Manning to the Seahawks?

It didn’t take too long for the media to start asking if the Seattle Seahawks would take part in the bidding war for soon to be ex-Colts quarterback, Peyton Manning. However, yahoo! wonders if it would make more sense for the Seahawks to consider Mario Williams instead of Peyton Manninig. This is the same thing we did on our Arizona Cardinals blog, citing the age, health, and position as reasons one may want to sign Williams over Manning. We don’t expect the Seahawks to pursue Peyton Manning to the extent that other teams will, and adding a premier defensive lineman like Mario Williams would be a great addition to the Seahawks defense. Williams is one of the best defensive lineman in the NFL, and I’m sure Seattle Seahawks fans would love to see him in green.

Seahawks will Pick 12th

The Seattle Seahawks and the Kansas City Chiefs finished dead even last season and the tie-breaker to determine who was to select 11th and who was to select 12th in the 2012 NFL Draft was to be determined via a coin flip. Unfortunately for the Seattle Seahawks, they lost the toss and will be picking 12th in the upcoming NFL Draft. Obviously the Seahawks are disappointed over the results of the toss, but they should still be able to find a talented player with a bright future using the 12th pick.

Most mock drafts expect the Seahawks to use the pick on a pass rusher, after finishing with only 33 sacks last season, this is an area that the Seahawks desperately need to address. When a team is unable to disrupt the timing of the opposing QB, it usually results in a long day for that team. A pass rusher is only one of several areas that the Seahawks need to address, so if they don’t think a pass rusher is worth using the 12th pick on, the Seahawks will surely look to fill a different need on their team.

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Seattle Finishes Season With a Loss

Seattle had a shot to finish .500, but fell to Arizona on Sunday in OT.  Of course when the game hit overtime it should have been known that the Cards were going to win, they were a perfect 4-0 in the extra period this year.  This was a meaningless game for both teams.  They both were eliminated from playoff contention the previous week.  Ultimately all this game decided was where each team would draft in April.  The Seahawks as a result of this lost will get the 12th pick, while Arizona sits one spot lower at 13th.  There are 7 teams in all that finished 8-8, so Seattle may have even been lower than 13th, so it is probably a good thing that they did lose the game.

This was a pretty similar game to what happened throughout the entire season. Jackson acted as a game manager, throwing for 222 yards, a TD, and his first INT in 4 games.  Lynch had another solid day, rushing for 86 yards on 19 carries.  In fact, I was a little surprised he didn’t surpass 20 carries in the game.  It was a career year for Lynch who rushed for 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns.  He is an impending free agent, but I have to imagine Seattle will make a strong push to bring him back. I fully expect Lynch back in Seattle next year.  Leon Washington had a 48 yard rush for a score and finished with 78 on the day.  His explosive ability wasn’t utilized enough this year in the offensive game, but he showed flashes of what he is capable of in this game.  He may be a bigger part of the offensive game this year.

The wide receiver situation for next year will be an interesting thing to follow.  Sidney Rice will be back, and hopefully healthy.  This should be huge in the passing game that struggled much of the year.  It is mildly concerning that the passing game was actually better with Rice out, but this is likely more of a result of a more conservative offensive attack that was centered around Marshawn Lynch.  However, with a better QB, Rice can be better utilized.  Doug Baldwin had a great rookie season, especially for an undrafted free agent.  He had 51 catches for 788 yards and 4 TDs, and could see a huge role next year.  Of course Mike Williams struggled this year, and then went on the IR midway through the season.  I have a hard time seeing him retained, especially with the emergence of Baldwin.  There is also Obomanu, who could work well as a 3rd receiver and Golden Tate who has disappointed in the early stages of his career.

The biggest aspect of this offseason will certainly be the biggest issue for Seattle fans, or at least I hope so.  Jackson wasn’t awful this year, but with the talent on defense and Marshawn Lynch emerging as a great RB, the only position holding them back has to be QB.  The defense ranked in the top half of the league in both rushing and passing, and have a ton of promising young players in Chancellor, Thomas, Browner, among other.  Now with the 12th pick in the draft, the elite QBs aren’t likely to be available, but both the top two picks may be looking to trade back.  I doubt the Colts give up the pick for Andrew Luck, but the Rams don’t have much of a need for Robert Griffin III.  St. Louis may be hard pressed to trade to a division rival however.  If they want to take a QB where they are currently slotted, they make look at Texas A&M’s Ryan Tannehill or possibly Landry Jones out of Oklahoma, depending on if he decides to enter the draft.  There is a long time between now and April, so there will be some updates on what Seattle is thinking from now until and then.

