A lot about the team is new, but is it improved? An early injury may serve as an omen

By Michael Silver

Once he's healthy, Dilfer will try to build on his 15-game winning streak as a starter. Otto Greule/Getty Images Enemy Lines An opposing team's scout sizes up the Seahawks " Mike Holmgren is a quarterback guru, and yet they've been unsettled at that position since he arrived.... It'll be interesting once Trent Dilfer comes back from his injury. This will be the first time somebody will give him an offense to run and say, 'Let him play.' His accuracy has improved, and he gives his teammates confidence.... Darrell Jackson is vastly underrated. He's different from the rest of those Florida receivers -- he doesn't have great speed, yet he makes a lot of plays. Koren Robinson showed neither speed nor playmaking ability as a rookie.... The key to this offense has always been the tight end, and Holmgren's never had one who can block and catch well. Maybe Jerramy Stevens is that guy. He's angular, so he should be able to block, and he might do some damage as a receiver.... The hole in Seattle is the offensive line. Chris McIntosh is a bust no matter how you look at it. The inside guys are undersized, and they struggle. Letting tackle Todd Weiner go really hurt.... Their secondary is shaky. They desperately need Shawn Springs to stay healthy. Willie Williams couldn't hold up at corner, Doug Evans can't run, Reggie Tongue missed a lot of tackles, and Marcus Robertson is on his last legs.... On the pass rush, they need John Randle to come back healthy. Two years ago I didn't think Randle had much juice left in him, but he's still quick and explosive. They need him." In the Year 2001 Record: 9-7 (second in AFC West) NFL rank (rush/pass/total) Offense: 9/27/25 Defense: 15/23/20 New Twist With quarterbacks coach Jim Zorn moving up to the coaching booth, Mike Holmgren now relates his plays directly to the quarterback, which, says Trent Dilfer, "is a great change. Mike coaches the game like he's playing it, and now we can get into his head a little bit." Of course that means Holmgren's unfiltered opinions could sting at times too. Schedule Strength NFL Rank: T4 Opponents' 2001 winning percentage: .539 Games against playoff teams: 6

Seattle has a new stadium, new uniforms, a new conference and, perhaps, a new identity. In the inaugural game at Seahawks Stadium, an Aug. 10 exhibition against the Colts, coach Mike Holmgren's offense was the model of efficiency. For 20 glorious minutes the Seahawks and their skeptical fans, who've seen the team go an NFL-worst 18 years without a playoff victory, were allowed to dream the dream.

Then came the cruelest of wake-up calls, a high-low hit on quarterback Trent Dilfer that sent him to the turf, where he clutched his right knee and howled in pain. Dilfer feared his season was over, as did many of his deflated teammates, who had warmed to the veteran passer's upbeat leadership style during last year's encouraging 9-7 campaign.

"For a two-minute period I was pretty devastated," Dilfer recalls. "Then I calmed down and started to pray for perspective, and as they took me off the field, I was strangely at peace."

It turned out that the football gods weren't completely sadistic: Dilfer, who suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, should return sometime before the end of September, possibly even for the team's regular-season opener at Oakland. As a result Seattle, the only team to switch conferences in this year's realignment, still harbors high hopes for 2002 despite joining a revamped NFC West that, in the Rams and 49ers, boasts two of the league's more potent attacks.

"I think we can be the best team in our division, no doubt," Dilfer says. "I've never been around a great offense, so I'm no authority, but we are an explosive, athletic group -- excluding me, of course -- that's capable of outscoring anyone."

At once self-effacing and unerringly optimistic, Dilfer's personality has become inextricably entwined with the Seahawks' sense of self-worth. The twice-discarded veteran captured the locker room last season when, after relieving injured and ineffective starter Matt Hasselbeck, he won all four of his starts, extending a two-year streak of victories to 15 (including the Ravens' championship run in 2000).

With Dilfer's health in question, the team's early-season fortunes may rest on Hasselbeck, who a year ago was being hailed as the answer to the franchise's long-standing quarterback woes. When Holmgren told him last March that the plan had changed, Hasselbeck was mad enough to start throwing things -- except that most of his possessions were in boxes.

"The timing was kind of bad," Hasselbeck recalls, "because my wife and daughter and I were moving into a new house in the Seattle area. If they'd given me the news a couple of days earlier we probably wouldn't have closed on the house. At one point during the year Mike had come to me and said, 'Let's just not turn the ball over and become a running team.' So I told him, 'Hey, I played the way you asked me to.' But in retrospect that was just selfish talk on my part."

Hasselbeck and Dilfer have remained friends and supportive teammates. "Our team's on the verge of doing some great things," Hasselbeck says, "and Trent gives us certainty and credibility at quarterback."

Dilfer is determined not to let the knee injury derail this golden opportunity. Finally he has a team that will let him chuck the ball with abandon. Dilfer believes his once-suspect accuracy will continue to improve, and with a premier running back in Shaun Alexander, Seattle should be able to keep defenses guessing.

"With all Trent's been through, to see him out here still smiling and feeling positive, you can't do anything but just give him a high five," says wideout Darrell Jackson, who had a breakout season in 2001. "I think the dude's awesome in every respect. Now it's up to us, as receivers, to prove our worth, because I think we're going to open things up this year."

For all of the Seahawks' visions of aerial excellence, Dilfer knows there's plenty of adversity to overcome and grunt work to be done. He's also fairly certain that he'll eventually lose a game, something he hasn't done in two years. "I've lost enough in my career that it won't be a shock to my system," he says.

In Seattle the real jolt would come from a victory in January.

Issue date: September 2, 2002