Seahawks

PED suspension just part of the Bruce Irvin package

Published May 18, 2013 | By Casey McLain | Posted in Seahawks

As I pondered what to write and think about Bruce Irvin suspension I couldn’t figure out whether or not to be outraged or validated. I was one of many that didn’t love the Bruce Irvin pick last year. Irvin performed well in stretches, and showed the kind of athletic dominance that made the Seahawks’ brass fall in love with him.

We give the front office a ton of credit because they’ve had a tremendous history thus far in the draft despite being roundly criticized in their first three years. They haven’t had a ton of success in the first round, but the idea that they’re somehow better at spotting talent later on is flawed logic.

And when they drafted Bruce Irvin there was also a lot of criticism for the front office. He’s too small. He won’t play every down. His technique is unrefined. He didn’t show any pass-rush moves at West Virginia.

More importantly though, he’s shown a tendency to be kind of a dumbfuck.

Irvin dropped out of high school and got arrested after the combine. At one point he thought he played for the Redskins, and just last week he took to twitter to announce he’d cut his hair on the same day as the NBA Board of Governors meeting, an event that drew a lot of attention from Seattle sports fans:

Loving my haircut! twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/s…

— Bruce Irvin (@BIrvin_WVU11) May 16, 2013

Now Irvin, a defensive end on a team that will likely be without Chris Clemons for much of the 2013 season, and a defensive end that could benefit greatly from weight gain that doesn’t ruin his quickness, has been caught using a substance that belongs to a family of substances – amphetamines – that have been used historically for weight loss.

He’s on a… Continue reading →

Seattle Seahawks draft recap: Competition abound

Published April 27, 2013 | By Casey McLain | Posted in NFL Draft, Seahawks

I must admit I’ve spent less time watching the draft this year than any other year. The coverage and effort put into the coverage has become akin to reality TV in my opinion, looking more like a Housewives of Where-the-fuck-ever reunion than sports programming.

It has become a near-annual tradition for Seahawks fans to hate the team’s draft on draft day, but to leave with some sort of optimism based on the team’s history of success in the draft. It seems like this year there is more upfront optimism, skipping out on hard feelings founded in preconceived opinions of players.

What we’ve found out, and one of the major difference between the Pete Carroll/John Schneider combination compared to Tim Ruskell is that this regime is willing to take risks. They’ve assembled a team that is pretty solid at just about every position, so in every spot in the draft they pick a guy that has potential to be a starter some day. Gone are the days when the Seahawks draft players who are bound to be career backups, but also gone are the days when the Seahawks draft guys that are sure to contribute on snaps.

We’ve seen this team cut players early and we’ve seen them give significant snaps to undrafted and low-drafted players. We’ve seen this team vow to make everyone compete, even the best players on the team, and it seems likely that this year the competition will be rich, albeit not at the quarterback position like it was last year.

Here’s a look at who the Seahawks picked:

Round 2, 60^th overall

Christine Michael, RB, Texas A&M

Michael is a big, physical back. Mike Mayock called him the “most gifted tailback in this class” but with off-field issues. He’s also broken his leg… Continue reading →

Watch this Video of new Seattle Seahawks cornerback Antoine Winfield

Published April 13, 2013 | By Casey McLain | Posted in Seahawks

For most of the past decade and a half Antoine Winfield has been one of the league’s hardest hitting cornerbacks, and now he’ll bring his style, albeit aged a bit, to Seattle. The Seahawks need a replacement for Marcus Trufant, both because Trufant isn’t under contract with the team, and also because the longtime Seahawks corner simply hasn’t been very good for a couple years.

Last year the Seahawks were dominated by slot receivers and tight ends, and also fell victim to substantial rushing days from the Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins. Part of Winfield’s allure is that he’ll be able to keep the Seahawks third linebacker off the field on some medium down-and-distance plays, which should expand that talent pool and reduce the required salary or draft pick compensation the Seahawks will have to forfeit to replace Leroy Hill. The other part is that you probably won’t see the likes of Wes Welker and Davone Bess going over the middle at their own will.

