The Seahawks have signed former Central Washington WR Justin Helwege and released T Andrew Mitchell. Helwege is a 6'6, 216 pound receiver that caught 51 passes for 717 yards and eight touchdowns as a senior at CWU, and in his career he had 1,522 yards on 99 receptions. He's a possession receiver type of guy (or maybe move tight end) with good hands, according to scouting reports. Helwege got a tryout a couple of weeks back at the Seahawks Rookie Mini-Camp, and apparently impressed enough to grab himself another chance. With Lavasier Tuinei and Jermaine Kearse still unable to practice until UW and OU finish up classes, Helwege has a better shot of getting some reps in OTAs during this week and next. As for Mitchell - well, we barely knew ye. The former Bengal was signed a week or two ago, but now moves off the roster to make room.

As long as we're talking about Seahawks' offensive lineman, OT/OG Allen Barbre has been suspended by the NFL for four games for violating rules banning performance enhancing substance. Barbre, 6'4, 300 is a former fourth round draft pick by the Packers that the Seahawks, I've seen, like a lot as depth on the offensive line. He could also play a role on special teams because of his athleticism - he ran something like a 4.8 coming out of college, not that this really matters when protecting the quarterback, but it does make a difference in run blocking, and more importantly, getting downfield to make tackles in special teams. Either way - not sure if this will affect his standing with the team, - he's allowed to participate in offseason programs and the preseason, but must sit for the first four regular season games.

The Seahawks wrapped up a three day OTA this afternoon, and some of the beat writers there shared a few interesting tidbits, check them out after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

"D" is for DangeRuss Wilson.

I must admit, I was over at Danny's place on Day 2 of the draft and started freaking out around the 70th or so pick (Round 3). I had been getting excited over the possibility of Russell Wilson for months and was debating where the Seahawks could possibly take him. When the Chiefs took Tackle Donald Stephenson one pick ahead of Seattle, I breathed a sigh of relief. I hooted and ran up and down the wide hallway in Danny's flat, or whatever you call his pad- the type of pad you enjoy when you have no children. (DK edit - he was literally pacing up and down the hallway for about 15 minutes before the pick was finally made, toward the end he was certain, and demoralized, that KC would take Wilson).

I was actually okay with Seattle taking Wilson in Round 2, and was shot down a bit for that view. And I understand why. In the end, even if perhaps the Seahawks placed a 2nd round grade on Wilson (John Schneider has admitted that Wilson was the 3rd QB on their board and I think it's plain who #1 and #2 were) Seattle knew they could wait. Waiting until Round 4 was undoubtedly a consideration, but Pete and John had suspicions, that were later confirmed, that Wilson would have been gone by the time Day 3 came along. Round 3, Pick Number 75 seems just about right in the end.

In Russell's first week as a Seahawk, he made an appearance on air on KJR950, I believe it was with Mitch Levy. Mitch asked something along the lines of - "give me some things Russell needs to work on, or things he looks to emulate in Drew Brees" (as a followup question to Wilson saying he studies Drew Brees extensively). Russell didn't hesitate - and mentioned "footwork in the pocket".

I watched this attached clip of Drew Brees over and over, and instead of focusing on the ball - I tuned in closely to Brees' footwork. What a thing of beauty. I think Russell has good footwork for a college QB, but if Wilson is Justin Timberlake with his footwork, Brees is Michael Jackson. Brees is a true master with his footwork. Words that come to mind regarding his footwork include - energy, urgency in his drop, great balance, always centered, quickness, efficiency, perfect pivots, perfect reset, an ability to slide in all directions. There is more, but you get the point. His head and eye movement are also amazing.

I went ahead and watched Tom Brady and Peyton Manning - two other HOF QBs who are as good or slightly better than Brees as NFL QBs - their footwork just wasn't the same. I am not saying it was bad, but it seemed like because of their height and arm talent, they could just stand tall and deliver. Brees had to develop this to survive.

Russell knows this footwork aspect will be critical for his success, and Drew Brees is his model.

Continue reading this post »

The letter "C" is for Carroll. And, Convention.

It is widely known, and oftentimes widely criticized, that Pete Carroll and John Schneider do not follow convention. They do not follow the "collective draft-nik shared consciousness of player value" when selecting and grading players. This makes people, who don't follow the regime closely extremely uncomfortable.

In Win Forever, Chapter 19, Carroll quotes Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. A reporter asked Jerry, "How do you feel about being possibly the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time?"

