Can the Seahawks be any worse in 2009?
May 26, 2009 – 8:45 am by Lance Zimmerman
The answer to that question rides squarely Matt Hasselbeck’s shoulders, or actually, on his back. Hasselbeck is coming off his worst season as a starter in his entire NFL career. He played in only seven games last season, thanks mostly to a back problem that was so complex, it actually caused problems in Hasselbeck’s knee as well.
The Seahawks are so confident in Hasselbeck’s health that they passed on drafting a franchise quarterback replacement in this year’s draft. They also added weapons at the wide receiver position in T.J. Houshmandzadeh and third round pick Deon Butler, hoping that will aid to Hasselbeck regaining his Pro Bowl form.
All of the coaching changes from Holmgren to Jim L. Mora aside, the season rests squarely on the health of Hasselbeck and other veteran players who are coming off a disappointing and injury plagued 2008 season.
Matt Hasselbeck joined 710 ESPN Radio in Seattle on Friday to discuss the changes in mini camp thus far and on the team’s overall health.
On if there is more attention to conditioning overall thus far for the team:
“There is. One of the things that I’ve heard said a few times is ‘hey, we’re going to be so intense, so in shape that the opponent is either unable or unwilling to match our intensity or our conditioning level’.”
On what Hasselbeck sees out of the defense so far:
“I see (new Defensive Coordinator) Gus Bradley coaching up everybody on the field. I see guys talking. Everybody is together. Even if they’re doing something wrong, they’re all doing it together. 11 guys in one direction. If they make a mistake, they’re correcting it the very next day. That’s all good stuff for a defense, and really a lot of it is effort and the effort has been outstanding.”
On what the team can do to remain as healthy as possible throughout the season:
“We had this big meeting yesterday. This nutritionist guy came on in and was talking about recovery and I think everyone learned a ton about recovery. He talked about everything from nutrition, when you eat, what time of day you eat. If you’ve seen my little EAS commercial, don’t waste your workout, it was validated in this meeting. This guy was like ‘hey, you’ve got to eat right after your workout’, so thank you to EAS. He talked about getting enough sleep at night, travel, we’ve got I think six games at 10 am (PST), obviously the Seahawks have struggled with that. Basically it was about changing your biorhythms, but he was too smart for me on that so I’ll have to get the results of his study and his analysis.”
Listen to Matt Hasselbeck on 710 ESPN in Seattle with Brock and Salk
Tags: Matt Hasselbeck, NFC West, Seattle Seahawks
