Seahawks' wide receiver Golden Tate was on 710 ESPN's Bob and Groz show the other day and had a lot of interesting things to say. One of the first things they asked him about was whether or not he agreed with the main critiques that media members (including myself) have pointed out and that limited his production in 2010: namely his imprecise route running and penchant for miscues. He owned up to everything and responded with an "absolutely" which I really find as a great sign that he's ready to put those 'rookie' mistakes behind him and have a big season.
He said, "When I first came in, I was kinda just an athlete, going wherever the ball was going, making plays. Once the defense figured that out, they kinda knew what to do to stop me from doing that.
This year, I learned some things -- releases, coming in and out of my breaks -- and now I just have to execute that early in camp and show the coaches that I can do this. In camp I was just making plays, but they didn't know that I could do it the way they wanted me to. Now that's kinda one of the things I'm focusing on -- not being such a hard-head as (wide receivers) coach Kippy Brown would tell me."
Good to hear and it sounds like he's been putting in the work to improve in those areas. He continued in the interview with his take of the lockout and what he's been doing during this downtime:
"I'm kinda just doing my own thing, working out. I'm sure the higher authorities will contact us when it ends. Everyday that we're locked out is another day closer to that day when we're not locked out, so I'm just trying to get prepared and stay prepared. You know, we've got some great captains on our team. Chester Pitts, Matt Hasselbeck have been keeping in touch, trying to give us the different scenarios, and they'll frequently answer questions that we would have. I check my email everyday just to get the updates."
"I have not been in Seattle. I'm in Seattle now to work out, but I've been in (Nashville), I took some classes at the University of Tennessee this semester knowing that we're going to be locked out so I can get closer to my degree. I moved back home for about the last two months and have been kinda hitting it hard with the Titans. You know, the way I see it is, at the end of the day if I'm in Seattle or ... Haiti, it's still a 100 yard field with a leather football. So I'm just trying to stay prepared and just praying that this ends soon."
On what he thinks of Matt Hasselbeck coming back:
"You know, I leave it up to the GMs and the higher authorities, I just play ball. But I'd love to see Matt come back. From what I hear, he knows the offense that (Darrell) Bevell's going to teach us, so he's already got a head start, especially with this lockout. I guess there's a bunch of scenarios that could happen, and with this lockout it might have pulled him towards or away from coming back, but I don't really know. I'm hoping he comes back, because there's nothing like having a veteran quarterback to teach me the right things to do and help me grow as a receiver. That's a very important part of my success, having a great quarterback, and I think he's definitely one of those guys."
On Charlie Whitehurst:
"Very very very very strong arm. He knows how to use his feet, so anytime he gets flustered in the pocket he can take off running and he's fearless. So, he's definitely someone I would like to keep around also. As far as his potential, at the next level, it's hard for me to say what he's capable of doing just because this is only my second year in the league. I don't really know too much about this league, I'm still learning. From what I've seen though, he won the game against the St. Louis Rams that put us in the playoffs so you got to give him some respect there. But like I said, Coach Carroll and (John) Schneider saw something in him to sign (him) so hopefully he can help the team."
Golden Tate is, in particular, one of the Seahawks that I'm most excited about in 2011. He's a big question mark but his upside is intriguing so it will be fun to see how they use him in their Darrell Bevell offense. I put together a two-part writeup on Tate a few weeks back, so if you want to go back and take a look at how I think he'll be utilized, check out the links, HERE, and HERE.
Golden expounds on a lot more in the audio link embedded below: