McGrath: Holmgren perfect fit for Seahawks? Hold on
JOHN MCGRATH; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
A Pro Football Weekly report, written by an unidentified staffer citing anonymous sources, has Tim Ruskell on his way out as Seahawks general manager.
If the story is accurate – and far be it from me to question the journalistic integrity of an unidentified Pro Football Weekly staffer citing anonymous sources – the team’s refusal to sign Ruskell to a contract extension paves the way for the return of Mike Holmgren in a front-office position.
The dots connect. Holmgren came to consider the Pacific Northwest his home (well, one of his homes) during the time he spent in Seattle: four years as general manager/executive vice president and head coach, and six more as head coach. He’s familiar with almost all of the Seahawks veterans, and as a GM with authority over the head coach, Holmgren would reprise his role as the boss of former secondary coach Jim Mora.
Furthermore, Holmgren still has an emotional investment in the team. He cares about the players in ways he can’t possibly care about the players on the Browns or Bills or Lions.
So it’s a perfect fit, no? The Seahawks are reunited with one of the most popular figures in the history of Seattle sports – a genuine football legend who took them to the Super Bowl as a coach and now would get a shot at taking them back again as a general manager.
What’s there not to like about this big, beautiful picture?
Here’s what: I don’t see Holmgren’s close ties to the Seahawks as an advantage. To the contrary, Holmgren sometimes brought problems upon himself by making judgments with his heart instead of his head. He was convinced Jerramy Stevens was essentially a decent person given to behaving, every so often, like a knucklehead. Turns out, Stevens was a menace off the field, an underachieving tight end on it.
The blind faith Holmgren devoted to Stevens and fellow miscreant Koren Robinson was admirable, but loyalty is not a quality that will help a general manager shape the future of a past-its-prime team careening toward its second losing season in two years.
Which brings us to Matt Hasselbeck, the sixth-round Green Bay draft choice who was wasting away as Brett Favre’s permanent understudy before Holmgren astutely identified him as the solution to the Seahawks’ revolving-door quandary at quarterback. A father of four daughters, Holmgren came to regard Hasselbeck as the son he never had.
Again, such loyalty is admirable – and in Hasselbeck’s case, deserved – but he’ll turn 35 next September. Do you really think Holmgren is capable of rendering an objective determination on Hasselbeck’s potential productiveness as, say, a 38-year-old quarterback?
Holmgren’s first attempt at generally managing the Seahawks was not without success. He culled enough talent out of his good drafts (running back Shaun Alexander in 2000, offensive lineman Steve Hutchinson in 2001) to make up for the clunkers (receiver Robinson in 2001, Stevens 2002).
The free-agent acquisition of center Robbie Tobeck was inspired, as was the signing of receiver Bobby Engram.
Put it this way: Holmgren assembled the majority of a roster that won an NFC championship, and he assembled it while putting most of his energy into coaching. There’s no reason to presume Holmgren, freed from his multi-tasking duties, won’t excel as a full-time general manager.
But in order to excel, in order to shape a franchise in his vision, he’ll have to be detached from those players he’s come to regard as friends. Holmgren will be better off shaking up somebody else’s team then trying to retool a team he still considers his own.
If Ruskell doesn’t return, one name should sell the Seahawks on how to go about looking for a replacement.
Jack Zduriencik.
No, I’m not suggesting the Mariners general manager as a candidate, although that’s not as crazy as it sounds. (Zduriencik has been a high school football coach, and he served as an assistant football coach at Austin Peay University. He knows at least as much about football as any of the dingbats running the Cleveland Browns.)
What I mean is that the Seahawks should be as willing to step out of the box with their GM search as the Mariners were with the search that landed Zduriencik.
Instead of rounding up the usual suspects – for instance, Pat Gillick, the general manager who preceded Bill Bavasi in Seattle – the organization made a total break with the household-name crowd and found a rising star who’d quietly climbed the scouting ladder in Milwaukee.
The ranks of pro football executives also have their rising stars: Philadelphia’s Tom Heckert, who has overseen several successful Eagles drafts but defers to head coach Andy Reid on football operations, is one. San Diego’s Ed McGuire, an assistant to Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, is another.
If nothing else, the Seahawks can always follow the precedent of the Bills, of all teams. In 1984, they hired an obscurity named Bill Polian as their pro personnel director. Before Polian showed up in Buffalo, he scouted for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League and worked a year with the Chicago Blitz of the defunct USFL.
Polian was responsible for the construction of four straight Buffalo teams that represented the AFC in the Super Bowl. He’s now president of the Colts, associated with the all-phases excellence of a model front office. His last stop probably will be in Canton, Ohio, for his induction into the executives wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Mike Holmgren deserves to be remembered fondly in Seattle, but Seahawks fans are experts on teams molded by him. Bring on the future, bring on an adventure.
Bring on the next Bill Polian.
john.mcgrath@thenewstribune.com
