Ed Dickson activated ...Jamar Taylor waived

[ThePro]

Who's the nickel back now? Isn't it better to keep Diggs at FS?

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2019/11/20/2 ... kel-corner

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Could Akeem King or Neiko Thrope be any worse than Jamar was? And don't forget there's Amadi who they were talking about putting there before he got hurt.

[Michael K.]

Who's the nickel back now? Isn't it better to keep Diggs at FS?

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2019/11/20/2 ... kel-corner

I had heard some rumblings about moving Diggs down into the Nickel and using the kid from Utah at Safety in those situations...but that seems odd since he was beaten deep. But, who knows? My guess is the nickel is King, Thorp or Amadi, as Hindemith said. It does seem odd though. The best defensive game we played in some time was Monday night, and didn't Taylor play as the nickel that game?

[ThePro]

Who's the nickel back now? Isn't it better to keep Diggs at FS?

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2019/11/20/2 ... kel-corner

I had heard some rumblings about moving Diggs down into the Nickel and using the kid from Utah at Safety in those situations...but that seems odd since he was beaten deep. But, who knows? My guess is the nickel is King, Thorp or Amadi, as Hindemith said. It does seem odd though. The best defensive game we played in some time was Monday night, and didn't Taylor play as the nickel that game?

Taylor did play there SF game and he was horrible. He even got Griffin's INT negated wirh a holding penalty. If Clowney brings it like that they can get away with that base BS rest of the year.

[ThePro]

Ugo Amadi it is....

[Donn Beach]

probably not using nickel much sunday anyway

The Eagles have had their two starting and most dynamic wide receivers hurt recently. DeSean Jackson remains on injured reserve following abdomen surgery. Alshon Jeffery remained limited in Philadelphia’s practice Wednesday by an ankle injury. And Nelson Agholor, the fill-in number one at wide receiver for the Eagles’ 17-10 home loss to New England last week, missed practice Wednesday. He has a new knee injury.

The best of the Eagles’ passing game right now is Carson Wentz throwing to tight ends Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert.

Brady Henderson
✔
@BradyHenderson
Sources tell me and @Tim_McManus that Mychal Kendricks' sentencing date in his insider trading case has been postponed again. The new date is in February, a source said. Kendricks was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in Philadelphia, where the Seahawks play the Eagles Sunday.

[Donn Beach]

gonna see more of Griffin

From what coach Pete Carroll has said in the last week, coaches are refining Griffin’s role and he will be doing it again Sunday when the Seahawks (8-2) come off their bye and try to extend its best-ever road start to a season at the Philadelphia Eagles (5-5).

It’s a reprise of what he was best at doing while as a conference player of the year and Peach Bowl MVP at the University of Central Florida.

“I’m excited,” Griffin said. “I can’t wait to get it going again.”

Carroll says his defense is going to use Griffin more over the last six games of the regular season.

“He’s active. We’re going to find ways to utilize him,” the coach said. “It’s really clear, more than it has been, that we might be able to build a role that could be a factor. We have to work at that more so just to use his speed.

“He’s instinctively a good rusher. He’s just not very big. You have to do special things with him. We’ll put that together and see if we can make that a good complement to what we’re doing.”

Griffin is suddenly reappearing in the defense for two reasons.

First, Carroll and his coaching staff began talking way back in May about setting up Griffin for success in 2019. That was after his struggling rookie season last year as an off-the-ball, read-react-assignment linebacker. They talked in the spring about putting him on the edge of the line of scrimmage as a speed edge rusher, what he was so brilliantly at UCF.

Doing that fits Carroll’s philosophy of putting his players in roles they do best, and adjusting schemes and substitution packages around a Seahawk’s featured skills.

[D-train]

gonna see more of Griffin

From what coach Pete Carroll has said in the last week, coaches are refining Griffin’s role and he will be doing it again Sunday when the Seahawks (8-2) come off their bye and try to extend its best-ever road start to a season at the Philadelphia Eagles (5-5).

It’s a reprise of what he was best at doing while as a conference player of the year and Peach Bowl MVP at the University of Central Florida.

“I’m excited,” Griffin said. “I can’t wait to get it going again.”

Carroll says his defense is going to use Griffin more over the last six games of the regular season.

“He’s active. We’re going to find ways to utilize him,” the coach said. “It’s really clear, more than it has been, that we might be able to build a role that could be a factor. We have to work at that more so just to use his speed.

