My One and Only Alexander Post

That is, until he gets signed, or makes it through eight games unsigned, both of which would be noteworthy so of course I'll comment then.

I really didn't think I was going to have a topic to write about tonight. My goal is (at least) one post a day, but if I'm not inspired I'm not going to force a post. I've done that before - those posts suck. Perhaps today was a slow news day (except for maybe the news of Locklear's knee injury, but what can I say other than that will hurt the line play? Well, duh. Let's see how Willis plays next Monday, then I'll comment further), or I was spent after busting out four posts yesterday, but for whatever reason I had nothing.

Then I watched two halves of Cleveland Browns football. Not the entirety of their preseason game, mind you. I still have the second half of that to go through tomorrow morning. I watched the first half of the preseason game, plus the first half of the NFL Network replay of the Seahawks-Browns 2007 game ($2.99 on iTunes). I have plenty of thoughts on the Browns, plus some more on the Giants, but I'll get to those tomorrow (hint: I'm a total flip-flipper).

The Seahawks-Browns game is the fourth 2007 Seahawks game I've watched (the others being the Redskins playoff game, the Bengals, and the Bears twice. How do you not love watching the Seahawks beat the Bears?). It's a different experience watching games out of the moment, outside of the emotion of the season. There have been a number of little things I've noticed while rewatching games (Morris is better than I remembered, Burleson was quite productive, Hasselbeck can still has a tendency to throw ill-timed interceptions, Brian Russell is actually pretty awful), some of which I may touch on in detail at a later point (such as days like this where I don't have a preseason game to jump me out of writers block). But above all else, one thing suck out like a soar thumb:

Shaun Alexander was a horrible detriment to the Seahawks ability to produce offensively in 2007.

I know, duh, right? I was far from an Alexander apologist last season. I always held out hope that he might return to 2005 form, but equally hoped Holmgren would have the guts to give Morris the bulk of the carries. But in rewatching some of these games, and especially after watching Morris, Jones, and Forsett carry the ball this preseason, I was completely smacked in the face with Alexander's complete lack of ability to cut, dart, and get up to full speed.

Alexander's best game from the past two seasons was the 2006 snow game at home against Green Bay where he ran for 201 yards on 40 carries. Ironically, in every 2007 game I've watch Alexander runs just like he did that game - as if he were playing on snow - while the opposing defense is playing on the actual turf. Alexander's 2006 season wasn't that bad, actually, but it certainly foreshadowed his completely drop off in the 2007 season, which was abysmal for a former league MVP.

Maybe the most overlooked difference between this years' and last years' Seahawks is how much better the run game, the offense, and overall the Seahawks will be by simply not having Alexander's drive-killing carries as part of the gameplan. The Morris-Jones (and Forsett?) combo can be merely average as runners and still outproduce Alexander, plus they'll offer blitz pickup and additional receiving options. I happen to think Morris-Jones will be better than average, but the key point is that they don't have to be any better than average to make the Seahawks better.

Purely through the removal of Shaun Alexander, the Seahawks will be 1-2 games better than they were last year. Never mind the Mike Wahle addition. Never mind Mike Solari and Mike DeBorg coaching up the offensive line. Never mind the addition of new running backs that refuse to go down at first contact. Alexander surely cost the Seahawks at least one game with his inability to get past the line of scrimmage, and I'm not even going to get started on the botched hand-off in game two when Shaun was out in lala land while the rest of the team was trying to put together a game-winning drive. But Shaun is gone now. And the Seahawks will be better of because of that.