There have been years when finishing at .500 was a lofty goal. Times when a trip to the postseason would have satisfied the faithful.
For this year’s Seattle Seahawks? Well, they’ve got a whole lot more to live up to.
“It’s about how bad we want to go to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. If we don’t, after all the momentum we’ve built the last three years, I think it would be somewhat of a disappointment,” wide receiver Koren Robinson said this week. “I don’t know what’s stopping us. The only thing that can stop us is if we stop ourselves.”
It’s not quite Super Bowl-or-bust, but let’s just say the Seahawks have their eyes on the prize.
Robinson is one of the few who were willing to say what so many teammates are thinking: the 2004 Seattle Seahawks expect nothing less than a Super Bowl berth.
And they’re not alone. Sports Illustrated, The Sporting News and ESPN Magazine are among the publications that picked Seattle to go to the Super Bowl. Almost every magazine has the team making the playoffs.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve never been in a position where people expect us to win,” said Ken Lucas, a fourth-year cornerback. “We have a lot of mature people on this team, and I think we’ll handle it pretty well.”
Even though the Seahawks haven’t won a playoff game in more than 20 years, nearly every publication has them winning at least one this year. With its offense returning intact, Seattle appears ready to hit the ground running in 2004.
The obvious question marks are on defense, where the Seahawks added defensive end Grant Wistrom and cornerback Bobby Taylor in free agency but lost outside linebacker Chad Brown to injury. Brown’s replacement, Isaiah Kacyvenski, will line up with middle linebacker Orlando Huff to give Seattle two new starters along with outside linebacker Anthony Simmons.
Strong safety Terreal Bierria is also new to the starting lineup after missing the entire 2003 season with a shoulder injury. And Lucas had his best training camp to solidify the starting job he lost midway through last season.
For whatever reason, prognosticators have Seattle as one of the teams to beat in the NFC. St. Louis is aging, Carolina is dull and Philadelphia is 20 weeks away from losing in the NFC Championship game.
That leaves Seattle as many people’s Super Bowl favorite.
“To hear people say that is humorous,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “Because, really, we haven’t done anything. We haven’t won our division. We haven’t won a playoff game. We really haven’t accomplished much yet. I don’t think we’ve necessarily earned that quite yet.”
Not that Hasselbeck is complaining. Having a target on your back can make Sundays difficult, but it makes the rest of the week feel pretty good.
“There’s a lot more respect for our team than there has been in the past,” Hasselbeck said. “I was driving in for work (on Wednesday), and there were two kids at the bus stop wearing Seahawks shirts. That’s a first for me. They’re usually not wearing Seahawks jerseys. They’re usually wearing the Vikings or someone.”
As defensive end Chike Okeafor noted earlier this week: “Would you rather have low expectations, where you’re just hoping to break even? Or would you rather have high expectations, where everyone’s saying you’re the team to beat? That’s one of those good problems.”
In an effort to temper his players’ enthusiasm, head coach Mike Holmgren has been admittedly rough on them during the weeks leading up to the regular season. If media members are the angels telling the players how wonderful they’ll be, Holmgren is the little devil spewing reality into the other ear.
“In our private moments, when it’s just me and the team, I’m hard on them,” Holmgren said. “I really have been aware of overconfidence, and I haven’t been real nice to them in our time together. … I made a conscious effort to not let them get too confident and too cocky.”
As far too many teams have shown in the past, high expectations do not always lead to breakout seasons. The Seahawks just hope they aren’t added to that list anytime soon.
“Honestly, the high expectations are great, and I’m very happy the fans are excited. That’s good; those are good things,” Holmgren said. “But every season is a new season. What we did last year, unless we have another good season this season, no one will care.”
The Seahawks hope to live up to high expectations this season. Here’s a look at five NFL teams that didn’t quite live up to their lofty billings:
1986 Los Angeles Raiders (8-8) Raiders looked destined for a fourth straight season of double-digit wins … until they closed out the year with four losses and no playoff berth.
1990 Minnesota Vikings (6-10) Acquired Herschel Walker for five players and eight draft picks during the 1989 season, but he wasn’t quite the missing piece they envisioned.
1996 Detroit Lions (5-11) Coming off a wild-card appearance, the Barry Sanders and Herman Moore Show was supposed to be on its way to bigger things.
2000 Washington Redskins (8-8) Added Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith to a 10-6 team, then stumbled to a .500 record.
2001 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7) “Paper Champions” finish third in NFC Central, costing coach Tony Dungy his job (but it all worked out in the end for Bucs fans).
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