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Previewing the Steelers without Antonio Brown but with most of the same otherwise

2019-06-02T13:50:46-07:00

Analysts and writers who feel the need to make predictions with total conviction — that their opinions are in fact not opinions but infallible peeks into the future — are not football experts at all, but carnival barkers. Over a century of evidence in American sports alone tells us that as of yet nobody can predict what will happen in the next season or even the next game with any level of consistency that would make a reasonable person look twice. So there are no predictions in these previews of opponents of the 2019 Seattle Seahawks — only my thoughts and within those thoughts, an opinion of what I believe they will most likely look like in the coming year and straightforward updates on changes to the roster and coaching staff. But any team could be turning over 30% of their entire roster or 100% of their coaches and in some cases, a complete changeover in ownership and/or how they plan to run their franchise. That makes things even more volatile when looking ahead, especially with over three months to go until Week 1, but it’s worth a look ahead anyhow. These are my thoughts, some of which will be wrong, but if I didn’t believe my experience in evaluating football things was at least a little bit valuable, I wouldn’t be writing these. Hopefully that experience gives you a clearer picture of what to expect, while also expecting that these pictures could be erased at any moment.

The 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers

The Seahawks rip through their entire AFC schedule with four of their first seven games of 2019. After hosting the Bengals in Week 1 (preview here) and before facing the BTS-level hot status Browns in Week 6 (preview here), Seattle travels to Pittsburgh to face a Steelers team that appears to be much different than they’ve been over the last five years ... but in how many ways can we actually count the changes?

Antonio Brown is in Oakland, taking with him 168 targets, 104 catches, 1,297 yards and 15 touchdowns. Another chapter in a Hall of Fame career but at 31, Brown’s downward trend could theoretically be a moment away — especially with a Raiders uniform on. While Brown could argue that he’s the best receiver of the last six seasons, Mike Tomlin and his staff have had a knack for developing good players in place of star players and putting them in a position to be productive. JuJu Smith-Schuster had already overtaken Brown as the number one option (111 catches, 1,426 yards at age 22) regardless of what Brown thinks, and there are plenty of interesting options in waiting:

James Washington was a second round pick in 2018 and he’ll have every opportunity to start after sitting behind two All-Pro level receivers as a rookie. He had over 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns in each of his last three years at Oklahoma State and the targets will be there from Ben Roethlisberger should he improve his status over training camp and preseason.
Eli Rogers had nine yards per target and 594 yards in 2016, one year after being an undrafted free agent. But injuries have cost him most of his career and he missed all but three games last season.
Donte Moncrief signed a sizable one-year deal with the Jaguars and had 668 yards with Blake Bortles and Cody Kessler. He should presumably be in a better situation with the Steelers.
Diontae Johnson is a third round rookie out of Toledo. He’s considered “undersized” but seen as a versatile playmaker and with time could be another option for Roethlisberger. This is the pick they got in the Antonio Brown trade from Oakland.
Ryan Switzer had 36 catches but for only 253 yards, but he’s also an interesting one to watch given his prowess on special teams.

Ben Roethlisberger connecting with JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington and Donte Moncrief in succession. OTAs are officially off and running. pic.twitter.com/Z9sFShdKwX
— Mike Prisuta (@DVEMike) May 21, 2019

Does Pittsburgh have a flat out one-to-one replacement for Antonio Brown? Well, yes. His name is JuJu. But do they have someone who can step in and be as productive as JuJu — as if that’s something that a team needs to be a Super Bowl contender, which it doesn’t? Maybe not but between Washington, Moncrief, and Rogers, I don’t expect the offense to struggle as they’ve finished top-10 in points and yards in each of the last five years.

What else has changed on offense besides Brown? Not much.

Le’Veon Bell is gone but Bell was gone before 2018. James Conner, the starting running back who had similar production to Bell (973 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns, 497 receiving yards in 13 games), is back. Jaylen Samuels (fifth rounder in 2018) comes back after a slightly productive rookie season (4.6 YPC on 56 attempts, three receiving touchdowns) and fourth round rookie Benny Snell, Jr joins them.

Rushing attempts since Week 11
1. Ravens - 316
2. Seahawks - 246
3. Bears - 215
...
30. Packers - 132
30. Dolphins - 132 (6 games)
32. Steelers - 126
— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmarNFL) January 2, 2019

The offensive line still features Alejandro Villanueva, Ramon Foster, Maurkice Pouncey, and David DeCastro. Right tackle Matt Feiler also returns after starting 10 games in 2018, making it five of five in continuity right now. Vance McDonald had 64 catches in four years with the San Francisco 49ers and has 64 catches in the last two with the Steelers, including 610 yards last season. They added fifth rounder Zach Gentry this year to offset the loss of Jesse James.

So what reasons do I have to believe that Pittsburgh will go from a team that was first in pass attempts, second in passing yards, fourth in total yards, and sixth in scoring to one that is even average on offense? I don’t have any. The loss of Brown might force offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner — who has been with the Steelers since 2007 and is not bringing any innovative ideas (to Tomlin, at least) — to push the ball around a bit more but that won’t necessarily be a bad thing. In the world of “anti-rush” analytics, Pittsburgh became just about the least-balanced team in the league and while they put up points, they lost four of their last six games and missed the playoffs. Conner may have been a productive back and made a great case for the “all backs are replaceable” argument, but whether it was causation or correlation, the Steelers were a much better team with Bell — and they were also a much more balanced team.

Of course, Pittsburgh was always at their best when it was the defense, not the offense, that led the charge.

In 2004, the Steelers had the NFL’s best defense and went 15-1. The next year with much of the same team, they won the Super Bowl, as disputed as that might feel. Three years later, they won the Super Bowl again with the number one defense. Two years after that, they lost the Super Bowl with the number one scoring defense and number two in yards allowed. Since 2013, the Steelers defense has been broken blinds and cracked windows and Tomlin has failed to get distinctly close to another Super Bowl trip.

Should the defense not be fixed in 2019 and Pittsburgh falls below .500, it would be interesting to see if the Steelers decide to make their third head coaching change since 1968.

Pittsburgh’s defensive Pro Bowl players a year ago were defensive end Cam Heyward, who turned 30 last month, and linebacker T.J. Watt, who has 20 sacks in his first two seasons. Their other recent first round picks besides Watt include rookie linebacker Devin Bush, who they traded up from 20 to 10 to get, and second year safety Terrell Edmunds, who had 78 tackles and an interception in 2018. It’s just about impossible to know at this point what Bush and Edmunds will be next season or in the long-term future but there are more players on the defense worth noting.

Linebacker Mark Barron joins the defense after spending the last three years with the LA Rams, with each season seemingly being less successful than the one before it. Nose tackle Javon Hargrave had 6.5 sacks from the inside of the line and could be viewed as their “Jarran Reed.” Defensive end Stephon Tuitt has lacked sacks in his career but had 20 QB hits last season according to Pro-Football-Reference. Bud Dupree is yet another former first round linebacker (2015 in this case) and while he only barely did enough to earn his fifth-year option (over $9 million this season) he will be playing for a big contract in 2020.

Y’all wanna know how unreal Javon Hargrave was?

He won 20.4% of his pass rushing snaps. That’s near an elite level folks. It’s too bad he only had about 200 pass rushing snaps to do it in. The Steelers have an absolute monster on their hands and I hope they unleash him.
— Nick Farabaugh (@FarabaughFB) June 1, 2019

It’s the secondary where the Steelers have the biggest questions as they finished 17th against the pass by DVOA.

Joe Haden goes into his 10th NFL season and third with Pittsburgh. He’s not an elite cornerback but he doesn’t seem to be a liability either. They signed Steve Nelson to a three-year, $25 million deal, making it the highest APY they’ve ever given to an outside free agent. Nelson had four interceptions with the Kansas City Chiefs a year ago and again, he’s not a liability, but certainly Pitt seems to have a couple of decent corners rather than a couple — or even one — who would be especially frightening to opposing receivers and quarterbacks. Rookie third rounder Justin Layne was viewed as a first rounder by some but he’s just 21 and could take time to develop. Mike Hilton is expected to start at nickel.

Edmunds will start at strong safety while Sean Davis, a second round pick in 2016, gets his fourth season as a starter overall and second at the free position. He’s done a lot of tackling (170 in the last two years) but again, Davis could be considered more “fine” than being listed among game-changing defensive playmakers.

Thus far that label only falls on Watt, Heyward, and maybe now Hargrave. Meanwhile, Edmunds and Bush provide plenty of first round hope for Steelers fans, and Tuitt, Dupree, Haden, Barron, and Nelson bring some veteran presence that could at least keep Pittsburgh from being flat out bad on defense as they were in 2014, when they were 30th in DVOA. That’s what led to the promotion of Keith Butler from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator in 2015 and they’ve been relatively decent since then but if a top-five season is on the horizon, it’s not exactly evident yet as to why it would be.

For that to happen, Bush might need to be a Pro Bowl-level backer right from the start, which is not impossible or even improbable in many recent cases of phenom prospects; Edmunds may need to make that leap to being an impact safety game-in and game-out; T.J. may need to play even more like J.J., as good as “T” is in his own right; the cornerback group might need to find at least one guy that puts fear into opposing quarterbacks; and do that without seeing someone like Heyward or Hargrave falling off or getting injured.

In general, I think we’re likely getting a Steelers team not so much different than previous Steelers teams, which is fitting for a sports franchise that has arguably changed the least of any major American sports franchise of the last 50 years. They were good, but not great, in 2018, finishing ninth in overall DVOA, sixth on offense, 13th on defense, and 27th on special teams. Given the variance of special teams, maybe we expect a little bit of improvement there. Maybe we even expect the defense to get a little bit better with the development of players like Edmunds, Hargrave, and Bush. And though I expect Pittsburgh to be fine on offense without Brown, it’s not as though I expect them to improve a ton, if at all, from being a very good offense already.

That keeps me right around a 10-6 projection for the Steelers with a two-game swing in either direction, from 8-8 to 12-4. That’s a pretty wide range but I think all teams have a pretty wide range of possible outcomes. When it comes to hosting the Seahawks in Week 2, I would think that Pittsburgh has a distinct advantage at home and with a 1 PM ET start time. We’ve seen Seattle struggle in September road games already and this one is on the east coast against what I expect to be a good team. I’d think that the Steelers would win a lot of battles in the trenches when they’re on offense and that should give Roethlisberger plenty of time to find options to throw to whether it is Smith-Schuster against a cornerback who could very well struggle to cover him (Shaquill Griffin or Tre Flowers or whoever is playing nickel) or one of the players who won’t be getting nearly attention as him or the guy they’re looking to fill in for.

JuJu Smith-Schuster was 2nd last season with 63 receptions from the slot pic.twitter.com/P9LhpdKiMC
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) May 11, 2019

Brown may be a high-profile player but high-profile franchises tend to continue business as usual regardless and business-as-usual for Pittsburgh has always been about a lot more than a single receiver.

Former Seahawk Malik McDowell takes to social media to argue his side of the story

2019-06-02T09:15:00-07:00

During the second half of this past week, the big story for the Seattle Seahawks was not the fact that the team was back on the field for OTAs. Rather, the big news was the fact that the team brought suit against Malik McDowell in federal court in Michigan in order to recover the portions of his signing bonus allocable to the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and seeking a judgment in the amount of nearly $800,000.

McDowell, of course, was a second round pick of the Hawks in the 2017 NFL Draft, but was injured in an ATV accident in July of 2017 and never played a snap for the Hawks before being waived. In February an arbitrator held that McDowell had committed a forfeitable breach of his contract, and ordered him to repay a portion of the signing bonus within 30 days, an order which McDowell has not complied, according to the court filing made by the team.

Saturday, however, McDowell took to social media to push back on the idea that the situation was entirely of his making.

One of the best Neurologist in the world cleared me too play football again Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher MD Neurologist vs The Seahawks Dr. Samuel R. Browd Seattle Children/Pediatric Neurologist who’s primary patients are under the age of 2 https://t.co/6rotFcq0uV
— Malik McDowell (@MSU_LEEK4) June 1, 2019

In short, McDowell argued that he has been cleared to play by a neurologist, and stated that the team neurologist for the Seahawks specializes in pediatric neurology. Obviously, there are differences between pediatric neurology patients and adult neurology patients, but my guess would be that the team neurologist is more than qualified to handle adult patients.

In any case, McDowell appears to be of the belief that there were reasons beyond just his head injury that prevented the Seahawks from clearing him to play.

The @Seahawks had there own reasoning for not letting me play but my head was not issue ‍♂️
— Malik McDowell (@MSU_LEEK4) June 1, 2019

Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of information that has been shared publicly by either the team or McDowell, the ability to judge one way or another is extremely limited.

What we do know is that McDowell never set foot on the field for the Seahawks, and owes the team $799,238 for having breached his contract. Maybe more details will emerge at some point in the future, but for now we are left to parse through the handful of pieces of information that are publicly available.

Century Links 6/2: L.J. Collier Turning Heads in OTAs

2019-06-02T06:00:00-07:00

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The Drive: On the brutality of American Football

2019-06-01T08:00:00-07:00

We knew. We did know. I knew. I won’t deny it.

But what I knew I only understood in an insensitive and abstract way. It was a fact of sorts—almost a factoid. American football players suffer brain damage from playing football. This fact hid in the domain of gallows humor. It might be mentioned on Freaks and Geeks or Daria. I bet Greg Ginn has written a lyric about the subject. It was a talking point in the debate between jocks and nerds, if such a debate exists outside of the pop culture. I don’t know.

And I didn’t know, because how I knew was so shallow and so insincere as to be incorrect. Some people, some people who were not me or my friends or my family, were smashing hell out of their brains. Remember laughing at Emmitt Smith? I miss laughing at Emmitt Smith. Laughter’s good. Don’t fuck with laughter.

But it is exceedingly harder to laugh when someone you love, someone you admire, someone for me who represented all the hopeful possibilities of life, became an Emmitt Smith like derangement of herself. I didn’t know at all. To slightly alter a quote from Tim O’Brien: Stupidly, with a kind of smug removal that I can’t begin to fathom, I assumed the problems of permanent mental impairment did not fall within my special province.

In the summer of 2013, my mother suffered a brain injury. I still to this day do not fully comprehend what happened. She was outside gardening with her husband. Somehow she hit her head on a pole. Almost immediately I have to speculate.

Mom was blotto like I’ve never seen the day of her wedding. I do not mean to say the small woman that was my mother was drunk in a way I was unaccustomed to. Never in my life have I ever seen anyone as intoxicated as my mother was on that day. Or so I remember. She could walk, staggeringly. She could talk. But she was loud, unintelligible, clumsy and impulsive. Yet—so fucking what? Mom had a right to have fun. It was her wedding. I thought she was wedding well. I did not begrudge my mom for finding someone to love, someone to come home to. He was handy and quiet and stable-seeming.

Maybe mom stumbled drunkenly into the pole. It was Friday. This I know. It was Friday when she struck her head and only on Sunday did she receive treatment. Blood had pooled inside her skull. This crowded her brain. By Sunday she could no longer talk. She wrote something on a piece of junk mail and her husband rushed her to the hospital.

She was saved, very close to death but saved, and the day I visited her, the day of her surgery, a doctor told me she should suffer no long term effects. Mom may be released the very next day. But she did not leave the hospital for a month.

One day when I was by her bedside and she was sleeping the way she did almost all day and all night during that month, a nurse told me she was being held for detox. I never knew what the lasting effects of her brain trauma were. I cannot tell you with any kind of certainty. I cannot tell you whether this marked the beginning of her slow suicide, if it intensified her addictions and compulsions, and if it did whether it was the brain trauma or if it was the psychological trauma which was most responsible. But there is this memory.

My wife remembers us walking from my mother’s home to a salon on Powell as a happy experience. In her recount, my mother was open, friendly and cheerful. Mom wanted a haircut to hide her surgical scar. This was September, maybe a few weeks after her discharge, the sun was mild, the breeze steady and cool, and all the bee-friendly gardens ringing the little houses of her neighborhood had gone to seed. We walked slowly, never straying far from mom, and soon enough we were on the grimy thoroughfare that is Powell. Mom popped inside the salon to ask a question. She was gone a strangely long time, something approaching half an hour, but returned cheerful and with an appointment.

My memory differs in one way. Mom seemed lobotomized. Maybe she was only sober or more sober. Or maybe she felt the profound calm one feels after surviving a medical calamity. But the memory of that day haunts me. I knew one woman and that woman I loved most profoundly a love of admiration. This woman I pitied and loved in a protective way.

* * *

I didn’t enjoy the Seahawks Super Bowl winning season. Some of the games of that season I did not see and still have never seen. I was contracted to write a book and all but promised great sales by my publisher. That didn’t pan out, by the way. Watching, researching and writing about the Seahawks was my financial obligation, and I was too old too broke too failed and too bereft of other options to say no. But September of 2013 I wasn’t doing much but smoking pot all day and posting angry comments in whatever comment section I could afflict with my bitterness and hatred.

Commercials for the Frontline documentary League of Denial were in heavy rotation on OPB. I didn’t need to see it to know, but I did watch it. Watched the replay. Just about indoctrinated myself with its message. The National Football League knew that many of its players were suffering repeated brain trauma from which they would never recover. This trauma could radically change the behavior of those who suffered it. It could make them violent, impulsive and prone to addiction.

The public, the media, were pressuring Roger Goodell and the NFL to more severely punish players who acted impulsively, who were addicted to drugs, who battered their wives and children and girlfriends. The NFL, which knew of the consequences of its violent sport, was being pressured, is being pressured, to fine and suspend players for misconduct very possibly caused by the sport itself. I do not doubt that you know this. Something peculiar to American culture allows us to know through dark humor, say, that Michael Jackson was probably a child molester, but also act startled by the documentary Leaving Neverland.

What I knew though was a deeper kind of knowing that’s not so easy to trivialize. First mom was sunny and optimistic if a bit off. She had a cognitive therapist and expressed such a sunny and optimistic attitude about the goals she was given. Already I was beginning to lose contact with her. I was a fucking wretch, a total failure as a son, as kind and attentive as I could be when I saw her, but already seeing her less and less. By October I visited a doctor and through that doctor and another doctor more or less prescribed myself Effexor. Which even at a small dose rendered me hypomanic and borderline sociopathic.

The book I wrote for Triumph Books is in many ways a record of a miserable hypocrite desperately attempting to wring a living wage out of years of unpaid or nearly unpaid work. We were so broke. My wife was making the majority of what little we made. We were living in a duplex owned by her parents. I was in my 30s and we wanted those things you want in your 30s if you’ve never had them before: children, a house and a steady job. All I wanted really, even if my head were filled with lavish dreams of wealth and fame and respect, was a job writing which paid as well as working at Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box paid me eight dollars an hour and I would have, would today, accept a job covering sports if I could be paid just eight dollars an hour.

* * *

In March of 2014, I made an impulsive left turn across two lanes of traffic and was T-boned so badly by a minivan that our silver Ford Focus spun and tipped over on two wheels before landing on the sidewalk. The insurance company ruled against me. We received no compensation. The car had been a wedding present. We did not own a car again for years. These were the years my mother fully slipped away from me.

Her husband ... again, it’s hard to say. But one day he called me and chewed me out because my mom had changed her will to include me. All of her assets had previously been written over to him. I responded to him, he hung up, and a few minutes later my mom called.

For years I had wondered about his role in her injury. Why had it taken him so long to get her help? Why, when she was in hospital, did he always seem to arrive to her bedside minutes after I had arrived? Mom didn’t answer any of those questions, but slowly and carefully admonished herself for how trapped she was and how bad her life had become. All I remember was saying to her with all the forcefulness and eloquence I could muster “Get help. Get help. Get help.” Poor little Cindy Robin Burton sounded so meek and childlike and scared and beholden to my words as I desperately attempted to piece together her insinuations and self-blame into some kind of understanding of what was happening to her.

Previous to this call I had not been a good son and post, she was all but out of my life. Every waking second of my day I schemed how to help her. Yet I did nothing. I would indulge in violent chivalrous fantasies of rescuing her. Yet I smoked pot and masturbated and played video games until every guilt-stricken moment of inaction were spent. While I was on the pills, I did this with a deranged glee. My internal monologue split into two. The prevailing voice urged me onward. Be happy for your wife. Be happy for your choices, it said.

A second voice, a feeble voice I did not always hear, did not ever have to hear, continually castigated my self-indulgence, my inaction, my oblivious narcissistic need for fun. One day it became loud enough to convince me to burn my arm with a hot glass tube. I could not remember my regrets from one day into the next. For hours I would play video games. Most days, not all days but most, I would quit long enough to clean or cook something before my wife came home from work. This was my sole contribution to our home.

The feeble voice could roar. The confident me would laugh at it. The confident me knew too though that I was an awful big pile of shit in those days. It didn’t really want to play video games until my insides hurt, until the act of sitting and stooping over thrilled my imagination with panicked thoughts of dying of a heart attack. I could feel it, I thought. My heart dying. And so confident me put an empty tube into our Arizer Solo and set the temperature on max. I pussied out of the first burn. The scar is only a little visible. The second I pressed long enough to smell the flesh burning. I looked down on what I hoped would look like an infinity symbol, and in my head I thought: This is the eccentric behavior of a great man.

The next day I got up, wished my wife goodbye as she boarded the bus for work, and went inside to play video games. But soon I was off the pills and soon I was enduring the pain it takes to recover.

Mom’s husband got caught strangling her at her work. They separated. Mom was no better. She still drank two beers with her morning pills. Or so I guess. Years of repressed pain visited me once I quit taking the pills. I was as dumb and brooding and antisocial and feckless and interned in my hateful little world of self-pity as I had been the October I began taking pills. I secretly began to take them again. Perked up. Resumed my self destruction. And when I did finally quit, when I quit hopefully forever, I did so by making one awful sacrifice. I gave up on mom completely.

* * *

A few days after writing an impassioned defense of Frank Clark I received a phone call from a woman who worked with my mother. Mom had been found unconscious under her desk. Her work was adjacent to OHSU and she had been speedily moved there for treatment. I boarded however many fuckin buses to get there.

I swear she had a sly little smile on her face. Unconscious as she was, barely conscious as she would be intermittently, she looked defiant and slightly amused. Like she knew the punchline and everyone else was just hearing the setup. Stop drinking like this or you’ll die, no fewer than three doctors told her. She didn’t say a word to me. She never again did.

Sometime more than a year later I sat beside her deathbed and poured out every apology I could think. Made every effort to tell her she was loved, she was forgiven, she was a good mom, had been a good mom, had loved me and given so much and tried so hard tried so so hard tried though life had abused and battered her and denied her her potential and wracked her with guilt and regrets. An attending nurse told me her breathing was only agonal breathing. Which is to say she was dead. Her body lived on with mechanical help but mom was gone. And that gave way too. The hospital room filled with the smell of brownies. Brownies mom never cooked because mom never cooked brownies. Some stranger, a doctor presumably, put his hand on my should to comfort me. He and a few other strange people had crowded into the room when she was close. A machine sounded she was dead and I wept.

* * *

Her debts exceeded her assets.

My wife and I visited her home. My aunt told me to gather what I wanted because what was left would be thrown away. Mom had an apartment in a nasty mega complex all brutal concrete and unlit alleys. Her home furnishings had a Pier 1 vibe: showy but cheap. In her living room was a hospital bed with the back angled up enough to watch TV. My little mom the sophisticate had begun watching Two and a Half Men with her husband, and I envision her in those final days watching Two and a Half Men while her body died of sepsis. In that same room we found a little bookcase. She had Raising Goats for Dummies. Aztec. She had a book on how to battle compulsive drinking. It looked unopened.

In the kitchen we found a blender strong enough to chop ice and two two-liter bottles of Smirnoff vodka. Only one was opened and it was about half drunk. We poured what remained into the toilet. I found a box of letters. Some from her. Some from my father! Some from others she had loved and who had loved her. And we gathered these spoils, and her coffee mug and her oscillating fan, and her framed diploma awarding her a Juris Doctor from Franklin Pierce, and walked back to our blue Ford Focus. It too was a gift from my wife’s parents.

Mom couldn’t stop. It was not a lifelong problem. She had been born into privilege. She had suffered too. But she had not been a problem alcoholic. She had been an excellent employee. The richness of her life, her hobbies, where she traveled, her friendships and achievements dwarf mine. Something latent within her was triggered by the brain injury. And in a few years a lifetime of striving was undone.

The NFL is not suffering a concussion crisis. Focusing on concussions is simply a way to center people’s attention on a comparatively fixable problem. The NFL, as we’ve known it, as I’ve known it my entire life, is inherently endangering of the people who play it, and those who depend on them. Bodily injury is a hardship. My father, an auto mechanic, broke two vertebrae in his back when a lift collapsed on him. He lived, presumably lives, in awful pain. He would take muscle relaxants and veg out on the couch nearly every afternoon. But he was him, in all his crazed contrary ways, Ken Morgan. Cindy became someone else and that someone else killed Cindy.

I still watch football. At first I started again out of greed. Then, with hypocritical shame, I would slip. It’s just so damn good, isn’t it? And I want to tell you that what I write next is no kind of truth, no kind of deeply held conviction, only a tangled kind of explanation I have woven out of years of reflection.

LIfe’s gonna fuck you up. It’s gonna take your beauty and it’s gonna take your health. It’ll take your gifts and it’ll take your hopes and however you die will be painful and prolonged and humiliating. One day, if you’re lucky, many good people will have to get over losing you. You may wish to escape these facts but if you try you will only escape life itself.

I do not now think I could have saved my mom. I do not regret that I didn’t save my mom. I regret that I believed, with all my being believed, I was supposed to. I was so self-righteous and so intolerant. I measured the world, the people of the world, by a standard I myself couldn’t uphold.

This standard made me an enemy to myself because this standard made me an enemy to mankind. And yet I protected it. I wanted so badly to live in a world in which all wrongs were fixable, every injustice could be fixed through right thinking and action, and all that stood between humans and utopia were willpower and the malevolence of some shady other.

Football ... oh football, the primarily white male ownership, played primarily by African Americans, it was supposed to be everything I hated, everything I smugly rejected. It is a sport marked by brutality and short careers. Football players, relatively speaking, make shit all. It, every last damn thing about it, resonates with the spirit of an oppressed people living their lives with their heads in the lion’s mouth. It is only within my lifetime that people stopped using the phrase “black quarterback.”

I write this for myself. I write this to lay down my arms. I write this in hopes of finally and fully burying my self righteousness.

Football shouldn’t ruin lives. Alcohol shouldn’t kill your liver. Pot shouldn’t have made me a shittier writer. Speeding shouldn’t be fun. Promiscuous sex shouldn’t be dangerous. Monogamy shouldn’t sap love. We all shouldn’t die, and in the process of not dying, we all shouldn’t get bad knees and wrinkled skin and eroding intellects.

Maybe we can never fully justify a sport which deranges its players. Football maybe asks too much. Maybe in time it will fade away or at least be surpassed by something else less brutal. But I doubt it. Because I think we knew. We knew football players hurt themselves to play. If we’ve ever played ourselves, we’ve felt some part of that. We even knew football players damage their brains. Didn’t we?

When I was younger I worked nights at UPS so I could blog on Field Gulls all day. I loaded trucks, I worked the top slide, and when I was new I unloaded trucks. Today I am writing this to you through back spasms. My back just goes out. Nothing happens. My back just goes the fuck out. I appreciate toughness. I appreciate sacrifice. Football is a brutal sport because life is brutal. It is fatal. We want to see some fight, some resolve, some toughness and we want that toughness, that resolve, that fight to match or even exceed our own. Sport is a spectacle of human excellence. We don’t just want excellence in quickness or coordination but grit and perseverance. No other sport, no other team sport at least, demands so much of the character of its athletes. What makes football a spectacle of toughness and resolve also, and I believe accidentally, makes it hateful toward the brains of its players.

We love football because football is of life, of humanity, not repugnantly adjacent, but as real as running and throwing and hitting and getting hit. As real as dying. We love football because we love mankind, or I do, I finally do again, and nothing human is foreign to me. We love football because of all the ways we can redeem our invaluable time, playing and watching football feels least like a cheat.

We, this we being my wife and I, call the oscillating fan we got from my mom’s home her “soul fan.” We also own a “soul mug.” It’s blue and Sopranos big. We got rid of the blender. That fan blows on me today. The world is hot. We are likely destroying it. This keyboard we bought from Goodwill has been slowly dying the last two hours. Writing this has been a slow process of finding which keystrokes the keyboard did not register and rewriting what I already wrote. I used to think I was supposed to do something special with this story I have. If only I could have laughed.

Oh mom, if only I could have laughed, and forgiven you, and forgiven myself, maybe I could have said goodbye.

It is late now and I’ve written entirely too much. I have beer to buy, miles to walk, jokes to make, laughs to share, love to make, and a painfully joyful and joyously painful life to live, hack that I may be. I wish you all the joy and pain you deserve and don’t deserve, and I promise to be less of an asshole next week.

Thanks.

Century Links 6/1: How Good Can Seahawks Offensive Line Be in 2019?

2019-06-01T06:00:00-07:00

Read!

Duane Brown: Seahawks' O-line can be best in NFL - NFL.com
Seattle Seahawks left tackle Duane Brown sees the offensive line as one of the best units in the league. The Seahawks return four starters, including Brown, and added Mike Iupati in the offseason.

Podcast Player - sports.MyNorthwest.com - John Clayton
Seahawks' George Fant talks O-line coach Mike Solari, new guard Mike Iupati

Friday Round-Up: Tyler Lockett Ranks First In PFF’s Top Passer Rating When Targeted In 2018
Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett takes the cake for having the highest passer rating when targeted in the 2018 season, according to Pro Football Focus.

Jets interview Seahawks exec Fitterer for GM job
The Jets have interviewed Seattle Seahawks executive Scott Fitterer for their general manager job.

Jake Heaps believes Seattle Seahawks should sign Gerald McCoy
The Seattle Seahawks have never publicly been in the Gerald McCoy sweepstakes but one of their former quarterbacks believes they need to get into the mix.

Russell Wilson named Seahawks all-time franchise quarterback
Russell Wilson was named the Seattle Seahawks all-time franchise quarterback, beating out Dave Krieg and Matt Hasselbeck for the honor.

Is Chris Carson the long-term answer for the Seahawks at running back?
The Seattle Seahawks are in a bit of a pickle. Albeit a good one. With Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny on board, the team must figure out their long-term plans.

Linebacker K.J. Wright enjoying Seahawks OTAs | Tacoma News Tribune
No veteran player is enjoying these Seahawks organized team activities more than K.J. Wright. After knee surgery and missing all but five games last regular season, Wright didn’t think he’d be here.

Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. impressed with rookie linebackers
Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. likes what he sees so far from rookie linebackers Cody Barton and Ben Burr-Kirven.

Seahawks should have Tyler Lockett return kicks in 2019
With the retirement of Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett has become a lot more important for the Seahawks. Should he still returns kicks and punts going forward?

Beckham, Landry reunion 'could be pretty special' - NFL.com
Browns receivers coach Adam Henry coached the Odell Beckham-Jarvis Landry tandem at LSU and now he's reunited with the duo in Cleveland and thinks "it's a great thing."

Gerald McCoy using weekend to make decision on team - NFL.com
Free-agent defensive tackle Gerald McCoy will use the weekend to make a decision on his next landing spot. McCoy visited the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers.

Chad Kelly suspended two games for October incident - NFL.com
Colts QB Chad Kelly is suspended for the first two games of the 2019 regular season for violating the league's personal conduct policy. Kelly signed with the Colts earlier this month.

Ndamukong Suh dismisses bad rep: 'I know who I am' - NFL.com
Ndamukong Suh knows he doesn't have the greatest reputation. At his introductory news conference with the Buccaneers, the veteran defensive tackle discussed changing perceptions people have of him.

Packers' Matt LaFleur tears Achilles playing basketball - NFL.com
Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur suffered a torn Achilles' tendon while playing a game of Knockout on a Lambeau basketball court, NFL Network's Mike Silver reports.

Sam Darnold studying Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler film - NFL.com
In preparation for his first season in Adam Gase's offense, Jets quarterback Sam Darnold has been studying tape of Peyton Manning and Jay Cutler.

49ers RB Coleman: Kyle Shanahan 'more creative' now - NFL.com
Tevin Coleman played for Kyle Shanahan the offensive coordinator while both were with the Falcons. Coleman said the 49ers head coach is using skill players differently than he did in Atlanta.

Competition Committee wants Hail Mary to be “survival of the fittest” – ProFootballTalk
As people in and around the NFL continue to debate how instant replay should be used on pass interference, Competition Committee Chairman Rich McKay is making clear that the Hail Mary should not be an opportunity to draw ticky-tack flags.

Mitch Trubisky chugs beer, brings out offensive line for first pitch – ProFootballTalk
Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky endeared himself to fans and teammates when he was asked to throw out the first pitch at the Chicago White Sox game on Friday night. Trubisky brought his offensive line with him to the pitcher's mound before the game, having left tackle Charles Leno Jr.

Odell Beckham says he’ll be at mandatory minicamp – ProFootballTalk
New Browns receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has stayed away from most of the voluntary portion of the team's offseason program. He'll be there for the mandatory minicamp that begins on Monday. Via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.

Jordan Thomas has the look of Texans’ starting TE – ProFootballTalk
The Texans cut veteran tight end Ryan Griffin, leaving Jordan Thomas, Jordan Akins, Kahale Warring and Darren Fells to compete for playing time at the position.

Could Josh Norman be a post-June 1 cap casualty? – ProFootballTalk
Prior to 2006, June 1 had significant meaning on the NFL calendar. Now, it's mostly an afterthought. This year, there's a real question as to whether June 1 could become a thing again. The folks at NBCSportsWashington.

Chiefs are challenging Patrick Mahomes to improve the details – ProFootballTalk
Is regression inevitable for Patrick Mahomes? That was a question asked on PFT earlier this week. Mahomes had an outlier season in only his second season -- his first as a full-time starter -- with 5,097 yards, 50 touchdowns, a 113.8 passer rating and an MVP award.

Nick Foles: My wife said the team needs me – ProFootballTalk
Jaguars quarterback Nick Foles and his wife, Tori, recently suffered through a miscarriage. Nick Foles returned to OTAs on Thursday. On Friday, he made it clear that he came back to work at the behest of his wife. "If my wife needed me at home right now, I'd be at home," Foles said, via ESPN.com.

NFL insiders, execs grade Seahawks’ 2019 offseason a C+

2019-05-31T13:00:00-07:00

If you loved the “anonymous evaluators and executives grade the NFL Draft” article from last month, well this series is back again!

ESPN’s Mike Sando compiled analysis and opinion from league insiders to assess the offseason moves of all 32 teams. This includes the draft, free agency, trades, and major contract extensions or roster cuts. The Seattle Seahawks didn’t grade particularly well, although most schools will consider a C+ as marginally acceptable.

This article is behind the ESPN+ paywall, but we can lift the relevant paragraphs so that you all can see the important quotes:

Seattle re-signed quarterback Russell Wilson, turned Frank Clark into draft capital and then made a series of late signings -- Ziggy Ansah among them -- that did not count in the equation for 2020 compensatory draft choices. The maneuvers are projected to leave Seattle with more than one choice in the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh rounds next year.

Draft picks are great, of course, but without Clark, do the Seahawks have enough good players on their roster?

”The good thing for them is, they have a formula that won,” an exec said. “It is clear that Pete [Carroll] needs a culture where guys are not paid, where they are younger and hungrier and can adapt. Guys like [Richard] Sherman, [Earl] Thomas and Michael Bennett figured out they could talk their way out.”

The Clark trade helped Seattle increase its 2019 draft-pick total from four to 11.

”I really struggle with Seattle,” another exec said. “They traded their best pass-rusher for picks they used for a safety with some character concerns, a receiver who runs three routes [DK Metcalf] and a really good special-teams linebacker [Ben Burr-Kirven] who might wind up being the best player of those three.”

Others think Metcalf can become a star despite whatever route-running limitations exist.

”It’s interesting when you look at their receivers,” an evaluator said. “They have the Kansas State guy already [Tyler Lockett], who can run. They are adding speed guys that are good on the outside and can stretch the defense.”

Most of the Seahawks’ draft produced replacements. First-round pick L.J. Collier replaces Clark. Second-round safety Marquise Blair fills some of the void left by Thomas. Metcalf, fourth-rounder Gary Jennings Jr. and seventh-rounder John Ursua help replace retiring receiver Doug Baldwin.

”I think they will be fine, but their defensive roster, on paper, looks like one of the worst in the league simply because of the youth,” an evaluator said. “If the youth hits, boom, they explode, but there is the alternative scenario that leaves them overly reliant on their quarterback.”

That one executive obviously wasn’t impressed with the draft haul the Seahawks managed by trading Frank Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs. It seems as if DK Metcalf is going to be one of the most scrutinized picks throughout the 2019 season. Another evaluator believes that Seattle’s youth and inexperience on defense could make them (at least on paper) one of the league’s worst.

It is true that they’ve lost Clark, Earl Thomas, and are down to just Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright among the Seahawks who’ve starred on the top defenses dating back to 2012, but you would hope that Jarran Reed continues to develop into an elite DT, while Shaquill Griffin and Tre Flowers become the new cornerstones at cornerback. Then there’s Collier and Rasheem Green on the defensive front, while Marquise Blair is likely to be paired with Bradley McDougald at the safety spots. Seattle’s defense has been average over the past two seasons (based on DVOA), so yes, there may absolutely be some growing pains in 2019 now that even more established talent has departed.

Scanning the other NFC West grades, the Arizona Cardinals got a B, the San Francisco 49ers received a C, and the Los Angeles Rams also earned a C+.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s just fun offseason content that we will very much look back on when the 2019 regular season comes to an end.

Seahawks on tape: Should first-round draft pick L.J. Collier start at 5-tech?

2019-05-31T11:31:57-07:00

John Schneider likes to surprise with first picks. L.J. Collier, at #29, was no exception in the 2019 NFL Draft. Early in the draft process, most draftniks had Collier as a mid-round, value pick. But, after an excellent Senior Bowl showing and more tape viewing, Collier soon was getting 2^nd round talk.

After the defensive line-heavy first round, Schneider didn’t want to be left off the ledge and he took the Seattle Seahawks’ next 5 technique, as Pete Carroll described: “[Collier’s] gonna play 5 technique for us.”

Seattle has never been conscious of the perception of others. They are a Front Office that, for better or worse, follows their own mindset.

It actually goes back to 2014; editing now
— Arif Hasan (@ArifHasanNFL) April 29, 2019

Crucially for the Seahawks, Collier fit their intangibles. Collier was challenged to the famous/infamous staring contest. He was invited to the VMAC, where “coaches really liked him.” Schneider seemed to love Collier’s character, mentioning “grit”, “toughness” and “hunger.” He placed an emphasis on Collier losing his mother: “guy that lost his mother when he was a freshman in college and he didn’t play well in the last game that she saw. And he’s always used that to his advantage.” Both Head Coach and General Manager touched on Collier’s small-town chip-on-shoulder. Carroll added the adversity Collier had overcome to get playing time at TCU. “He’s just our kinda guy,” concluded Schneider as Carroll finished with “He’s one of our guys.”

Before we can study the other parts of Collier’s game, we must first address what a 5-tech is. In simple terms it describes a defensive line alignment, where the DL aligns over the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle. But in Seattle’s scheme, the “5-tech” is more of a role on the defensive line. The Seahawks typically have a bigger end play 5T, and then a smaller, faster end play LEO (a wider rusher).

The knowledgeable @cmikesspinmove wrote an excellent piece describing the 5T role: “it asks one player to be able to play nearly all elements of the defensive end position in modern football — from techniques 3 through 9,” Mr Spinmove surmised.

For Seattle, there seems to be have been a certain infatuation with the role—even if they traded one of the best to do it in Michael Bennett. (Culture, a subject for another day or maybe never) “It’s a hard spot to find, the Calais Campbell’s of this world are hard to find,” imparted John Schneider after picking Collier.

Collier certainly has some of the traits and production for the role. “He’s very flexible and we can move him around,” praised Carroll. Sports Info Solutions charted Collier as having a 14.6% pressure percentage in 2018, which placed 2^nd amongst all draft-eligible defensive tackles and 5-techniques. This certainly satisfies Pete Carroll’s want for “quarterback affecters”.

But Collier’s testing appeared to be a barrier, particularly when considering Collier as an early selection. His combine largely disappointed, asides from 34” arms and a 82” wingspan that he utilizes well:

With the 29th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, the #Seahawks select L.J. Collier, DE, Texas Christian.

L.J. Collier posted a Poor #RAS with Okay size, Poor speed, Okay explosiveness, V.Poor agility at the DE position. pic.twitter.com/vGOfbcxibu
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 26, 2019

There were, however, some positives. Back in May, I wrote:

“His 30” vertical jump meant his combine wasn’t all underwhelming…Collier’s 5-tech projection means Seattle will likely be willing to overlook bad numbers for positive traits.”

Then James Thomas (an excellent follow), highlighted the magnitude of Collier’s vertical leap:

Collier's one-word scouting report: *Powerful*

His raw power is the first thing you notice on film, and his physical profile is uniquely explosive on paper too – first DL to hit all these Combine marks since JJ Watt:

✅ 280+ lbs
✅ 34” arms
✅ 9’10” BJ
✅ 25 BP reps pic.twitter.com/RHg7o002Pb
— James Thomas (@JamesThomasHT) April 30, 2019

Such explosiveness for a big man was confirmed by Rob Staton at Seahawksdraftblog. Staton has devised a “Trench Explosion Formula”. Essentially, anything above a 3=explosive. Collier scored a 3.20.

He plays explosively too. Let’s get to that and the other traits which Collier will lean on in the NFL.

Cornering bend and dip

Collier, rushing from the tighter EDGEs of 5-tech, is not expected to be overly bendy or speedy. He will need to turn the corner on occasion though. He possesses a canny ability to keep his feet pointing at the quarterback as he rushes around the arc. His hips can bend around the corner, plus there are hints of greater dip and flexion. He will often work the half-man relationship well on deeper drops.

Collier, for the big man (6ft 2, 283lbs) that he is, has decent ability to corner. He always seems able to keep his toes pointing towards the quarterback. His hips have some bend to turn the corner. There are hints of dip and greater flexion.pic.twitter.com/ua9zFJ47pz
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

There are, of course, natural athletic limitations to the cornering ability of Collier. At times, he really does look like a defensive tackle playing defensive end. There often is no attempt to shorten the corner and his rushing arsenal would be better suited to attacking tackles squarer most of the time. Too often, he tried to dip under a vertical-setting tackle and he’d slip off. Ultimately, his limited bend, dip and flexibility will see potential sacks and hurries get away from him.

Figuring out a better economy of footwork, with added steps reduced, would also suit Collier. He was limited by TCU’s unusual two-point stance, that had the outside foot up and the inside foot back. This appeared to be designed to help set the EDGE, with one angled step reaching contact.

However, typically in a two-point, the inside foot is up at the line of scrimmage and the outside foot is back. This helps to flatten and bend in each pass rush rep. Furthermore, as a defensive end you want your inside foot up at the offensive tackle’s set-up point so that you can step into contact from an outside position.

Of course, Collier is naturally limited by his build in terms of bend, dip and cornering ability. That will see some potential sacks and hurries get away from him. He was also limited by the bizarre TCU "outside foot up" two-point stance (more in article)pic.twitter.com/VuhPIoRuFO
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Power rush

Collier’s best trait as a rusher is his power. As his former Head Coach, Gary Patterson lauded: “He’s very powerful…and very physical.” Collier’s go-to move is a bullrush that dominated at the college level, though that was most apparent against lesser tackles. He tied in a vicious long-arm that lacked the same consistency as the two-handed punch in its placement. What really shines about Collier’s play is his first-step power, heavy hands pad level and leg churn.

Collier was a bully of tackles. His explosion combines with his high motor, 34" arms and 82" wingspan to rock tackles back with a ferocious long-arm and bullrush.

To succeed as a pass rusher in the NFL, Collier must force OTs to set up for the bullrush.pic.twitter.com/q8Xck0aJnd
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Schneider repeatedly mentioned Collier’s hands, describing them as “strong,” “heavy,” and “violent.” Combined with his forward lean, get-off and pad level, Collier swats offensive linemen back when contacting them first on his power rush plan. His style led to me tweeting this during the draft:

Watching Collier is like watching a shredded tarantula with half its legs missing
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) April 26, 2019

I gave up trying to draw. Remove the four legs at the sides. You've got a shredded body, thicccc bubble, long legs. Colllier always manages to sink really well into contact and have ++ pad level and strong punches that look totally disconnected (in a good way) from his lower half pic.twitter.com/5h2s7qwMdP
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) April 26, 2019

“He jumps off the ball and he’s got that really good snap anticipation.” Schneider clearly agrees with me on Collier’s first-step.

Interior rush

Being deployed in the 5-tech role will see Collier moved inside on sub-package rushes to alignments like 3-technique (outside shoulder of the guard). “Similar with Rasheem. They both have the ability to play defensive end and they both have the ability to move inside on the pass rush. We need all of that flexibility, we need all of that variety of guys to make this happen,” described Carroll.

This is where things get rather exciting. Getting Collier one-on-one with a guard, on a shorter path to the quarterback, raises some very dangerous situations for opposing offenses.

Collier's quickness and power is especially tantalizing as a 3-technique (outside shoulder of the guard). The Seahawks' scheme will deploy their 5-technique role at 3T on pass downs.

At TCU, he often benefited from a wider angle on the guard and blitzes.pic.twitter.com/0EmCi8WpsI
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Quickness

Collier’s quickness isn’t just restricted to his first-step. He has short-area quickness on tape that wasn’t reflected by his testing. It was best shown by the wide-angle-on-guard, interior-rush assignments that the Horned Frogs gave Collier.

Back to moaning about that TCU weird 2-point; I believe it was designed to get EDGEs forcing play. But it really affected quickness and added steps to exterior rush. Collier's speed shone in 4-point and 3-point stances. He'll be in a 3-point in Seattle.pic.twitter.com/spNQMGV40z
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

In Seattle, Collier will operate from the 3-point stance that the Seahawks use for their 5-technique and interior defensive linemen. This will massively benefit his overall quickness. The Horned Frogs’ unusual two-point slowed Collier. When he was given the chance to put one or two of his hands in the dirt, his true explosiveness was unleashed. Figuring out the optimal economy of footwork for the 3-point stance may take Collier some time though.

Pass-rush plan/counters

For Collier to succeed as a quarterback-hunter in the league, he must establish his bull-rush to the extent that the offensive tackle is setting up early in anticipation of the bull. This then would allow Collier to string together more pass-rushing moves. It’s how Calais Campbell has made his living.

Collier did show elements of a pass-rush plan. He attempted to set up his power path with body and arm feints, shimmying to try and get opposing tackles off-balance, lunging or flashing their arms too soon. He occasionally would hard-step one way and then cross face.

There are elements of a Collier pass rush plan. He sets up his power path with shimmies, feinting his body+arms to try get tackles lunging, flashing their arms early and off-base. This was telegraphed.

He also hard-stepped one way then dipped the other.pic.twitter.com/QuV0dP08kJ
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

As a bull-rush player though, Collier must have more viable and effective counters. By being deployed in various techniques and stances, Collier never really got the chance to work out a pass-rush plan on an opponent. The negative impact of this was acknowledged by Patterson himself: “We ask our ends to play in several ways, like outside linebackers, and to be honest with I probably hurt his stat-line as far as sacks and everything else.”

That said, Collier did struggle to comprehend the “game within the game” of pass-rushing. With a rather telegraphed long-arm move that lacked consistency in placement, Collier often got found out against better tackles. His footwork appeared unrefined and too often he failed to influence the set of the tackle. The bob-and-shimmy moves were the beginning of this, but it was very deliberate and takes time. Most NFL tackles will be happy to patiently wait it out.

Collier’s forward lean and pad-level is something that will be exploited by offensive linemen and requires counter moves. OL will, and did, yank Collier down, using his lean against him. Developing an effective knockdown counter move, like a snatch-rip or pull-armover, would prevent Collier leaning into the turf.

TCU deployed Collier in a plethora of techs that limited chances to develop a rush plan in-game.

He needs:

.A knockdown move to prevent his forward lean being yanked down. Snatch-rip? Pull-arm over?

.Better economy of footwork+approaching OTs squarerpic.twitter.com/C7Uewyth0h
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

WVU LT Yodny Cajuste - Stays patient w/his hands which allows him to trap the incoming long arm & finish - pic.twitter.com/tSkpBa2Khm
— Michael Kist (@MichaelKistNFL) February 9, 2019

Stacking blocks

Against the run, all the traits that make Collier such a vicious bull-rusher combine to make him a nasty run defender too. The strong base, forward lean, pad level and hand placement are superb. He gets in position so well and his hands are placed above his eyes.

The Seahawks have their 5-tech play with some two-gap principles. It requires reading of blocks and an ability to stack a block, then get the head into the playside gap. The linebackers behind frequently expect to be kept clean. This is a huge strength of Collier.

Collier will be expected to read a bunch of blocks playing in the Seahawks' 5-tech role, which often looks like it is two-gapping. L.J. excels stacking blockers and dipping his head into the playside gap. His pad level, hand placement and anchor dominatepic.twitter.com/TPFrxFas9L
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Let’s look at Seattle’s “Fist” defensive line call as a quick example of stacking blocks head up. It’s essentially an automatic call from their “Boston” (over) front. Essentially, the 5-technique moves inside to a 4-technique alignment, head up on the tackle. If the offensive guard were to pull, the nose tackle goes frontside and follows the pulling guard. This is thanks to the tighter alignment of the weakside defensive end, and it requires that 4-technique to basically two-gap and read blocks. Collier has repeatedly shown that he can do this.

Double teams

The Seahawks love their defensive linemen wedging sideways against double teams and anchoring in their designated gap. Who doesn’t? Seattle, though, appears to play with a “spill-then-kill-with-force” approach that often has their 5-tech player taking the double to keep the outside backer free.

Collier will frequently get doubled-teamed. His films shows he can deal with this just fine. He possesses great strength at the point of attack, anchoring well, driving his legs and squeezing into his gap. There was some WOW run defense plays.

Seattle's 5-tech will also frequently be double-teamed. Collier possesses great ability to wedge himself in between double-teams: low, strong, right in the gap and with leg drive. He was strong at the POA, spilled runs and kept TCU linebackers clean.pic.twitter.com/fqLExxMrwz
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

If Collier can add a slightly better disengage move, plus step-though sideways more regularly, he could be even more dominant taking on doubles.

(Might come across as nitpicky)

There are areas that Collier can apply to his his run D that will take it to the next level:

Like with pass-rush, he needs a disengage move

Facing doubles, take opportunities to step through the gap+anchor sidewayspic.twitter.com/1tEykP2IPb
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Stunting and squeezing down

Collier is slippery and quick against down blocks, squeezing down the line of scrimmage to penetrate and pursue. He was often too quick for tackles when he shot inside. Patterson claimed: “He has more wiggle than you think he has.” Meanwhile, Carroll enthused about Collier’s “penetration ability” and the fact he is “really slippery.”

Don't get it twisted! Collier's run defense is truly a strength.

From 5 tech, Seattle will ask their end to regularly stunt inside. (Elaboration in the article on stuff like "Pirate")

They also have their 5T squeeze inside downblocks. Collier's slipperypic.twitter.com/9lnNaQpgtf
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Once more, Collier’s traits lend themselves well to the stunts that Seattle call. A Seahawks staple is the “Pirate” call which is again run out of their “Boston” (over) defensive front. This was run against the St Louis Rams in 2013 to stop their bend run-play, called when the defense saw a “far” backfield alignment.

It frees up the 3-technique and defensive end to his side to slant inwards into the backfield. The inside linebackers are then used as fallback players. Given the numbers going frontside, the second level is free to go over the top of the stunt to make the tackle in the hole. Collier’s fast sliding hustle will thrive slanting inside, even if he will often be opposite the Pirate stunt in the tighter 5-tech alignment. The overall point is that his traits suit Seattle’s style of stunts.

Run defense force

Collier will be asked to set the EDGE too as a force defender, that being a player assigned with forcing the running back up inside or to change direction. Collier uses his length well, fully extending his arms to stay outside of the play. Combined with his high motor and quick run diagnosis, he is very reliable. When the run goes inside of Collier’s EDGE, he is excellent at squeezing his linemen down into the gap and tightening things for the ball-carrier.

Collier's play as a FORCE defender against the run (force the play back inside) also nears "coaching tape" realms.

He recognizes the run-type really well. He gets outside with speed, puts his length to use, squeezes the gap or disengages to tackle.pic.twitter.com/rm5H2nfAfG
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Ending up on ground

The biggest dilemma over Collier’s game is how much he falls over, in addition to his forward lean being exploited. Collier often reads the tackle block well and then shoots inside with great slipperiness and quickness. But then he ends up on the ground. A lot.

Most of the time he had already wrecked the play in the backfield and was trying to make a tackle. Even then, Collier must improve his awareness of incoming contact. His balance could become an issue at the next level. You can’t make a play if you are on the floor and I don’t recall watching a player on the deck this much.

Collier's balance? He ends up on the floor A LOT.

Most of the time, it's because he is wrecking a play in the backfield thanks to his slipperiness inside. As the back cuts away from his penetration, a blocker usually recovers to knock him down.pic.twitter.com/UT6A9tcZJ9
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Impressive Senior Bowl

In many ways, Collier’s Senior Bowl showing was damn impressive, as Schneider alluded to: “he graded out real well at the Senior Bowl.” One-on-one drills are a dream for Collier, where his first-step and power can shine. Most encouraging was the fact that, by Day 3, he could still dominate his opponents with his bull-rush. These were some of the best draft prospects in the nation and Collier was consistently winning.

