Saturday, February 17, 2024

Interesting February In Washington Sports

The Seattle Mariners have just started 
spring training. It is basically like most 
years with new players added to the
mix and others like Jarred Kelenic
and Eugenio Suarez moving on to
another team. The Mariners added 
a couple new coaches to the coaching
staff. One interesting is a new bench
coach who is called offensive coordinator
using the football term. 

With Kelenic, Suarez along with Teoscar
Hernandez going to the Los Angeles
Dodgers as a free agent the offense
will look a bit different as the Mariners
may not have as many home runs as
last year. They are hoping to have less
strike outs as well and balls hit into 
play.  The Mariners though have a lot
of players in camp they don't have many
spots open either.

Most years the off season we hear 
about free agents the Seahawks may
acquire and other players they may
release at this time of the year. Also
speculation in the NFL draft. This year
Pete Carroll was fired and Mike Macdonald
is the new head coach. He is assembling
a new coaching staff. They have new
offensive and defensive coordinators.
Other assistant positions have been
filled with about ten more to be hired.

On Friday four players contracts were
quranteed for 2024 which included
quarterback Geno Smith and wide
receiver DK Metcalf. It doesn't mean 
the four will be on the team in 2024
though more likely than not.  The
Seahawks have to trim some fat
to get under the salary cap while
bringing in some free agents. They
have some of their own who will
be free agents as well.

Two of the free agents are linebackers
Jordyn Brooks and Bobby Wagner. I
am sure the Seahawks will try to bring
back Brooks and not sure about Wagner.
If Bobby does return most likely he won't
play as many downs as he did last year.
In part was that Brooks was hurt a good
portion of the season.

The Washington Huskies have had to
do the same with a new head coach
in Jedd Fisch who came aboard when 
DeBoer went to Alabama. He is still
assembling his coaching staff. The
Huskies lost some players through
the transfer portal as well as players
who finished eligibility or going to
the NFL early. 

The Huskies brought in several players
through the transfer portal as well which
included seven  players from Arizona 
where coach Fisch coached last year.
They had to find new commits for the
incoming freshman class for those
who decided to go elsewhere to. In
April the Huskies may add a few 
additional players through the portal
as well. One position is tight end
since they don't have a lot of experience
and the same may go for the offensive
line coach. The Huskies may wait until
spring camp is over in late April or
early May to see who may decide to
leave and where they need to fill spots.

The Washington State Cougars though
being an independent school along
with Oregon State being the remaining
teams of the Pac-12 not finding a new
conference to join in. Their schedules
next season is primarily playing against
schools from the Mountain West
Conference along with playing their
rivals in Washington and Oregon although
both have gone to the Big Ten. They will
be psrtbof their non-league schedule
outside the Mountain West schools.
In two years they may merge with the
Miutsin West schools or some of them
may start a new conference.

The Cougars right now have their head
coach still there while the Beavers
have a new head coach after Jonathan
Smith decided to join the Big Ten by
becoming the head coach of Michigan
State. The Cougars didn't lose as many
players to the transfer portal as the
Beavers though quarterback Cameron
Ward left for a greener pasture. So
after two seasons the Cougars will
have another starting qb.

Now we will see what the next month 
goes for these teams in Washington.


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