Jerry's response was, "No, man. That's not how we think of ourselves at all. We don't want to be the best ones doing something - we want to be the only ones doing it." Pete Carroll always held onto that thought: the only ones doing it. Pete likes the idea of being the only ones doing something.

Continue reading this post »

More footy from the NFLPA Rookie Premiere, y'all!

Really lookin' forward to the weekend, you guys. (Yes, I steal from @dadboner).

Smith: 'We got to get better'
"This is the honest truth: I could absolutely care less on yards per game," Smith said Wednesday after the second day of practice at 49ers organized team activities. "I think that's a totally overblown stat. Because if you're losing games in the second half, guess what? You're like the Carolina Panthers and you're going no-huddle the entire second half and, yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games, that's great. You're not winning, though."

Seahawks LB Heath Farwell: Special Teams Ace - SB Nation Seattle
The Seahawks didn't waste any time on the first day of free agency back in March, making waves by re-signing one of their core defensive players in Red Bryant. Flying under the radar in the news and in stories that day was the fact that the Seahawks also had re-signed special teams standout Heath Farwell, a seventh-year linebacker out of San Diego State.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | 2011 Defeats
More today from our many, many spreadsheets of stats from the 2011 season. Today, we'll look at which defenders had the most Defeats in 2011. Defeats are defined as any play (tackle, assist, pass defensed, interception, or forced fumble) that does one of three things:

Was Kellen Winslow a locker room cancer? - Bucs Nation
On Kellen Winslow's tenure with the Bucs, and his supposed personality issues.

Beanie Wells: Microfracture? " Second Opinion
When asked about his late January knee surgery yesterday, Beanie Wells told reporters that it was "just a scope," then suggested it was "a little more complicated" than meniscus surgery. When asked specifically about microfracture surgery, Wells reportedly smiled but said no more, seemingly hinting he did have a microfracture procedure. Meanwhile, Wells’ agent Scott Howard told ESPN’s Mike Sando that Wells "did not undergo microfracture surgery or any other procedure requiring an extended recovery period," but that the plan is to limit him until training camp.

A quick playbook session on the NFL 'boot' game | National Football Post
Chalkboard breakdown, coaching points, keys, etc.

Continue reading this post »

The Seahawks made news this week by trading for veteran tight end Kellen Winslow, and though we've discussed and analyzed the move a good amount here, we've yet to hear much from the team on their motivation and vision for the transaction. I've taken the time to transcribe sections of a couple interviews - from John Schneider with PFT's Mike Florio and Tom Cable with Ian Furness and Jason Puckett - and wanted to share them here because they might shed a little light on the team's point of view.

Florio started his PFT Live interview by asking Schneider what had led to the decision to go out and make the trade. Schneider responded, "First and foremost, we've been looking for that position. We've been looking for a guy that can get down the field. Obviously, Kellen's been very productive the past couple of years down in Tampa Bay, I think second only to Jimmy Giles in team history. Secondly, I have a great relationship with Mark Dominik, we've known each other probably fifteen, twenty years now. When you have a strong relationship with someone like that, you're able to share situations, share experiences, and be able to work rather quickly with each other, and we have a specific trust level in place, and we were able to work it out."

So, who initiated the discussion?

"I reached out to them. Like I said, Mark and I talk often. Throughout the offseason, there are certain players with your team that you're always discussing, you know - 'there's a possibility that this player could become available if certain things happen' - and you know, they're going through a change down there. They're in the first year of a new program, and obviously they wanted to go in a different direction, so we're in the third year of our program and just felt like, obviously, this is a good fit."

Were there other teams involved in the bidding? Schneider: "I was under the impression that there were a couple of teams, but, like I said, Mark and I have known each other for a long time, so it was pretty cut and dry."

One obvious point of contention is the Seahawks' decision to not restructure Winslow's contract before trading for him. He'll be a significant cap hit for the Hawks in 2012 and down the line. Schneider addressed that, saying, "We picked [his contract] up, but I'd rather not get into [talk of a restructure], in terms of what we're thinking about there. Obviously, we picked up his contract and we're comfortable with it. We're comfortable with the terms of the trade itself, and the contract, and John Idzik's done a nice job, and his staff, of creating enough cap room for us to be able to acquire a player like this."