They could also go the free agency route, where there will be a few interesting names.  The biggest is likely Matt Flynn, the Packers backup QB.  He exploded last week against Detroit for over 500 yards and 6 TD’s.  Obviously this is a small sample size, with his one other career start last year against the Patriots.  He is a solid option who did look impressive, but I have a feeling someone is going to overpay for a guy with just two career starts.  Backup QB’s sometimes turnout great for other teams, look at Drew Brees (who was actually a starter most of his time in San Diego), Matt Schaub, and to an extent Ryan Fitzpatrick.  But you don’t have to look too far back to see where it didn’t really work out, at least not yet.  The Cardinals gave up a first round pick and former first round pick Rodgers-Cromartie for Kevin Kolb just last offseason.  He then was was signed to a huge contract, despite starting just a handful of games in his career.  He had an injury plagued season, but was also very ineffective when playing.  It is probably too early to consider him a complete bust of a trade, but I doubt they make the trade in hindsight.  Other options will likely include Jason Campbell, Vince Young, Kyle Orton, and some others, but it is hard to say if any of these options are better than Jackson.

Niners End Playoff Hopes

Seattle played a good game, and even held the lead late in the fourth quarter, but ultimately couldn’t defeat the NFC West Champions.  Both teams played solid defense, and it came down to a costly fumble by Tarvaris Jackson to seal the deal.  Jackson didn’t play a horrible game against one of the best defenses in the NFC.  He didn’t throw any interceptions, and added 163 yards in the air and one score.  It was a pretty similar line that Jackson has produced in recent past.  This is the fourth straight game in which he threw for one touchdown and no interceptions.  He hasn’t exactly aired it out, but by keeping the ball in his own players hands has been big in the recent success for Seattle.  Earlier in the year fans were calling for Charlie Whitehurst, but Jackson has solidified his stance as the starter this year.  He will likely be the favorite to start next year unless another QB is acquired.

Getting Sidney Rice back will be a big plus in the passing game especially with the emergence of Doug Baldwin this year.  Still, the offense runs through Marshawn Lynch.  He had a huge season for a career year in which he has already run for over 1100 yards and 12 touchdowns.  He topped 100 yards once again on Sunday, which was the first time all season the 49ers allowed a 100 yard rusher.  He also scored the first rushing TD against San Francisco all year.  That is pretty impressive considering how dominant the Niners have been all season.

The Defense has been solid all year, and with the improvements by the offense, I expect Seattle to be a strong competitor in the NFC West next season.  Of course this will also depend on how good the Niners are.  If they win another 13 games, they will be tough to top.  However, they at least proved last game that they can keep up with them.  This Sunday they have the Cardinals in Arizona.  Both teams enter the game at 7-8, which guarantees that at least one more NFC West team will finish at .500.  This is big improvement from last season.  Arizona has been hot, but John Skelton has also been erratic.  Seattle played them back in September and won 13-10.  This was also during their losing streak, and this is a much improved team from then.  The motivation isn’t high for either team, but it would be nice for Seattle to end the season at .500 and on a high note.

Seattle’s Defense Dominates

The Seahawks improved to .500 on the year after they beat the Bears on the road on Sunday, 38-14.  For the high score, the offense didn’t really show up.  Despite two scores, Marshawn Lynch had one of his more ineffective games of the season.  He finished with just 42 yards despite 20 carries.  Tarvaris Jackson had a typical line, not very exciting but effective.  For the third straight game, he had one touchdown to zero interceptions.  Not turning the ball over has been key in the strong stretch that the Seahawks are in now.

Turnovers on the defensive end were also crucial as they caused 5 of them.  2 of them were inerceptions that went back for a score.  In fact, that is what jump started the scoring.  The Bears led 14-7 at the half, but took the lead after Red Bryant took a Caleb Hanie pass 20 yards back to the house.  Hanie threw 3 int’s, and when Josh McCown came into replace him, he threw one as well.

