Click here for our 2009 Analysis on the Seattle Seahawks - Published July 2009

2009 Fantasy Recap – Seattle Seahawks – 5 Wins 11 Losses

609 passing attempts for the ‘hawks in 2009 and their WR1 (Housh) finished 31^st in fantasy scoring among WRs, WR2 (Burleson) finished 39^th, and theTE1 (Carlson) finished 11^th among TEs.  Something’s wrong.  Hold on, though, it gets worse – much worse, in fact… Matt Hasselbeck and Seneca Wallace combined to finished 16^th in fantasy points among QBs, thus debunking (at least in their case) the correlation between attempts and fantasy success.   

Julius Jones managed to become the first RB in a Greg Knapp coordinated offense to not be fantasy relevant.  He can go on ahead and plan on being a backup for the rest of his career.   The running game did surface a potential rising fantasy star in 2008’s 233^rd draft pick (7^th round) Justin Forsett.   He cranked nearly 500 rush yards and 4 TDs on only 96 attempts.  He did equal damage thru the air catching 25 balls for 210 yards and a TD in the same timeframe.  That’s not a lot of touches and a healthy amount of production.    Does anyone remember Edgerrin James getting carries last season?  Snap – I had no clue until I just did a review of their 2009 team stats. 

John Carlson managed an 11^th among TE finish after a strong start, but rather vanilla numbers during the middle 11-12 games. 

Passing Offense  

Rushing Offense  

2010 Offensive Line Analysis

Seattle Seahawks 2010 Oline analysis – provided by UltimateFFstrategy.com

2010 Offensive Philosophy

Pete Carroll, the keys to this Chevy Malibu are now yours.  Carroll leaves behind quite the wake in the city of Lost Angels, check it:

• ·         30 lost scholarships
• ·         14 vacated wins
• ·         1 two-year bowl suspension
• ·         1 forfeited Heisman Trophy
• ·         1 National Championship
• ·         1 Partridge in a Pear Tree

He ran “from” the hills in January of this year when word was circulating that this all was on its way down and landed him and his USC OC Jeremy Bates a pretty sweet gig in Seattle all things considered. 

AIR:  Carroll has an established NFL pedigree and here is a quick glance at his passing behavior during those years:   

1994 – Head Coach -  Jets  - 18 passing TD (ranked 18), Ranked 14^th in Pass attempts (out of 28 teams).

1997  - Head Coach - Pats  - 31 passing TD (ranked 2^nd) Ranked 15^th in Pass attempts (out of 30 teams).

1998  - Head Coach – Pats – 23 passing TD (ranked 12^th)Ranked 5^th in Pass attempts (out of 31 teams)

1999  - Head Coach – Pats - 19 passing TD (ranked T-19^th)Ranked 15^th in Pass attempts (out of 32 teams)

As you can see, there isn’t much to deduce from this except that he drove the Patriots passing attack into the dirt and was vacated after one 6-10 season from New York.   What I can tell you is that he ran the football a lot more than he passed it in his last three seasons as coach of the Trojans.  I am too lazy to calculate the stat at the moment but here, see for yourself.   Between that and the fact that they are operating w/ the same personnel in Seattle this season plus one Charlie Whitehurst, I will be watching their pre-season with great interest. 

GROUND:

And since we did it for the passing figures, we looked up how Carroll fared rushing the ball when he was in the league over 10 years ago…

1994 – Head Coach – Jets - 8 rushing TD (ranked T-22^nd), Ranked 22^nd in Rush attempts out of 28 teams

1997 – Head Coach – Pats - 6 rushing TD (ranked T-28^th)   Ranked 28th in Rush attempts out of 30 teams

1998  - Head Coach – Pats - 9 rushing TD (ranked T-22^nd)   Ranked 26^th in Rush  attempts out of 31 teams

1999-  Head Coach – Pats -  9 rushing TD (ranked T-20^th) Ranked 18^th in Rush attempts out of 32 teams

I don’t put a lot of stock in these numbers from the perspective of trying to accurately predict how much of what he will be doing in Seattle, but they do speak to his execution on offense.   And it’s not pretty on either side of the ball, so Seahawk player owners are hoping he’s learned a thing or three in the last decade in the college ranks.

From what little I’ve read, Carroll/Bates use the pass (a version of the WCO) to set up the run.  It was originally thought that Justin Forsett did not fit the type of back that Carroll like to employ, but Forsett has since one over his skeptics and will start the season as the primary RB.   Be careful, though, because if you glazed thru the last few years from the above link, you will note that Carroll is a big fan of the RBBC.  Furthermore, Bates OC’d under Mike Shanahan, who pretty much invented the RBBC.  So those of you targeting Forsett earlier than backup material need to think again.  Leon Washington will chew plenty into the carry load, and Julius Jones is still on the roster and figures to see 60-70 carries. 

