Seahawks’ Twitter Q-and-A: Jordan Hill, best home games, and more

Time for anther round of questions in our Seahawks’ Twitter Q-and-A…

Q: @MilesDaily asks: Is there optimism within the coaching staff about Jordan Hill coming back into form this year? That interior rush is crucial.

A: The question with Hill always comes back to his health. Hill has yet to play a full season with Seattle, seeing action in four, 13 and 10 games in his three seasons with the Seahawks.

When healthy, he has generally played well — he got his first career start last year at nose tackle in place of an injured Brandon Mebane against Detroit in Seattle, a game when the Lions did almost nothing offensively until the last drive (famously stopped on Kam Chancellor’s forced fumble of Calvin Johnson).

And in his more regular role as an interior pass rusher in the nickel, Hill has generally graded out fine, as well.

But this will be a big year for Hill as he enters the final year of his rookie contract to show he can stay on the field and play consistently well when he is out there.

Injuries are a tough thing to judge a player on but at some point teams don’t have a choice but to take it into consideration and staying healthy will be a key for Hill as the Seahawks assess his long-term future.

Q: @KENZ0RG asks: What are the two best home games on Seattle’s schedule to attend this year?

A: This is sort of an eye-of-the-beholder question, obviously.

The most important may turn out to be the Christmas Eve date with Arizona, which could have NFC West (and maybe more) implications.

And then there is the seemingly annual visit from Carolina, which also could have NFC implications, in a Sunday nighter on Dec. 4.

It’ll be hard to go wrong with either of those — Arizona has won two of three in Seattle and the Cardinals have taken over the 49ers’role as the Seahawks’ biggest rival in the NFC West, while Seattle-Carolina is simply becoming one of the best rivalries in the NFL as a whole.

But another fun one could be the Thursday night visit from the Los Angeles Rams on Dec.15.

The game is expected to be part of the NFL’s Color Rush Thursday Night program, with rumors already circulating about what the Seahawks may wear (my understanding is that exact uniform there isn’t probably accurate but that something in an all-green mode could be in the offing since Seattle already wears all-blue all the time and the point of the color rush is to stand out (and all-white wouldn’t really fit the idea of “color rush.”)

Q: @ImFrank4u: Do you see leveraging an excess CB to bolster the OL or OLB via trade?

A: I never rule out anything when it comes to the Seahawks — we saw them make two trades for defensive backs during training camp last season. But I think it’s too early yet to predict they will make those specific moves.

I think the Seahawks are more optimistic about what they have on the roster at each of those spots than others may be, especially on the offensive line. Seattle will always explore everything, but I really do think they are okay with the idea of going into the season with their current offensive line.

As for the OLB spot, as we’ve discussed before, the Seahawks will likely split up those duties a little more this year — Brandon Browner’s use as a safety often meaning he would take the place of an SLB on the field, etc. So I think that mitigated in their eyes the need to find an all-in-one replacement for Bruce Irvin, which helped in terms of the salary cap, as well.