Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: Seattle Seahawks

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) preview the Seattle Seahawks 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Yo, welcome back, everybody, to the franchise focus podcast. You've been hearing Joe Dolan's voice on all of these podcasts to lead us in here. It's usually been Joe, Tom, and myself, I'm Graham. But Joe has a very busy day today. He's a busy, busy man, working radio, editing everything on the site.

So we gave him the day off so we can kind of focus on those other things. And Tom and I are here. We're here for you still. We're still going to be talking about the Seattle Seahawks today on this podcast. You know, we've been saying this. We're broken records at this point. If you haven't checked out the franchise focus, article series up on fantasypoints.com, yeah, you're missing out.

You need to check that out. We've got full breakdowns of all of our projected players. Tom is giving a little preview of all of his betting previews that he releases in conjunction with these articles. So if you see on the site, there's Seahawks Franchise Focus up on the site. And we also have a betting preview where Tom breaks down pretty much everything you want to know about teams from a betting side. And he gives some lean, some props.

And Tom crushed in his win total suggestions last year. No. You definitely want to check out. time suggestions there. We'll see how it goes this year. I hope it to continue the streak there. A little skeptical that it might happen. But hey, I gave out the Colts under 10 wins.

I'm feeling pretty good about that. Oh, baby. Yeah, that's looking really good right now because we talked about on the podcast. Man, their opening schedule is brutal. So that's looking like a 1-0 start right there for you, Tom. But, yeah, C-Hawks today, guys, you know, they're pretty straightforward. So Tom, let's get into the Hall of Fame game just really quickly. It was on Thursday night.

We're recording this on a Friday morning just for, just for posterity's sake. But Hall of Fame game was sluggish, to say at least, 16 to three Steelers. Cowboys offense looked atrocious. But, I mean, that's kind of to be expected with the quarterbacks they had out there. You know, Tom, you're big, you're our resident Steelers guy. What did you see? I mean, we got Najee Harris for like seven, eight carries, Chase Claypool, like quite a bit. So did Deontay Johnson.

And so anything that kind of caught your eye from the Steelers perspective? Yeah, that over 32 had no chance last night. Oh, my God. I didn't even know the over was 32. That is ridiculous. So, yeah, I mean, the big takeaways I had were, you know, nausea Harris didn't leave the field. I mean, that's, you know, we kind of were expecting that coming into the year. And, you know, a little worried, Mike Tomlin said he's going to play in all four games, but he got through unscathed.

but I think it was pretty noteworthy that, you know, he didn't give up any snaps to, you know, Anthony McFarland or Kalyn Belage. I don't think Benny Snell even dressed for that game last night, but... I don't believe you did either. Yeah, because Belage was... Belage and McFarland were kind of the second backs through. They were kind of rotating, but, you know, that's a great sign going forward here. I, you know, Benny Snell is kind of on the roster bubble here, so I thought, like, just the general offense was, you know,

know, pretty interesting to watch. It got very stale at the end of last year with Randy Featner. And, you know, it was just a shotgun and, you know, nothing going on, not a lot of motion. So, you know, Matt Canada came out in his first game. And, you know, it was Mason Rudolph. So it's, you know, take that with a bit of a grain of assault there. Because, you know, Ben's not one to want to get under center very much. But, you know, they were playing under center.

There was a lot of jet motion. There was actually the one fumble on the first series of the game. was on a jet motion which I believe chased Claypole. It was a little late handoff by Mason Rudolph. So a lot of, a little bit of play action too. They were trying to dial up some deep throws to Deonté Johnson and they actually did hit one with Claypool late in the game. So those were the two big takeaways.

Deontay Johnson. He was grimacing a little bit. I think he's won for some theatrics with some of his little minor injuries. But I don't think it was anything major. So, you know, those were kind of the big takeaways from the first NFL action of the year. So, I don't know about you, but it was so great just to see just to see live football back on the screen. Even though it was brutal to watch, especially the second half, I admittedly turned off the fourth quarter. I made it through the first three.

And then it just was actually throwing some bowlers there. He actually looked decent. So he actually had a really nice touchdown throw, right the goal. and he stood in there. The Russia, you know, planted them and he threw it to the pilot. It was a pretty nice throw. But yeah, he did. He looked better than Haskins, but that's a pretty low bar to cross there.

