Happy Days in Renton

“I took a visit, and my wife and I just loved it. I’m still kind of blown away.”- New Seahawks Tight End Zach Miller

The Seattle Seahawks will win the NFC West. There, I said it. After the best week of free agency in franchise history, this team is bigger, faster, younger- BETTER than they were just 8 days ago. Today's signing of Zach Miller wasn't the most important move by the VMAC brain trust this week, but it reinforced the theme of this offseason: When given a chance to upgrade this team, Pete Carroll and John Schneider will be absolutely relentless and ruthless in pursuit of that goal.

In Zach Miller they've snagged one of the best young Tight Ends in the league (and stole him away from the sub-human Raiders, which is a sweet little bonus). Either he'll be paired with incumbent John Carlson in some fearsome two-TE sets, or PCJS will flip JC for picks/players. Yes, Carlson is a fan favorite- Hell, one of my favorite Seahawks memories is meeting Carlson's parents at a game in 2009- But PCJS have clearly shown that they don't give a fuck about that noise.

Has there been any other week this stunning in team history? The departure of the best QB in team history, who also happened to be one of the most popular players to ever wear a Seahawks uniform... The signing of Robert Gallery and Sidney Rice, the retention of Brandon Mebane... The release of fan favorite and borderline Ring of Honor candidate Lofa Tautpu... Now Miller gets in the fold, and I'm not even mentioning additional moves, like the signing of Alan Branch, etc. In one chaotic week, it's clear that the Holmgren era is finally, truly over- These are the CarrollHawks now, and it's going to be a blast watching them learn, grow, and (hopefully) win this fall.

Most of the major moves have been to bolster the offense (which sorely needed shoring up), but the Seahawks still have the cap room and the ammo to make another big move- Isn't it electrifying to wonder what PCJS will come up with next? Defense aside, the success or failure of the 2011 Seahawks will be closely linked to the performance of Tarvaris Jackson. If he sucks? We're looking at 5-11 or 6-10. If he is ANY good? This team will be playing home games in January.

Like I mentioned in my last post, a good historical comparison is to Jon Kitna. Kitna's QB rating with the Seahawks (as well as his W-L record) is strikingly similar to T-Jack's career numbers thus far. While Seahawks fan tend to view Kitna's Seattle tenure through shit-colored glasses, the dude was good enough to lead Seattle to a 9-7 record and a division title in 1999. If Tarvaris Jackson could duplicate that, in the middle of a complete roster demolition and rebuild, Seahawks fans should faint from delirious joy en masse.

Yes, I admit part of me wonders "Holy shit! How good would Hasselbeck look behind that revamped line, throwing to Sid Rice, BMW and Miller?" But that's a moot point now- As much as I loved Matthew Hasselbeck, the dude is gone and in Tennessee blue. The good news is that Tarvaris Jackson couldn't possibly be more perfectly set up to succeed- He will be at the helm of a run-first offense, and when he does throw the ball, he won't be throwing to a collection of anonymous targets who are "just guys." T-Jack will be surrounded by offensive talent that simply hasn't been available in Seattle since the peak of the Holmgren era. If he can't resurrect his career under these circumstances, he never will. Best case? He goes all 2002 Tommy Maddox on Seahawks opponents this year.

What's next? I don't know, but I'm starting to assume it will be great news- PCJS have made me a believer.

What do you think, sirs?