Winners, Losers and Projecting Seattle's 53 Man Roster
by John Morgan on Sep 3, 2009 10:35 PM PDT
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Winners
Dan Quinn: A great position coach finds hidden talent. It's perhaps the single greatest impact a position coach can have. In one draft, Quinn has found, coached up and scheme matched Nick Reed, Michael Bennett and Derek Walker. Quinn deserves some credit for Cory Redding too. Classes like this put position coaches in line for defensive coordinator positions--and head coaching positions.
Losers
Secondary: The front seven looked terrific throughout the game, but the secondary was sloppy, slow and not opportunistic. Seattle might lean on Jordan Babineaux to play two positions and keep seven defensive backs.
Courtney Taylor: Not sure he's cut, but it's very possible. I'd love to credit him for his sweet RAC on the Morrah moving pick, but we can't be sure he would have been open if not for the penalty. If he is cut, I expect him to make another team. Some receivers coach will see his athleticism and desire and give the kid a call.
Curt Menefee: It takes a special kind of genius to make sideline interviews more awkward and irritating, but Curt Menefee is that genius. Instead of sticking to pleasantries and platitudes, Menefee put on his reporter cap and got controversial. Asking Deon Butler about the poor quarterback play at Penn State or Darryl Tapp about how he feels about not starting does not inspire honest, insightful answers. It causes an athlete to bristle and be more guarded.
Seattle Seahawks 53 Man Roster
Quarterback
Running Back
Fullback
Wide Receiver
Deon Butler
Tight End
Joe Newton
Offensive Line
Kyle Williams
Defensive Tackle
Michael Bennett
Defensive End
Cory Redding
Darryl Tapp
Nick Reed
Linebackers
Leroy Hill
Corners
(Free Agent or Trade)
Safety
Jordan Babineaux
Specialist
PUP: Marcus Trufant
IR: Jordan Kent..Cory Withrow
Practice Squad
Derek Walker
(Acquired)
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Do you think it's possible that we'll see Teel get some snaps over Wallace at all?
He looked pretty good today; far better than Wallace looked.
A Mariners fan in Seattle
Say if they're ahead by a few touchdowns near the end of the game.
Usually the backup would get those snaps, but could Teel get some of them?
A Mariners fan in Seattle
I really hope Payne makes it to practice squad if he's cut
that’s one gutsy WR.
And Cheers to Obo. I agree he’s earned a roster spot.
Losers - Lawrence Jackson
How could he once again fail to show up through the whole preseason while younger guys made plays all around him.
Well if we're going on a game by game basis.
He’s made leaps and bounds from the first preseason game to the last.
I agree he did have some good plays tonight
but early in the offseason, his coaches were saying this was Jackson’s time to show something. Its just amazing how the other young guys stole his spotlight.
What exactly did I miss between Taylor & Obomanu?
saw a drop, saw a great near TD, saw Ben pull in a TD. I thought Taylor had already separated himself. I expect Obomanu to be the one cut.
Terrill got some QB pressure tonight, but was not in for many plays
I think probably because he’s already made the team.
Wow, being stuck at work I missed just how dominant some of the defenders were
Reed had 7 tackles, 1 sack, and 3 QB hits. Curry and Heater each had 4 tackles, 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss and they had 1 and 2 QB hits respectively. Bennett had 2 tackles, 3 QB hits, a tackle for a loss and a pass defense.
And in other news Oakland sucks.
Thoughts
I’m not sure I would bother with Hass on the PS. He basically did nothing this preseason, he’s soon to be cut by his 3rd team, and if signed I think it will be his 4th instance of signing a PS contract (3 different times with Bears). He’s probably got a lower shot of being an NFL regular than just about anyone else, and he’s already 26.
Curry was amazing tonight, I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned more in the game thread or wasn’t mentioned at all here.
Reed and Bennett amazing again, and Walker had his best game tonight.
Teel showed why he was a 6th round pick this preseason, living up to his college scouting report perfectly, good and bad. Teel looks like a veteran in the pocket, doesn’t stare down receivers, avoids sacks and makes good decisions… really in just about every coach-able area he looks near NFL ready, which this early is impressive. But good goddamn, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Seahawks QB stand calmly in the pocket without pressure and fire a missile 1-2 yards off target more than Teel does. He had one pass that bounced off the freakin’ ground 5 feet in front of his intended receiver, and on a pass in the 3rd quarter he missed a ~5 yard dumpoff pass by about two whole yards somehow.
The Rutgers ripped off a fairly impressive hot streak at the end of Teel’s career there, and without researching the reason, I can only guess it was because Teel found his accuracy- because he pretty much already has everything else. However, I think accuracy is more talent-skill than coach-able-skill. Just ask Brandon Morrow. Right now Teel is missing the mark too often and more disturbingly is how he is missing the mark so badly when he does miss. Huge improvement is needed in that area before I’d consider him even a valuable 3rd string QB.
Taylor had a good game and Obomanu had a great game. I think I’d be slightly disappointed if Taylor gets the shaft on making this roster though, because prior to this game I thought Taylor looked better, and I’d hate to see a player leapfrog another when catching passes from 3rd and 4th string QB that may never throw a regular season pass. Especially with most of the game being played by Teel, who was incredibly inconsistent with his accuracy. Taylor in particular was victimized by Teel’s inaccuracy, somehow getting his fingers on a pass that was off the mark by about 5 feet in the endzone. If its Hasselbeck or Wallace making that throw, Taylor makes that catch. Taylor was also victimized by Morrah- the penalty was legit but I don’t think the illegal block was what sprung Taylor.
