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26	Februar 2019

12th Fan Jersey

Why I�m excited about the Seahawks this season Well. I�m always excited about the Seattle Seahawks. But why the 2018 version?Aren�t they supposed to be Barkevious Mingo Jersey , you know, (exaggerated whisper) bad? Truth is I�d be excited about them even if they were on track for a 5-11 season. But they�re not. They�re better than last year�s Seahawks. Who won nine games. And I can prove it. Though you�ll still be allowed as much reasonable doubt as is ... reasonable. A) They�re gonna be better on special teams.Blair Walsh made just 72.4 of his field goals last year, �good� for 30th among qualifying kickers. Meanwhile, Jon Ryan had a down year. His 40.1 net average ranked 30th as well, and opposing teams were 8th best in punt return average, signifying lack of hang time and/or lackluster coverage.Walsh and Ryan have been replaced. Their successors will out-produce their 2017 numbers, which is sad to consider but happy for the team�s efficiency. Tyler Lockett is healthier than in 2017; Rashaad Penny racked up eight career touchdown returns in college. There are explosive playmakers returning kicks; that wasn�t always true last year.The Seahawks� offense, and defense, will have better position handed to them after special teams vacate the field. Better field position turns into points. Points turn into wins. Wins turn into happiness. Math.B) They�re gonna be better in pass protection They just will be. In 2012-2016, the Seahawks let Russell Wilson be pressured on 37 percent of all dropbacks. That�s the highest rate for the five-year period in question. Then, in 2017, it got worse, somehow. 41 percent was the final number, according to Pro Football Focus. What�s more, Wilson�s taken 232 hits in the last two seasons alone. Tops, obviously, among NFL quarterbacks.They have to do better, because there�s nowhere to go but up. They can�t do worse because it�s too hard to do worse. They�re already at the bottom. Moving up from 32nd is a whole lot easier than moving down.C) They�re gonna run the ball better.What? They seem fine, statistically, from a cursory glance at 2017. Look: 409 rushes for 1629 yards, a 4.0 average � how can you presume they�ll be better? Won�t they turn out the same, because four yards a carry is pretty standard for the league as a whole?No. They�ll be better. Because once you remove Wilson�s numbers, the whole statistical house of cards collapses. 324 rushes remain Cheap 12th Fan Jersey , for 1043 yards and a single touchdown. Those aren�t rushing statistics, they�re a pile of forking shirtballs. With Chris Carson and the rookie Penny getting the bulk of the carries this season instead of Eddie Lacy (2.6 ypc), Mike Davis (3.5 ypc) and Thomas Rawls (2.7 ypc), the production will again outpace last year�s. Unless they start running backwards. (Don�t run backwards.)FootballOutsiders did a great job of explaining the problems with Seattle�s running back situation in 2017 in the Field Gulls Q&A. D) The defense, while a true wild card, could turn out worse, better, or similar.The real wild card in all this is how a Pete Carroll defense without the Legion of Boom will operate. But there are reasons to be excited nonetheless, amid all the uncertainty.Linebackers are the same excellent duo, with a new wrinkle. Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright are joined by Shaquem Griffin. There is literally no reason to contain your excitement. Carroll is still the coach of the DBs. The things he taught Richard Sherman, Brandon Browner, and the other Legionnaires are still in his brain, in his educational toolkit, in the twinkle of his eye. Young players will listen and learn. How much? That remains to be seen. And are any of them another Kam Chancellor? Seems unlikely. But Carroll is still himself. The run defense doesn�t look bad on paper. The men are big, they�re veterans, Naz Jones is healthy again and ready to break out into stardom.The pass rush is suspect, however. And so�s the depth. Those very real concerns exist and should not be minimized, until I minimize them in the rest of this paragraph. Truth is, every single NFL team has holes. You could pinpoint the Seahawks� flaws as �unproven offensive line,� �lack of depth at receiver,� and �pass rush.