Seahawks Have Made One Of The SMARTEST MOVES OF ALL TIME

Seahawks Have Made One Of The SMARTEST MOVES OF ALL TIME

All right, let’s talk Seattle Seahawks. This is the team, guys. Obviously, one of the top contenders in the NFC. They’ve done a remarkable job in terms of building this roster and executing, but lost in the hustle and bustle of how well the Seattle Seahawks have been playing is an absolutely redonulously incredible job the Seahawks team is doing in a couple key areas that people aren’t paying attention to. We’ve got the data though to back it up today, which we’ll get to in just one second. But first, I’m Nick. That is Andrew. And this is Saturday Morning Inspection. All [Music] [Applause] right, the CLC Hawks came to the season with a little bit of a muted expectations. Weren’t really sure what the offense would look like. Sam Darnold to, you know, Gino Smith to Sam Donald, excuse me, Mike McDonald year two, new OC. What exactly was going to go down and obviously they’ve been absolutely phenomenal across the board. Certainly with big playmaking. You look at Sam Donald having a nice season. Offensive line improved. Still some room to grow, but Zable has been a nice addition. But when you dive into the data, there’s an interesting trend emerging. Let’s get into our first graphic here, folks. And you guys, you see how Seahawks fans, you’ll be blown away by this. So this first graphic here is courtesy of Doug Analytics, which is of course an interesting Twitter handle. I am a fan of it. So this is a combination of percent of deep passes that are catchable. That’s the X-axis. So think of that as deep ball accuracy. And the Yaxis Y-axis there is the number of attempts that are 20 plus yards, air yards downfield. So that’s basically how accurate are you on deep balls? That’s the x- axis. And how uh and how often you throw them, that’s the y- axis. And you can see Sam Donald right there has the second best deep ball accuracy in the National Football League with one of the I believe it’s actually the fourth or fifth highest deep ball percentage in the NFL. The only one who’s even close is Brock Perie, who’s thrown the ball all of 778 times this year because of injury. That’s kind of an anomaly. Of course, he’s got a small sample size. There’s no one in Sam Darnold’s league. Like Matthew Stafford is close. Lamar Jackson is close. Jordan Love is close. Fantastic quarterbacks, of course, but Darnold has outplayed them all. And I love Sam Darnold. I think he’s done wonderful things the past two seasons. He’s had a great year so far for Seattle. But do we honestly really believe he’s as physically gifted a deep ball thrower as Matthew Stafford? Let’s hold that thought as we go into our next graphic here. This is courtesy of uh some PFF data that was compiled together. You can see the targets per route run. There is the x-axis there on the bottom. You can see the yards per route run is the y-axis there on the left. So this is basically how often are you targeted per a route rand basis and how many yards do you accumulate on those route run basis as well. You can see there’s a big cluster right in the middle and there’s a couple guys that break out. You can see Drake London, Tyreek Hill, CD Lamb, Stefon Diggs. Usual cast of characters, right? Then you go all the way outside the pack, you see Puka Nua. Obviously he’s having a phenomenal season. He’s a little beat up right now, but he’s a great player. But now when you go even well above the graphic go straight up from Puka Nua you have the outlier of outliers and that’s Jackson Smith and Jigba who’s absolutely dominating on this metric. I mean this is absolutely insane. There isn’t another receiver that’s even remotely close to Jackson Smith and Jigba. Again think about to the first graphic right there was only one guy that was close to Sam Darnold and that’s the guy who’s been hurt small sample size. Here on this graphic there’s no one close to Jackson Smith and Jigba in terms of targets per route run. So, he’s getting he’s being targeted a lot, but his yards per route run is absolutely redonulous. So, here we go. We’ve got one data point. Sam Darnold outlier. JSN outlier. How does this come to be? How does this happen? We obviously know the Seahawks offense is very explosive and efficient. They’ve scored a bunch of points this season, but it’s because of a creative strategy that they’re implementing. And it’s a multi-part strategy, but I want to pull up this next graphic here to highlight what I think is a key part. So you can see here, this is a a personnel mapping of the CLC Hawks of their top five personnel usages. And you can see 11 personnel. That’s what most teams use these days more than anybody else. 34.71%, right? Makes sense. The CLC Hawks then use 12 personnel. And 11 personnel, for anyone who isn’t familiar, one running back, one tight end, that’s the 11. Three wide receivers. 