Time to start again in Seattle
Maybe the Seattle Seahawks missing the playoffs isn’t the worst thing to happen for the franchise.
All those extra games in January, and a couple in February are starting to take a toll.
Still, it’s still going to be a little odd not seeing them in a game next week, or at least playing on wild card weekend.
SURE, THE team was hit with plenty of injuries that changed the look of the team throughout the year. Every team in the NFL suffered the same fate.
Green Bay, without Aaron Rodgers for a good chunk of the season, missed out on the postseason when the Packers were favored to be right in the mix.
Arizona, which has since had its coach and quarterback retire after beating Seattle in the season finale last Sunday, also had playoff hopes come crashing down with the injury of running back David Johnson in the first week of the season.
And you can also blame an injury to Seahawks left tackle George Fant, who tore his ACL in the preseason and the offensive line that was scrambling to replace him since his departure.
Teams adjust to that, and Seattle did as well, plugging holes left by the absence of cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Kam Chancellor for the final month of the regular season. It just wasn’t enough.
Injuries happen unfortunately, and they did this year for the Seahawks.
WHATEVER CHANGES are coming — and there’s going to be a few for sure — hopefully they don’t opt to tear down the foundation of this team completely.
No, Earl Thomas telling Dallas coach Jason Garrett to ‘come get him if they can’ when his time is up is any indication that he wants to be a Cowboy right now. As you know, the NFL is a business, and should Thomas be released, why not Dallas?
He played his college football at Texas, and if there’s anywhere else in the league he deserves to go, then he should finish his career in Arlington.
Some guys will go, and it’s no secret that a few won’t be part of the team next year.
That will happen with other teams around the league as well.
Maybe it’s a good thing that the team can actually rest, sit back and watch the rest of the league beat each other up to get to the Super Bowl for a change.
This will be the first time since 2011 that Seattle has missed the playoffs, quite the run for a team that hasn’t had a ton of success in the playoffs, outside of a few years in the Mike Holmgren era.
Yes, it’s going to be weird as a Seahawks fan to watch the playoffs this season; it normally is anyway.
When you’re not used to winning in the postseason, often times, you are just happy to get invited to the party at the end of the season.
While the invitation didn’t come this year, they’ll be on the list again soon enough.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.