Winfield is 35 years old now. He’s two years removed from his third straight Pro Bowl appearance, and a full season removed from a broke collarbone that caused him to miss 11 games in 2011. In aging players we look for injuries and potential repetition of those injury. Generally speaking, a broken bone carries less chance of repeated injury than a torn tendon or ligament, but tell that to Rob Gronkowski, and don’t check the wall in my office for a medical degree. Collarbone injuries seem to be the kind of injury, for what it’s worth, that a player who plays like Winfield plays, especially at his size may be prone too, and thus more prone to repeating, but again, I’m no… Continue reading →

Brady Quinn a member of the Seahawks for now and for maybe a while

Published April 9, 2013 | By Casey McLain | Posted in Seahawks

After the Seahawks came out swinging in free agency, signing Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett after already trading for Percy Harvin, Seahawks fans have had little to do but to wring their hands over the backup quarterback position.

Not Justin Bieber.

The intrigue at the position is multidimensional, as the team had to trade Matt Flynn to justify interest in adding a veteran signal caller, and now that they have traded Flynn speculation has transferred to veterans they were trying out, and to the mid-late rounds of the draft.

The team will sign, or has signed, or is trying to sign, or whatever, Brady Quinn. Quinn is the same guy that got criticized for having a haircut that was too long and for chewing gum as he went to meet the commissioner after a long green room wait at the draft, and then a guy that has become just generally not a very good quarterback, with a 53.8 percent completion rate, 12 career touchdowns and 17 career interceptions in 550 pass attempts.

Quinn’s yards per completion are league-average-ish, and his raw talent coming out was fairly well documented, though questions about his accuracy on draft day caused him to drop to the 22nd overall pick. Quinn was famously passed over for Jamarcus Russell, who the Raiders took first overall, and who may be the biggest bust in NFL history.

When you think of Brady Quinn you certainly don’t think of a Russell Wilson clone: Quinn’s substantially taller, but he’s significantly next athletic. That said, the Seahawks have never directly said that they’re looking for a quarterback who can excel in the read-option, nor have they said that they’ll be making substantial increases to the pistol set in their offensive playbook. The media has bestowed those two assumptions on… Continue reading →

Seattle Seahawks Sign Cliff Avril

Published March 13, 2013 | By Casey McLain | Posted in Seahawks

For the second time in less than a week the Seahawks have made a move that brought in a high profile player who was perceived to be available, but that also comes at a position of relative depth. Earlier in the week it was Percy Harvin, and today, apparently, it is Cliff Avril.

Of course, Chris Clemons knee reconstruction leaves a murky picture at the LEO spot, and while the team was expected to complement their pass-rush in some way, signing Cliff Avril didn’t seem like a likely scenario. ~~All of these situations are very fluid, and I’m sure by the time I’m done writing this post this story will have evolved three-fold, as we presently don’t have contract terms.~~

Updating: Per @adamschefter, Cliff Avril’s deal with #Seahawks is for $15 million over twoyears. Gets another chance at FA when he’s 28.

— Kevin Seifert (@espn_nfcnblog) March 14, 2013

Avril has apparently signed for two years, $15 million, which is about as ideal a scenario as one could ask for as Avril is an great-ish talent, and this gives the Seahawks time to groom his replacement.

For Avril’s part, he’s got 39.5 career sacks in five years, 73 games, and 59 starts in Detroit. 20.5 of those have come in the past two years, and Avril was arguably the top free agent defensive end on the market.

Earlier this offseason we looked at Chris Clemons future in Seattle, and determined that it wouldn’t be efficient for the team to cut Clemons and then attempt to sign his replacement with the money saved, as the money they’d save cutting Clemons is relatively small at $2.3 million. Now that they’ve signed his essential replacement, though, Clemons may be a surplus part that doesn’t have playing time available to… Continue reading →