Pete Carroll Era Begins in Seattle; Seattle Seahawks 2010 Preview
It seemed as if the past couple of seasons, the Seattle Seahawks were trying to avoid a rebuilding process. Instead of setting themselves up for the future, they tried to fill their needs with aging veterans who so far have either underperformed or have been frequently injured in their tenure in Seattle.
The team has pulled out all the stops but none seem to have worked. They have seen players like Matt Hasselbeck, Walter Jones and Marcus Trufant undergo several injuries. They have seen players underperform including Deion Branch, Leroy Hill and Ken Lucas. They have acquired several veteran free agents including T.J Houshmandzadeh and Julius Jones. They have let go Shaun Alexander, Julian Peterson and Rocky Bernard. You get the picture- it’s chaos.
The team has also had instability atop the organization. Mike Holmgrem left the team following the 2008 season, with Jim Mora Jr replacing him. This offseason, just days after President of Football Operations Tim Ruskell resigned, Mora was fired and longtime USC coach Pete Carroll was brought in to replace him. Carroll was also made the vice president of football operations.
Carroll has coached in the NFL before and has an average record. He coached the Jets in 1994 to a 6-10 finish, then coached the Patriots from 1997-1999 for seasons of 10-6, 9-7 and 8-8. He had great success coaching at USC though, which has labelled him as a “college coach”. Very few college coaches succeed at the NFL level.
On offense, heading into this year, the team’s biggest question is at quarterback. Hasselbeck is 35 years old and threw 17 interceptions last year. Eight of those came in two horrible outings in December though. Hasselbeck was 5-7 as a starter last year, which isn’t so bad considering the team he had. With J.P Losman and Charlie Whitehurst behind him, his job isn’t really in jeopardy this season.
The team tried to improve at running back this offseason. Julius Jones is not a tough runner and has struggled since leaving Dallas. The Seahawks weren’t sold on his backup either, Justin Forsett, and traded for Carroll’s former RB at USC Lendale White. However White failed a drug test and due to his poor work ethic, he was released just one month later. They also landed Leon Washington hoping he could recover from a compound leg fracture and take the starting job. That is very unlikely.
The Seahawks did make the effort to improve their offensive line as they installed a new system and drafted accordingly.
The passing game will likely be the team’s bread and butter this season. Houshmandzadeh is a solid receiver and has sure hands. Branch is an injury-prone player and that will likely open the door for younger players to assume bigger roles.
On defence, the Seahawks were atrocious against the pass last year. They were ranked 30th last season and 32nd two seasons ago. Injuries to CB Marcus Trufant didn’t help either and the team doesn’t have enough playmakers.
Seattle’s first round pick Earl Thomas will provide immediate help at safety and can fill the playmaking void in the secondary.
The team is still missing a solid pass rush and that will make defending the pass even more difficult.
The line-backing core is not reliable either but this season Lofa Tatupu and David Hawthorne may step up this year as both are returning to their natural positions, Tatupu in the middle and Hawthorne on the weak side.
Seattle’s special-teams is hard to evaluate. Olindo Mare is one of the best kickers of this era but punter Jon Ryan and the punt team struggled last year as opponents averaged 11.1 yards per return. If Leon Washington recovers from his injury, he can provide unbelievable playmaking ability and a threat to score on any given play, but that is unlikely.
Overall the Seahawks have made some good moves and are beginning to address the team’s problems. However there is still a lot more work to be done as their pass defence is still really weak and their running game is unsteady. They’re probably looking at a similar finish to last year or maybe a slight improvement if they're lucky.
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