This marked 5th win in 6 games for Seahawks, which has kept them in the playoff race.  They did there job to takeover Chicago, as they are both 7-7 but Seattle holds the tie breaker now.  The Giants had an embarrassing loss to Washington and Seattle has a better conference record to hold the tie breaker there as well.  Arizona is also 7-7, and the two teams will meet on the final week of the season.  They nearly got more help when Detroit trailed Oakland by double digits.  Stafford and Calvin came roaring back though to take a last minute lead and escape with win.  They improved to 9-5 on the season and currently hold the final wild card spot.  Hope is not lost though, because if Seattle wins their final two games with Detroit losing both of theirs, Seattle will overtake them for the last playoff spot.  This seems unrealistic, but not entirely when looking at their schedule.  Detroit faces San Diego on Saturday who is one of the hottest teams in the league.  They are coming off three straight wins, including their latest thrashing of Baltimore on Sunday night.  Philip Rivers is on fire as of late, and that game promises to be a shootout.  If they fall to the Chargers, they have the best team in football on tap.  The Packers are coming off their first loss of the season, but still remain elite.  As long as they decide not to “pack” it in, Detroit has a real challenge on their hands.  Green Bay crushed them on Thanksgiving, so they give Seattle some hope.

As for Seattle, San Francisco is up next.  They have quite the challenge themselves so I won’t look too far ahead.  The niners are coming off a Monday Night win over the battered Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers.  The defense was bruising, causing Big Ben to take a lot of hits and make some mistakes.  The key to beating San Francisco will be in stopping them on defense and not making turnovers.  Alex Smith has been solid this year, but he doesn’t make a lot of big plays.  He won’t throw all over Seattle, so keeping them in poor field position will be a key.  Frank Gore is running great, but Harbaugh has made it apparent that he won’t run him into the ground.  He has been bruised up himself, so it won’t be surprising if his carries are limited, obviously a plus for Seattle.  Their defense is great at causing turnovers, a lot through their great pass rush.  Rookie Aldon Smith has been unstoppable as of late, getting to the QB an incredible pace.  Patrick Willis is hurt, so that could also help Seattle.  The biggest game of the year for the Seahawks is at 4 on Sunday in Seattle.

Seahawks Stomp Rams

We confirmed two things about the Seahawks from last week, their defense is pretty good and Marshawn Lynch is a pretty damn good runner.  Lynch ran for over 100 yards again which marks the 5th time in 6 games.  He has already reached a career high in rushing touchdowns and is on pace to break his season high in rushing yards.  This team thrives when Lynch gets the football and he proved it once again as he sealed the deal on a 16 yard touchdown run late in the 4th quarter.  He took the ball 23 times and ran for 115 yards.  Tarvaris Jackson played a solid game completing 21 of 32 for 224 yards and threw a 3rd quarter TD pass to Doug Baldwin.  Baldwin was the leading receiver, and he continues to have a solid rookie season.

It was the defense that stepped up in this one though and gave Seattle an early lead.  Michael Robinson took a blocked punt in for a TD early in the first for the first score of the game.  The first offensive score by either team was with 6 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.  In fact, it took until just under 5 minutes left in the 4th for the Rams to finally punch one in the endzone when Stephen Jackson ran it in for 1 yard.  Bradford was erratic, completing less than half of his passes for no scores and interception.  Stephen Jackson could never really get it going, rushing for 63 yards on 20 carries, but he did add 60 yards receiving, 50 on one play.  Brandon Lloyd continues to be the only good receiver for St. Louis, catching 5 balls for 82 yards.

With this win, the Seahawks improve to 6-7 and still have a shot at the playoffs.  They have won 4 of their last 5 games, including two against St. Louis and solid wins over Philly and Baltimore.  They have Chicago next, who can’t buy a win since they lost Cutler and Forte.  Caleb Hanie is one of the least capable QB’s in the league right now and Marion Barber almost single handily gave the Broncos a win last week with a bone head move in regulation and extremely costly fumble in OT.  They have lost 3 straight, which is good news for Seattle considering they are one of their main competitors for a wild card spot. They currently stand at 7-6 and Seattle has a great chance of evening up with them on Sunday.