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Holmgren Discloses His View of the Offseason
      By GladiatorHawk


Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, has been re-charging his jets this offseason and is now fired up to begin what could be a very special season for the Hawks. Yesterday, he parked his motorcycle and spoke on the air at KJR radio with Dave Mahler and Hugh Millen. The Walrus disclosed his view of the current state of Seahawk Nation.

On what his position of where he is right now with his 2 year extension...

"When we made the decision to sign the 2 year extension, I thought long and hard about it. My biggest concern, and what we thought about most, was that you have to be fair to everybody. There was no sense in my signing any sort of extension if my heart wasn't in it, and with the idea that you didn't want to fulfill your contract. Having said that, I reserve the right after each season to make sure I'm fair with everybody. It doesn't make any sense at all, if after a season, I feel that I don't have the jets to keep going. It's not fair to anybody to keep going that way and fake it. I'm not going to do that.

Every year, we're going to look at it. I feel I've reached that point in my coaching life where if I can recharge the batteries quickly and it's going in the right direction and I'm helping, and they want me, I'm going to stick around. If I don't think I'm helping the cause too much, I'm going to have to re-evaluate it."

On how his family impacts his decision....

"My family is important to me. All of my daughters are moving to the Seattle area and we love it here. I'm not anxious to go anywhere else. I'm really not. The conversation we had and Kathy (wife) put it very bluntly. She said two things. 'You have to be healthy, for me to back this, and you still have to have the fire to do it right. Don't fake it'. I think that's a pretty good criteria, really. That's what I'm going to base any decision on. She's really supportive. She's been a great football wife over the years. At some point, it's going to end. I have no complaints. Football has been good to me."

On his working relationship with Tim Ruskell and his own aspirations of GM...

"Tim and I work very, very well together. When he and Tod Lieweike came aboard, it made the organization stronger. The management team we have is as good as it can be in the NFL. I had my own goals and aspirations, and I felt there was some unfinished business to take care of as the general manager/coach. My own ego gets involved there as well a little bit. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that's where I am. As far as how it's working right now, it's good. Everyone is going in the same direction. Everyone wants to win. Everyone is supporting each other the way they need to. Of course, it all starts with Paul Allen."

On will there be a void in his career if he doesn't become a GM again...

"I don't think so. Football has been very good to me. I have no regrets. You always want to do well as a coach and well as a GM. It was my first crack at being a GM and I think I would be better at it the next time. Better in hiring people. I have a much better idea of how that dynamic works, and what you need. Some of my decisions early on...I made a couple of mistakes. No question about it. That's what you hopefully learn from. But if I never got another chance to be a GM again - I'd be okay with it."

On his immediate assessment following the overtime loss to the Bears in the playoffs...

"First of all, let's break it down on what improvements would be required for 2007. We were going to look hard at the defense first. My feeling is that the offense, if we can stay healthy, we have people in place where we can move the football, for the most part. I did not feel there needed to be a dramatic overhaul of the offense. On defense, this was exaggerated because of our injuries in the secondary. We had to look at some of the things that were happening on defense. We got injured in the defensive line and in the secondary. Our linebackers were pretty solid. So, that's where our focus is going to be is with defensive line and secondary. I think in free agency, that is where we went."

On have they done everything they set out to do with the defense in free agency...

"I think there's room to grow. We did something differently this than we had done in previous years. We 'popped' early in what I call the 'feeding frenzy' period, which is that first week in free agency. The numbers these free agents sign for, just blow your mind. It is what it is. We were involved in that. In past years, we didn't get involved in the first week too much. We didn't usually have the money to do it and philosophically, we were trying to build something through the draft usually would just cherry pick a little bit in free agency. This year was different. There was a strategy to go hard and pop early on a couple of guys and that's what we did. We spent our money. Our shopping list, we took care of that. There will be some things that happen down the road in June, when the salary cap changes a little bit for us and we can add a couple of additional players. Basically, we are done."

On his thoughts concerning Ken Hamlin...

"First of all, it was a miracle that he played last year. I was very proud of him and happy for him because no one knew for sure if he could continue to play. I like Kenny a lot and he brought enthusiasm to our defensive unit but he did not have his best year last year. He missed tackles that he normally would make. He always guessed a little bit, but because of all the injuries in the secondary, he tried to do more than he had to do, and was out of position on occasion. Now what that had to do with the injury in his previous year, I could never tell you. He wanted to test the free agent market and the feeling in the building was that we had to overhaul our secondary. Aside from the injuries, it did not appear that we were getting better. In fairness to everyone, sometimes a new scene is good. Now, Jim Mora is going to coach the secondary, and we now have 2 new safeties in Deon Grant and Brian Russell to go along with our young corners."

On his thoughts of the cornerbacks...

"Well, I think Trufant is very solid. He is a good young player. Kelly Jennings is going to be fine. He had his highs and lows as you would expect a rookie to have. Herndon had his highs and lows. He's a bit of a lightning rod because the cornerback getting beat is more visible to the fan. Herndon is an excellent player and is a solid third corner. He plays the inside position very well. He had to play the outside until Kelly Jennings came along. I don't think you can have too many corners. Are we set there? I don't think so. Can we play the game? Yeah, we can play the game with what we have. We are going to look at the secondary in the draft."

On which position of the defense would he like to add a player...

"I would say cornerback. The way people that are opening their formations and throwing the ball around, people that play us (sic). If I put 4 wide receivers out there, very few people can match up straight on straight with 4 quality CBs cover 4 quality WRs. It's a valuable position. So, that's not necessarily a reflection on who we have right now."

On his thoughts with the defensive line and status of Marcus Tubbs...

When we lost Marcuss Tubbs...he's a big body in there who has some pass-rush ability as an inside player. Sometimes you can get the guys who play the draw very well, but they can't rush the passer. So when you get one who is big and can rush the passer, you've really got something going. We don't have a Reggie White or a Charles Haley that the other team would have to plan for that guy on every play. But as a result, we're high on sack totals. Everyone gets 4 or 5 sacks and they don't know where we're coming from, but we have to move a lot. When we lost Tubbs, we lost a presence inside. If he's okay, and we can get another big body in there, we will be okay. I saw Tubbs two days ago. He is feeling good and he is right on schedule, but you never know. He had a big-time surgery, so hopefully he can come back and play."

On present status of the defensive line given Kerney's acquisition and Wistrom's retirement...

"In a perfect world, if we would have been able to keep Grant Wistrom or talk him into staying, we would have had a nice little combination with 4 guys on DE. I would say that the needs between defensive end versus defensive tackle are about even."

On did he want Wistrom back...

"Yes. Now, Grant signed a huge contract. Grant and I had a great conversation about this. His body, he plays the game, he's undersized. The way he plays the game, he is all beat up at the end of every game. My hope was that he would accept a lesser salary and come back so we could rotate him. He gets 30-35 snaps per game. I could take it easy on him in training camp too. He brought something to the table for our team that was healthy. It was good. But he did not want to do that. What I appreciate about him was that he was very honest with me. He (Grant) said, 'Mike, I think I am done.' So what are you going to do?"

On his observations of the similarities between Kerney and Wistrom...

"They are very similar. They both have great motors. They are both team guys and they are both very unselfish. They both practice hard and they are tremendous people. The one difference, perhaps is that Kerney is more of a sack guy. By himself, Kerney will get more sacks coming off the edge. Some sack totals can be misleading sometimes, especially if you're playing a team that the tackle might have set up the sack. We had to prepare for Patrick Kerney unless they switched him over and he was going against Walter Jones. He has shown that he has that ability to get sacks on his own. That is the maybe one difference."

On how hard did Seattle press for David Carr...

"Well we pushed hard. Dave Carr said, he had a great visit with us. He was going to go on a little bit of a tour, but it really narrowed down to Carolina and Seattle. Any time we bring in a free agent, I am not going to sugar-coat anything. Absolutely I am not going to lie to him because, all of a sudden, if you sign him and what you tell him doesn't happen, you have an unhappy player and that a bad deal. We were going to be totally upfront about everything with David or any QB that comes in here. Matt is our quarterback. Now these are the situations...this is why I think it would be a good place for you. We sold him on that and I believe he liked that. I think Carolina, I don't know this for sure, but he got a real nice contract; that's one, and I think they talked to him about being the starter there. Now, we'll see what happens, but that's what you do in recruiting. We choose to do it in a different way."
On where Carr would stack up with Matt and Seneca...

"I talked to Seneca about this before David even visited. I thought Seneca did a good job for us last year and he got better as a quarterback. No question that he has improved as a quarterback. I tried to think about getting him on the field in other roles. I think he could be an outstanding pass receiver for us. He is a very talented man. He could return punts for us and do a good job there. We would be able to free Burleson and Engram up to concentrate on other areas. The thought process behind bring in a David Carr or anyone else is to have the assurance that if something were to happen to Matt, that you could use Seneca to play those other positions because you have a QB that can go in the game and play. Until that happens, until we sign another guy like that, I can't use Seneca in those other roles where he could help our team. So, that's why we are looking."

On his assessment of Seneca as a quarterback...

"I think he's fine. I really do. He works very hard and he is just what you want. Where he would develop more, like most guys who play quarterback, is when he has a chance to play. He will be so much better prepared this year to play than he would have been last year. In the Minnesota game, he had no reps during the week and he had to come in and play, so you knock that one out. He played very well against the Raiders, and he played very well against the Rams. I thought he made some bad decisions in the 49er game, but no one else helped him out too much either. The team played poorly. Our defense was horrible. So it is not always him. He is good enough to play in this league. Now how much longer can we keep him. He is a good backup. We are looking at backup QBs such as Carr, to give us some options."

On his thoughts concerning Jerremy Stevens...

"The Scottsdale episode was the end of it for him here. When he left at the end of the season, we discussed how a change of scenery would probably be good for everybody. Jerremy knew this. He wanted to test the free agent market as a lot of players do. It wasn't quite what he thought it would be and at the end, he would have to reconsider some things. He made great strides on and off the field while he was with us. I think he grew up a lot. It always worried me when he was out of my sight. In Arizona he had too much to drink and got busted. It is sad and it is a tragedy. Why does this happen...well it is a disease. More than a football thing. It is a life thing. If he asked for my help in anything, I would give it to him. That is the way I would handle any of my players."

On his opinion of character issues...

"A point of emphasis is prominent in the building. At the owners meeting in Arizona, we had sessions with the head coaches and owners. I would caution everybody this way however. You draft a player, and most of the time, you know everything about the background of the player you need to know. In Koren Robinson's case, we did not know 1 little thing about him that turned out to be a big deal. The public has a tendency to say there is character problems and lump everything in this pot. They should not do that. They are not all the same and their problems are not all the same. I am not defending our pick or anything like that. Part of coaching and teaching, my responsibility is to help them be good football players and hopefully help them to be better people. In Koren's case, everyone liked him. He was very talented guy who worked real hard. He is a good guy, but he suffered from a disease. In years past, we had a couple of guys who are no longer here, not anyone we have talked about today (Eaton for one), who I think are bad guys. Who are very selfish, drag down a team, and who did not care for anyone but themselves. Now that, to me, is a character issue. I tend to split those guys out. Not everyone who gets into trouble is a bad guy. There is a big push by the Seahawks to eliminate these types from the draft board."

On where will training camp be held...

"Training camp will be held at our place in Kirkland. We are working very hard at logistics of camp. In Cheney we were on auto-pilot. Everyone knew where we were going and what we were doing. We will make it work in Kirkland."

On Darrell Jackson and his future with the team...

"Darrell is under contract with the team. We will have a mandatory mini-camp the weekend following the draft. All players under contract have to be there. There are rumours about him that we are shopping him. We will sit down and talk and see where he is. He had something done with his knee and he is rehabbing it. The wide receiver group is thick and talented. This will be interesting to see who emerges and see how it works out."

Gladiator Hawk

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Published at 11:47 AM on Saturday, April 7, 2007.

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