacDonald came in. I think John Schneider and Mike MacDonald have to built up the talent base quite a bit due to Pete and John trading away draft picks and missing badly on picks, like real bad. Is John partly responsible for these missed picks? Maybe, not sure how much as I'm not sure how much influence Pete had on the draft or the trades.

This talent base isn't good. We could do a laundry list of why. When I look at our positional talent, I think only our WRs and DBs are high potential. Everywhere else is a big old question mark or a known quantity.

QB: Geno is Geno. Never going to be the man. Bridge QB and a starter only on teams who haven't draft a bonafide star QB.
LT: Charles Cross. Young, seems like a solid starter. Not Big Walt, but solid.
RT: Revolving door. Abe Lucas likely an injury bust.
Center. Revolving door.
Guards: Revolving doors. No one has taken the position.
RBs: Walker and Charbonnet have promise, but are not Marshawn or durable, every down backs that are top backs.
WRs: Lockett, DK, and JSN. This is probably our best group.
TEs: A serviceable group with the guy from Denver our top guy. O-line is so bad we have to sue them more for blocking than receiving.

DTs: Byron Murphy and a bunch of guys.
DEs: Dre'mont Jones, Leonard Williams, and some guys. Above average journeyman.
ILBs: Revolving door.
OLBs: Derrick Hall, Boye Mafe, some guys. Hall and Mafe are second guys in a rotation, but not superstars.
NT: Jarren Reed and Cameron Young. Journeyman Starters that need better people around them to shine.
Safeties: Julian Love, Coby Bryant, and some guys. Been a revolving door with a guy every year showing some promise, but none really stars.

This team really needs some talent upgrades to be competitive. If I were GM, the interior O-line and RT would be a huge priority followed by the LBs. We could use an upgrade at those positions.

[Old but Slow]

This coming draft is rather weak at LB. Offensive guards are plentiful, with the second round a likely spot to get one. I would love it if we could come up with Tyler Booker, the left guard for Bama. He is athletic, big, and a leader, but mainly he is a beast. There are some centers with promise in the early rounds. None of the QBs, except Neon's son will go in the first round unless a team or two reaches for one.

Overall, this is a weak draft, with a few bright spots. Do not be shocked if they pick another DT in the first round. Mason Graham is one of the top 10 player in the draft. Another beast. There are TEs in nearly every round who could be good. Safety is sparse early, with Malaki Starks standing as one of the more exciting players available, bit few others impress. Pass rushers are not exciting, but there some middle rounders who could develop. We could see a WR taken as they are many from round on to day 3, and with Lockett near the end, they might.

Fun speculating. But this team needs to build a team, not just a bunch of good players.

[Irish Greg 2.0]

One day, everyone will realize John Schneider is not a good GM. He hasn't been, for a long time. He has lived off the awesome success early on, but I still think that was largely Pete. He was terrible in the draft for a long time (although recently he has been better), made panic trades to cover holes he could have fixed in the off-season, and re-signs mid-tier vets to inflated free agent contracts (Noah Fant is a great example).

He routinely puts out a poor OL and we have a significant talent gap between us and the good teams, while also being right up against the cap all the time. I won't crush JS for the misfire on LBs this season because I suspect those were the guys Macdonald thought would be good fits for his defense. As of now, we are $5 million OVER the 2025 cap with a roster that is bang average and 9-8ish every season. Actually, looking at the schedule it will be amazing if they win 9 this season.

It's time to blow it up, but I doubt Jody Allen has the stomach for that after having to axe Pete.

2025 cap numbers:
Geno Smith $38.5M
DK Metcalf $31.8M
Tyler Lockett $30.8M
Leonard Williams $29.1M
Dre'mont Jones $25.6M
Uchenna Nwosu $21.4M
Noah Fant $13.5M

You can't build a competitive roster with more than 1/3 of your cap going to a mid-tier QB, a diva WR and an aging WR.

[NorthHawk]

It sounds like Lucas will play against the 49ers so maybe there is a bit of hope for the OL - at least on the edges.
I hope he's completely healthy and not just giving it one more try in the hopes he can make it work. It doesn't help the IOL much, though.

[Irish Greg 2.0]

It sounds like Lucas will play against the 49ers so maybe there is a bit of hope for the OL - at least on the edges.
I hope he's completely healthy and not just giving it one more try in the hopes he can make it work. It doesn't help the IOL much, though.

It kind of does help if Lucas can hold up. They can (and should) scheme to help the guards. Having poor players at BOTH RG and RT is just creating an open cavern. If Lucas can return to form, they should be much better.

We still need a new LG, C and RG next season.

[Aseahawkfan]

One day, everyone will realize John Schneider is not a good GM. He hasn't been, for a long time. He has lived off the awesome success early on, but I still think that was largely Pete. He was terrible in the draft for a long time (although recently he has been better), made panic trades to cover holes he could have fixed in the off-season, and re-signs mid-tier vets to inflated free agent contracts (Noah Fant is a great example).

