Hawk Talk highlights: Assessing Richard Sherman’s coverage, Darrell Bevell’s play-calling

Danny O’Neil hosted a live Seahawks chat Tuesday, as he does each week during the season. The full transcript can be found here. Highlights are below.

TallyHawk referenced O’Neil’s postgame column about Russell Wilson possibly having reached his ceiling and contended that Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor have also failed to match or exceed their level of play from recent seasons.

O’Neil: I’ll disagree on Sherman and Thomas. I think Sherman is playing at an incredibly high level this year. I know people are criticizing him for being “torched” in Sunday’s game. I didn’t think that was the case at all. In fact, I’d be real interested to see the actual coaching grade sheet. I think the only play he didn’t play correctly was the long touchdown. He blew that play. But other than that, I believe Sherman played the game very much like the coaches wanted.

Cwiles asked why 710 ESPN Seattle hosts defend Darrell Bevell and noted the possibility that the Seahawks advanced to consecutive Super Bowls in spite of his play-calling as opposed to because of it.

O’Neil: Well, there’s one person on our station who very clearly thinks that Bevell is the biggest problem with the offense. I won’t say who it is because I don’t know if Mike Salk wants everyone to know that he thinks the play-caller is the problem. Look, I don’t know if Bevell is the best guy for this offense going forward. I think he has been put in charge of calling an offense he’s not entirely the architect of. This is Tom Cable’s blocking scheme (protections), Cable’s run game and then Pete Carroll wants it to be the best scrambling team in the league. So I don’t know if Bevell is the best person in charge of it as they seek to reshape it. But I will say that I don’t think the Seahawks were so prohibitively talented on offense the past three years that they won in spite of him being incompetent or terrible. In fact, I think he did a great job of easing in a rookie quarterback in 2012 and blending it all together.

Reno asked whether Wilson might be “shell-shocked” after his interception that sealed Seattle’s loss in Super Bowl XLIX.

O’Neil: No. I think Wilson has hit a plateau because his offensive line has declined, he’s trying to incorporate a new receiver and his penchant for scrambling have all combined to create an offense that is more inconsistent than it has been.

Big Fan contended that the officiating was “terrible” in Sunday’s game and asked whether coach Carroll tells his players what to expect ahead of time.

O’Neil: He does talk about the officiating tendencies. I know that crew typically calls more penalties, and that was certainly the case. I didn’t think the calls were particularly egregious. I do think they had really poor control of the flow of the game. The fact that it took that long to review Darren Fells’ near-fumble and they didn’t review Larry Fitzgerald’s “catch” at all were absurd.

Jeff asked noted that Seattle’s last three drafts haven’t been as successful and wondered whether possible reasons for that include an over-reliance on advanced analytics or the departure of talent evaluator Scot McCloughan.

O’Neil: It’s an interesting point. One thing that has hurt: Seattle hasn’t had a first-round pick in two of the past three years. That’s certainly cut into the talent brought in. Luke Willson and Jordan Hill have been solid contributors for the team. But you’re absolutely right that there hasn’t been as much high-end return. Then again, there hasn’t been as much room in terms of playing time either.

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