But yeah, the one thing I noticed just watching, you know, the first quarter of the game. And obviously, Juju was out. So we got to have that, like, you know, asterisk here. But Chase Claypool played a lot more in their 12 personnel sets when the Steelers went to two tight ends. That didn't happen so much last year. You know, it was Jujus, James' one. Washington. So I know you noted this last year, Tom, that they kind of, for whatever reason, like the middle of the year, they just reduced Claypool's role. Like he was kind of emerging as a

full-time player. Then they cut it back to like, you know, 55, 60% snapshot. I think we're all considering Claypool a full-time player and seeing him get that burn and get some reps in and look fantastic, you know, just juicing up corners down the boundary looked, looked awesome to me. So Yeah, Claypool and getting some more snaps and playing full-time in 12 would just be massive. Yeah, he was about like 63% of the snaps last year. Right. So there was, you know, they didn't, you know, he was a rookie. They didn't want to let them, you know, they didn't want to overwhelm him, I guess.

You know, it was a COVID season there, not a lot of preseason work. So I think they were hesitant to put too much on his plate. But, you know, James Washington was behind him. I think we're going to see, you know, that snap share much closer to like. the 80%. I don't think James Washington is totally going away, but, you know, I think he's going to be much closer to a full-time player this year. Yeah. James Washington is Big Ben's fishing, buddy. So you can't, you can't break that bond, Tom. You can't break that Tom, that bond. All right, I think that'll do it. There really wasn't much on the Cowboys side. I mean, C.D. Lamb got veteran treatment, kind of to be

expected. And Michael Gallo played a couple snaps. But other than that, I mean, it was, you know, Rico Dowell getting this start with the Cowboys. So, you actually, look pretty good Donald did. But yeah, that's enough. Let's go into the Seahawks here. Tom, we'll start at the top here with a quick look at their team features. Again, if you want to check out Tom's like full breakdown betting preview, that is on the premium side of the site. And you're not going to want to miss out on that. But off the top, the wind total has moved from nine and a half in late March to 10, so a slight little bump up there. And the Super Bowl odds ironically have reversed. They've gone from 2,200 plus 2,200.

in February to now 2,500. So even though you get a little boost in the one total, the Super Bowl odds have dipped. Tom, I mean, this is just a brutally tough division. I mean, I'm in on the Seahawks offense. We'll talk about them here in a bit. But the NFC West is really, really tough. They're plus 275 in the NFC West.

They're not, they're not the favorites in the West. That would be the Niners, right? Yeah, but a Niners, I mean, it's really tight. The miners are plus 190. I think I just did them today. Rams are like right there with them. They're like... Plus 190.

Yeah, they're basically like co-favorites. They're slightly behind them. I think they're like plus 200. And then the Falcons are... I mean, the Seahawks. Another bird. You know, they're... Wrong bird.

Yeah, wrong bird. Wrong coast there. But plus 275. So, you know, the Cardinals are... They're the distant fourth in this division, but, you know, it's not like their light years behind them. They were certainly in the mix. until the last five games last year,

and they kind of fell apart with, you know, Kyler Murray getting banged up and not being able to move as much. So this is a hyper-competitive division. And I think the win total move, I think that was just more of a poor line on their part. Okay. Just kind of adjusting.

You know, they didn't really make any massive moves this off. He's, I did like some of the smaller moves. You know, they trade for Gabe Jackson. You know, we know the interior of this offensive line. You know, the offensive line is a hard. hole has been an issue throughout Russell Wilson's tenure. He brings some of that upon himself, but, you know, they're going to strengthen that run game a little bit with Game Jackson in the middle of field.

They've added some pieces on defense, nothing too dramatic. They get Gerald Everett at tight end as well. So, but, you know, they traded away a lot of draft picks to bring in Jamal Adams, to bring in Game Jackson. So just three picks in the draft, they couldn't really, you know, upgrade their. bring a lot of youth into the into the fold this year. So I guess that would be one small concern, but

yeah, this team is they're right there in the mix every year. So I have the stat for the betting preview that I think Wilson lead teams have been nine wins for better at all nine of his seasons and they've reached double digit victories in the playoffs in eight

of those seasons. So they're always right around this nine to 12 wins here. So no reason for the bookmakers to change much. Put it right there at 10 and let you choose your poison there. Yeah. You know, the one thing you mentioned about Wilson, and this is always like a catch-22 with him, is like he is in arguably one of the top five or six quarterbacks. Whatever order you want to put him in, that's fine. But Wilson is in that conversation. He's in that top five or

top six. But he always does that. Like three, four, five, six times a game. He'll hold the ball for way too long and it makes his offensive line look even worse. Now, you know, granted, I know this has been a big point of contention for Wilson behind closed doors. And we've seen it kind of seep out a little bit here recently Wilson's contention with management and the way the things have been run. He's certainly got to be frustrated that their offensive line. They haven't spent too, too much on it. But like you mentioned, I mean, that Jamal Adams trade, man, Adams is a fantastic player. He's only 25 years old. He's only going to continue to get better. And he's going to be a key part of their defense. That being said, giving up two first-round picks, they got to pay them here, too.

I mean, that was a, I'm not going to say it was a bad trade. I'm just not in the business of, you know, crapping on teams if it wasn't, like, just egregious. Like, if it's not a bill of a, O'Brien trade, I'm going to give teams the, I'm going to give teams, you know, a little bit of benefit of the Dow, because they, you know, Adams is a fantastic player. But that being said, that, that was an expensive move to make. Yeah, I think it was an aggressive move. I just don't feel like he was the. right type of player they should have been going after. I mean, his coverage frankly sucked last year. He's a he's a box player, man. Exactly. He's a box player. That's not the play. They need players to help

them, you know, coverage right now. That was, that's, that was their biggest weakness last year. So, you know, he's a good player, but he wasn't necessarily the type of player that they needed to trade for. Yeah. And, you know, not only do they need, you know, corners, they, they need pass rush to. And I think, you know, they got that, you know, they got Adams to be that kind of center fielder where he's going to line up all over the field. But like you mentioned, I mean, they've quickly figured out the Adams' coverage skills. It's kind of like the J.V. On Clowny situation where everybody still thought he was a great pass rusher. And he's always just been a very, very good run defender. He's never been a great pass rusher.

It's kind of the same thing with Adams. It's like he's never been a great coverage guy. But he's always been really good against the run and good in the box. And I think that just kind of, that's a little bit of Seattle's M.O. Is they're just a little behind the times of the way the game is played right now. But yeah, the Adams, I think that Adams contract that they're going to have to pay him here is probably probably coming up here soon. So, you know, we kind of know for Fantasy Tom that, you know, Russell Wilson's the same guy every year. I mean, he's going to put up his, you know, he's going to finish in the top eight.

You know, it's just a weather of, you know, whether he's QB8 or he's QB2 because I still think he has that. upside. The biggest thing I think we got to figure out for this year in Seattle's purposes is what this offense is going to look like. They brought in a new offensive coordinator, Shane Waldrum. He's a Rams guy. Was with McVeigh. Shottnheimer's gone. And we really haven't seen too much in the news, at least I haven't seen too much in the news about what this offense is going to look like. It's been pretty tight-lipped. But back in June, the athletic put together, an article. Michael, Sean Dugger had a little interview with Metcalf and Lockett, and they were pretty, I won't say they were open with him, but it sounds like this offense is going to be radically changed this year. The biggest thing that I took away from the piece was that that Metcalf and Lockett both said that in OTAs that the offense is much faster paced. It's much more up-tempo. Will Dissley said the same thing. It's going to be a

lot more uptempo. And D.K.K. Metcalf called the offense a lot more intricate and it's a lot more complex, which is to say, and this is something D.K. Metcalf was on record saying this offseason on Brandon Marshall's podcast, like back in February, he's like, hey man, defense has just figured us out. Like late in the year, they knew what we were going to do. They knew we were going to run our play action stuff. Put those two safeties back there and cover both halves of the field and take it away. That's all they did. Yeah, that's all they did. And, you know, two, two, two deep safeties, you know, play, you know, kind of off coverage and just keep everything in front of you.

And that's how teams beat the Seahawks lately here. That's why they fell apart. So, you know, I think it's encouraging to say the least. We really, we really don't know. I'm not going to sit here and be overconfident. We really don't know what this offense is going to look like. But the fact that in OTAs, they were installing a lot more tempo and really trying to push the pace, I think, is extremely encouraging because as we all know, this team, Tom for fantasy has just been, it's just been like, we want them to be pass heavy.

We want them to let Russ, you know, chuck it and, you know, become one of the, you know, not a Patrick Mahomes type where he's throwing 40 times a game and just kind of carrying the offense. Like, he could do that. But we just want to see them throw more, just period and point blank. We also want to see them push the pace more. Seattle has always been one of the slowest pace teams in the league since Schaenheimer and Carol kind of taking control of the offense.

And I think that's kind of the big thing, Tom. is like, will Pete Carroll get out of the way and let Waldron kind of run the show and let Wilson get what he wants? And that's, you know, more control over the offense and inevitably more passing. I think that's the biggest thing right now we got to look into for this offense. Yeah, it's really, it's the million. There's two million dollar questions. Will Pete get out of the way? Will he let Waldron run his offense?

You know, I mean, they were they were the top passing offense in the league the first half of the year. we really saw that ceiling for the passing game unlocked. You know, Wilson was putting up the massive numbers. And then the first sign of trouble, you know, I think it was at the Buffalo game, you know, towards the middle of the season where, you know, Pete put his finger on it and, you know, he changed it up. We slowed it down. We, you know, went more back towards a run-centric offense.

So that's the big question. Can Pete stay all the way? And, you know, the other question is, can Willis? you know, run a more of a West Coast style offense, more of a quicker, you know, quicker route schemes and get the ball out of your hands quicker. You know, it's, we love to hear, you know, all this stuff that's coming out of the camp, but they're, you know, making a faster pace offense. But, you know, at the end of the day is Russell Wilson going to want to get the ball out of his hands quickly. That's always been kind of Great Co-Sells, you know, you know, our

guy, Greg CoSell's biggest, you know, his biggest issue with him that doesn't necessarily necessarily run what's designed and he wants to play backyard football a little bit. So sounds like this offense is going to be a little bit more structured and get the ball out of your hands a little quicker, which is what he needs at this point. He's bitching this off season that he's getting hit too much. The offensive line this, offense align that, you know, well, you've got to follow what's called and get the ball out of your own hands quicker here. So I think those are the two biggest questions with this offense.

but, you know, certainly love some of the stuff that's coming out about the pace and, you know, letting it rip a little bit more. Yeah, I mean, they were league average and pace last year, really slow in 19. So, yeah, I mean, if they just play a little faster, man, that's the thing. It's like this team because they're playing faster at the beginning of last year. Yeah, they were, and then they slowed things back down again. So that's the thing with this team, man, is like if they push the pace and, I don't know. and just try to throw more. I mean, their games are going to shoot out because their defense is going to regress.

That defense got hot in the back half of last year, but, you know, like we mentioned off the top, I mean, they only have three draft picks, didn't do a whole lot to add in free agency because they kind of didn't really have the space to add between Wilson's contract and Jamal Adams' impending contract that we talked about. This defense is going to give up points. I don't think it's going to be as bad as it was to start last season, but, I mean, everything is set up for them to be a shootout team here. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And I mean, it's not a whole lot of, you know, it's pretty black and white with all these guys for fantasy. You know, you know, Matt Caff's a great great guy to look at the end of the second round. Lockett's kind of, he's a, I've always loved Lockett. I used to make a little bit of money off of him at Kansas State. That's when I first, like, really started getting into gambling. And, you know, he's been one of my favorites since he came into the league. And, yeah, a bit undervalued again this year. He's, you know, right around 50 picks in. And, you know, he just gets it done every year.

But it's pretty cut and dry with this offense. I mean, you know, if we can just get a little bit, you know, get back to those ceiling games that we saw at the beginning of last year, you know, this, you know, they'll be paying off a lot of fancy teams this year. Yeah, absolutely. I am heavily invested in the C-Aawks this year. I love Wilson. I like Metcalf quite a bit, like you mentioned in Lockett in the fourth, fifth round.

It's just, yeah. Even Gerald Ebert at the end of draft. Oh, yeah. If you miss out at tight end, or you're just looking for your, you know, your second tight end there. Yeah, he has some upside. He was kind of, you know, blocked a bit by Tyler Higbee and was never fully used to his capabilities. But it was at least interesting that, you know, of all the places he chose,

he chose to fall with Shane Waldron to Seattle. So, yeah, yeah, hope that they have some sort of plan for him. And Will Disley doesn't block him there. Yeah, exactly. Will Disley has always been good, though. I've always had a soft spot for Disley. but yeah, Everett followed Waldron. Not only,

Waldron was actually the tight-ins coach when the team drafted him. So, yeah, I mean, there's a deep, deep connection there. You know, this will be Waldron's guest's fifth year coaching him. So, yeah, I think Everett's a nice little play in the late rounds.

So that'll do it. Yeah, that'll do it for the Seahawks. We're going to be back tomorrow. Tom and I'll be back. I think we're doing two podcasts. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, we're trying to get these done. We've got to get to all the draft prep articles and stuff.

There you go. Yeah, you're right. We're pounding these out two at a time now. Yep, that's right. So we're going to be doubling up on these podcasts as we round out the series. We'll have a couple more teams left, Tom. Only a couple more. So we are rolling here.

So, all right, for Tom, you can follow them on Twitter at Tom Brailey. You can follow me on the Twitter machine at Grand Barfield. We will catch you next time with the Bucks. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe. rate and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at fantasy points.com.