The Seahawks have a short week leading up to Thursday night's NFC West showdown with the Los Angeles Rams. But short week or not, we're still making time to answer questions from you, the fans. As always, thanks to everyone who asked a question this week, and apologies if we couldn't get to yours this time around. And remember, you can now submit mailbag questions both via twitter and online at Seahawks.com/SeahawksMailbag.
@JimHawley5 asks, "Is Techno Thursday on, delayed or canceled this week?"
A: This is a very important question, so I took it directly to Luke Willson, one of the leaders of Techno Thursday, for the answer. With a Thursday game, there's obviously not Thursday practice for techno music and short shorts, so does that mean Techno Thursday moves up in the week when they're doing their "Thursday" practice work, or falls on a game day, or is on hiatus until next week?
Willson said it will be a game-day Techno Thursday, adding that he hopes the stadium "will be banging Techno" when the Seahawks score. Only a couple of minutes later, however, Willson was showing Justin Britt his Spotify techno playlist—yes, he has one of those—and techno music was blaring in the locker room.
So the answer, apparently, is that there are two Techno Thursdays this week.
@Tony Burke from Bremerton asks, "Why don't the Seahawks run the 2-minute offense the whole game?"
A: The Seahawks have always been willing to mix in some elements of their up-tempo or 2-minute offense in various situations beyond the end of halves, but there are reasons for not just assuming that type of offense will succeed as often throughout a game as it does at the end of games.
"You know it's funny, I actually get asked that a lot," offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. "My wife loves to ask that question: 'Why don't you guys just do what you did then?' What I try to explain to her is what is a big benefit of that is the fact that it's late in the halves, or it's late in the fourth quarter. It's hard to go out when a defense is fresh and try to spread them out and just try to throw it all over the yard because they're fresh. They're attacking and things like that. What helps is obviously, we kind of wear them down… The problem with playing that way would be that you'd be concerned about OK, they know you want to do that and they're fresh. Here they come and they're getting on the edge and they're making you step up into traffic and things like that. That's where it's usually, what most teams, we're no different than most teams, is when you wear them down, it works."
And yes, you read that right, Schottenheimer's wife is as big of a critic as any other fan who likes to jump on the offensive play-caller for his decisions in a game.
"She's very critical," he said with a laugh. "I'll be honest with you. I get in the car and I'm like, 'Can I just relax for a few minutes?' She's like, 'You ran it up the middle, I don't like that.' I'm like, 'Join the club.'"
@Shockfanatic09 asks, "The Seahawks played well against Arizona, but I still have some concern with how they defended short passes to the running back that went for chunk yardage. Is there a level of concern defending those plays or just the need to make better tackles?"
A: It's always concerning when a running back gains 99 yards on eight catches, as David Johnson did on Sunday, especially when he has two big explosive plays, gaining 31 and 28 yards on short passes.
But while those two plays are problematic, the Seahawks are usually OK with a team checking the ball down repeatedly to running backs. After stopping the run, Seattle's biggest defensive priority is eliminating big plays, and again, those two Johnson catch and runs were a problem, but the Seahawks otherwise did a very good job of taking away the explosive passing game. Larry Fitzgerald, who came into the game with a league-leading four receptions of 40 or more yards, had a long of 15 yards in the game, while Arizona's other top target, Christian Kirk, had a long of 18. In all, those two receivers were limited to 84 combined yards on nine catches, and the Cardinals were held to 206 passing yards. So yes, the Seahawks will want to clean up the issues that led to those to long plays by Johnson, but overall it was a very good game for Seattle's pass defense.
@flashdash007 asks, "Any chance we'll see John Ursua or Gary Jennings anytime this year?"
A: Of course there's a chance we see one or both of those receivers find a role in Seattle's offense as the season goes along. For starters, rookie receivers should only get better as the year goes along, and unfortunately there's always the threat of injury, which is why teams like to be deep at every position they can in the first place. But for now, it has obviously been tough for those two to find their way onto the field. Ursua has been active for only one game, while Jennings has been inactive for all four games. The Seahawks kept seven receivers on their 53-man roster because they really like that group, but realistically only four or five of them are going to get significant playing time in a game, and so far this year that has meant Tyler Lockett, DK Metcalf, Jaron Brown, David Moore and Malik Turner. So while there are fans who would love to see those two on the field now, keep in mind that the Seahawks wouldn't be tying up roster spots on players who are inactive most weeks if they didn't see bright futures for Ursua and Jennings.
@Jdnlndn asks, "Is Will Dissly the new Gronk?"
A: Let's go ahead and pump the brakes on that one a little bit, OK? Will Dissly is off to a great start to his career, including four touchdown catches this season and six in eight career games, and he's also a great blocker. In other words, his future appears to be very bright. Gronkowski, however, is one of the best tight ends to play the game and could very well end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It wouldn't be fair to Dissly or any young player to start making that kind of comparison at this stage of his career, though again, he's off to a great start.
"He's super talented," quarterback Russell Wilson said. "He's a great teammate. He really wants to do anything to help his teammates whether it's blocking, catching, or doing anything he does. He's just got the right attitude about everything and I really love that about him. I really love working with him every day. He comes in with the right attitude. He's a special player. I'm hoping that he continues where he's heading because he's going to be a star tight end for a long time in this league and hopefully for the Seattle Seahawks for a long time."
Joe Gutierrez from Cancun, Mexico, asks, "Big Seahawks fan here, are the Seahawks ever going to play in Mexico? It would be a dream come true to watch them play."
A: I know nothing of that being the in works anytime soon, but I'd file this question in the never-say-never category. The Seahawks' trip to London was a big success in terms of fan support, some of that coming from the team's strong following in Europe, and in the UK and Germany in particular, but a lot of fans also traveled for that game. In theory, some of those same fans would be interested in a trip to Mexico to see their team, right? And as our friend Joe shows, there's at least some interest in Mexico.