12 personnel is one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers. They use that 31.18% of the time. That is one of the highest uses in the NFL. But their EPA there, guys, that’s what’s absolutely insane. They have the highest EPA, 48.6. That is a massive number, right? EPA is one of those metrics that when you average it out over the course of a season, it’s usually like, you know, less than like 0.1.2. You can see right there on the EPA per pass there, number one, Seattle in terms of their 11 personnel 0.1, right? That’s considered a usually pretty solid EPA. Just the way it works out, it averages around zero. that averages 08 EPA per pass is absolutely insane. And this is what the Seahawks are doing that no one’s paying attention to. We talk about Clint Kubak. We talked about what a smart offensive coordinator he’s doing. This is how they’re outsmarting their competition because it’s not JSN, guys. It’s not Well, he’s playing well, of course. It’s not Sam Darnold, but he’s playing well, of course. It’s the personnel grouping. It’s how they’re attacking defenses. It’s their two tight ends. I think Aoyo is doing well. You look at AJ Barner’s doing well as well. But it’s the way they’re using those two tight ends and that 12 personnel grouping that is making them literally unstoppable right now. What they’ve done here is just outsmart it. They crack the code in terms of how defenses can play them. A few years ago, Shawn McVey when he went to Los Angeles Rams, he cracked the code in terms of using motion and inside zone run schemes and bootlegs to totally just shatter defensive rules, right? Kyle Shanahan did that, of course, a few years earlier when he went to the 49ers. They figured out a way to shatter defensive rules, guys. the Seattle Seahawks. They figured out a way to do it. Now the question is, is this Clint Kubak? Did they stumble upon this genius? No. Clint Kubak’s a good offensive coordinator, but this guy’s Mike McDonald. Mike McDonald knows how to break defensive rules. Why? Because he is the best young defensive mind in football today. This is this marriage. We hear about this marriage of talented scheme, right? You need to have the right play calls to go with your players, right? That’s something we hear all the time. But the marriage of coach, head coach, and coordinator in a team is incredibly important as well. You have a guy in Mike McDonald, literally a mad genius on defense. He’s able to work with a smart young offensive coordinator in Kubak and they’ve come up with a personnel grouping with some strategies with the players they have to literally become unstoppable. They are a living, breathing, walking outlier. what they do statistically, again, look at that Sam Donald graphic, look at that JS graphic, is just outside the realm of how the entire NFL is operating. They have found a way to break the code. They’ve outsmarted everyone and I think they will continue to do so. A lot of people look at McDonald and his multiple defense and the way they use a bunch of different coverages and the way he used their players like Aman War for example, really smart, outstanding. People look at Kubak, what he’s calling his plays, really good job. The players, Jason, uh, Sam playing really good football. That’s all part of it. But what the secret sauce behind the Seattle Seahawks and why they’re a force to reckon with the rest of the season. I mean, this data right here should absolutely terrify what’s going on right now in the NFC West and the NFC at large because they have cracked the code. This is why every defense, no matter how good, has struggled against Seattle and I think will continue to struggle because they’re essentially scheming guys wide open. Not by some trickery, not by some, you know, evil genius sort of elaborate thing we’ve never seen before, but because they understand modern defensive rules via Mike McDonald and they know how to break them with Clint Kubak. This is next level stuff from Seattle, and I think it makes them a serious threat in the NFC. All right, M. I’m curious what you have to say on this one. But first, let’s take a second here to hear from the sponsor of today’s video. All right, I want to take a minute from today’s video to talk about something that’s important to me and I know it’s important to a lot of you guys and that’s finding the right amount of time to fit in the day the chance to eat high quality food that hits all the macronutrient requirements to just just fuel our lifestyles. Guys, listen, I’ve got a little girl, right? And and my wife and I, we’re running around with our hair on