� That exercise is doable for 31 other teams, with answers all over the board. No doubt, pass rush is a big hole to have. Maybe the worst hole to have. But maybe it gets plugged over the season Cheap Kam Chancellor Jersey , and what looked like a deficiency in August turns out to be a strength in December. Lord knows we�ve seen the Seahawks pull that kind of transformation off before.Seattle was 13th in pass defense DVOA and 14th in rush defense. It won�t be hard for them to be almost as good, exactly as good, or better. And if they�re worse, the other three phases listed above figure to make up for it.There are reasons to be excited. You don�t even have to look that hard. Now let�s get this preseason over with already. With the final games of the 2018 regular season on tap for NFL teams Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals get ready to face off in Week 17 at Century Link. The game will serve as a tune up for the playoffs for the Seahawks, while for the Cardinals it will determine whether they maintain their death grip on the top overall pick or not. In any case, I�ve looked at how the Hawks may have had some favorable luck in terms of getting to face three key opponents from the central time zone in primetime games, but the schedule maker also didn�t hold back when handing out a golden opportunity to be successful. By this, I mean that one key point some will look at for analysis when the playoffs come is the schedule a team faced while making its way to the postseason. When the second round of the 2018 Beak Bowl comes to a conclusion Sunday afternoon, regardless of the outcome, it is likely to have been the sixth game the Hawks played against a team currently slated to choose in the top five of the 2019 NFL Draft. Specifically the Hawks will have played the Cardinals twice, the San Francisco 49ers twice, along with games against the Detroit Lions and the Oakland Raiders. Now, I�m not blaming the Seahawks for playing such a soft schedule, the NFL�s schedule making system is completely formulaic, and the only control a team has over its opponents are where it finishes in the division this year to change two opponents next season. And the Hawks certainly won the majority of the games they have played, which means they certainly aren�t a bad team, but does their schedule stack up against other teams that are entering Week 17 with nine wins? Which other teams have played six or more games against teams slated to draft in the top 5, and how should that help shape our expectations for the postseason? I mean, it�s fairly obvious that even if a team went undefeated during the regular season, if they did it by accumulating close victories over teams like Ball State, Vanderbilt and Pitt, they most certainly would get obliterated by real competition. Wait http://www.seahawkscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-quinton-jefferson-jersey , that was the college playoffs, nevermind. So, if the draft were to be held based on the standings through Week 16, here are the teams that would be drafting in the top five: 1: Arizona Cardinals (3-12)2: San Francisco 49ers (4-11)3: New York Jets (4-11)4: Oakland Raiders (4-11)5: Detroit Lions (5-10)In any case, here is a rundown of how many games every NFL team played against the current projected top five.How many games each team has played against opponents slated to draft top five.TeamGames versus teams scheduled to draft top 5WinsTeamGames versus teams scheduled to draft top 5WinsNow that�s a lot of text, and most people are more visual, so here�s a chart of what the data looks like, with the playoff teams circled. Yes, those are some crude circles and multiple designators, and yes I could have used different color dots, but it didn�t do much good with the dots that needed to represent multiple teams. Another illustration showing the benefit of getting to play a bottom heavy schedule is looking at the probability of a team making the playoffs based on the number of top five drafting teams they played, so this is that in data form. Games against bottom five and probability of being in playoffsGames against opponent scheduled to draft top fiveProbability of making playoffs (based on standings entering Week 17)Games against opponent scheduled to draft top fiveProbability of making playoffs (based on standings entering Week 17)And for those who prefer a visual representation. Again, I�m not saying the Seahawks are in any way a bad team. They played the schedule they were given, and they won enough of those games to make the postseason. And if they were good enough to be victorious in nine (or ten depending on how Week 17 turns out), then they were obviously good enough to be doing something right, because wins aren�t free in the NFL. All I�m saying is that this is one tool that can be used to evaluate how strong the wins a team had over the course of the year are, and it�s a little telling that 67% of the teams that will have played five or more games against bottom competition are currently in a playoff spot. That said, it will certainly be interesting to see what happens with the final NFC Wild Card spot that is up for grabs today, and whether the Minnesota Vikings are able to hold on, or if the Philadelphia Eagles get a little help and squeeze their way into the playoffs.