Player Types: The Pete Carroll Dictionary

No, I can't tell you who the Seahawks will be drafting, not specifically. But I can tell you what they will be like. Or, more correctly, I will let Pete tell you exactly what HE is looking for at every position.

All Carroll quotes are direct, and taken from the transcript of a coaching seminar on the 4-3 under defense that he has used for quite some time now.

First, the LEO, or Elephant position defensive end:

"The open side Defensive End has to be one of your best football players. Size does not matter as much. We want an athletic player who can move around."

This appears to be a fungible position to an extent. I am sure that if a truly special player who met this standard AND was both a special pass rusher and excellent run stopper was available, he would be selected early in the draft, but that seems unlikely this season. Key words to remember for the Leo position (stand up defensive end) are "one of your best football players" and " athletic player who can move around."
 

Second, the nose tackle:

Why Isn't Chris Clemons Helping?

Admit it, you've been wondering about this. In 2010, Chris Clemons and Raheem Brock notched twenty regular-season sacks between them and three more in the postseason, yet Seattle's overall pass defense remained flat-out abysmal. There's a disconnect there somewhere, and it's been the elephant in the room for a while now.

John Morgan of Fieldgulls broached the issue Friday in a piece that questions the value of Clemons and of the Leo position that Clemons plays. (The Leo, or stand-up defensive end, needs to be able to play from several positions and has gotten some criticism for being vulnerable against the run - offering pass defense at the expense of run defense.)

Well, for a defense already built by former GM Tim Ruskell to defend the run at the expense of allowing the pass, I normally wouldn't complain about this. What this team needs is pass rush. But despite the production from Clemons and Brock, Seattle's pass defense was ranked 27th in YPG allowed, 29th in TD's allowed (33), 31st in 20+ yard completions allowed (60), and only 25th in interceptions, as well as 29th in DVOA pass defense.

Somehow, despite Seattle's best production at defensive end since 2007, the overall pass defense isn't improving. Where does Clemons fit into that?

A Little Something for Those Not Watching

http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/02/all_your_psychic_animal_super.php

If you're not watching the Super Bowl today for whatever reason, at least get a kick out of what the animal kingdom thinks of the game! Curtis Cartier of Seattle Weekly documents the attempts of several average joes to get a Super Bowl prediction out of their pets. Some of the experiments are even pseudo-scientific. It put a grin on my face, at least.

NFL Network: Seattle in first-round QB hunt

NFL Network's Albert Breer comments on Seattle's quarterback intentions: (emphasis mine)

   With Charlie Whitehurst difficult to count on as a "quarterback of the future," and Matt Hasselbeck's contract up, Seattle has planned for months to seriously consider pulling the trigger on a new signal-caller in the first round. ... There are likely three quarterbacks going in the top half of the first round: Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, Auburn's Cam Newton and Washington's Jake Locker. Now, to get any of those three would require a serious move up and a heavy cost to Seattle, and that means there would have to be serious conviction on the part of the staff. Maybe Carroll has that with the hometown kid Locker...But otherwise, all this might mean the team would be left with the option of Ryan Mallett at the bottom of the first round, and the Seahawks already are well aware of the kind of risk he presents from a character perspective.

   One way for the Seahawks to address their quarterbacking question could be to make another run at Kevin Kolb. ... Remember, the Browns and Seahawks made inquiries last offseason about Kolb but were rebuffed as it became clear the Eagles preference was to deal Donovan McNabb. Cleveland, of course, has insight because of GM Tom Heckert's Philadelphia roots, while Seattle was another West Coast offense team that figured Kolb's transition could be a smooth one.

My take: This strikes me as nothing more than makes-sense speculation. A few disagreements I have:

• Kevin Kolb is indeed a hot commodity - in the sense that a hot stove top can scorch your hand. He's an untested QB and his very limited action in 2010 hasn't changed that. Something else that hasn't changed is his price tag of two first-rounders - a price Seattle walked away from last year when they actually had those picks available. Why would they go back to the well now?

• I have a creeping hunch that a surprising run on quarterbacks will occur early in the first round. As in all four top prospects (Gabbert, Newton, Locker, Mallett) gone in the top half of the draft, perhaps sooner. The draft is top-heavy with QB-hungry teams and has seen a number of free-agent QB experiments sputter and die this year (e.g. Donovan McNabb, Jake Delhomme, Jason Campbell, Brett Favre, Troy Smith, Kyle Orton, Derek Anderson, Trent Edwards), possibly making the free agent route a little unseemly. Struggling teams need new franchise faces to rejuvenate the fans. Rookie QB's are always a hot commodity. Plenty of GM's and coaches think they have what it takes to turn first-round projects into stars. Combine these factors, and you have the makings of an early run.

• If Mallett falls to #25, is that really such a hard choice for Seattle? Footwork schmootwork...the only real reason Mallett's stock is falling is those un-confirmable character flags. The guy knows quite well what he has to show in the next few months to maximize his stock. Give the kid a chance. His on-the-field abilities are starting to make him look like the most NFL ready signal-caller in this draft, other than the out-of-reach Gabbert.

