Poll: assistant coaches

[Michael K.]

Rob Staton speculating Grubb could be fired at the end of the season. He's wondering if Grubbs approach jives with MM's.

He didn't seem thrilled with the goal line shit from Sunday. I am not a professional lip reader, but it sure seemed like after one of the failed throws he literally says into the mic "why are we throwing there?".

[Donn Beach]

Did you read the article? He points out something I have thought kinda funny, MM is a Harbough guy, literally both of them. I mean for the love we have for Jim Harbough around here. But seriously, this might be a Harbough style defense but it ain't a Harbough style offense. Either of them probably be asking the same question

[D-train]

Rob Staton speculating Grubb could be fired at the end of the season. He's wondering if Grubbs approach jives with MM's.

He didn't seem thrilled with the goal line shit from Sunday. I am not a professional lip reader, but it sure seemed like after one of the failed throws he literally says into the mic "why are we throwing there?".

Saw that. I was screaming the same thing.

[D-train]

About a month ago people were longing for Pete Carrol, wanting him fired and predicting we would be lucky with win one or two games the rest of the season. LOL

Now he is in consideration of HC of the year and he just might get it if we win the division..

https://sports.mynorthwest.com/1791904/ ... -graziano/

[D-train]

Jay the Fredo of the Harbaugh family (I guess he is Jim's son) speaks out on cutting both of his returners this week.

Seahawks special-teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh said Darden — a 5-foot-8, 175-pounder who entered the league as a fourth-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2021 — will be able to get acclimated quickly enough to return punts Sunday.

“Minimal things that would be team dependent” for a punt returner to have to learn, Harbaugh said. “… Generally speaking (punt returner) is probably more plug-and-play than darn near every other spot.’’

Dee Williams muffs a punt against the Broncos in the season opener at Lumen Field. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)

Dee Williams muffs a punt against the Broncos in the season opener at Lumen Field. (Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times)
Williams made the Seahawks’ initial 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent out of Tennessee with an impressive training camp and returned 15 punts in the regular season for 111 yards while also fair catching 21 and also had nine kickoff returns for 254 yards.

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The mistakes for Shenault – who also lost a fumble on a kickoff return earlier in the year against the 49ers — and Williams proved too much.

“It’s like first things first,’’ said Harbaugh, the son of Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, who is in his first year with the Seahawks. “You have to field the ball and you have to have made the proper decision as to whether or not it should be returned. That’s the price of admission, the very first thing, that’s non-negotiable.”

Not that the decisions to move on from each were easy.

Harbaugh worked from 2015-23 as an assistant at Michigan, where players aren’t released in the middle of the season.

“First time having that type of thing for me — that part stings, the end of a journey with certain people,’’ Harbaugh said. “… But one door closes, another opens and that’s an exciting thing now. Excited to get to know (Darden) and be around him and give him an opportunity. So there are ups and downs, and it’s just part of the deal and looking forward to getting back out there on Sunday and showing who we are.”

Harbaugh noted the Seahawks not only liked Darden’s NFL history — he played in 31 with Tampa Bay and Cleveland since 2021 with 78 punt returns for 760 yards in his career and 27 kickoff returns for 565 — they saw him-up close in August when he played with Cleveland against them in a preseason game at Lumen Field.

Darden, who played from 2017-20 at North Texas, had four kickoff returns for 116 yards in the August game as well as one punt return for four yards and two catches for 49.

“He has game experience, documented evidence of being tough to tackle and making sound decisions and a guy who is an exciting person to have back there,” Harbaugh said. “And we have some familiarity facing him, studying him in the preseason, and he has chance to give us a spark back there.”

Harbaugh said Darden will factor into the kickoff-return mix, possibly as soon as Sunday. Darden had 35 punt returns for 310 yards at North Texas and 17 kickoff returns for 299 yards where he scored 19 touchdowns as a receiver as a senior in 2020.

Williams and Shenault handled all but two kickoff returns for the Seahawks this year. Second-year running back Kenny McIntosh has the other two, for a combined 35 yards.

McIntosh, running back Zach Charbonnet and receiver Cody White were all practicing kickoff returns during the early portion of practice open to the media.

