Open Thread: In Which We Learn the Future of Mike Wahle

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 2:14 PM PST in Seahawks News Comment 27 comments

Heading in, that's the big story. If Mike Wahle is injured enough, not only will he be placed on the IR, but he won't likely return with Seattle in 2009. Last week, Mike Holmgren made it known that there would be changes at wide receiver and hinted at the return of Courtney Taylor. That preceded the release of Keary Colbert. Could this week's changes be at safety? Seattle's already signed Jamar Adams off the practice squad.

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Tough loss for the hawks.

The only silver lining is that at least this gives Sims a chance to show what he can do while the season doesn’t matter? Oh and I guess it lessens our chances of winning giving us a higher chance of drafting Crabtree 1 and Rolle 2.

by LantermanC on Nov 17, 2008 2:24 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Sims is already IR'd

If Wahle is gone, my guess is that it’s Womack at LG & Willis at RG for the rest of the year. Gives us a chance to really see what Willis is made of. And maybe there’s a chance to sprinkle in Wrotto & Vallosfor a few snaps to see how those projects are progressing as well.

by jteckmann on Nov 17, 2008 2:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Really? well crap...

that does us no good… I guess we can see Wrotto for a few snaps.
Out of curiosity, we see our D-line get rotated in and out very heavily. How often does our o-line get ‘rotated’ in and out? I don’t recall it ever happening except due to injury.
Is their ever a time where we’re like ok, run up the middle, lets get Womack in, ok, no 7 step drop let’s have Willis in, etc?

by LantermanC on Nov 17, 2008 2:37 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Teams don't do that.

It would be false start, missed assignment hell.

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 2:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Hm... I do it in Madden all the time,

it doesn’t affect the falst starts at all. That game is so unrealistic.

by LantermanC on Nov 17, 2008 3:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I get a false start about once every 10,538 games when playing Madden.

Not that EA cares; they’re too busy counting their money.

Every day I hear about Seattle sports' failures. Every night I fall asleep to the sound of my own tears.

by Benne on Nov 17, 2008 6:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

no

this would be terrible, offensive lines do thier job as one cohesive unit, swapping out pieces never ends well

by armedpp on Nov 17, 2008 2:52 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

for the omniscient one...

What unspeakable dark forces have been keeping Russell in the lineup? Is it Holmgren’s love for white-man grit? Does Marshall have some preposterous idea that his defense can not function without him? Were there, prior to Adams getting the call-up, no suitable replacements? Was David Eckstein unavailable?

My question is, if you have been able to divine an answer to this question, will it be the sort of thing that Adams’ presence can fix (which is true in only 1 of those 5 scenarios)?

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 2:52 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

who else

would you put in there, this might be a problem of roster design more then coaching

by armedpp on Nov 17, 2008 2:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Well that was one of my options,

but I would imagine, after his performance last year, that someone watching these games would try signing someone or drafting someone with a pulse to wrestle the position away from Russell.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 2:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

yeah

somebody definately screwed up there, i dont really remember who was available in free agency/draft though

by armedpp on Nov 17, 2008 2:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Well I don't think it's white-man grit

If it was then Frye would have been starting over Wallace.

It’s probably a mix of a few things. They value Russell for his smarts, they probably see him as another coach on the field. In all honesty there might not be a better FS on the roster (until Adams got the call), Russell isn’t asked too do much and with no youngster on the active roster there was no rush to replace him.

by MFAN on Nov 17, 2008 2:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Grant is better

but then we dont have a suitable strong saftey on the roster either

by armedpp on Nov 17, 2008 3:01 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

Babs could probably play SS, but he didn’t exactly tear it up there in 2006. Grant at FS and Babs at SS is probably better than what we have now, but I don’t see babs sticking at SS and we’d still be looking for a safety in the draft.

by MFAN on Nov 17, 2008 3:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

asking him not to do too much...

is great in theory, but we’ve seen what that leads to. While it’s not fair to blame the Hawks’ defensive struggles solely on #25, he certainly has been the culprit in a lot of big plays. The Giants game was almost comical in that every time the GIants had a huge play, Russell was in the direct vicinity not doing his job.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:04 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think it's pretty simple

Russell’s problems are talent and not execution. I would guess he does most of what the coaches ask of him, and from what I hear of Holmgren’s evaluation method, that’s enough to keep him out there. Unfortunately, Russell is a low talent guy in decline. He can be assignment correct and still be a very bad player. Also, the team doesn’t have a ton of talent at the position. I think fans fail to see that Tim Ruskell took on a rebuilding project. I’m writing this into the header of my next post, but check out the 2004 roster, the 2002-2004 drafts. Ruskell has been patching holes since starting. This season, the players he patched in aren’t instant producers like Tatupu, Hill, Peterson, Grant, Kerney, Mebane, and Jurevicius and the house of cards has collapsed. But it’s a stretch to blame Ruskell. He figured he could again skate at Free Safety, something he was kind of able to do in 2007, but on a terrible team the weakest link is often exposed.

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 3:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Zuh?

Anyone know what happened with the press conference?

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 3:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I may or may not be at my desk at work.

This is clearly Eckstein’s fault.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

It's an hour late and now says "off air"

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 3:12 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

grab some Newcastle Brown, a nice Hefeweizen, or some dunkelweizen

(did you know Trader Joe’s Dunkelweizen is amazing?) and just picture what will be said: Mike Wahle is hurt bad. Time for ol’ Chop to get moving.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Might as well get Wrotto some snaps

and Wallace for that matter. I don’t want Wrotto blocking for Matt Hasselbeck.

TJ’s Dunkel is good, huh? What I’ve had from TJ was solidly above average. Better than crap, but nothing to shout about.

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 3:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I watched to press conference.

I just used the link you posted and it worked fine. Well fine in that it was there, I have the slowest DSL connection in Bellevue and you can’t hear the questions being asked of him. I’m wondering why they even bother posting in live without the reporters mic’d up.

I was working while it was on and didn’t hear anything of note in the 20-30% that I watched. It lasted a good 15-20 minutes I think. There were 120ish other listeners noted on the site that were also streaming it.

I'd like to kick Josh Brown in the privates!

by The Manchild on Nov 17, 2008 4:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

No, let Wrotto block for Frye.

TJ’s Dunkel isn’t Hofbrau Hefeweizen, which, on tap, is by far the best thing that has ever graced my liver. For bottled beer, it’s quite good. I am a dark beer buy, in general though. St. Pauli’s Special Dark is also quite nice.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Argh at myself for:

not replying properly in line there, and [sic] on “dark beer buy”. Should read “dark beer buyer”.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:35 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I think Wallace leaves with Holmgren

might as well let him see some action before he’s thrown to the wolves.

by John Morgan on Nov 17, 2008 3:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm torn on Wallace.

He’s never going to be a QB capable of starting and succeeding at any high level. It is unreasonable to expect a backup to be good enough to go out and play very well, isn’t it? There aren’t enough competent QB’s to fill each team’s starting gig. I guess Wallace would be OK to back up Romo who is young enough to be around a while, whereas you’d want someone young with potential behind an aging QB. If Romo goes down (like he did), you’d want someone capable of filling in a game or two before Romo comes back to take the reins again. If Hasselbeck goes down (which he did), you want someone getting OJT for the future.

I will accept any draft combination of Crabtree, Andre Smith, Stafford, and Mays. Hear that Ruskell? Time to start spreading vicious rumors about all 4 so they fall.

by abender20 on Nov 17, 2008 3:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs