Last year, with Holmgren to retire and Jim Mora Jr. already declared the walrus apparent, the Hawks' secondary had an inconsistent season. The new staff needed to come in and break down the tape from last year without the benefit of a rapport that would allow them to be critical of anything Mora-related. How Mora handles these issues is of no small insignificance. Clare Farnsworth put together a tidy little article about how Mora has worked with his staff.
After seeing that his coordinators were tentative to criticize poor play from last year's tape, Mora ran the elephant out of the room:
"I just told them, 'We're not going to be able to get to where we need to go if you guys have to walk on eggshells,' " Mora said. "I know what it was. Let's call it what it was and let's go on."
While it may not require CERN's best and brightest to ascertain that last year's secondary play left a lot to be desired, at least Mora is willing to hear it. That is good news for Seahawks fans.