Seattle Seahawks: The End Of An Era
Andrew Elderbaum
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Last night the WFT hammered home the final nail in the 2021 Seahawks coffin. Our Andrew Elderbaum wonders if that’s not all that’s being buried.
“You F*#$@! Suck!”
That expletive fueled declaration was the beginning of the slow decline of a champion. The Seattle Seahawks were coming off a soul crushing loss to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. A goal line decision had fractured the team, and changed the dynamic. How the players would handle it would determine the future of the franchise. Those three words screamed by Richard Sherman made it clear it would be handled poorly.
Sides were chosen and divisions were created. Since then it’s been a slow and attrition filled slide to the bottom. This season is the thud that’s been 7 years in the making. As fans we all knew it was coming, hell we expected it three years ago. Give Pete and John Schneider credit for that. It’s hard to rebuild on the fly without tanking, and this has been a New Englandesque run for Seattle. They were always just a little short.
The championship core got old, injured and expensive at the same time. Freak injuries ended Kam Chancellor and Cliff Averill’s careers. The aforementioned culture war pushed the team to move on from Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett and Earl Thomas. The Legion of Boom slowly went from dominant, to good, to average and finally the bottom of the league rankings. Too many times as a piece was lost they chose the wrong replacement.
What Went Wrong
Offensively Pete and John could never cobble together a solid offensive line or find a true replacement for Lynch. Thomas Rawls, Eddie Lacy, Rashad Penny, C.J. Prosise….moments of promise followed by injuries or ineffectiveness. Chris Carson is the embodiment of the post Beast Mode era, good when he’s available but rarely available. It’s hard to be a smashmouth offense with a mediocre line and no consistent backs.
As the running game and defense declined Russell Wilson became a superstar. He willed the team to victory after victory, most of the time while running for his life. Over the course of the last 5 years the team reached its ceiling while Russ kept raising his. Eventually his frustrations boiled over into last spring’s kinda sorta, but not really trade demand. Another sign that the culture of those championship teams was long gone.
What Happened Next
Which brings us to this year. Some will blame the season on Wilson’s finger injury and want to run it back next year. The defense got better as the season progressed, and maybe it will pick up next year where it left off this season. Seattle will get a healthy Chris Carson back and be ready to go right? Unfortunately you could have said exactly the same things at the end of last year.
It’s clear the frustration with the teams success has gotten to all parties. Pete Carroll is walking out of pressers, Wilson’s trade demands still feel relevant and the orginazation seems to be at a crossroads. What’s not clear is which road is the right one to take, especially if you don’t want to blow the whole thing up.
Pete and Russ are both closer to the end than the beginning, so choosing one over the other isn’t an easy call. The New York Jets will be gleefully wasting the Seahawks first round pick on their latest bust so there’s no chance of starting over with a new young QB. It’s not an enviable position to be in when trying to kickstart a moribund franchise. At the end of the day there are two ways to go.
Where Does Seattle Go Now?
Path one is to run it back. Hope there’s one last run in the current core and try to fill in the blanks. Maybe Carson comes back and plays 16 games, maybe the offense can hold the ball more than 15 minutes a game. The team will have more cap room and maybe they get a solid corner opposite Reed or Brown and the defense is good for a whole season rather than half of one. It’s a lot of Hope’s and wishes but it’s not impossible. The Rams no longer seem like a juggernaut, and San Francisco should be ushering in the Trey Lance era so just ok might be good enough to compete in the west.
Path two is the more painful, and risk filled option. Trade Russ and move on from Pete. With their own limited resources the only way to really change the Seahawks outlook is to add serious draft capital. Moving Wilson could provide that ammunition. Would a desperate to save their jobs Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge deal two first round picks this year, and a first next year along with some lower picks for Wilson? Would 2 top 10 picks this year and a later 1st rounder next year be enough for Seattle? I’m not sure but I think it’s worth the call for Schneider to find out.
Those are all questions for the future, but right now Seattle fans should take a minute to appreciate what they’ve had. A decade of good to great teams, two superbowl appearances with only one non-playoff finish. It will always feel a bit tainted by that Patriot interception, but 28 other franchises would gladly have signed up for what Seahawks fans have had. If it is the end for this iteration of the Hawks, they’ve given Seattle a decade of excellence. “All things end badly…or else they wouldn’t end.” Wise words by a great philosopher…now cue Kokomo and fade out to a shot of Pete Carroll on a beach.