Been contemplating this notion over the past few weeks of watching our team with Dak at the helm. Also, since I live on the west coast (in 49er country), I get a lot of Seahawks coverage as a rival of the local team, which has prompted this contemplation somewhat. I am now of the POV that this team appears to be looking more and more like a young Seahawks team this year than ever and want other's to weigh in with some perspective. And please don't construe this as a Dak over Tony discussion cuz it's most certainly not...that's not my agenda.
Yeah yeah yeah, I know our defense isn't completely comparable to theirs during their recent ascension (starting in Russell's rookie year) and our Oline is much much stronger than anything they've put on the field (especially once they gutted their Oline talent a couple of years ago)...nevertheless, there are some uncanny resemblances in our approach/philosophy. And I know this is a "copy cat league" but this appears to be even more profound than that. Indeed, for years we tried to "copy" the Patriots in our failed attempts to become a predominantly two-TE offense (sorry to bring up a sore subject!?! lol) but our repeated attempts have been ineffective (sarcasm). We appear to be this season on a trajectory to a remake ourselves into a Seahawks' brand of football.
Obviously, on the offensive side of the ball, Dak and Zeke offer strong comparisons to Russell and Lynch. Dak shows the movement and sound decision making of Wilson thus far as well as the ability to influence the game with his feet (both in terms of the run and pass). On that latter point, it was eye-opening for me re-watching the scoring plays in the Bengals game; you literally see that every single TD we scored was predicated on Dak's feet/movement. Whether he was manipulating the Dline on the read option or his rollout passing (or the threat thereof)...like Wilson, his mobility is playing a huge role in keeping defenses off balance. While I don't believe he will ever rush for as many yards as Wilson, Dak appears to be cut from a similar cloth. I also like how he makes "no-name" WRs look good in a similar way to Wilson (i.e., don't need a Dez in the mix to move the ball consistently). Similarly, while Zeke is certainly much more explosive/fast, there's no question that he "sets a tone" a la "Beast Mode" that seems to intimidate/demoralize defenses (I was at the Niners game and saw a lot of evidence of this on the Niners' sideline discussions in the second half, which weren't highlighted as much as during the Bengals game).
Defensively, I am sure that many of us recall Rod talking about HIS version of the "Tampa 2" was more akin to the Seattle defensive philosophy. Ironically, it took this year (and some necessity being the mother of invention issues) to see that coming more to fruition. We now have a "big" starting DE in Crawford, much more in the mold of a Michael Bennett in the Seahawk's 4-3. And with the improvements in our secondary so far this season, I think comparisons of our personnel to theirs is more and more legit. Mo is looking like a Sherman type with his early stellar play (no jinx - just now needs to get the picks), Jones is certainly proving as "rangie" as Earl Thomas at FS, which is allowing Church to be his old physical presence again. While he's certainly not at a Chancellor level, I have been impressed with Church's ability to lower the boom with more regularity (more like his pre-injury self). Sure, I will say Carr is comparable to a Brett Maxie/Joey Browner or perhaps even better. And if Jaylon comes back next season to play at a high level, don't we in fact have our Bobby Wagner to command the middle? One or two more picks next year to come in to bolster the defense, and I think we are in the conversation of becoming dominant on that side of the ball...again, playing a "Legion of Boom" brand of football.
Would love to read some other opinions/thoughts...what say you?
