SB Nation User Blog: cashless

TE Cameron Morrah signed, 4 years, $1.79 Million

cashless — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:15:18 -0000

Morrah has signed a four-year deal worth $1.79 million dollars, including what NorthwestFootball.net has confirmed includes a signing bonus of just over $40,500.

After red-shirting his freshman season at Cal, Morrah backed up current Tennessee Titans tight end Craig Stevens in 2006 and 2007. Morrah moved into the starting lineup in 2008, starting 13 games and finishing the season with 27 receptions, 326 yards and a team-high 8 touchdowns.

Bryan McIntyre, Northwestfootball.net

That leaves only our first day picks left unsigned.

Sando has already picked this up as well.

Burleson to train at Athletes' Performance in Arizona

cashless — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:19:46 -0000

Going through Seahawks news, I stumbled across a Burleson tidbit that interested me. He is headed out to train hardcore before the training camp.

Audio for interview here...some of the article below.

Burleson is headed for Arizona to train at Athletes' Performance. Burleson said he plans to be down there for a month, and that his agent Ken Sarnoff provided him with the opportunity to work out at the workout facility for elite athletes.

Burleson said it’s important for him to come into camp in the best shape possible because of the competition at receiver and he’s in a contract year.

“I don’t think I can afford to relax too much,” Burleson said. “There’s too much at stake for this team, this organization. We’re just trying to get our name back out there, trying to climb back to the top of the mountain.

“And for me as an individual, I want to go into this last year in the best shape of my career. And I know if I’m out here I might have some distractions. I might be tempted to travel or be tempted to vacate. But if I’m in Arizona and I’m working out five times a week, twice a day, I’m not going to be tempted to go anywhere because it’s what I have to do.”

Eric Williams

FB Owen Schmitt enters camp as the starter

cashless — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:12:38 -0000

Mora said second-year FB Owen Schmitt enters camp as the starter and that veteran Justin Griffith, who signed recently from Oakland and was Mora's FB in Atlanta from 2004-07, "understands he has more of a mentor role."

Greg Bell - USA Today

The article itself is interesting, talking about how the Seattle players get to take home their playbooks, apparently an unusual move. However, it was the notes at the bottom where the FB quote came from.

Obviously now is the time for crazy speculation about who is doing what, but this seems to be straight forward telling us something that I thought might wait until week 1 to be sorted out. Of course the job could be lost, but for this to not be a straight-forward competition with the started named later is interesting to me. And of course I'm excited to see the havoc.

Mebane at 3-tech, more blitzing

cashless — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:32:54 -0000

He talks about learning more pass rush moves, and how he'll be playing the 3-tech. basic stuff.

"I’m the three technique this year so one of my focuses this year is to get my weight down and my role this year is to bring more energy to the defensive line and the defense so my role has pretty much changed.

"The one guy I’ve been looking at as far as taking different things and different situations is Warren Sapp. He played the three-technique really well and we’re running the Tampa defense is the same defense so I’m just looking at film of what he was doing and when certain plays came at him I’m just trying to focus on him and what he was doing and incorporating that into my game.

But then he goes on to be a little discriptive about a change in defensive tackle roles, as well as the plays the defense is learning.

"This year we’re throwing a lot of different looks," Mebane noted. "From looking at the plays they are giving us, it seems like everybody is blitzing more.

"As a defensive line, the defensive tackles, we’re not sliding this year because the three technique is always going to play the three-technique and the nose guard (Colin Cole) will play the nose.

Scout.com - from Mebane interview on 710 KIRO

To be perfectly honest, the talk about sliding I don't know what to do with. I've watched Lofa reposition the defensive tackles after diagnosing the offensive formations, but how that translates into anything other than ideal run stopping position is something I know nothing about.

The idea of Mebane at the 3-tech sounds fun to watch, and I'm guessing that would make Bryant the backup 1, and Redding/Terrill(?) the backup 3. Blitzing more often sounds fun too, but we'll have to see it in action before we really know how well they are designed.

The Tampa reference I believe is to Tampa Bay's defense with lots of different schemes involved, not to the Bears/Colts "Tampa 2" defense as I understand it. However, it would be interesting to see more written about what Tampa Bay actually did, both back in their SB days, and in the years following as that DL broke apart and they continued to be pretty good.

We're going to be good, real good...We're going to be something special. The talent we have on this...

cashless — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:17:02 -0000

We're going to be good, real good...We're going to be something special. The talent we have on this team and then coach Mora brings everything together just right...Don't flex us in, we'll have our coming-out party in the playoffs.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawksblog/2009210924_tj_houshmandzad_3.html

Ruskell on Curry "had our eye on him for a long time"

cashless — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 06:07:48 -0000

From Danny O'Neill, Seattle Times Blog

Q: How early in the process did you zero in on linebacker Aaron Curry?