QB

Matt Hasselbeck

He is old and rickety, and playing behind a shaky offensive line. New head coach Pete Carroll will probably stick with him one more season, but brought Charlie Whitehurst and his kind quaff to Seattle as among his first "official" moves after being names head coach. Hasselbeck is now quite injury-prone, and while we like us some Golden Tate as a late sleeper, we don't see Matt, at 35, turning back the clocks. 35 is not old for a QB, but it is when you have a bad back. Hour back, get it? Call ya back in an hour... back, get it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDPoPSVMmO0    

RB

Justin Forsett

Fewer fantasy RB draft picks have as much intrigue and mystery as this one. It was originally thought that Forsett would not fit OC Alex Gibbs' "one-cut" rushing scheme, yet it took him all of OTA's to change that perception. Lardale White was cut, and word out of Seattle is that Forsett is the leading candidate to be the 'hawks' starter. Julius Jones is a weak runner - we're not sure what happened between his early days on Dallas and now, but let's just say he's no Thomas (his big brother). Leon Washington is also in camp, but after suffering a broken leg (week 7) which scrapped most of his 2009 season, questions must persist as to whether he can regain that speed and quickness that made him a lethal threat anywhere on the field. Forsett is a likely candidate to get a nice bump up from this mid-july ranking.

Leon Washington

His value is limited given that broken leg he suffered in 2009. Also, Justin Forsett is becoming the heir apparent to.... ehhh.... well there are no comparisons because Seattle hasn't had an effective runner since the 2005 version of Shaun Alexander. Draft Leon Washington as a handcuff to Forsett and nothing more. It's also worth nothing that Julius Jones is still lurking in the background, and could hoover 80-100 of the carries in this offense.

Julius Jones

We may have Julius Jones ranked too high here. He is on the outs in Seattle, and if there is gonna be a RBBC in the Pacific Northwest, it'll involve Forsett and Leon Washington. Jones is a waiver wire fodder.

WR

TJ Houshmandzadeh

Housh was a letdown in 2009, but it wasn't due to a lack of targets. He was 12th in the NFL in targets with 135 on the year, but only ended up with 79 recepts, under 1,000 yards. Here is a stat that is both alarming and encouraging (for 2010), he was targeted 21 times in the red-zone! But only turned that into 3 lousy TDs last season (yuck). Here's an even uglier stat to consider... Housh has caught 7 TDs in his 38 NFL contests. (double yuck) Between Hasselbeck (and Seneca Wallace's) ducks in 2009, and Housh being double teamed, it wasn't a pretty season. He went from being a possession WR and 2nd fiddle to Ochocinco in Cinci, to being the WR1 with little else to deflect attention. With all of those targets, he only managed a 36th finish in fantasy point per game - trailing even Burleson (who had 30 less targets). Now for some good news... Seahawk 2nd round draft pick was hell-on-wheels Golden Tate. He is this year's Percy Harvin. Pete Carroll will be installing a "Wildcat" package in Seattle, and Golden Tate will likely be running that show. When he's not, he will be split out wide opposite Housh (or in the slot) running fly patterns 'til the cows come home. This should open things up for Housh. He should bounce back some in 2010 - I mean after those 2009 numbers, how can he not?

Golden Tate

Golden Tate put up some insane numbers in Charlie Weiss' system at Notre Dame, and he steps into Pete Carroll's system and will start right away opposite TJ Houshmilfhunter - unless you think Deon Butler can beat him out (no way). He was selected in the 2nd round as the 60th player overall. Tate's junior season was incredible - 1,500 on 93 receptions and 15 TDs.... in 12 games. Yowza. Sick upside associated w/ this fella'. The only reason to stay lukewarm on him is that he's the 2nd target on a team QB'd by Matt Hasselbeck or Charlie Whitehurst. Could be slim pickin's for this kid in 2010, but he's got the ability to blow it out in this league.

TE

John Carlson

So is there a 3rd year TE breakout rule, too? (next year, I will integrate sound bites into this ranking tool). Carlson is a strong talent playing on a weak team. His 2009 season was dreadful. He started out w/ a bang (2 TDs and 95 yards in week one) but the next 11 games was a giant bag a’ doughnuts. He did close the season with 4 scores in 4 games, so there is hope. He is typically the 2nd RZ target for Hasselbeck among WR/TEs on Seattle, and that should not change. He would make a good backup TE and there is some clear upside to this ranking.

2010 Seattle Seahawks NFL Draft By Round

Click here for 2010 Seattle Seahawks off-season movement!