You WILL Root for the Packers

In which I inform you of why you will root for the Packers.

One of the teams that the Steelers knocked out of the playoffs on their way to the Super Bowl was the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens lost and deserved to lose. They had their moments, but were eliminated by a pile of missed opportunities. A fumbled snap by Joe Flacco. A holding penalty on a punt return touchdown. Giving up a 58-yard bomb on 3rd-and-19. A goal-line hold by a defensive lineman. And, of course, the now-famous drop by T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

The entire game was one big clump of missed opportunities by both teams, really. It's just that the Steelers' mistakes came in the first half and the Ravens' came in the second. Ballgame.

After Housh's drop, I threw up my hands and admitted to myself that the Steelers had made fewer mistakes and had played better when it mattered. They deserved to advance.

And then I thought of all the people who had said the same thing about my Seahawks five years past, and I wondered to myself...Is this how some other fans saw Super Bowl XL?

Looking Back on 2010, Part 4: Competition

Continuing a series of posts re-capturing the moods, debates, and plot twists of Pete Carroll's first year in Seattle. You can find Part 3 here.

The 12th Man's winter was short and soon ended by the "spring" of training camp. As always, we were debilitated from the endless circular discussions and desperate to see some resolution and answers to the ongoing storylines. Where was the QB situation headed? Who would emerge at wide receiver? Was Pete Carroll's vaunted "competition" really going to make something out of a scrum pool of camp-body defensive ends? We were tired of talking about it. We had to know.

The annual worry over signing our draft picks arrived as surely as spring flowers do, only to be silenced within a week once they all signed unremarkably - as surely as spring flowers do. Also signing was Chester Pitts, another well-reputed, scheme-fitting O-lineman recovering from an injury. Pitts was another attempt to compensate for the Sims trade and had more football ahead of him than Ben Hamilton, but was Carroll starting to push his luck with all the injury gambling? It was immediately clear that Pitts would be a while in returning to full form.

Toward the end of June, Seattle had named Scot McCloughan a senior personnel executive. Many merely peg him as "the guy who brought us Kentwan Balmer" a couple of weeks later. Balmer, a first-round almost-bust who publicly grumped his way off the 49ers, has had little impact in Seattle, therefore casting apathy upon McCloughan for some reason. But McCloughan was a respected figure in San Francisco whose role in Seattle's personnel decisions and scouting may be underrated, and probably has yet to have its biggest impact. San Francisco is certainly not lacking talent because of him. Keep him on your radar.

Training camp finally launched, sending swarms of informed reporters and uninformed unlookers upon the VMAC to watch Kelly Jennings' usual strong camp. I was looking forward to the gossip and breakdowns as much as anyone, but cynical nonetheless. Why do these affairs always seem to be little more than bullet lists of WR catches, as if that sums up the work being done? There's always so little about the linemen, the running backs, the mechanics. Or perhaps...observers are just kind of ignoring the things that aren't looking so good.

The Top 3 Mistakes of 2010

First off, I should state for the record that I am not a pessimist by nature. I do not naturally focus on mistakes, problems, or the potential for disaster. I'm generally optimistic, looking at the positives (while not necessarily expecting them) and hoping for the best. And the Seahawks' 2010 season provided plenty of moments of validation for an optimistic Seahawks fan. After all, there were so many questions... Could Pete Carroll motivate NFL players the same way he did college players? Who was this John Schneider guy and what can we reasonably expect from a rookie GM? What on earth are we doing with Mike Williams, a guy who was a phenomenal bust and who ate himself out of the league 2 years ago?

As it turned out, Carroll's players loved playing for him and played hard, Schneider showed a nose for talent and a remarkable ability to work well with Carroll (which is a nice change for a Seahawks fan... a GM and HC that work together), and Williams turned out to be our best receiver. And there were plenty of other positives to note: Russell Okung's solid play when healthy, the acquisitions of Marshawn Lynch and Brandon Stokley, the career resurrections of Chris Clemons, Raheem Brock, and Red Bryant, the development of Ben Obomanu, Earl Thomas' promising rookie season, the amazing victory over the Saints in the Wild Card round of the postseason, etc.

But not everything was sunshine and puppies this year for the Seahawks. There was a lack of quality depth at nearly every position, which resulted in some ugly Seahawk football when starters went down (for example, Seattle's run defense falling apart when Red Bryant went on IR). 11 different offensive line combinations were tried over the course of the season. The playmaking promise of 2nd round pick Golden Tate never materialized. And perhaps the most frustrating thing about the 2010 Seahawks for fans was that the losses were never close - counting the loss in the Divisional Round of the playoffs to the Bears, the Seahawks lost 10 games by an average of 20 points per game.

Even with all of those issues just mentioned, I think there are three things that top the list of gaffes for the 2010 Seahawks: