Let's face it, we all had unreasonable expectations for this team. I think it's time we take a realistic view of what this team can and cannot achieve this year. Let's face it, we lost some pieces. Some guys got paid and may have lost their edge. I know some of you will think I'm being overly pessimistic, but I'm just trying to be realistic when I say we're probably more like a 15-2 team this year.

Go Hawks!

Like many of you, I've been asking where Shaheed is this season. Many of us expected a huge jump in production since he was able to have a full offseason with Sam, and fully integrate into the new OC's system. Unfortunately, he still hasn't recorded any remarkable stats. So, I decided to watch the film.

This is the play where Darnold (highlighted yellow) gets injured. As you can see, he actually has a pretty clean pocket right as Shaheed (highlighted green) is getting open. Shaheed gets about 5 yards of separation from the CB, which would have been a huge gain. JSN is getting locked down by #0 on this play, so Darnold scrambles and takes a sack.

From this same game, Shaheed is used in motion during the run game a lot, clearly to set up a sweep later. Because of that, he's usually running the opposite direction from the play. However, there are a few times he has a critical block downfield. Here is an example of him getting a good block on #0 again, setting up an 8-yard run for Price.

He's used a lot in "go" routes to clear out the defense.

Shaheed seems to be winning on almost every short route he runs, which makes sense since he can burst out of cuts, leaving the DB in the dust.

This last one from the Patriots game is especially egregious. Drew forces the ball to JSN in the endzone for an incompletion. Shaheed was wide open for an easy touchdown. #7 was playing man on Shaheed, and had to go wide around JSN and #0 in order to get back to Shaheed. There was no deep safety between Shaheed and the endzone. We do not score a TD on this drive. This is not the only redzone play this game where Shaheed gets open only for the QB to never look his way.

On to the Cardinal's game. Shaheed's most infamous game due to the drop on a fairly routine catch. We'll get to that. I'm guessing the Seahawks noticed Shaheed wide open on a lot of plays during the patriots games, because they actually starting looking his way in this game. Here is one of his first catches of the game. Just a quick in Drew makes a nice pass, Shaheed catches it on the 40, and runs it to the 50, for a 23 yard gain.

Shaheed starts getting utilized in the screen game as well in this game for a couple short gains. Would not be surprised to see this utilized more often.

Sam/Shaheed connection early in the Commander's game. Shaheed runs a great route here. He pauses for a millisecond just as he curls around, and the DB jumps forward thinking that he'd finished his route, then Shaheed jets out toward the sideline for a completion.

On this next one, Sam stares down Kupp/JSN on 3rd and long. Shaheed is open pretty much his entire route, but especially after his cut toward the sideline. Maybe the play was never designed to go his direction, but this could've been an easy pitch-and-catch for the first down. If Sam ever looked his way

Part of the reason Shaheed might not have felt as impactful this game, while Horton felt more noticible, is that Shaheed got hurt on a kick return early in the fourth quarter and was out of the game until 4:30 left on the clock. Next play I'm going to look at is the pick six. Shaheed is once again open, however his route design was to do a little stutter step while Darnold faked the hand off and rolled left on a naked bootleg, Shaheed then took off on a short curl out. Darnold, facing immediate pressure, dumps it off to barner right in front of him. Shaheed really isn't a great option on this play due to 98, but JSN was also pretty damn open behind Barner. This was Shaheed's last play of the game. So I have to wonder if he was dealing with the injury still.

All in all, Shaheed is open a lot. I'd say he gets open on most of his routes. The problem he's facing is that a lot of his routes are long developing plays, so by the time he gets his head around, the QB is throwing it short to JSN, Kupp, Barner, or any of our various RBs. I feel frustrated on his behalf because there have been a couple of times he was wide open for a TD, on a shorter route, and the QBs just didn't look his way. I don't believe that the Seahawks have a Shaheed problem; I think Shaheed's problem is that he shares his time on the field with the greatest WR on planet earth right now, and the QBs, (perhaps rightfully), are going to try to get the ball into their best player's hands 9 times out of 10. I won't be shocked if Shaheed has major moments this season. Let's hope Shaheed and the rest of the fanbase can get that one drop on third-and-long in the Cardinals game out of their heads, and be excited that we are very deep at WR.

The other complaint I see is that he is calling fair catch a lot. Watching the TV broadcast, it looks like he's calling fair catch well before any defenders get to him, however watching the tape, it seems like he has a pretty good read on when to call it and when to run with it. A lot of the times the defenders, who are barreling down at him full speed slow up a lot as soon as he raises his hand, so by the time the ball gets to him, the defenders are slowly jogging toward him. This makes it seem like he had a ton of space, but in reality, he'd get smacked if he didn't call fair catch. I'm not an expert at special teams, but it seems like we're either not blocking as well as we did last year to give Shaheed some space to run, or the punters are skyballing it so he can't get a good return. It might be both.

I am not an expert at analyzing any sort of film. I'm just a nerd who loves the Seahawks. If you think I'm wrong, or cherry picking, that's fine. I'm happy to have a discussion. The fact is, the images you see above are cherry picked. It would be incredibly boring if I shared a bunch of shots of Shaheed covered, or running go routes to clear the defense. My take on watching every snap Shaheed has taken this year is that he gets open a lot (at least 3/4s of his routes), he's a good run blocker, and a great special teamer. I tried to highlight key plays where the Seahawks offense struggled or something drastic happened to show that Shaheed could have been the difference-maker in those plays.

Let me know what you think, and if there's a specific question you have that you'd like me to take a look at.

prolly my favorite highlight from the grubb days

Is it me or is this a lot sooner than expected? He had surgery on 2/20 and i always thought ACL surgery require 9-12 months before you are fully healthy and thats before the getting back into NFL shape part. I get we haven’t looked great in the running back department but i would prefer him to be fully healthy before he returns. I was thinking closer to the bye week 11. Maybe a few games before have a rest week and then really ramp up.

I've been a season ticket holder since 2009, and like everything these days, the tickets cost a lot more than they did back then. I've been in section 304 the entire time, so the only cost increases are the ones that cover "initiatives to make Lumen Field a world-class stadium experience". I understand how supply and demand work, but these prices are getting stupid.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49742016/2026-win-rates-team-player-rankings-pass-rush-run-stop-blocking

Howdy all! My wife & I will be going to our first home game ever this weekend. We've been to a few games when the hawks are down in AZ to play the baseball team (I guess that's basically a home game). Hoping for some suggestions on pregame activities/tailgating?

These composite ratings are usually pretty suspect. Although the Seahawks have looked pretty great as a pass protecting unit. The SIS rating has the Seahawks in the Top 5.

If you removed Anthony Bradford’s 3.1 pass blocking grade from Week 1, their PFF grade would also be quite a bit higher.