A few good reasons to stay a fan

It’s hard to change the makeup of your team overnight.

Well, the Seattle Seahawks tried at least with this year’s NFL Draft.

WHILE THEY missed out on the postseason last year — you can blame a kicker for that, among others — the rest of the NFC West got better.

The Los Angeles Rams appeared to have gone all-in on a Super Bowl appearance, acquring cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters and signing Ndamukong Suh to a free agency contract.

Suh playing alongside Aaron Donald is probably still keeping opposing offenses awake at night right now.

San Francisco improved as well, adding Richard Sherman to its roster to go along with some other draft picks. Don’t forget, Jimmy Garoppolo is still unbeaten as the team’s starting quarterback as well, maybe one of the reasons that the 49ers are now the trendy pick to advance to the playoffs again.

Arizona has a new coach and quarterback after the retirements of Bruce Arians and Carson Palmer, but have added some depth at quarterback with veteran Sam Bradford and picking Josh Rosen in April’s NFL Draft.

So where does that leave the Seahawks?

It wasn’t long after the Super Bowl that the team was sending Michael Bennett to Philadelphia, and releasing Sherman and another cornerback, Jeremy Lane. Lane was only with the team after being traded to Houston for Duane Brown, then flunking his physical. Running back Thomas Rawls also left the team after a subpar season at running back and tight end Luke Willson opted to sign with Detroit.

Seattle added running back Rashaad Penny, defensive back Tre Flowers and linebacker Shaquem Griffin, as well as a few others in the most recent draft. The pick reunites Shaquem with his brother, Shaquill — a starting cornerback ­— with the Seahawks on the same defense.

Watching how happy the two were for each other when Shaquem was selected, it should be fun to see them together again.

FOR THOSE old school fans of the Seahawks, the last decade or so has been a little strange.

Yes, they’ve won a Super Bowl and played in two others.

Chances are, they don’t do that without a guy like Chuck Knox and what he brought to the team during his time as head coach from 1983 to 1991.

Knox passed away last Sunday after a long battle with dementia at the age of 86.

Seattle wasn’t a team that went to the playoffs each year before he arrived — far from it.

Knox took them to an AFC Championship game in 1983 — yes, the Seahawks advanced in the AFC as well — and won a division title in 1988.

His teams were fun to watch on television, with guys like Jim Zorn and Dave Krieg throwing to Steve Largent in the old Kingdome.

In all honesty, it’s one of the reasons I became a Seahawks fan.

Those teams gave me hope and a reason to tune in to watch them play, and eventually, find some success.

No matter if it was in the “Ground Chuck” era or the current “Win Forever” one of Pete Carroll.

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.