During the course of the 2015 NFL Preseason, Oregon Sports News will feature a weekly season preview of one of the four teams housed by the NFC West. Each weekly breakdown will feature one of the division mates (previews to be scheduled based on ascending order of the 2014 division standings) with roster and coaching overviews, where to place expectations, and as they embark on their 2015 campaigns, a prediction for each team, some more bold than others.
Click here for the Arizona Cardinals season preview
Click here for the San Francisco 49ers season preview
Click here for the St. Louis Rams season preview
Seattle’s entire 2014 season was wasted because of one play – That is 100% untrue, but is that not the public perception? Whether you bleed blue and green, hate the “Seachickens”, or find yourself somewhere in between, that’s probably how’d you sum up the result of their chance to seal their second straight Super Bowl title – “what a waste”.
For those that do not recall, didn’t pay close enough attention, or simply blacked it out as a mental defense mechanism, here it is one last time, in text, real imagery is not kind in this case.
With 27 seconds left in the Super Bowl and New England holding a four point lead, the ball is spotted at the Patriots’ one yard line, 2nd and goal to go, Seattle ball. Marshawn Lynch lines up on Russell Wilson’s left in the Shotgun, two receivers line up wide right, one wide left, and five linemen and a TE form the line ready to push any Patriot player out of the way. The common thought is that Lynch is getting the ball, Seattle is winning this game, and New England would be 0-3 in their last three Super Bowls of the Tom Brady-Era after going 3-0 in their first three. And despite what you may have heard, neither side can legitimately tell you that what happened next was all “according to plan”.
Making things extremely curious is that New England lined up with six defensive backs and five pass rushers, almost daring Seattle to run. As Wilson called for the ball and the play began, it sure looked like Seattle would get the advantage as Ricardo Lockette slanted in as Malcolm Butler sat back a couple of yards in the end zone, and for a split second it looked like it was game over in favor of Seattle as long as Lockette caught the pass. But just as Wilson threw the ball, Butler leapt forward, made a better play on the ball, and as Lockette bounced backward off of the force of Butler’s attempt to catch the ball, Lockette slammed to the turf while Butler landed on the ground with the game-saving interception.
There are arguments for either side as far as how to feel about such a loss, but no matter how you slice it, this was a Lombardi Trophy sized dagger in the hearts of every Seattle player and fan, and their best shot at being champs a second time may have passed them by (no pun intended) as they enter another tough season in a league rapidly trying to emulate what they are already doing. That’s the life of a NFL champion these days, either find a new identity, or become another page in the record books.
2015 could be all that much easier, or all that much worse – Let’s face it, you needed more red-zone scoring threats and more offense. As good as this defense is (and we thought, unselfish), the war of attrition simply wasn’t going to let you keep all of your stalwart defenders in house forever, and age was eventually going to play a factor even if greed and selfishness were kept in Pandora’s Box where they belong. Given one, maybe two more years, and the Seattle team you loved or hated in 2013 was going to look drastically different on both sides of the ball in 2016. Marshawn Lynch can only have a couple more all-pro seasons left in his legs, and clones of him aren’t being made yet, so a runner perfect for a scheme will have to be replaced, and that’s no easy task. So far, Lynch’s heir has yet to show himself and the in-house candidates keep getting shipped elsewhere.
Whether or not you have Lynch, you need aerial targets and red-zone TD threats. TE Jimmy Graham has been labeled a “freak” of an athlete, and his 6’7” frame will be a God-send for QB Russell Wilson, who previously worked with receivers hovering near the 6’ mark, and had no receivers taller than 6’2” other than Luke Willson. Now empowered with a goal line “jumbo” package featuring Lynch, Jimmy Graham, Super Bowl “secret” weapon 6’3” WR Chris Matthews, and 6’5” TE Luke Willson, “DangeRuss” will have a bevy of targets to choose from when the Seahawks get the ball near their opponent’s goal line, but the entire field won’t be safe for defenders either.
And once Wilson gets comfortable tossing darts to Graham down the seam, look out NFL, because only Rob Gronkowski is as good in such plays, which may have been the biggest case for Seattle to trade for Graham after Gronk was instrumental in keeping the Patriots on pace with Seattle in the Super Bowl.
On the defensive side, things look to be settling but one has to wonder how many times Richard Sherman can anchor a secondary with a revolving door opposite him before he is stuck shadowing the opponent’s best receiver just like a lot of corners. Sherman is absolutely capable of the shadow treatment but there is something to his argument that a defense works better as players working set assignments rather than shifting to match the offense. When the defense has two capable corners, it leaves fewer holes to mask, and stopping offense is all about masking opportunity.