He routinely puts out a poor OL and we have a significant talent gap between us and the good teams, while also being right up against the cap all the time. I won't crush JS for the misfire on LBs this season because I suspect those were the guys Macdonald thought would be good fits for his defense. As of now, we are $5 million OVER the 2025 cap with a roster that is bang average and 9-8ish every season. Actually, looking at the schedule it will be amazing if they win 9 this season.

It's time to blow it up, but I doubt Jody Allen has the stomach for that after having to axe Pete.

2025 cap numbers:
Geno Smith $38.5M
DK Metcalf $31.8M
Tyler Lockett $30.8M
Leonard Williams $29.1M
Dre'mont Jones $25.6M
Uchenna Nwosu $21.4M
Noah Fant $13.5M

You can't build a competitive roster with more than 1/3 of your cap going to a mid-tier QB, a diva WR and an aging WR.

I somewhat agree with this. I think Pete was instrumental in the early drafting. As I understand it in college head coaches are also the GMs of a college team and heavily involved in recruiting. That means Pete had a lot of players on his, "I want them list" that he knew from his days of college recruiting and playing against teams. this gave him an advantage in early drafting as he had target players. But later on I'm not as sure as Pete lost his advantage from being out of college for so long.

I do think trades like Percy Harvin and Jamal Adams were all Pete. Jamal Adams was in Pete's mind his "Kam Replacement", so he went heavy in on Jamal. It turned out to be a bad trade for issues beyond Pete's control and a misassessment of Jamal's coverage abilities as a safety. I think a lot of other trades were driven by Pete as well as he wanted an already accomplished player for the quick turnaround he thought he could do when he didn't see his core team had aged out and he didn't have the horses for SB competition.

How do you tease out John's contribution? We all know Russell Wilson was John's push that Pete got onboard with. But what about the O-line? Pete was the one that wanted to use zone blocking, which as I understand it devalues the O-lineman because the belief is you can plug almost anyone in to block a zone effectively. Less reliance on particular positions, draft more athletic lineman who zone block and cut block people down like Denver back in the day. This obviously did not work out and thus the O-line strategy turned out to be a bad one adopted by Pete early on. I'm not sure if John continued it.

I've never been able to tease out what was John's and what was Pete's due to the power dynamic in the organization, which is why I'm willing to give John a few years as "The Man." But IG may be right and John turns out to be mostly a product of Pete's early success and knowledge of players from his college days recruiting and coaching against teams. I'm pretty sure one of our most successful trades for Marshawn Lynch was all Pete. He knew Lynch. Knew he could turn him around and knew he was a beast runner.

Does John have his own philosophy? How good is Mike Mac at helping pick talent? How much rope do you give both to get it done? Not sure on that, but at least a few years.

[River Dog]

One day, everyone will realize John Schneider is not a good GM. He hasn't been, for a long time. He has lived off the awesome success early on, but I still think that was largely Pete. He was terrible in the draft for a long time (although recently he has been better), made panic trades to cover holes he could have fixed in the off-season, and re-signs mid-tier vets to inflated free agent contracts (Noah Fant is a great example).

He routinely puts out a poor OL and we have a significant talent gap between us and the good teams, while also being right up against the cap all the time. I won't crush JS for the misfire on LBs this season because I suspect those were the guys Macdonald thought would be good fits for his defense. As of now, we are $5 million OVER the 2025 cap with a roster that is bang average and 9-8ish every season. Actually, looking at the schedule it will be amazing if they win 9 this season.

It's time to blow it up, but I doubt Jody Allen has the stomach for that after having to axe Pete.

2025 cap numbers:
Geno Smith $38.5M
DK Metcalf $31.8M
Tyler Lockett $30.8M
Leonard Williams $29.1M
Dre'mont Jones $25.6M
Uchenna Nwosu $21.4M
Noah Fant $13.5M

You can't build a competitive roster with more than 1/3 of your cap going to a mid-tier QB, a diva WR and an aging WR.

I agree completely with your last sentence, which is why I've been advocating that we trade Metcalf before he wants even more money. You don't build championship teams around a wide receiver.

[NorthHawk]

Successful teams are built from the inside out. QB, IOL, DT/NT, ILB first then add the edges. Until a team has that in place the chances of being successful are slim. The one caveat is having an all world QB who can make up for an inadequacy of the IOL or OL in general.
Having said that, if you have some of the edge pieces in place, it's a matter of developing/adding to the middle. It makes the job quicker, so I'm on the fence about trading DK or any other player on this relatively limited talented team.

[River Dog]

Successful teams are built from the inside out. QB, IOL, DT/NT, ILB first then add the edges. Until a team has that in place the chances of being successful are slim. The one caveat is having an all world QB who can make up for an inadequacy of the IOL or OL in general.
Having said that, if you have some of the edge pieces in place, it's a matter of developing/adding to the middle. It makes the job quicker, so I'm on the fence about trading DK or any other player on this relatively limited talented team.

You're preaching to the choir.