This week in the News:

The passing of Seahawks legend Cortez Kennedy DT from 1990-2000 / Ring of Honor / Hall of Famer

Keith talks about the death of Cortez Kennedy, but importantly, he focuses on the player that Kennedy was for the Seattle Seahawks, as well as the kind of person that was.  It’s simply way too soon to lose a man like Cortez Kennedy, and he will be sorely missed in the Seahawks community.

  • Seahawks started their OTA’s (Organized Team Activities) on Tuesday. With no specifics to report, Bill and Keith look towards the next week’s show, after journalists have access to a couple of additional practices that hopefully produce additional details on specific players.
  • Kaepernick came in for a visit. The mutual interest is real, but no contract yet, and we are now learning that Kaepernick will likely not sign a contract in Seattle, and both the team and the player are looking in other directions. Keep in mind that Seattle does still currently have Treyvon Boykin under contract to be the primary backup to Russel Wilson at this point, but expect Seattle to bring in another veteran before training camp as insurance.

Featured Segment: Defensive Line Battles. DT’s and DE’s

Bill and Keith breakdown both the defensive end and defensive tackle position in our featured segment.  We take a deep dive into the primary starters in Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett as well as key contributor Frank Clark at the end position.  Will this be the year that age and injury catch of to our pro bowl caliber defensive ends?  Can Frank Clark continue to develop and reach double digit sacks again in 2017?

As we switch the topic over to our defensive tackle group we highlight the improvement we are likely to see in our interior pass rush from this position.  This will come primarily from 2nd year pro Quinton Jefferson, who spent the bulk of 2016 on injured reserve, and newly drafted defensive tackle, Malik “Leek” McDowell.  Bill and Keith and quickly imagine a greatly improved front 7 for Seattle that is keyed off of the improvement, we are likely to see from being able to generate pressure and disruption up the middle this season.  There are lots of reasons to get excited about the defense this year and it starts with this group.

 

Question of the Week

Did they ever determine from the league just what too much contact means in preseason practices?  And what is the remedy?

How will they avoid this “gotcha” nit picking fine in the future?  Just how is this illegal practice reported to the league in the first place?  Who does it?