Know Your Enemy: Seattle Seahawks

Each week, I contact the editor of the FanSided team blog the Ravens are playing that Week.  This week I wrote five questions to Keith Myers, editor of the Seahawks blog 12thManRising.  Read what he has to say about the rivalry and more.

1. It’s pretty clear that Tavaris Jackson is not the guy for the Seahawks. Moving forward, who do you think will be the next franchise quarterback for the Seahawks? Will it be through the draft, a trade, or free agency?

"That has been the million dollar question in Seattle for a couple seasons now; even more so since Matt Hasselbeck wasn’t re-signed. I can’t imagine the Seahawks would go after a free agent, or trade for someone’s backup. Unless the Rams or Colts draft Andrew Luck and decide to trade Bradford or Peyton Manning, it seems pretty obvious that the Seahawks will be drafting a QB.As for who they’ll draft, that depends greatly on where they end up in terms of the Draft order. Luck seems out of reach, so one of the other trio of first round QB’s (Jones, Barkley, Giffin) will have to be their guy. There’s also a chance that if someone like Trent Richardson fall to them, that they could skip QB in round 1 and take a stab at Ryan Tannehill in round 2."

The rest of “Know Your Enemy” after the jump…

2. I still watch the Marshawn Lynch run from last year’s playoff game and you can’t help but admire the wonders of “beast mode.” However, “beast mode” has been absent so far this season. What’s the problem and what will it take to get Lynch back on track?

"This is a 2 part problem. First is the young offensive line getting pushed around a lot at times. It’s hard for Lynch to get Beast Mode going when he’s running into defenders in the backfield. Lynch has has been part of the problem. Even when the line does it’s job, he’s been running like he’s had blinders at times, and other times he’s been so slow to the line that the holes are closing before he gets there.Luckily, everything seemed to come together last week against Dallas. The young line has been slowly improving all season, and was finally able to consistently open holes for Lynch."

3. I’m still scratching my head over the whole Aaron Curry fiasco. Care to elaborate on what went wrong and why he didn’t work out?

"Curry is an incredible athlete who simply couldn’t get production out of his talent. He was a poor pass rusher, and also wasn’t good in coverage. Add in that he had a tendency to overpersue in the running game, and almost missed way too many tackles in the running game, and you have a pretty worthless linebacker. Curry simply has no football instincts.The Seahawks tried a number of things to simplify the game for him and limit what he was being asked to do, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. About the only thing he was good at was setting the edge on runs to his side (which he was very good at). The problem was that teams figured that out fairly quickly and could easily game plan around that."

"The whole thing is really a shame too. He’s such a freakish athlete that he could have been one of the better linebackers in the league had he any natural football instincts."

4. Many expected Sidney Rice to emerge as a number one receiver for the Seahawks but he’s had a lackluster season thus far. Instead, Doug Baldwin has become a go to guy. Could you explain the receiving corp and what the future holds for them?

"Rice has been better than his stats indicate. He missed the first 2 games do to injury, and teams have been double teaming him pretty consistently since he got healthy. His numbers would also be better if he had a QB who was more accurate when throwing the ball down the field. Baldwin has been a very pleasant surprise. He’s been the Seahawk’s rookie of the year so far, and he wasn’t even drafted. Baldwin has turned out be an ideal slot receiver, where his precise routes can make up for his lack of straight away speed.The problem with that, though, is that the Seahawks drafted Golden Tate to be their slot receiver. He was supposed to be a Percy Harvin type playmaker, but Baldwin’s emergence had made it tough for Tate to get on the Field.If I had to pretend that I had a crystal ball and guess what will happen for next season, I’d probably guess that Mike Williams, who’s been a huge disappointment this season after being the team’s leading receiver a year ago, will lose his spot as the “possession” receiver to Baldwin, and that would open up room for Tate to get on the field in the slot. But that’s just a guess, I wouldn’t take it too seriously."

5. What’s the Seahawks achilles heal and what is being done to fix it?

"More than anything, the reason the Seahawks are 2-6 is because of the offensive line. But that unit is extremely young and slowly coming together. Even with the same 5 players, it’ll likely be a strength by the start of next season, so it’s not really an achilles heal in my mind. Instead, I’m going to go with the play of the Corners. Seattle’s top 2 corners each suffered season ending injuries earlier this season. The 2 guys who’ve replaced them are a rookie and a guy imported from the CFL. Both are big (at least 6-3) and strong, but neither is quick enough to cover the league’s faster receivers. To try and accommodate for this, the Seahawks are using their safeties more to help, but that in turn has hurt the run defense."

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