2009 Seattle Seahawks NFL Football Predictions

2009 Seattle Seahawks Predictions
Preview courtesy of Ted Sevransky, An award-winning professional football handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are interested in football betting this season, be sure to buy Ted Sevransky’s football picks at Touthouse.com

Overview:
The conventional wisdom around the NFL is that Seattle’s tumble from four time NFC West champion to 4-12 bottom feeder was due to two main issues. First, the Seahawks were an injury riddled mess last year, with 26 players missing a combined 164 games due to injury concerns. 14 players finished the season on injured reserve. Secondly, the decision to name Jim Mora Jr. as ‘head coach in waiting’ in Mike Holmgren’s last year on the job was a mistake, creating divisions in the locker room and among the coaching staff.

The two issues described above leave many expecting an immediate return to success for the Seahawks in 2009, as Mora’s stamp is now firmly on the team and most of the injury woes appear to be over. Money has poured in on Seattle Over their season win total, from 7.5 with juice on the Under at the opener to as high as 8.5 in some locations as the preseason begins. But the Seahawks are undergoing a major transition, with new coordinators and new schemes on both sides of the football. In addition, the Seahawks personnel moves in recent seasons have left a declining talent base. Rumors persist that quarterback Matt Hasselbeck still isn’t 100% healthy. Seattle’s return to the top of the NFC West is no sure thing.

Offense:
New coordinator Greg Knapp is making some major changes to the Seahawks offense. Knapp is expected to keep some elements of the Seahawks West Coast, pass happy offense, but he’s looking for more balance between the run and the pass. Knapp is installing a new zone blocking scheme, a system that has worked everywhere he’s been. In each of Knapp’s previous eight seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator, his teams have finished in the Top 10 in rushing yardage.

That trend may not continue this year. Neither Julius Jones nor TJ Duckett ranks among the NFL’s elite rushers, by any stretch of the imagination. And the state of the Seattle offensive line continues to be a major concern. Nine time pro bowler Walter Jones is 35 years old and coming off microfracture knee surgery. 32 year old guard Mike Wahle is coming off shoulder surgery in the offseason. The unit, as a whole, has declined markedly since Steve Hutchinson left via free agency three years ago.

The Seahawks have spent a small fortune on wide receivers in recent years. Deion Branch, Nate Burleson and this year’s biggest free agent addition, TJ Houshmandzadeh, all have fat contracts. Branch and Burleson combined to miss 23 games due to injury last year, while Houshmandzadeh hopes to match or exceed last year’s league leading total of 27 third down conversions from 2008. Seattle’s receivers aren’t likely to excel without a healthy Hasselbeck behind center. The three time pro bowler turns 34 in December, and he’s coming off a year in which he completed only 52% of his passes while throwing twice as many interceptions as touchdowns while struggling with a bulging disk in his back – the type of injury that can linger. Hasselbeck is one QB worth watching very closely in the preseason.

Defense:
New coordinator Gus Bradley is expected to incorporate the ‘Tampa Cover-2’ defense for the Seahawks this Fall. Four years ago, Bradley was coaching 1-AA college football at North Dakota State, but his rise through the coaching ranks under legendary coordinator Monte Kiffin was quite rapid. Bradley is expecting his defense to be significantly more aggressive than the ‘D’ from last year when Seattle ranked 30th in total defense; dead last against the pass, while intercepting only nine passes all year long.

Unfortunately for Bradley, the Seahawks defensive personnel are mediocre at best. Key pass rushing defensive end Patrick Kerney is another guy coming off an injury plagued season and offseason shoulder surgery. Free agent pickup Colin Cole is expected to add a run stuffing presence in the middle of the line. Linebacker is a position of strength, even after the departure of Julian Peterson in the offseason, with rookie Aaron Curry (Wake Forest) expected to step right into the starting lineup. The Seahawks went from allowing the fewest passing touchdowns in the NFL in 2007 to allowing the most passing yardage in the league last year, while giving up an NFL high 59 completions of 20 yards or more. Cornerback Marcus Trufant, in particular, must step up following a dismal season in ’08.

Schedule:
The Seahawks awful 2008 campaign cannot be blamed on a tough schedule. The Seahawks play in the weakest division in the NFL. In their ten non-division games last year, the Seahawks lost nine times, with six of those defeats coming against non-playoff bound opposition. The Seahawks schedule ranks among the league’s easiest for the upcoming campaign, playing only five games against teams that reached the postseason last year. And the Seahawks don’t make a single road trip to the Eastern time zone all year, excellent news given the track record of West Coast teams travelling east for early start games. That being said, any enthusiasm for the Seahawks must be tempered until we’re sure they’ve got a healthy, pro bowl caliber quarterback, because this team isn’t going to win nine game and compete for the division title with backup Seneca Wallace taking snaps instead of Hasselbeck.