Have Expectations Changed for #Seahawks? | #SeattleSports

Have Expectations Changed for #Seahawks? | #SeattleSports

They have what appears to be a great defense. I don’t mean an all-time legendary great defense, but just like in terms of the league in 2025, they’ve got a great defense. Maybe the best defense in the league. Certainly in the top five. They have at the very least a solid quarterback, right? If maybe you want to go farther than that, call him a great quarterback, an elite quarterback. I don’t know what word you want to use, but but at the at the baseline, he is a solid quarterback who’s played really well through the first seven games of the season. And they’ve got what anyone would agree is a smart head coach who doesn’t lose them games, who who brings some level of added value beyond the baseline, right? I mean, so if you have those three things, aren’t you a good team? Like, isn’t that just a recipe for a pretty darn good season? Yeah. I mean, I think those are all super substantial things. Now, I would I would challenge a little bit defensively. I would say this is an elite front. This is an elite front. This is as good of a of a defensive front four as we have seen since the Super Bowl years. I think I’ve said that a few different times over the course of the season. And really, the only time they were taken apart was when like 25 to 30% of it was not playing in that game. And you know that that you take Michael Bennett and Averil off that team. Heck, you took Averil off the Super Bowl in the game and you saw what happened, the impact that can have. But I believe that this is with the Denver Broncos and Philadelphia Eagles. There’s a few of them out there. The these are the elite defensive fronts. Secondary comes and goes a little bit. Injury’s been a big part of that. I think linebacker is still is solid, but I don’t think it’s near the top of the league. But that you put the whole thing together. Yes. And by just about every metric, you’re top 10, you’re top five. So, you are a very, very good defense. And we know that travels and we know that gives you a chance to weak to win week in and week out. And when we watch the decay of the Seahawks, you know, from their high, you know, championship teams, we saw it with our very own eyes. We wanted to believe the defense was still that good. We wanted to believe that, you know, Pete could put this together and, you know, no, it wasn’t. It just it just wasn’t. M and fundamentally you couldn’t stop the run the last three four years of Pete and then you really had you know no chance of being an elite team. So that gives you a chance that is the most substantial way to build your team. You’ve got a very smart defensive coordinator that’s very respected that feels more and more like he knows himself. He knows what he’s not. He knows he needs people around him. these eagleists to do that and and put a cast of characters with AD and others that that bring a lot more of the of the juice that in conversation and communication that you know I think is still a work in progress for him but X’s nose wise elite and then I don’t know where’s Sam Darnold we we maybe do this exercise tomorrow with DJ how many other quarterbacks right now do you want playing for your team based on how they’re playing this season based on how they’re playing this season right now obviously ly Burrow’s hurt, Lamar’s hurt, guys are hurt. He’s not. He’s been available. He’s been tough and durable. Like it it certainly is not more than 10. And u by again efficiency ratings, yards, completion percentage, PFF grade, what QBR, like he’s he’s darn near top five. Yeah, that’s pretty darn good recipe right there. Well, so so if you look at those things, and I think we knew heading into the year that the defense would be very good. I think we knew heading into the year, he proved it last year that Mike McDonald was a smart head coach who was not going to make mistakes and would get, you know, a fair amount out of his players and his in-game strategy would be pretty darn good. What we didn’t necessarily know was what the quarterback would look like. Obviously, he was new coming into this team, the scheme. So, if we thought heading into the year, nine- win team, 10- win team, how do you adjust that based on what you’ve seen so far, the addition of Darnold, the emergence of JSN as a verified superstar right now, not just the best wide receiver in the league according to the numbers, like by far the best wide receiver in the league. Like, what what do you have to do to your first projection? Think about that first mini camp practice you went to. Honestly, and and just kind of the optics that day and not this is to poke no fun at you whatsoever. Rough day. Yeah. Like you think we’d be sitting here offensively, you think you’d be talking about JSN as one of the best receivers, if not the best in all the game, that Sam Darnold would be a top five quarterback by every metric, right? That the offensive line, especially your tackles, would be as consistent as they’ve been, your tight end group, super super solid. Like, did you know, did you think we would be sitting here? Well, not while I was watching that day, but obviously