“He’s instinctively a good rusher. He’s just not very big. You have to do special things with him. We’ll put that together and see if we can make that a good complement to what we’re doing.”

Griffin is suddenly reappearing in the defense for two reasons.

First, Carroll and his coaching staff began talking way back in May about setting up Griffin for success in 2019. That was after his struggling rookie season last year as an off-the-ball, read-react-assignment linebacker. They talked in the spring about putting him on the edge of the line of scrimmage as a speed edge rusher, what he was so brilliantly at UCF.

Doing that fits Carroll’s philosophy of putting his players in roles they do best, and adjusting schemes and substitution packages around a Seahawk’s featured skills.

If he performs well again I wouldn't be surprised to see Ziggy cut and Collier get a little more time.

[D-train]

The odd thing is PC first suggested Griffin in that role in August but it took Ziggy playing like hell for him to finally implement it 3 months later.

[Donn Beach]

Here is Greg Bell's entire article on it, can't post the link so i will just paste it...it was probably getting Clowney that stalled it, they were gonna use him with Ziggy, but now yeah, its gonna be him and Clowney. Seems its more pure pass rusher than when he was in college

The feel-good story of the NFL last year is finally feeling better about this year.

Shaquem Griffin is back in the Seahawks’ defense. And he’s back in his familiar edge-rusher role that made him a one-of-a-kind star in college two years ago.

Griffin played 14 snaps last week in Seattle’s win at previously unbeaten San Francisco. Those were the first 14 plays he’s had this season on defense. It was his most time on defense since he started his first game in the NFL, 14 months ago at Denver. The first one-handed player drafted into the modern NFL was the Seahawks’ fill-in weakside linebacker in last year’s opener for injured K.J. Wright.

Until now.

“I mean, I felt good,” Griffin said Monday of his 49ers game. “I graded myself really hard on it, but just for the most part getting my feet week and getting to chase after the ball. It felt good.


“They said I did a really good job, effort wise. They said I did a really good job making counter moves, running to the ball and running down the quarterback.”

All Griffin’s snaps against the 49ers last week were as an edge rusher zooming off the outside of the offensive line.

“Yeah. Straight line. Go!” Griffin said, smiling.

With the NFC West and perhaps hopes for home playoff games on the line late in an overtime game, the Seahawks had Griffin debuting as an edge, speed rusher opposite dominant Jadeveon Clowney.

From what coach Pete Carroll has said in the last week, coaches are refining Griffin’s role and he will be doing it again Sunday when the Seahawks (8-2) come off their bye and try to extend its best-ever road start to a season at the Philadelphia Eagles (5-5).

It’s a reprise of what he was best at doing while as a conference player of the year and Peach Bowl MVP at the University of Central Florida.

“I’m excited,” Griffin said. “I can’t wait to get it going again.”

Carroll says his defense is going to use Griffin more over the last six games of the regular season.

“He’s active. We’re going to find ways to utilize him,” the coach said. “It’s really clear, more than it has been, that we might be able to build a role that could be a factor. We have to work at that more so just to use his speed.

“He’s instinctively a good rusher. He’s just not very big. You have to do special things with him. We’ll put that together and see if we can make that a good complement to what we’re doing.”

Griffin is suddenly reappearing in the defense for two reasons.

First, Carroll and his coaching staff began talking way back in May about setting up Griffin for success in 2019. That was after his struggling rookie season last year as an off-the-ball, read-react-assignment linebacker. They talked in the spring about putting him on the edge of the line of scrimmage as a speed edge rusher, what he was so brilliantly at UCF.

Doing that fits Carroll’s philosophy of putting his players in roles they do best, and adjusting schemes and substitution packages around a Seahawk’s featured skills.

Griffin’s featured skill is speed.

He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds at the 2018 NFL scouting combine. It was the fastest time for a linebacker there since 2003, and it convinced Seattle to draft Shaquem in the fifth round to reunite with his twin Shaquill, the Seahawks’ starting cornerback.

Shaquem’s 40 time was the same one Shaquem ran at the 2017 combine, before the Seahawks drafted him.


But in August, rookie linebacker Cody Barton and Ben Burr-Kirven got hurt and missed preseason time. The Seahawks rested Wright, their longest-tenured player. The defense needed Griffin back at off-the-ball linebacker for depth. Then the team traded with Houston on Sept. 1 for Clowney to be the rush end opposite Ziggy Ansah.

