New Seahawks Secondary Coach Tim Lewis Handpicked Charles Godfrey
by John Morgan on Jan 23, 2009 4:19 PM PST
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When Panthers secondary coach Tim Lewis traveled to Iowa City for Iowa’s pro day last winter, he realized Godfrey had more NFL potential as a safety.
"He came back and said Charles would be a great safety," said Panthers secondary/safety coach Mike Gillhamer. We wanted somebody athletic in the draft and we knew he’d really hit somebody."
Godfrey started 16 games for a the eighth rated pass defense. A team that was 18th ranked against the pass just a season ago. Godfrey was the only new starter in unit that returned its two starting cornerbacks and starting strong safety. And that though Godfrey was certainly not the lone reason for Carolina’s defensive turnaround, observers noted his often superlative play.
This is exactly the quality I want in a secondary coach: the ability to recognize talented defensive backs.
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What the Seahawks really need
is to hire a waterboy coach with a keen eye for identifying what it takes to be that very special quality waterboy we’ve been missing all these years (don’t think i haven’t looked over at the sidelines and seen our current waterboys slacking immensely) and for them to see it in Brian Russell.
Well, the Ruskell idea is supposed to be...
…talk to the coordinators and coaches, get the schemes mapped out, and draft accordingly. Maybe this will help. I can say that as much as I desperatly want the Seahawks to bag an elite tackle in this class, I have a loop playing in my head and I can’t turn it off. It says, “MalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkinsMalcolmJenkins…”
F**king loop. Shut up until you come back with “Andre Smith!”
Huh, me too.
Except my loop is MichaelCrabtree x100
"Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do."
by Fearless Frog on Jan 23, 2009 9:08 PM PST up reply actions
Remeber, Ruskell's first selection was Chris Spencer
Sure, Seattle had the 26th pick in the draft but first round centers are pretty darn rare. And Spencer is a center—not a guard who can play some center like Pete Kendall. So, I’m not convinced that Ruskell would pass up an elite tackle because he doesn’t think the position warrants a high selection. (Now, I think Ruskell is blowing smoke when he implies that he wouldn’t draft an offensive lineman that high.)
Actually, I just went back and took a peek at that 2005 draft. I’m even more convinced that Ruskell will go for value regardless of position. (We may not like how he stacks his board but that’s a different issue.) That draft alone should disconfirm any notion that Ruskell has a first round position bias. In 2005 Atlanta drafted right after Seattle and took Roddy White. You have to figure that Ruskell had a fair bit of early involvement in putting Atlanta’s board together, and thus had to know a good bit about White. Ruskell also passed over Marlin Jackson, the DB from Michigan, who went on to play in Tony Dungy’s secondary in Indy. Again, you have to think Jackson must have also been in Ruskell’s consideration set. Ruskell passed on TE Heath Miller and DT Mike Patterson (the guy I wanted). All these players easily fit the “Ruskell mold” of high production, high character guys from BCS programs. All clearly fit the roster Ruskell was trying to build going forward. Yet, he passed on all those players to select a center that most analysts had slotted for the top half of the 2nd at the earliest.
I’m not saying Spencer was or was not the right call, but his case alone is enough to convince me that Ruskell will put his board together without any undue built-in position biases.
"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin
Yeah, the notion that Ruskell hates linemen is absurd.
He actually tried to keep Hutch, and when that failed, he was ready to spend significant cash on Kris Dielman.
"Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do."
by Fearless Frog on Jan 24, 2009 11:49 AM PST up reply actions
He's probably laughing...
“I fooled ’em again. They eat up whatever I put out there…”
Talent Evaluation?
Why the heck would we need that? Look at our starters, we have Marcus Trufant entering his prime, Deon Grant is steady, Josh Wilson surprised and Brian Rus… oh… wait. Get to work good sir!
I must say I’m very excited with some of the coaching talent Mora has brought in on the defensive side of the ball. Thanks for providing this info.
"This is exactly the quality I want in a secondary coach: the ability to recognize talented defensive backs."
It’s only going to be an asset if we have a head coach and GM who have the ability to:
1) recognize the strengths and weaknesse in their staff
2) delegate responsibilities according to those strengths and weaknesses
I want Derek Pegues with our 3rd.
He’s also a s/cb type.
He's pointing out
that this is one player. A history of developing or spotting talent would be more indicative of future success. He might have gotten lucky. Since Godfrey was a 3rd round pick though, I think that’s less likely.
I understand that, but I think that's holding both Tim Lewis and I to a very difficult standard.
Specifically, Lewis was Carolina’s secondary coach just two seasons. In those two seasons, the team drafted only two defensive backs. I mentioned Godfrey. The other, C.J. Wilson, was selected in the seventh round. Before that, Lewis was last a secondary coach from 1995 to 1999. I could mention that Lewis probably had a part in drafting productive second day players like Lee Flowers and DeShea Townsend, or that 1997 first round pick Chad Scott played in 9 seasons and grabbed 21 interceptions, but that was a decade ago, I don’t know exactly how good Scott was, I’m not likely to find strong evidence about that or about Lewis’ role in drafting him. And even then, in terms of sample size, the pool is very shallow.
I understand that many came to modern football analysis by way of modern baseball analysis. But the samples created by baseball’s huge and extensive draft, long season, and simple interface that creates meaningful statistics does not exist in professional football. Therefore, the rigor of opinion and method expected by some readers is unrealistic. I present opinions. Logical, substantiated and I hope cogent opinions, but opinions.
by John Morgan on Jan 26, 2009 10:07 AM PST up reply actions
Yeah, I know, I wasn't picking on you, just wondering where the naysayers were.
Though after that Leinart 8 pass attempts discussion, which everyone pretty much concluded even John Parker Wilson can get lucky and lead a drive like that, one draft pick is probably indicative of not much.
Personally, I think drafting is like poker. The best player minimizes risk and takes chances when the opportunity best presents itself. Even the best player will only win 55% of the time (or (1+some small number)/x players), however the worst players (like a Matt Millen) can take such dumb risks that they give themselves very little chance of winning. There aer so many variables, the only thing you can do is recognize what your evaluation strengths are and use that to your advantage.
That should probably read
‘one draft pick is probably not indicative of much’, though what I wrote wasn’t incorrect either I suppose.
No Offense, but
I don’t think it was very hard to see the value in Godfrey. That kid is a gamer…period. I wanted the Hawks to draft him soooo badly. My GF(now ex) is from Iowa, so I watched a lot of Iowa games and fell in love with the kid. Plus he is a freak athletically, so as his mind, concentation, decision making, vision, etc matures, his physical aspects will be right there to put them to good use.
So it’s awesome that Lewis picked Godfrey….or the fact that he was smart enough to pick Godfrey. However it wasn’t rocket science to see the huge potential in him.
****
Oh and we all remember Michael Boulware???? Started only 4 games as a rook but still tabbed 63 tackles and 5 INT and a defensive TD
now look at where he is….
so even though I love Godfrey, don’t put too much into his stock quite yet.
I still miss Boulware.
<3
Or maybe it’s because my memories of him have been heightened through Brian Russell.
"Part, fools!
Put up your swords. You know not what you do."
by Fearless Frog on Jan 26, 2009 11:39 AM PST up reply actions
I agree
I still think we gave up on him too easily….
he was still young and learning…and I personally think he only really had 1 down year. The first two seasons he was an absolute ball hawk and made some big plays for us. I believe he single handedly won the Vikings game for us with that INT in the endzone and then sealed the deal versus the Dolphins I want to say.
He may not be start quality….but he would of been a good backup at least.
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