Ruskell: Our people kind of noticed him last year in the offseason. And our people kept coming back with good reports as we went through the season. So we started paying more attention to him in terms of watching him play and that kind of thing and everything came up solid. So we kind of had our eye on him for a long time.

Q: Was the trade of Julian Peterson influenced at all by the presence of Curry, a prospect you liked that played the same position?

Ruskell: Not really. We knew he was going to be a very high pick. We didn't know at that time where ours was going to be. We thought he was going to be a very high pick. So not really though it certainly factored into the fact that this was a guy we really liked.

Q: What does he bring to the team that you didn't have yesterday?

Ruskell: A physical presence on the field. This is a guy that's over 250 pounds, runs 4.5 and you see the speed. Some guys run 4.5 in their workout and you don't see it on the tape. Versatility in terms of the coverage ability. He's a good tackler and he's a good blitzer. He's the whole package for the linebacker position. That's why the coaches were so excited about him because of all the different things you're going to be able to do with the guy.

Gus Bradley coming from Tampa had a guy like that in Derrick Brooks. And I'm not comparing him to Derrick Brooks. Derrick Brooks is going in the Hall of Fame, but what made us select Derrick Brooks all those years ago was the fact that he could do everything.

So it's kind of eerie that those are the same traits that this guy has.

Q: Does this selection impact Leroy Hill's situation with the team?

Ruskell: Continue to negotiate with Leroy. We still want a long-term deal done.

I thought it would be interesting to share Ruskell's idea of who he is. I think it is interesting he compares him to Derrick Brooks. Not the comparison I would come up with, as I always thought of Brooks as an undersized coverage LB. However, I've only seen 10-15 plays out of his entire career, which did include 3 INTs returned for TD.

The Rams GM Billy Devaney also had this to say. Not quite as revealing, but certainly nice to hear. The Rams picked one of the two players I could have considered over Curry, and I'm not sure Stafford over Curry would be correct, but I did like Smith a lot.

“Curry was the first guy we put (tape) on and we were like, ‘Wow! This guy is special,” St. Louis Rams general manager Billy Devaney said after the combine.

“He is really good on tape. And then we started talking about the intangibles and, to a man, everybody said he’s top of the line.”

Clare Farnesworth

Seahawks Defensive Scheme created from scratch?

cashless — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:19:13 -0000

Seahawks Defensive Scheme created from scratch?

As head coach, Mora's fingerprints will be all over the defense.

"I intend to be very, very involved with the defense," he said. "It's my passion. It's what I love to do. It's something I believe I'm pretty good at."

But it's more than just his voice that will be heard.

"I've hired a tremendous defensive staff," Mora said. "We've added some outstanding coaches who have a very similar philosophy to me in terms of how you become a great defensive football team."

And for the past few weeks, the staff has begun drawing up a blueprint for that defense, starting with the ground floor of the playbook.

"We're starting to put the book together from the very basics," Lewis said. "It's kind of amazing, but it's very good. It's refreshing."

They've sat around a table, discussing ideas and concepts with Mora and Bradley both moderating and making sure everyone has a chance to offer input.

"We're sitting around a table like this; nothing gets typed or written really until everybody has a say-so," Lewis said. "It's really dynamic. It gives me a chill."

Marshall interviews for Raiders DC job

cashless — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:02:39 -0000

Marshall interviews for Raiders DC job

Contra Costa Times

Julius Peppers, Terrell Suggs, Leroy Hill

cashless — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:26:23 -0000

Watching the coaching signings, there it feels as though the team is transitioning towards a Tampa 2, although there really is not solid personnel evidence of that yet.

I know that we have good amount of money invested in the defense so far, but I think a good indication of whether we are seriously moving towards this is whether we go after Julius Peppers or Terrell Suggs. That of course is predicated on those teams not locking up those players in some way, which is very likely. But if one of them becomes available, or some other pass rusher with great ability, how we react to that situation I think should tell us about the long-term plans for this team.

Leroy Hill's situation is another one. If we do what it takes to retain him, we will still have two very good pass rushing OLBs, and Hill hasn't shown himself to be the most disciplined LB in coverage. I do not know Mora's defensive background. It was said by someone in a conversation here that he had more of a cover-3, cover-1, traditional 4-3 in ATL, which seems to jive with what our personnel looks like right now, as well as TR's drafting pattern. If that is correct, despite the coach signings, Mora could be the one putting the defense together and some of our fears would be for nothing.

This is completely speculation, we could not go after Peppers or Suggs, retain Hill, and transition to a cover 2. But my belief is that our moves involving these players will tell us a lot about where the team is headed.

NFL Rules

cashless — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:35:04 -0000

I had an idea occur to me while watching the Cardinals game wind down. I'm probably not the first to think of this.

If a player catches the ball and does a backward lateral out of bounds, would that be legal? Or is there a rule against that to keep players from using it to stop the clock as they try to come from behind?

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