Harbaugh noted that McIntosh had one return against the 49ers on a ball that bounced that he didn’t field cleanly and got 15 yards and another against the Cardinals where he lost track of the ball and decided to return it out of the end zone as a precaution and got 20 yards to the 19.

“I don’t think we’ve probably seen necessarily what he is like when he’s at his best,’’ Harbaugh said of McIntosh, a seventh-round pick a year ago out of Georgia. “He’s a guy I coached against in college; he’s a capable kick returner and can be good, we just haven’t really gotten to see that yet. Still have high hopes for him and just got to get in the groove and get the play started.’’

The fumbled kickoffs Sunday were only part of a challenging day for the Seahawks’ special teams.

The saw a point after touchdown by Jason Myers get blocked and allowed a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Kene Nwangwu in the second quarter.

The Seahawks had to deal with a sudden case of back spasms to punter Michael Dickson that left him unable to punt in the fourth quarter, and compelled them to go for a fourth down in its own territory it wouldn’t have otherwise. They converted thanks to two Jets penalties en route to scoring the winning TD.

Dickson has been limited in practice this week, and Harbaugh said the team remains confident he’ll be able to punt Sunday. Myers is continuing to take some punts as well this week and Harbaugh said he would be able to handle it Sunday if needed.

“He’s capable of punting,’’ Harbaugh said of Myers, who was the full-time punter at Marist College as a senior in 2021. “He was prepared to go.’’

The Seahawks were among the better kickoff coverage teams much of the season, not allowing a return of longer than 35 yards before Sunday.

“It’s several instances of poor fundamentals happening on the same play,’’ Harbaugh said. “… It’s not complicated, it’s not anything complex or some voodoo type of thing. It’s, ‘Hey you’ve got to play sound football and you’ve got to do it all together.’ And we certainly have a body of work that shows that we can do that and we have done it and we are more than capable of doing it and I think the guys are excited for the challenge of lining back up and showing that that was an anomaly, that’s not a representation of who we are.’’

[Donn Beach]

Think it could get back to what they liked about Deejay Dallas. He wasn't flashy but he could catch a football and make proper decisions about what to do with it

[Donn Beach]

More dumping on Grubb and the offense offensive line. I thought Cross was supposed to be playing well. I can't keep up

Here we have Charles Cross, a top-10 pick, in the middle of his third season and unable to play consistently. His problem against power rushers hasn’t been solved and he even gave up this sack against a pure speed rusher.

Aside from individual mistakes, the OL rarely behaves as a unit and that comes from the coaching problem. Scott Huff was excellent at the college level, and he did a great job as a recruiter finding good talent for the Huskies.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2024/12/4/24 ... vs-ny-jets

[D-train]

More dumping on Grubb and the offense offensive line. I thought Cross was supposed to be playing well. I can't keep up

Here we have Charles Cross, a top-10 pick, in the middle of his third season and unable to play consistently. His problem against power rushers hasn’t been solved and he even gave up this sack against a pure speed rusher.

Aside from individual mistakes, the OL rarely behaves as a unit and that comes from the coaching problem. Scott Huff was excellent at the college level, and he did a great job as a recruiter finding good talent for the Huskies.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2024/12/4/24 ... vs-ny-jets

Yeah great recruiter isn't likely a highly valued skill set in the NFL. lol He might be the one to take the fall.

[Michael K.]

Yeah great recruiter isn't likely a highly valued skill set in the NFL. lol He might be the one to take the fall.

There are a lot of stud O Lineman that loved him. Didn't a couple of Huskies transfer to Bama to follow him? Never read a bad word about him. We have a bit of talent deficit on the Line, in my opinion.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

What about Haynes? He was supposedly "the best guard in the draft" and they can't seem to get anything out of him. It wad either a failure of talent assessment or a failure of coaching. I'm going with the latter because his problems seem to be things that are correctable, like lack of strength and motivational issues with regard to how he approaches practices. And as has been mentioned, Cross does not seem to be realizing his full potential either. I don't think i would blame coaching for Bradford, Forsythe, Laumea, Jerrell, etc as they have clear limitations or were projects to begin with. Who knows what the deal with Conner Williams was? I would chalk that up to cruel misfortune rather than a failure by JS.