Ruskell resigns…what now for the Seahawks? We asked the NFL experts.

by Chris Leeper

Immediatley following our airing of Tim Ruskell’s resignation press conference on 710 AM ESPN Seattle, we had on numerous ESPN NFL experts to get their opinion of Tim Ruskell, the future of the Seahawks, and more.

First up was ESPN Senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen. We asked him if the ProFootballweekly.com post triggered Ruskell’s decision to retire, but Mort clarified he spoke with a source close to him that said “Tim had not been told anything at that point.” He feels there are some quality candidates available for the Seahawks to chose from including: Steve Keim, Eric DeCosta, and Phil Savage. Noteably absent from that list is Mike Holmgren. Chris was told by sources around the league hiring Holmgren “should not be considered automatic.”

ESPN NFL analyst Tim Hasselbeck came on the show next, and he feels Ruskell was done in by a combination of injuries, poor decisions, and simply not winning enough games:

Ultimately, things could have been different if Walt was healther for a little bit longer, or the Grant Wistrom thing worked out a little bit differently–Mike Wahle or guys like that. Look, I think he did a good job, not a great job, but ultimately they just didn’t win enough games.

Tim believes the biggest impact Ruskell’s departure will have on the Seahawks this season is ““you have five weeks to put some good tapes together to prove to whoever the next decision maker is in the personnel department that you belong on that football team.” He reiterated Chris Mortensen’s point that Mike Holmgren is not guaranteed to be Ruskell’s successor, but it can’t be a process “where you rush to make a move on somebody.”

As far as decisions go, “The Professor” John Clayton feels the next GM of the Seahawks “has got to get the next QB–got to get him.” John feels a major factor of the decision making process is the fact that “they want to keep a good portion of this organization intact.” Part of keeping the organization together involves the future of the interim GM Ruston Webster. John feels Webster could be the next GM, but there are a few other candidates.

Batting clean-up in our ESPN NFL analyst line-up is Mike Sando, NFC West blogger for ESPN.com. Sando feels this was not a knee-jerk reaction:

“This has been building for a month or two, he’s been trying to push ownership for an answer–I think Tim Ruskell made it happen.”

Click here for Mike’s full response to Ruskell forcing the issue

Mike was not shocked by Tim’s insistence to get the answer sooner rather than later. He feels what hurts Ruskell is “he’s a little excitable in the moment.” One thing Mike touched on is Jim Mora’s job security going forward given that “when your boss changes, you know that guy is going to want to have his own guys.”

Here are the full interviews with Chris Mortensen, Tim Hasselbeck, John Clayton, and Mike Sando.