like I did think they were going to be a good team before the season started. I did take the over on their what was it 8 and a half wins and felt reasonably convinced that that would hit. But if I thought it was going to be a 9 or 10 win team then they look better than I thought they would look even at the beginning of the year. So what’s the new projection? Is it 11 or 12? I think so. 10 or 11? Like how how much better than expected have they been? Yeah, I think that’s fair. I I mean, Vegas had an eight and a half. I think we all said, “Boy, that feels pretty darn low.” Very low. Yes. And uh that’s feeling pretty good right now with a whole lot of season left and having won a bunch of games without a ton of your pieces, too. All right. So, let me play you this Kyle Brandt cut. I was going to hold it for later, but I think I like it right now. Here is Kyle Brandt. Um, I think with a an excellent description of who the Seahawks are and where they fit into the national landscape where yes, Brock, they actually dropped a spot in the in the uh power rankings, at least for ESPN after their win on Monday night. It it felt like it was on at 2 in the morning. I feel like most of the country didn’t see it. Most of the country hadn’t doesn’t have a a feeling on the Seahawks this morning. And guess what happens now? Now the Seahawks go on to buy. So for two straight weeks, we’re not going to talk about them. I feel like there’s so many people who like if you walked around like Main Street USA in in the country right now, do people still think that Pete Carol’s the Seahawks coach? Do they still think Russell Wilson is on the team and like Marshon Lynch and everything? Because I know a lot of people feel like, well, they lost some juice cuz their coolest, most famous player was DK Mechaf and he’s gone. That may be true. Do you have any idea how good Jackson Smith and JBA is right now? Do you know that he is leading the NFL in receiving yards and it’s not even close? And the second place guy is Jamar Chase. We all bow with the alter of chase and he’s amazing. JSN is way out in front of him. He looks like a first team allpro. Fantastic. Do you know Sam Darnold’s playing just as well this year as he did with the Vikings last year and that year when they just won and won and it’s Jefferson left and Jefferson right. Darnold is working. It’s working not just a little bit, it’s working profoundly. And that’s just about a minute of what was a two or three minute rant on how good the Seahawks were and how little anybody is caring to notice it right now, which is great. You love that. Yeah. Don’t notice. Awesome. And then you can play the disrespect card into the postseason. That’s right. Kind of feels a little bit I was trying to think of a team here in recent memory that is kind of equipped with everything we just talked about the last few minutes. And wouldn’t it kind of just be the team Sam was on last year that had Kirk Cousins for a lot of years and was a very viable team and a good team, but not a not an elite team. And then their defense really took a step. They pressured the quarterback. They sacked the quarterback and got after the quarterback. They had uh you know Jefferson that just went crazy with Sam Darnold. Pretty solid running backs. An old line that was a little iffy, right? I mean an old line that they went out and spent some money on in the offseason, change the center and change the guard. I mean, don’t doesn’t this feel a little bit like what Minnesota built last season and it took a while for people to believe that Minnesota was real and then unfortunately for them it fell apart in those final two games of the year. So, yeah, it may take some time for folks to recognize what’s being built here, but this defense very clearly legitimate. We’ll see what it looks like when they get essentially all of their defensive backs uh to return here after the buy. There is still one major question for me cuz I I love all of that. Everything we just talked about is still just can you run the ball? Yeah. And it’s what you built so much of your off season on. It’s why I just it is so Well, there were some positive signs Monday night, man. Honestly, there was not a negative run uh as far as their expected play efficiency. Hog logger posted all this yesterday. It was one of their better games. Both Charbanet and Walker for the first time averaged what, four plus yards a carry. You know, I mean, they had a holding call, take some stuff. That felt like a good defense. Best defense in the league by points. U rush defenses. Yeah. I mean, they’re they’re pretty good and you you went out and did what you needed to.

Brock Huard & Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) discuss why they believe the Hawks have the “recipe” for a good team: strong defense, good QB play, and great coaching.

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0:00 – Solid defense, Coach, and Defense
1:20 – Elite defensive front
2:45 – Sam Darnold’s play through week 7
4:50 – What is the new win projection? 10 wins?
5:30 – Kyle Brandt on the Hawks
7:00 – Similar to 2024 Vikings?
8:00 – Salk’s last question remaining

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