Seattle called new punter's agent for workout BEFORE Buffalo game

by cashless on Sep 11, 2008 1:38 PM PDT

The article goes on to say a few things about our new punter. Sounds like he might be a pretty good one. Here is some of the article.

"Ryan is thrilled to have landed so quickly in a new situation, however. Two days after he and his girlfriend were lying around his Green Bay condo wondering what had happened, his agent called to say the Seahawks wanted to bring him in for a tryout.

That was before Ryan Plackemeier struggled through Sunday's opener in Buffalo, meaning the former Seahawks punter clearly was on a short leash. Ryan flew to Phoenix to work out with a kicking specialist for two days, came to Seattle on Monday and sufficiently impressed the Seahawks staff with his workout that Plackemeier got the boot.

"That was a tough call because Plack is a good guy and he had a tough ballgame," coach Mike Holmgren said. "I don't think those were ideal kicking conditions. Clearly it was wet and windy and all that kind of stuff.

"My feeling is this will not be the last time Plack punts in the NFL. He might wind up back here; who knows? But our special teams, we can't have a game like we had Sunday. There were a lot of reasons. That includes kickers, cover people, everybody."

Holmgren said Ryan had a good workout, and "now that has to transfer over for us in the game Sunday and this season, hopefully. As I said, I hope it's a long stay for him."

Ryan's averages last year of 44.4 overall and 37.6 yards net well exceeded Plackemeier's 40.0 and 34.3, but the Packers wanted to go with the consistency of former Redskins kicker Derrick Frost."

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Wow, the local media putting a positive spin on a Seahawks signing?

Plack was under duress on almost every punt. The Bills haven’t posted a below average punt return unit since 2003. The Niners had a pretty decent punt rush in 2007, it will be interesting to see how good Ryan is with a defender or three in his face.

by John Morgan on Sep 11, 2008 2:08 PM PDT reply actions

Holmgren seemed to defend Plack...

In the article. Sounds more and more like he has no final say in player personnel. He was interested in signing Koren, and he didn’t seem to be wanting Plack to leave.

by cashless on Sep 11, 2008 2:31 PM PDT up reply actions

He doesn't.

I’ve read him say again and again that it’s not his job, it’s someone else’s decision and the such. I’m pretty sure the ST fixation is Ruskell’s.

by John Morgan on Sep 11, 2008 4:14 PM PDT up reply actions

My Packer friend...

Says that Ryan has a real strong leg. He liked him.

That says nothing about his abilities vs. Plack, but at least we didn’t sign some scrub to just get rid of him. That was my basic point. Nothing more than that.

Do you not have any team hope at all, or is your time on the internet making you automatically sarcastic?

by cashless on Sep 11, 2008 2:56 PM PDT reply actions

I love this team and still think it will finish 13-3.

Losing one game doesn’t change that at all. I just think it’s virtually impossible for the mainstream media to be objective. Teams have power in their ability to grant access. The mainstream media can be critical of a performance, but you’ll rarely see them be critical of a personnel move. And when they’re critical of a performance, it usually aligns perfectly with what the coaches say.

by John Morgan on Sep 11, 2008 4:16 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't disagree.

I am also distrustful of media in general…their whole job(how they make money) is media and as such not something to rely on as fact. But there usually are small facts in the articles, and you have to hope that most of the things presented as fact are true. Numbers usually are.

Since he was cut after being the starter for a year or two I expected him to suck. The fact that we called his agent BEFORE the game is a little encouraging, as are his numbers from last year. Those two facts were in the article.

Before the article I thought it was an overreaction and we were signing the first guy we could find. He at least has a decently strong leg…and that’s a start. We’ll find out more this sunday.

by cashless on Sep 11, 2008 11:13 PM PDT up reply actions

Oh,

And I think we will finish more like 11-5 or 12-6, depending on how the next two games play out. After the bye…I think that the team will be what I expected(Seahawk dominance!) with both a better offense and defense than last year. But I think that unfortunately there is a legitimate chance that our beat up offense and pitiful special teams play loses us one of the next two games…which should normally be an automatic 2-0. If we win both anyway, 13-3 is certainly within reach, although difficult since we play the NFC East and AFC East. I think that there are at least 4 very competitive teams total from those two divisions, and our offense will have to progress a lot to get to our B+ to A- game and beat most of them.

by cashless on Sep 11, 2008 11:17 PM PDT up reply actions