That said, even if the team made room to keep both, both of them will be free agents (RFA?) next year and barring injuries, will probably both have fewer than 10 catches apiece before quite possibly leaving in free agency. So while it was fun watching them compete tonight, its hard to get worked up over it even if Taylor/Obomanu is cut.
Is Steve Vallos seriously going to be our full time starting Center until Spencer gets back? That just seems wrong. An argument could be made that Vallos is greener at Center than Unger is. A Sims/Unger/Wrotto interior is significantly better than a Sims/Vallos/Unger interior, especially against Chicago in week 3.
Doesn’t getting Pup’d mean that Trufant becomes ineligible for the first 6 games? Won’t he be back sooner than that? I’d gladly sacrifice Terrill and go with 52 players for a few weeks if it means getting Trufant back a few games earlier. Every game without Trufant is a game our secondary will be incredibly vulnerable.
Lastly, first 4-0 preseason in Seahawks franchise history. Sure, its meaningless and trivial. But even meaningless wins still feel good and that we did it against the entire AFC West is pretty awesome.
Sounds like Trufant will be PUPed
If one player makes or breaks this team besides the QB, then we’re weak. If that’s the case, then I want to know it now.
I’m find if the PUP Trufant. We have to see if these other DBs can step up and carry the load while he’s gone. We’re going to need him more for the post season and the first six games is the easy part of our schedule.
The way I see it, this team has a handful of "make or break" players
And Trufant is near the top of that list for me. The reason being- last year the Seahawks, despite Trufant, had one of the worst passing defenses in the NFL. That poor pass defense also featured Josh Wilson having a breakout year in the 2nd half. Kelly Jennings and Brian Russell are that bad. Trufant’s absence pushes each CB on the depth chart about 1 position higher than they are ideal for, and forces Jennings into significantly more playing time.
Pass defense is the 2nd most important part to winning regular season games after only passing offense. Its really important. Not only that, but the easiest way to lose a game against an inferior team is to give up a lot of passing yards. Just like St. Louis 3 times in 2004, or SF last year. Its not that I’m nervous about SF or STL, but if we lose either of those games, the most likely culprit will be the secondary.
Then we'll know that our secondary is bad
And Ruskell will have to do something about it. Though it will be too late for this season. Pittsburgh donuted us without Casey Hampton and Troy Polamalu. Chances are if they were Seahawks, you would consider them a “make or break” players. Yet their defense stepped up and crushed us in Pittsburgh.
There is no reason Seattle can’t go without their number one CB for part of the season. Guys gotta step up if they want to win.
Unless you slept through last season
We already know our secondary is bad. It was terrible last year with nearly the same exact group and It hasn’t been good this preseason either.
Pittsburgh had the NFL’s #1 defense last year and they were pretty amazing in 2007 as well- so that’s not a fair comparison.
I agree that guy’s “gotta step it up” to win, that both cliche and obvious, that said, this secondary without Trufant will have about as good a chance of stepping it up as Edge has of rushing for 1300 yards this year. Seriously, is there any area on the team that is a bigger liability than the secondary? My point is, if you can do something to shore up your biggest weakness or in this case reduce the number of games its at its weakest point, you should do it.
I think Vallos makes sense
" Is Steve Vallos seriously going to be our full time starting Center until Spencer gets back? That just seems wrong. "
Makes sense to me. Keeping Unger at ROG shows me that the coaches have confidence Spencer will be healthy and be back starting at C soon. They want Unger to have a chance to compete for a starting job at ROG, ideally against Locklear once Walt is healhty. Unger’s experience at C is only one year of college football. Vallos led the Seahawks O line for much of last season and has been through that learning curve already.
Unger's been playing Center longer than Vallos
And looked better at Center this preseason than Vallos did.
Wrotto is not yet finished developing, but he’d most likely be a smaller liability at G than Vallos at C.
Plus, Unger is most likely the Center of the future, and with Spencer figuring to start 12-14 games this year at center, it would be nice to get Unger some reps at Center when he can to build NFL center experience.
Mora announced a couple days ago that Unger would start at right guard in week 1, which means that Vallos would play center. I wonder how much of that has to do with the team overvaluing Vallos or how much of it is their fear that Wrotto is not ready? If the team feels that Wrotto is not yet ready to be a starting NFL guard, then that completely changes this issue for me, because in that case, an Unger/Vallos lineup would be their only option.
The dude missed 5 passes all night.
For a rookie, in a new offense, he’s doing just fine. His throw to Obamanu was perfect, as were several of his other throws. He hit Butler in stride on that TD pass to the flat as well, so he can throw that kind of short ball at times (which, by the way, is not Hass’ strength, either) .
I found Mora’s comments after the game interesting, though. He basically said that Teel plays games better than he practices. Not sure what I think about that for the long haul. But it’s early. It’s clipboard time now for the rook….
Winners: Kevin Houser
No one has noticed him yet, which means he’s doing a great job. Was he a great pickup or what?
Dan Quinn seems like a solid D-line coach
Did some reading on him last night. He seems to have had pretty good success wherever he has been.
I hope Bradley lives up to his billing. Kiffin built him up. Mora hired him over what looks like a very solid D-line coach in Quinn. I have high expectations for this defense under his guidance.
It's hard to tell until we see who gets cut around the league
But are there any areas you’d look to improve the fringes of the roster (besides cornerback) with a waiver claim or a post-cut signing?
Will there be somebody more interesting than Joe Newton to back up at TE and play some special teams?
Could they bring in a quick upgrade to Kyle Williams or C.J. Wallace?
Just curious how the bubble talent on this roster compares to replacement level and whether there’s enough opportunity to justify the turnover. Guess we’ll see in a couple days, right?
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