Sherman and the defense are also on their third defensive coordinator in four years, on the third starting corner opposite Sherman in three years, and have no way of being certain if safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor will join the defensive backfield early on this season. Conventional wisdom says that they will both be there by week four if not sooner, but the team hasn’t made an confident remarks about their pair of all-pro safeties as Chancellor continues to refuse to report and Thomas is not 100% healthy. New CB Cary Williams seems determined to fill the shoes Brandon Browner and Byron Maxwell filled opposite Sherman most recently, and time will tell how well he fits the Seattle defense.
Roster additions and subtractions aside, Seattle has the league’s fourth-toughest overall schedule in 2015, as well as the 17th toughest home schedule and the league’s toughest road schedule, so early signs would point to Seattle again being unbeatable at home, but vulnerable on the road.
Greed just appears to rear its ugly head each year since the team won its lone title to date, and this offseason MLB Bobby Wagner and QB Russell Wilson signed new deals, while CB Richard Sherman and FS Earl Thomas signed new deals last year, as did DE Michael Bennett. Kam Chancellor signed his deal in 2013, and is already unhappy with it, and Bennett has voiced displeasure over his deal. There is only so much money to dish out, and the Seahawks may have once thought of themselves as rich in young talent, but those youngsters are aware of just how much money is available, and they want their piece, and that doesn’t appear to matter if it impacts the success on the field, not to the uninvolved bystander anyway.
The next year or two could be really telling, and Seattle wouldn’t be the first team to be parted out to the highest bidder, prematurely shortening their NFL reign.
Hopefully the team can remain just that, and put the individuals aside. Putting tunnel vision on the schedule, Seattle travels to play the new-look Rams in week one, then flies to Green Bay in week two, then hosts Bears and Lions in weeks three and four. They could be 4-0 in their first month, but they have just as of good of a chance of going 3-1 or 2-2. With their level of talent it’s highly unlikely that they go the first month with less than two wins in the best weather of the season to test out their new passing weapons, so we’ll leave the dial there at 2-2 or better.
Their season doesn’t get any easier the rest of the way, as they travel to Cincinnati, San Francisco, Minnesota, Baltimore, and Arizona, with their remaining home games against Carolina, Dallas, Arizona, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and St. Louis.
After travelling to Dallas in week 8, the team takes a week off and then has three home games before they visit the Vikings in week 13, so a potentially grueling schedule appears to be built for survival in terms of rest and recharge time being fairly spread out.
Former secondary coach and new DC Kris Richard has a lot riding on his shoulders with his predecessor Dan Quinn in Atlanta and potentially one to three Legion Of Boom members missing in the early weeks, while also breaking in Williams opposite Sherman. Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will have to get extra creative with his play calls on the other side and make sure this new look offense comes out firing, and finally lives up to the expectations set by the defense.
After being picked apart by the league and making moves of their own, this team is perhaps not as deep as they once were, but they are as talented as ever, and barring significant injuries should be the NFC’s top regular season team, yet again. At present no other team has proven worthy of being called Seattle’s equal in the conference now that SF is imploding and Dallas gave up their star running back and lost their top corner to injury, while Green Bay deals with replacing Jordy Nelson and an offensive line that just cannot stay healthy, not to mention a defense that has been inconsistent at best since 2010.
This year could be great for Seattle, the ball really is in their hands. If they field a team as hungry as the one that took over the league in 2013, well, look out, because in that case they can only beat themselves. If they stumble and struggle to find their identity as they did in 2014, there aren’t any juggernauts in the NFC, but they have a difficult enough overall schedule that they might not have the softer late season schedule they might not be able to fully rebound two years in a row.
Whatever the case, it’s a new season and a blank page, forget the past and write the future. Russell Wilson needs to turn the corner and with his new weapons he has nothing left to stop him from being an elite QB on paper and on the field. Lynch needs to keep putting off father time, and Graham needs to be the elite pass catcher he was in New Orleans. If the offense can keep up their end of the bargain, as long as the defense is only stuck replacing Maxwell, they should be as good as last year or better.
The division is most likely theirs for the taking, but how far they go beyond that, again is in their hands.
Prediction: 12-4, 1st in NFC West, #1 seed in NFC, first round bye and homefield advantage throughout
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