After watching 1st preseason game twice

[seer-12thman]

I was very impressed with the depth on this team. Just so much talent at almost every position. Draft picks looked good and so did the undrafted free agents. Other teams are going to sit back and just wait for cuts by the Hawks to get down to the limit to sign some of these players to improve their rosters.
Positions I was worried about like WR, LB, TE, and o-line are looking better than I expected. Also I think they probably have the best group of RB's in the NFL. At this point it doesn't look like they will have any real weaknesses on this team. As the season goes on they should get even better. Go Seahawks!
I look for them to go 12 and 4 or better and win the NFC West.

 

[szat]

The depth was good. Thought the 1st team was rusty/sloppy even ***gasp!*** R 'the savior' W. SD won the battle at the LOS on both sides of the ball.
I'm hoping with all the additions to the DL we can bring get a decent pass rush. But we were down a lot of starters for the opener.

John Lotelali popped out (or was it the hair?). Christine Michael hit the hole way harder then I expected, that guy is explosive. DB's looked good.

 

[sprhawk]

So hungry we watch preseason twice. Bring on football!

We have an arsenal of RB's. Which 4 are giving L's? I split SF & Rams, at Atlanta is a challenge. Giants or Houston?

W - at Carolina
W - San Francisco
W- Jacksonville
W- at Houston
W- at Indianapolis
W- Tennessee
W- at Arizona
L- at St. Louis
W- Tampa Bay
L- at Atlanta
W- Minnesota
W- New Orleans
L- at San Francisco
W- at NY Giants
W- Arizona
W- St. Louis

 

[TheBandwagon]

As far as preseason betting lines go, the only two games the Hawks aren't favored in are the Falcons game and the road game against the Niners. The Atlanta game is currently a pick 'em and they are +2.5 in SF. Ironically it's the exact same deal with the Niners. They are favored in all but two and the one game they are the underdog is the game in Seattle, also +2.5. It shows how close the two teams are perceived to be right now. Whichever team is higher on the power rankings is subject to change on a weekly basis, depending mainly on injuries. That's the only thing that's got me concerned mainly because it might be the only thing that could derail the Hawks this year. And they are fairly banged up on top of the 4 game Irvin suspension.
The early part of the season could potentially be a bit rough because of that and also because the Hawks have been a bit slow out of the gate the last two seasons. 2-6 to start in 2011 before finishing 5-3 and last year they were 6-5 before winning out the last 5.

 

[TheBandwagon]

On the other hand as far as the slow starts go, you can probably chalk those up to growing pains for a team on the rise. It's always by necessity been 2 steps forward, 1 step back under the Pete and John era. They followed up their division title and playoff win in '10 with the 2-6 start in '11 because of a rebuilt roster and particularly the O-line. But by the end of '11 they were a better team than the one that won the division and beat the Saints in '10.

Fast forward to the start of 2012. The start of 2012 saw a little bit of a regression from the end of 2011 because of the QB switch. The Hawks found a bit of a comfort zone with Tjack as their QB. When they went with Russ at the start of 2012, their offense lost a bit of efficiency for a while but gained far more upside. Basically the ceiling with Tjack was a little higher than the floor with Wilson. But once Wilson settled in after around week 10, they were MUCH better offensively than they were at the end of 2011. Two steps forward, one step back.

I don't really see the "one step back" aspect happening this year because they aren't going through any significant changes so hopefully that will prevent them from starting out slow. The early part of the season will be key on whether they win the division and get a high playoff seed or not.