fire half the time and trying to keep up with this crazy kid. Plus, we got work stuff, we got family stuff, got to take care of the house for God’s sakes. I mean, there’s just ain’t enough time to just spend time to prepare the quality foods that we want to eat just to give us all the nutrients we need to fuel these lifestyles, right? And I know you guys feel the exact same way. And that’s where our sponsor today, Chomps, comes in. And look, I know it’s a beef steak, but guys, it is delicious. It is awesome stuff. You talk about, my opinion, high quality, 100 calories, 10 g of protein, zero g of sugar. So, it’s tasty quality stuff, and it hits every single box in terms of the nutrients. It’s hard to find, right? Look, the days of going through a drive-thru to try and get a greasy cheeseburger because you don’t have time, that’s over, right? The era of Chomps is here. I highly recommend you check them out. I’m a big fan of their barbecue flavor. But if you’ve got a flavor you prefer, make sure you put it in the comment section below. And while you’re down there, make sure you go to the description box below to click our link to learn more about Chomps. Again, Chomps, great product, and I cannot reiterate enough. 100 calories, 10 g of protein, zero g of sugar, incredibly delicious, fits the lifestyle that I’m trying to run that I know you guys are in the same boat. Make sure you check out Chomps today. All right, M. Enough from me. Over to you. What are your thoughts on all things Seattle Seahawks? Yeah, Nick, I think when you look at Seattle, it’s quite astounding what they were able to accomplish. And I I agree with what you say about, you know, the McDonald knowledge, his knowledge of defense and really how to break the defense is super important married with the play calling ability of Kubak. I think it’s a really great, you know, you got to, you can have the ideas, but if you’re the defensive guy and you don’t have the offensive guy who can call the right plays, I think that’s super important because I think if we went into the season and looked at the the NFL as a whole, how many people put on their binger boards, oh yeah, Sam Darnold, number one rated quarterback per PFF, of course, obviously that was going to be the case. Kenneth Walker, obviously number one rated running back per PFF. That was that was easy. No one, you know, everyone would have expected that this season. Jackson Smith Ajigba, number two rated wide receiver in the NFL this year. That one, you know, everyone saw that coming. And of course, the easiest guess that you could have made at the beginning of the season. Is AJ Barner the top four tight end in all of the NFL this season? Everyone knew who he was. Everyone expected him to have such a big year, right? No. No one expected this stuff. I think this is all really came out of nowhere. And really when you looked at Seattle, I think a lot of people would have thought, you know, man, they lost Gino Smith, they lose DK Metaf, this is a team that’s going to take a major step back. Well, nope. Turns out they knew exactly what they’re doing. Took a huge step forward. Number one offense in the NFL per PFF right now. So really just incredible stuff going on in Seattle. They’ve really turned this team into something special. And I think it’s like what you said, it’s the creativity, it’s the ability to use the talent they have on the ball. It’s like it it it reminds me of uh you know Patriots and one play one player in particular. It’s like uh the the old outside linebacker for the the Patriots, Jamie Collins is a guy who he would go to the Patriots, he’d play super well and it come time to pay him and he’d leave and go to Cleveland and he would stink and he really just didn’t do a whole lot. They paid him a boatload of money. They he leaves Cleveland, comes back to the Patriots, does really well against it. You have to be able to use the guys that you have to the really successful and that that’s what Seattle’s doing here. I think Enjigma is an incredible receiver. I think he’s just really good now that they’re highlighting him. He’s to that point. Kenneth Walker, do I think he’s the best running back in the NFL? This year he’s so far he is. But before this, no, I wouldn’t have said that he’s the best. I say he’s pretty good, but there’s no way that I would say that he was the best. It’s just, you know, silly to think that that would be the case, especially after the years some guys had last year. Sam Darnold, would I say he would have been the best quarterback? No. It’s the genius of this scheme of everything coming together. Something special is happening in Seattle right now. And I think all of this data shows it’s not a fluke. There’s something there’s a there’s a genius