Seahawks Put The Microscope On Secondary
Notice has been served to the starting members of the Seattle Seahawks defensive secondary. Each starter is a foul-up away from being a backup.
“They’ve got to understand that their positions are no different than the way we handle our quarterback position,” secondary coach Willy Robinson said. “It’s not who is competing with who; it’s who is the best player at that particular moment at that particular week.”
As practice resumed Monday after a weekend away from football, Seahawks pass defenders learned that the coaches want backups such as cornerbacks Fred Thomas and Selwyn Jones taking a few more snaps in practice than normal. Safeties Jay Bellamy and T.J. Cunningham also had a little more work Monday.
Will more heated competition in practice result in an immediate shakeup in the secondary? That’s unlikely. Tackling and concentration were the problems during the Seahawks’ 34-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last Thursday. If the problems don’t go away, starters might receive a quick hook.
“We’ll just see how they operate and see how the other guys operate in practice,” coach Dennis Erickson said. “If things aren’t going well, we’ll make changes. That’s basically how we’ll do it.”
Cornerbacks Carlton Gray and Corey Harris and safeties Robert Blackmon and Darryl Williams didn’t know what to make of the news. For yardage allowed, the Seahawks rank fifth in the NFL at 181 yards, only 22 yards behind the league-leading Dallas Cowboys. In seven games, the entire defense has allowed only about a half-dozen plays longer than 25 yards.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Gray said. “I don’t know what they are talking about and whether they are saying all of us, Corey’s side or my side. Frankly, I don’t feel that my play has warranted that. I feel if they really want to put somebody else in there, that’s up to them.”
The Seahawks coaches were upset with a lot of things in the loss to the Chiefs. Robinson fumes about Blackmon and Williams each missing three tackles against the Chiefs because they were more interested in punishing them.
Complaints were different at cornerback. Robinson didn’t like the way Harris was beaten by Chris Penn on slant patterns in last week’s game. The coach thought Gray has problems finishing plays.
Brawlers to be fined
The NFL front office will make the Seahawks-Chiefs Thursday night brawl more expensive than an early season battle between the Houston Oilers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Approximately nine Seahawks and seven Chiefs will receive official notice todaythat they will be fined either $4,000 or $5,000 for their involvement in fights last Thursday night in Arrowhead Stadium. The roughly $70,000 total amount of the fines may not top the $145,500 marked off against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Oilers earlier this season, but the league will actually collect more money from the AFC West rivalry.
From the Steelers-Oilers game, only 12 players received fines totaling $53,500 while 23 others received notices that they would only have to pay their fines - totaling $92,000 - if they were involved in another fight during the course of the 1996 season.
Waiting game
Erickson said the Seahawks won’t claim quarterback Jeff George on waivers now that he has been released by the Atlanta Falcons. If George clears waivers, Erickson doesn’t know what the organization will do, but it appears to be leaning toward waiting to after the season to make another major offer.