Latest Seahawks offseason ranking is seriously flawed. Here’s why.
Some pundits have ranked the Seahawks offseason moves as the worst in the league. That logic is seriously flawed. Read on to see exactly what they missed.
It’s never going to be a great offseason when you lose both your best offensive and defensive players in team history. Some might argue that the Hawks have had better players than Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner, but they’re both certainly in the conversation for the Mount Rushmore of the Seahawks.
Yes, I know BWagz didn’t make the cut in that article. As I said, he’s in the conversation, and he added two years of glorious play since that was written.
Back on topic. I take particular exception to the arguments given in this article by Bill Barnwell for ESPN. Fair warning, 12s: there’s a paywall to view it, but I’ll give you the gist of what he wrote, and enough excerpts to accurately represent his views.
Seahawks need Pete Carroll more than Russell Wilson
Listen, I’m not knocking Barnwell; he’s an excellent writer and a fine follow on Twitter. I just think that this time he got it wrong. Please note that if you are an ESPN Insider, they graciously provided a link to each team writeup near the top of the piece. At least you won’t have to scroll down to the depths of Hades, which is where Barnwell slotted the Seahawks.
Let me give Mr. Barnwell all due credit. He lauded the Hawks for re-signing Quandre Diggs to a team-friendly contract. He also gave the Seattle brain trust credit for staying put in the first round and drafting the stud tackle, Charles Cross. Both of those moves will go a long way to determining the Hawks success for several years beyond this season. For some reason, Barnwell didn’t see past 2022 in his other comments. It’s as if this coming season is the only one that matters.
Another argument Barnwell makes against the Seahawks strategy is that they let Russell Wilson go instead of firing coach Pete Carroll. If we were writing about the NBA instead of the NFL, he might have had a valid point. A star player in basketball exerts tremendous influence in each game. It stands to reason that a player of that stature wields the same amount of influence off the court. But DangeRuss doesn’t play in the NBA. Barnwell wrote:
"Well, they could have kept Wilson and fired Carroll. If the relationship between quarterback and head coach had deteriorated to the point where one had to go, Seattle made the wrong choice. Carroll has been a very good NFL coach, but he is 70 years old."