Shaun Cody, Wrecking Ball
Another stat of the day piece by Football Outsiders. These stats have minimal value other than discussion starters, but Seattle surely had a shot at Shaun Cody, yet rushed to pay Colin Cole nearly twice as much. Seattle under Ruskell often competed with itself for otherwise unremarkable talent. I do think Cody is a better player than Cole, and a better fit for Seattle, but my question is: With Cole, Cody and Jovan Haye available, why did Seattle rush to sign the oldest, least accomplished tackle to the most money?
over 2 years ago
John Morgan
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Ugh. Don't remind me.
Is it possible that Colin Cole simply matched up best (on paper) as a big, center-stuffing interior lineman?
6’1" 330 lbs vs. 6’4" 310 lbs?
God, I feel ridiculous making that argument.
It’s likely the “best predictor of future performance is past performance” argument. From the article, Cody was underwhelming in Detroit and not terribly attractive. But that begs the question why we signed a backup lineman on a pretty bad defense big, big money?
6/14/40. Sweet.
Mebane, Tapp, Jackson, Bryant, Redding and even Kerney in 2007.
Plus Walker and Bennett. I think Tim Ruskell was good at evaluating line talent but I think he put too much stock into Cole being a “coach” of the D-line, for lack of a better term.
It's young
Just like the 1997 Seahawks offensive line had Walter Jones, Pete Kendall and Kevin Mawae, but wasn’t great. If all those guys were kept together, that would have been a hell of a line, but Seattle gave up on Mawae and Kendall before they could grow into their own.
Just like Sims and Spencer now?!?
I sure hope not… sigh.
Bird Law in this country isn't governed by reason.
by Tyler Jorgensen on Jan 28, 2010 3:15 PM PST up reply actions
Three players, even if each were the very best at their position, do not make a defense
And specifically, the Seahawks linebackers were injured for much of the season.
Exception to the rule being Troy Polamalu and the Steelers of course
I kid, I kid. Sorta.
6/14/40. Sweet.
I think that's just a logical sounding coincidence
The Steelers didn’t collapse when Polamalu missed time in 2007.
It might be ticky tacky, but he missed many more games in 09
He missed 11 games in ’09 and only 6 games in ’07.
6/14/40. Sweet.
3 games played against the Ravens, Bengals and Dolphins
all of which were below .500 teams with a combined record of 13-25.
Other two games were against good teams:
Seahawks (and they beat us bad, 21-0)
and the Pats (lost 13-24)
6/14/40. Sweet.
How many games he missed is immaterial
The argument is that the Steelers defense collapsed without him, and I think that’s a coincidence. The Steelers defense didn’t collapse without Polamalu in 2007.
I'm unsure.
Do we have real proof that Tatupu is as great as we all want him to be?
I “feel” as if he’s missing a lot of tackles these days. And while he may make a lot of tackles—isn’t that sort of indicative of a sucky d-line?
by BellinghamBrian on Jan 27, 2010 3:10 PM PST up reply actions
Tatupu was injured most of the season, and not great when injured
He played only five games. He’s never had an especially high number of total tackles, but he makes good tackles. Tatupu is a very, very good middle linebacker—assuming the Tatupu we fell in love with is still within the modern Tatupu.
I hope he's still in there.
God knows we’ll need him next year.
He had a very poor year, especially against the pass. Check out the final statistic in the article, Stop Rate on Complete Passes (from FO).
6/14/40. Sweet.
Tatupu is great in my book
But what makes Lofa so great is his smarts.
Him being out there makes the entire team better, which you can’t always say for individual players, let alone LB’s. Just because a player can be a monster, doesn’t mean he impacts his teammates positively. Lofa, not only is a good player, but he makes adjustments to put our entire defense in a position to succeed. He’s a smart commander out there, not just a guy who stands inbetween the other 2 linebackers and makes tackles.
I Bleed Blue and Green
The thing with Lofa is that he also plays well
unlike Colin Cole. Lofa is decent to good in coverage and, in his first two years, was something of a tackling machine (he led the team in 05). Colin Cole has brought almost zero production to the team.
"Seattle under Ruskell often competed with itself for otherwise unremarkable talent"
I can’t think of any examples outside of Cole where this happened. Who am I forgetting?
Kelly Herndon, Edgerrin James and Brian Russell spring to mind
all players that were not heavily pursued that Seattle overpaid.
No reason not to spend the salary cap (especially when you're owner is a multi-billionaire)
So I don’t have a problem with a GM ‘overspending’ for a player that helps the team. As a fan, I’d rather have, say, TJ Houshmandzadeh playing for the team week 6, than knowing that the team is 8 million dollars under the salary cap without any possibility of that money actually helping the team.
So, yeah, spending a little extra for a Deon Grant, TJ Housh, or Patrick Kerney, fine as long as their contracts don’t hamstring you later (so that might also mean releasing a Patrick Kerney in the offseason). Pissing away millions on the TJ Duckett/Edgerin James sweepstakes (or way overspending on Shaun Alexander) not good under any circumstances.
B-Russ (#42) showing his tackling skills
http://www.battleredblog.com/photos/bob-mcnair-garys-my-coach/494150
June 2nd, 2009: Linked by Danny O'Neil. Date of awareness: Jan 26th, 2010.
by SSreporters on Jan 27, 2010 5:47 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I very much hope we make DT a priority this off season
Mebane’s getting no help and he’s got to be a little frustrated at Colin Cole – a fairly talentless guy that’s getting paid significantly more.
Pretty sure this is Mebane’s last year on his rookie contract. If I were him, I wouldn’t want to return to the Hawks either if, throughout the years, they refused to provide any help.
Carroll has GOT to see this. It’s impossible to miss.
6/14/40. Sweet.
I would have to think that Mora told Ruskell that we had to get 'Bigger' on the defensive line.
Ruskell took that to mean sign a big, fat guy from Green Bay named Colin Cole. I don’t understand the move, myself. I will say that Jovan Haye is a quicker, penetrating type. Our staff planned to move Mebane to 3-tech which meant Haye was unneeded. As far as Cody, I’m not sure. He was let go from a porous Detroit line – I’d have to think that our team just didn’t think that highly of him or view him as a good fit with ’Bane’s switch and the coaching staff’s desire to get bigger.
Getting "Bigger!" was a comment Holgren made when the media honks were interviewing
him everyday for the GM job…
by Trojan Knight on Jan 28, 2010 12:37 PM PST up reply actions
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