behind it. There’s a mindset. There’s there’s really something special going on. Whether it’s the play calling, the scheme, everything meeting up together. this team has built built up by Mike McDonald to something special and I think there’s a really good chance this year Seattle makes deep playoff pushes with the squad they have. I really am excited to see them go down the stretch because this is a really impressive Seattle Seahawk squad. And I’ll give you one final point that should make you pretty excited. The NFL is a copycat league, right? It’s it’s one team sees another team do something well and then they copy it, then everyone copies it, right? So what the Secks are doing in terms of how they’re using personnel grouping and play calls to generate like outlier performances, outlier of outlier. Again, go back to that JSN graphic. Go back to that Sam Darnold graphic. I mean, it’s incredible what they’re doing statistically and of course on the field on Sundays. But the reality is someone’s going to eventually going to figure it out. But guess what? Who’s in a perfect position and then counter that? The Seattle Seahawks, right? Because they’ve got that marriage of defensive coach and offensive coach. Sometimes there’s a team, there’s a strategy. Look at Shawn McVey and the Rams for example. By the time people figured out how to play that defensively a little bit better, he was stuck, right? Because he didn’t he didn’t really have a counter to it. When people try to copy him, there was nothing he could do because he didn’t have a counter to it. If someone tries to copy what the CLCs are doing, they’re in a perfect position to counter it because they’re the ones who created it themselves with an understanding of both sides of the football. McVey, Shanahan, they created their strategies from an offensive perspective. The Seahawks created this strategy from a working collaborative perspective from McDonald and Kubak. that puts him in a prime position to counter whatever comes next. And the beauty of it all is, listen, I talk about this all the time. Sam Darnold is playing great. I don’t think in terms of, you know, athletic performance, he’s a top 10 quarterback. I think that’s fair to say, right? JS is a superstar young wide receiver. Undeniably so. But is he, you know, the greatest athlete? Is he the greatest receiver right now in football? Right? Is he has he the best pedigree? I think he’s a good player. I know Seahawks fans be like, he’s really great. He’s awesome. He is phenomenal. But is he Justin Jefferson? I don’t think so. Is he Jamar Chase? I don’t think so. at least not at least right now. But the reality is his performance, his metrics, the advanced analytics have him so far ahead of those guys that he’s outperforming them even if he was at the same level athletically. That speaks to the scheme, that speaks to the strategy, it speaks to the sustainability of it all, right? Because it’s not like, for example, using the Bengals example, that they’re winning Seahawks are just because they have superior talent and they found the right way to unleash that talent. They’ve got good players, but they’re unleashing them at a like an exponential performance, 10 times what you can even imagine based on their talent. And that means as they get more talent or even if they have some injuries, they’ll be just fine in a position to continue their run of success. What they’ve done in Seattle is truly remarkable. They’re perfectly situated to make a big time run. And the beauty of it all is when it’s time to counter the monster they’ve created, they’re in a perfect position to do it because again, they’ve created this scheme, this mindset from a collaborative offense defense perspective. When teams mimic it, mimic the Seahawks, the Mike McDonald’s in a perfect position to counter it. A team’s trying to counter the Seahawks defensively, they’re going to be in a great position to come up with a solution to that counter because Mike McDonald and Kubiaak will work together to come up with it. So, they’ve done a phenomenal job. I think the rest of the NFL should be very concerned about the Seattle Seahawks. I know a lot of people don’t think of them just because it’s Sam Darnold, you know, just the perception of Darnold, but the reality is what they’ve done strategically puts them, in my opinion, in a great position in the NFC.

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The Seattle Seahawks have been off to an outstanding start this season. And the reason behind the success has been a genius strategy by the Seahawks coaches. This sets up Seattle for success the rest of the year. Fans of the Seattle Seahawks should be excited by this news.

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