Mobile was a microcosm of Collier’s skillset. Issues such as the occasional false-step were sometimes visible. His forward lean was exploited, as was his unsuccessful attempts to dip, bend and slide through contact. It would have been nice to have seen Collier disengage better and have more counters, but the fact that his explosive bull-rush was so dominant—even against #14 overall Chris Lindstrom—was massively encouraging.

Collier's Senior Bowl was a microcosm of his skill-set. Pad level+power, but forward lean can be exploited, lack of disengage+counters hurtpic.twitter.com/b3gDE5HNT7

(Thanks to @VochLombardi for his videos where I got the footage needed. You should sub to https://t.co/KEAIRqkVZw)
— Matty F. Brown (@mattyfbrown) May 24, 2019

Projection

In summary, Collier almost looks like a defensive tackle at end. And that’s kinda what Seattle wants from their 5-technique role. Rushing from 3-technique suits him so well because guards have narrower sets. The tighter splits of NFL offensive lines will suit Collier better too.

Teaching Collier to snap-jump, something the Seahawks’ staff has success with, will add to his game. Other tweaks, like rushing from a 3-point, will be even bigger. Though the Senior Bowl showed Collier can dominate the best in football, the pre-season will be huge for showing what Collier can be as a pass-rusher in his rookie year.

Seattle hasn’t had great success with rookie pass-rushers. And Collier adding the needed counters to his game feels like a more difficult process at the age of 24. If he can’t develop a more advanced pass-rush arsenal, then he will be a NFL rusher who mainly beats up on bad tackles and largely flashes on clear passing downs, aligned inside while using his bull-rush plus first-step.

Fortunately, Collier clearly realizes the importance of improvement. He already set out his plan for development, telling Gee Scott that he was going to pay attention to “All the defensive linemen, guys that have already done it, guys that are established in this league. And just learn from them. How they really do it. Watch how they operate.”

Collier being an excellent run defender is the biggest attraction. The balance concerns are real, and again he must add some moves to avoid ending up on the floor. Overall, though, he is an immovable man that possesses wonderful traits for a variety of run defense—particularly in Seattle’s system. This alone will see him start at 5-technique, particularly when the depth behind him is players like Branden Jackson.

Clearing up some of the Malik McDowell situation

2019-05-31T07:30:00-07:00

The big news for the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday was obviously the fact that the team had brought suit in federal court in Michigan in order to force former second round pick Malik McDowell to pay back $799,238 of signing bonus which he owes the team. There have been a lot of misunderstandings about the situation and how things came to be exactly what they are, so I’m going to try and clarify some things today.

For starters, the exact amount that the Seahawks are looking to collect from McDowell is, as noted about, $799,238, plus interest and fees. I’m going to ignore the interest and fees for now, as those are uncertain and only muddy the picture. That said, the legal representation listed for the team in the court filing is Skadden Arps, so for those familiar with the cost of legal services from Skadden, you know the fees could be substantial.

However, getting back to how the amount of $799,238 was arrived at, we need to go back to the signing bonus from McDowell’s rookie contract. After being drafted with the 35th pick in the 2017 draft, his rookie contract had a signing bonus of $3,198,476. That $3,198,476 was to be recognized against the salary cap in four equal cap charges of $799,619 in each league year from 2017 through 2020.

The next step that needs to be understood in order to avoid confusion is the fact that McDowell’s signing bonus was not paid out all at once. Per the terms of the contract, it was to be paid out in three installments. The first installment was for $1,598,476 and was paid shortly after the contract was signed. There were then two further installments, each in the amount of $800,000, which were to be paid in the summer of 2017 and the summer of 2018. McDowell received the first installment of $1,598,476 and he received the second installment of $800,000 during July 2017. However, the team never paid the third installment, the second payment of $800,000 which was due in 2018.

Just in case anyone is confuse, let’s look at this in table format because that might help some understand the details.

So, McDowell only ever received $2,389,476 because the team refused to pay him the $800,000 that was due to him during the summer of 2018.

The amount McDowell received is important because when the arbitrator ruled in favor of the Seahawks, because McDowell never received the summer 2018 payment of $800,000 that went as a credit towards the arbitration judgment. Thus, that amount was deducted from the amount the arbitrator ruled McDowell owed the Seahawks, and how it came to be that the amount he needed to pay the team is $799,238. For those who want to see the math equation behind this, it’s simply $1,599,238 - $800,000 = $799,238. That is the amount McDowell was found to owe the Seahawks for his breach, less the $800,000 credited to him for not receiving the final $800,000 payment.

Now, moving on to the next item is why the Seahawks only asked for half of the signing bonus back. According to the court filing, when the team originally filed the arbitration against McDowell, it was seeking to recover the signing bonus in its entirety. The court filing then goes on to state that, “After negotiations with Mr. McDowell and NFLPA, the Seahawks amended their arbitration demand to seek only forfeiture of Mr. McDowell’s 2017 and 2018 Signing Bonus Allocations.”

The team originally filed to go after the full $3.2M signing bonus.

The CBA doesn't allow that, so the Hawks "agreed" with McDowell and the NFLPA to only go after half of the $3.2M (the 2017 and 2018 portions of the signing bonus). pic.twitter.com/CC0RL7UkPf
— John P. Gilbert (@JohnPGilbertNFL) May 31, 2019

That might make it seem like the Seahawks were being empathetic to McDowell’s situation, but that is hardly the case. The simple fact of the matter is, as I covered for Field Gulls more than a year ago, under the CBA the team was only entitled to go after McDowell’s 2017 and 2018 portions of the signing bonus, and had no grounds to go after the 2019 and 2020 allocations. If you want the full explanation for why that is the case, feel free to click on the linked article, but for this piece the short version will suffice.

That short version is that under the terms of the CBA, a player cannot be found to have breached their contract by undertaking unreasonably dangerous activities until they are not available to a team in a specific season. Thus, even though McDowell likely would not be able to report for training camp in July, under the CBA he cannot be held to have committed a forfeitable breach of his contract until he is not available in that specific season. So, while it may seem all but certain that McDowell will not be available when training camp opens this season or next, because that is still a future event that remains uncertain, McDowell has not technically breached his contract for either 2019 or 2020. Further, given that the Seahawks waived McDowell, the potential to breach his contract in 2019 and 2020 is eliminated because he no longer has any obligation to be available to the team for either the 2019 or 2020 season.

Lastly, one thing that I would like to clear up is that I’ve seen the sentiment both here on Field Gulls and on social media that the team is only doing this and going after McDowell’s signing bonus because he and his agent are out talking up the idea of playing for another team. Based on the court filing, that does not appear to be the case.

To best explain this, I need to lay out a small timeline of events.

April 28, 2017: Seahawks draft McDowell

Approximately July 17, 2017: McDowell injured in ATV accident

July 29, 2017: McDowell fails to report for training camp

July 20, 2018: Seahawks file arbitration against McDowell seeking recovery of signing bonus

July 26, 2018: Seahawks waive McDowell

That might be a bit surprising, but assuming the court filing is correct, the Seahawks filed the arbitration against McDowell nearly a full week before waiving him. If that is the case, why did they wait to waive him if they had already filed for recovery of the signing bonus? The answer is simple - by waiting until the first day of training camp to waive him, they gained the ability to recover the 2018 portion of the signing bonus because as soon as he was not available he had breached his contract for 2018.

In short, the team filed the arbitration against him the week before training camp started. If the team had wanted to be nice or empathetic, they could have waived him on the 25th on eve of training camp, but that would have cost them the ability to recover the $799,619 of 2018 signing bonus allocation. Basically, they knew what they were doing and worked the system in order to squeeze McDowell for as much as they could without having to keep him around any longer than necessary.