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Clark Judge of CBS Sports gives Hawks thumbs up
Posted By Eric Williams on August 20, 2009 at 5:44 pm
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I had a chance to sit down and talk with Clark Judge of CBS Sports, who’s covered the NFL for 22 years. Judge is in town to check out the Seahawks after making the rounds to several training camps. He watched practice Thursday morning.
Like other national writers who have passed through the Emerald City, Judge is high on Seattle provided one thing – they stay healthy.
“I look at the talent here and I think there’s talent everywhere here,” Judge said about the Seahawks. “I think there are a couple things that concern me. Matt Hasselbeck’s back is one of them. And I’ve talked to him, and you have as well, and he insists everything is OK. You still worry about back injures.
“But I worry about the left tackle position, too. I don’t know what’s going on with Walter Jones. And in fact T.J. Houshmandzadeh was saying to me earlier, ‘It’s not Matt Hasselbeck’s back. It’s protecting Matt Hasselbeck’s back. We better make sure we protect him, otherwise we could be in trouble.’”
Judge also said the Seahawks establishing a consistent running game so opponents can’t stack defenses against the team’s weapons in the passing game will be important.
“You have to have a decent running game to make people respect you,” Judge said.
Judge likes the acquisitions of defensive lineman Cory Redding and Colin Cole, and believes if Seattle can create a consistent pass rush they’ll be able to protect a vulnerable secondary.
Overall, Judges believes Seattle should compete with Arizona for the top spot in the NFC West, and thinks the Cardinals might experience a Super Bowl swoon after making it to the big game last season.
If Walt can be ready by week 2 (I think the Rams are bad and that we'll easily win week 1) and Trufant can come back after the PUP and IF we stay relatively healthy... I think we're about the best team in the NFC too.
i have faith in the locklear, ray willis, wrotto, williams, unger, vallos to be able to setup and platy big and solid as a unit
what i don't have faith in is if trufant is out that means more playing time for jennings and that puts a glaring weak spot in the secondary!
dover, last year, the secondary got no help from the pass rush...(we got something like half our sacks in 3 games) From the look of things, we may well have a very good pass rush this year...that alone wil greatly help the secondary...Lucas isn't Tru, but between him and the improved pass rush, we should be a fair bit better than last year in the back, and it looks like we'll be worlds better in the box...
Best team on paper in the NFC? I'd have to go with the Vikings. Although they, too, have fault lines that could screw things up for them.
Even if Walt never plays again, Hass gets hurt, and Trufant never plays all year- this team will win more games than last year's team did. Remember the injuries from 2008? We lost our ENTIRE wr CORPS. We then lost our entire offensive line. You don't lose an entire unit and pose a threat. Replacing an impact player is tough, no doubt. But an entire unit?
You can lose one person per unit and come out better than last year. No matter who it is. The backups aren't that bad. Its when you have to go to the street to rely on guys who weren't even on a roster to bail you out. That is an epic problem.
Is Jennings better than T.Fisher?
klm, that, my friend, is a mystery only solvable by putting him on the field on game day...