EPS 51 Podcast: How to Fix the Defense

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Hawks Playbook Podcast Episode 51 – How to Fix the Defense

Open: Hey Hawks Fans, welcome to another episode of the Hawks Playbook Podcast.  Today, Keith and Bill discuss the current state of the once vaunted defense, and the steps we could take to get back to being feared once again.  We start with a look at the coaching, our existing roster and a quick look at a few players available in Free Agency.

Featured Segment: The Defense is not Broken Right?

Seahawks defensive rankings in key categories:

Points Allowed: 20.8 (14^th)

Yards Allowed: 323.2 (11^th)

Pass Allowed: 209.2 (6^th)

Rush Allowed: 114.0 (19^th)

DVOA ranking: 14^th

Questions abound all around the current roster before the team embarks into free agency and gets ready for the 2018 NFL Draft.

• Does the team move on from Sheldon Richardson, or do they extend a franchise tag or try to resign the 27-year-old defensive tackle?
• Will the team cut Cliff Avril, Jeremy Lane and even punter John Ryan to generate addition cap savings?
• What about Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas? How many of those premier vets return to the team or do we leverage guys like Thomas and Sherman by trading those assets for compensation while we could get premium return for them?
• Additional question marks include: Resign Maxwell? How to Tender Justin Coleman and Dion Jordan? Should the team try to resign Bradley McDougald?
• Will the team play a big role in free agency or do they sit back and play the value market after the big deals go down in the hectic first week?

Close: While there are plenty of question marks, the team remains in good hands with Pete Carroll and John Schneider.  We can expect them to make sound decisions, and maybe some difficult roster choices during free agency.  We can expect to lose players we all wish we could keep. We can expect to sign players on value contracts that you’ve never heard of in incrementally improve the defense. But don’t expect the Seahawks to be big players.  This year is all about consolidating the roster and trying to get younger via the draft, while looking a little bit forward to the 2019 season where the team will have more cap flexibility and a load of newly acquired comp picks to add to the youth movement the team needs to take to get better, and hopefully make a return to the Super Bowl.

Make sure you join Bill and Keith for Episode 52, our One Year Anniversary Podcast! This will be a fun and loose Q & A show.  Make sure to submit your listener questions to Bill and Keith and we will read and answer them next week!

Go Hawks!