Maxwell is not Revis but he is waaaayyyyy better than Cary.
Unger was their best OL.
Graham is great ... with Brees.
I think I agree on the first point, but until I see how Williams performs with Thomas/Sherman/Chancellor and how Maxwell performs with the Eagles, I'm going to remain open to the possibility that the gap between them isn't as big as it looks. I
definitely agree with the second point. Unger is a huge loss, just look at last year's Seahawks:
Overall rushing yards before contact: 3.1 (#5 in NFL)
Weeks 1-5 with Unger: 3.81 rushing yards before contact (best in NFL)
Weeks 6-9 with Unger out: 2.48 rushing yards before contact (15th in NFL).
Weeks 10-11 with Unger back: 4.55 rushing yards before contact (easily best in NFL)
Weeks 11-17 with Unger out again: 2.44 yards before contact (below league average)
Source here:
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2...xlix-tom-brady-marshawn-lynch-rob-gronkowski/
Basically, for the style of offense that they play, Unger was probably their most important offensive lineman. He's also extremely injury prone, so realistically they're losing maybe 8-10 games of production rather than 16. But yeah, his loss is being hugely underrated, mostly because the average fan just doesn't take OL into account.
For the third point, I think Graham will be a fantastic fit in Seattle's passing offense, doing all of the stuff that Luke Willson did last year but way better. In the running game, he'll be a liability, so given their offensive identity I could see the net effect being a bit more questionable and hard to iron out. Wouldn't be surprised if they eventually just line him up as a slot receiver and let teams put a corner on him. Kills some of his quickness advantage, but he's still 6'7 and even he should be able to block corners.
Seattle also lost their #2 corner, all pro center and starting LG, and have no first rounder. They have definitely taken some hits this off season as well.
I still don't understand how a team built around a power run game thought it important to lose two starting interior lineman for a Number one receiver. Why invest all that money in to Lynch if you arent going to build your resources around him?
Carpenter isn't too far above replacement-level. Never lived up to his draft status, to the point that the Jets signing him doesn't bother me. Unless they mess up pretty badly, the Seahawks should have little trouble getting someone about as good as Carpenter, and should have a good chance of finding someone better. However small of a deal losing Carpenter is, though, losing Unger is a huge deal.