The plan to use Griffin on the line as an edge pass rusher in 2019 stalled. Then, as Ansah wasn’t producing, the Seahawks in recent weeks began putting Griffin in rush-end roles on the practice squad preparing the starting offense for each opponent.

So why is Griffin finally playing as a pass-rush specialist on the starting defense now, 10 games into this season and more than 1 1/2 seasons into his thus-far stalled NFL career?

The Seahawks got tired of waiting for Ansah to produce.

Their biggest offseason acquisition, the 2015 Pro Bowl defensive end with Detroit has just one sack this season for Seattle. That came way back in September. He’s missed three games recovering from a strained groin in August, then a sprained ankle in early October. He’s had two games in which he hasn’t registered a single tackle, pressure or sack, including last week at San Francisco. He’s missing out on a chunk of the incentive-filled, $9 million contract for this year only he signed in the spring.

While the Seahawks slogged at the bottom of the NFL in sacks through September and October, Ansah was not what the team expected opposite Jadeveon Clowney as bookend edge rushers. While Clowney has at times been dominant, particularly last week when the Seahawks’ pass rusher finally surfaced with five sacks and 10 hits on San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the 30-year-old Ansah has been slow to contribute much of anything. In five of the 10 games, he’s contributed nothing.

Enter the vibrant, 24-year-old Griffin.

Again.

This new role this month for Seattle is actually even more liberating and fun for Griffin than what he did in college.

“For me, at UCF I played ‘Sam’ backer. We just had a lot of plays that I used to rush at,” he said Monday.

The “Sam” linebacker is the strongside outside one, to the tight-end or strong side of the offense’s formation. The “Sam” is not just a pass rusher. He has pass-coverage responsibilities dropping well off the line to cover downfield receivers.

In San Francisco last week, he was perhaps the lightest defensive end in the NFL. He was a straight-line, vertical speed rusher. His hand was down in a three-point stance in passing situations, rushing off the edge opposite Clowney instread of Ansah on third downs when Seattle went to five defensive backs and two linebackers, its nickel defense it has employed less than half the time this season in favor of far more base 4-3.

“In San Fran, I didn’t have to worry about dropping back in coverage,” Griffin said.

He chuckled at the freedom and lack of multiple responsibilities.

“It gave me so much of a better feeling for what I need to do,” he said of his new role. “So for this game, it was the nickel package, third and long.

“Just go after him.”

Griffin said he is taking into Sunday’s game against the Eagles’ banged-up offensive line lessons in fundamentals of quick-step pass rushing in close quarters from the 49ers game.

“It was knocking the rust off. I grade myself pretty hard,” he said. “I graded myself on each step I took, how many steps I took, how long it took me to get from my point to the (offensive) tackle. Target angles.

“It’s just like, little, small things. I mean, it’s all about the details when you are going against guys who have played the game for a long time.

“So, obviously, I am a new, upcoming rusher, so take advantage of what I do best. Use my speed. Put them in uncomfortable situations, and, me, learning from that, it’s like, ‘OK, I am ready to go for the next game now.’”

Griffin said during the fourth quarter of the game at San Francisco he noticed the 49ers using tight ends with chipping blocks to help the offensive tackles combat Griffin’s speed off the edge. Griffin’s challenge was in that game and is this week to have counter moves to that counter act.

“It’s like, guys are really threatened by my speed. So if I show them speed, guess what opens up for everyone else (on the defensive line)? The three-tech, J-Reed (defensive tackle Jarran Reed, who had 1 1/2 sacks against San Francisco), Clowney, you’ve got ‘Q’ (teammate Quinton Jefferson). You’ve got all those guys. Now, you’ve got me taking the pressure off of them. ...

“You can only double(-team) so many people. Somebody’s got to get their one-on-ones. Somebody’s got to come free.”

That is what the Seahawks are banking on from Griffin and the pass rush the final six games of the regular season and into the possible postseason.

Affecting quarterbacks and making them throw earlier than they want to, to help Seattle’s iffy pass coverage, remains the biggest factor and potential fatal flaw for this team into December and perhaps January.

“It’s going to open up a lot,” Griffin said. “I’m glad they put me in a position for me to be able to contribute to that.”