Continue reading this post »

Man, I sure do get a lot of inside information as a writer for FieldGulls, the number one blog on the internet, all genres. Bigger than Perez Hilton. Bigger than every other SBNation site put together. Bigger than the Oprah Winfrey Newtork, although to be fair, Gardening with Ciscoe sometimes beats out OWN.

The point is, we are the best. Better than TMZ. Better than Deadspin. Better than Grantland. We are the worldwide leader in sports. (edit: Danny, can you please trademark that last thing I said about being the worldwide leader in sports before someone steals it from us?)

On the surface, sure, we are just a blog about the Seattle Seahakws,Seahawks (so sorry) a team that has never won a championship and is the furthest city from any other NFL city, but none of that has kept FieldGulls from being the premier www.internet.com web page for coverage of the greatest team in the world. And every so often we can transcend simply being a "Seahawks" blog and also become a blog that welcomes people from all walks of life:

Die-hard Seahawks fans

New Seahawks fans

NFL fans non-affiliated with the Seahawks

Football fans in general

Sports fans in general

USC fans because of our extensive coverage of the great and powerful Pete Carroll.

Fans of the hit show Dynasty.

Fans that are looking for something new to do now that Desperate Housewives is off the air, something that I thought had happened six years ago.

Internet fans.

People that like Ben Savage more than they like Fred Savage.

Birds.

If I say this: "Red Red Wine, goes to my head." then we will also get fans of the band UB40, as well as the band UB40, and alcoholics.

My blog Kenneth Author has a strong following in Australia and Israel. I don't know why that is, but I'm sure I can convert some of the Israelis into Seahawks fans and that's good news for everybody involved.

As the absolute number one website on the web, over a million spots higher than www.Google.com, FieldGulls has transcended everything. In fact, are you following @FieldGulls so that our twitter account can have more followers than every other SBN twitter account? Must be some kind of mistake you guys, because Niners Nation has like 9000 followers. The message you're sending me is that the Niners fans are better than the Seahawks fans. Is that the message I'm getting? Let's show everyone why Hollywood hunk and leading-man Ryan Gosling said, "Hey girl, you look like you need help getting to the world's best internet page. Let Ryan type in FieldGulls.com for you."

@Fieldgulls needs to have 5,000 followers by mid-summer, when the weather's so hot that your underwear recedes so deep into your buttocks that the only way to get sweet relief from this uncomfortable situation is to take out your iPhone, Android, or Sidekick device and bring up FieldGulls mobile. By reading the wonderful words, analysis, and sexual tension between myself and every other male member on this site (where the female commenters at though for real? Am I just tripping, as they say? Bring your wives up in here! I ain't never gonna get a girlfriend, so I'm out.) but by reading this site on the daily, you're swamp ass will feel like it's a million miles away.

Oh, and why the f aren't you following me on Twitter? I'm trying to surpass some of my boys on there and show supreme dominance and I just feel stuck right now. Do you know how hard it is to get respect from friends, let alone a father? The other day I went up to a homeless person and spoke to him for a few minutes. He was mostly just speaking gibberish, something about the day that the red lion will come out of the top of moon and devour his children like tiny ants.

And my response to him was, "What does respect feel like?" because I knew this man had more than I do.

Well, maybe today is the day that I finally get respect. Don't ask me how I did it, but I have managed to get my hands on top secret information regarding the 2009 Seattle Seahawks season and this even includes tips and tricks on how to beat every team in the NFL.

All of the playbooks... take a look after the jump... this is real.

Continue reading this post »

Lest we forget, the former fourth-overall pick of the 2009 draft, Aaron Curry, spent five games with the Seahawks in 2011 - losing his starting job after two - before being traded to Oakland for a couple of late round picks. We all know the story of Aaron Curry in Seattle - it's been a great topic of debate, and despite showing some flashes here and there, the video below illustrating his performance in 2011 basically affirms the front office's decision to move on. It should be noted that Nate made a conscious effort to provide a fair and unbiased collection of plays that represent how Curry performed, both good and bad.

From scattered reports out of Oakland that I've read, he's having more success in their system, free from the pressure a fourth-overall pick might gather here, so I'm happy for him. Still, with a couple new linebackers in the mix this season - 2nd round pick Bobby Wagner and 5th rounder Korey Toomer, it makes sense to look back at how Curry lost his starting job to K.J. Wright and why the Seahawks have made a fairly significant investment at the position after realizing the former Demon Deacon just wasn't going to figure into long term plans.

Thanks to Nate for putting these great retrospective videos together.

Continue reading this post »