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I’ve been putting this off for a few days, waiting for the final rosters to be set. The Seahawks had so many alternates that a few of them were going to be added at some point. On NFC team will be safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, cornerback Brandon Browner, fullback Michael Robinson, and running back Marshawn Lynch.

The pro-bowl roster shows just how improved the Seahawks secondary is improved. That unit has been a weakness on this team for a very long time. All four starters have been changed in the last 2 seasons, and now 3 of those 4 are pro-bowlers, and the 4th starter, Richard Sherman, very well could have been a pro-bowler had he played all 16 games.

Marshawn Lynch is definitely deserving of a spot on the Pro-Bowl roster. He rushed for over 1200 yards, of which over 900 came in the final 10 games. Lynch was definitely the cog that made this team work. It’s also only right that if Lynch is going to the Pro-Bowl, then his fullback should go as well. Michael Robinson paved the way for most of those yards that Lynch ran for, and really developed into a very good lead blocker this year.

Of the 5, all but Lynch are making making their first appearance in the Pro-Bowl, and all 5 appear to have many more pro-bowls in their future.

Fansided does some pretty awesome things. Sure I’m a little biased since they made me the editor of this site, but lets not get too distracted from the point. They do some pretty awesome things, and one of them is keeping a database of over 200 Mock Drafts.

While I don’t have time right now to go through all of them, I thought I’d give you a taste of some of the players that the different draft experts have the Seahawks taking in 15 of those Mock Drafts:

Join us as we take a look at the Seahawks rookie class of 2011 beginning with Round 1, James Carpenter and Round 3, John Moffitt.

Going into the 2011 season, one of the Seahawk’s most obvious needs was shoring up the injured and previously unaddressed offensive line. One of the trends in previous drafts included drafting the best athlete as opposed to drafting for the positions we needed.

In this draft, we benefited hugely from Pete Carroll’s focus on position needs and John Schneider’s ability to scout for talent.

Round 1 – First  round pick, James Carpenter, OT came as the 25^th pick in the first round out of Alabama where one of his most notable accomplishments was helping the Crimson Tide win the National Championship in 2010.. This was the second straight season the Seahawks had selected a tackle in the first round (Russell Okung, 2010), a clear indicator that Pete and John were committed to a running game via an enhanced O Line.

While Carpenter only played through week 11 due to injury, he definitely had a positive impact on our line. However, he also faced expected rookie year challenges in learning to play at a faster pace and against elite NFL players. I think it speaks well to his football IQ that he minimized his mistakes after the first few games and became a real asset. I think he’s smart and dedicated enough to turn himself into a problem for D lines across the league.

My grade – B

Round 3 – Third round pick John Moffitt came from Wisconsin at the 75^th pick overall. Earning a reputation for durability and versatility, “Moff” started 42 of 45 games for the Green Badgers and played both Guard and Center. In almost 3000 snaps, he allowed only 3.5 sacks and was only penalized twice. Frankly, I’m amazed he lasted into the 3^rd round and he was really a no-brainer pick. Kudos to John for his scouting on Moffitt.

Playing through only week 10 due to injury, Moffitt also stepped up his game as the year went on. Facing the same rookie challenges as Carpenter, Moffitt also showed a strong work ethic and a shallow minimized learning curve. I totally expect him to anchor the O line for years to come.

My grade – B+

In fairness, both of these players got the short end of the stick kicking off their pro careers.  The player lockout meant delayed signings, no mini camps, no contact with coaches and therefore less preparation going into their rookie season. While impossible to factor in, it’s likely that the lockout had some impact on the slow start both players got.

What’s your take?

The Seahawks are looking for a Quarterback, and one of the best free agent options might now be out of reach. If I had to bet, I bet that Green Bay backup Matt Flynn will sign with Miami Dolphins.

Why the Dolphins? Because Miami will be installing the same offense that Flynn ran in Wisconsin. Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin will be the Dolphins head coach next year. Obviously, that doesn’t rule out a move to Seattle or anywhere else, but it certainly makes it much tougher on anyone else trying to acquire the services of the quarterback.

Miami now can offer Flynn everything he’ll want. A guaranteed starting job, the right offense, a coach that he knows and trusts, a decent offensive line, weapons like Reggie Bush, and a boat load of cash. No other team can offer him all that.

For a team like the Seahawks, getting Flynn to join them is now a pretty tough sell. Flynn would have to learn a new offense with a group of coaches he doesn’t know, and with an offensive line that is talented but struggled in 2011. The Seahawks can’t offer Flynn a comparable contract to what Miami is offering, or he’ll simply chose the Dolphins.

The way I see it, the only way Flynn comes to Seattle is if the Seahawks overpay, and why would you want to overpay way more than the coaches who know him are willing to pay. That simply doesn’t make sense.

We’re currently in the early stages of Senior Bowl week, with weigh-ins and a day of practice behind us. This week of practice, and the game on Saturday, allow coaches and scouts an opportunity to evaluate individual players, guys on their radars come draft day, guys trying to make a push up big boards and positional rankings for an opportunity to play in the NFL. It’s not the combine, where the strongest, fastest, most athletic prospects get all the attention. It’s a time for players to step up and show a team what they’ve got and why they deserve a paycheck. Most scouting is done during the practices, watching drills and 1-on-1’s, but it will be interesting to see these players adapt to game play with new teammates and different competition.

It’s a bit early (but never too early) to speculate on how the Seahawks will approach the draft, come April. It’s impossible to predict which players will fall or rise, which teams will reach or trade, etc., but what we can anticipate are team needs, and in turn, prospects who fit those needs.

I have no idea how the draft will play out (isn’t that the fun part?), and neither do you, and neither does Pete, and neither does John. Safety and Tight End are the only two positions that seem set, but even then, John Carlson could be lost in free agency, or Earl Thomas could pull a hammy in preseason, and where’d we be then?

Pete and Co. have had a knack for hitting on mid-round picks. They value high upside players and aren’t afraid to draft someone ahead of where is expected. This draft, in my opinion of course, will be about adding more talent and depth at every position. For this reason, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a “Best Player Available” approach, take advantage of superior prospects that fall, even. They could decide a quarterback like Robert Griffin is worth trading up for and stock late round depth, or trade back for more picks and still draft a player who fits a bigger need.

Enough conjecture. But the reason for that- or why I’m not editing it out- is to show that all we fans can really do is research and scout players who we expect the Hawks are researching and scouting as well.

So, who are those guys? Thanks for asking:

Continue reading this post »

I have to admit, I love info-graphics. I’m not even sure why. One of the Christmas giftsI was given for this past year was a book that was made up almost entirely of info-graphics. One of our readers sent me this info-graphic and I felt the need to share.

It’s got some pretty cool info. I hope you enjoy it.

Lagarrette Blount to be reunited with his former coach in Tampa

Update: It seems the Chip Kelly pulled out of talks at the 11th hour, and is returning to Oregon saying “his heart is in college footballl.”

I’m a bit surprised at this. College recruiting is at least partially based on continuity, and Kelly interviewing for NFL jobs cast a big shadow on that. 

Normally I don’t cover things that happen in college football except for things that effect the NFL draft. Today is the exception because it matters so much regionally. University of  Oregon head coach Chip Kelly has accepted the job to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

On one hand, this is quite a surprising hire. Kelly is an offensive minded coach who runs a “made for college football” offense. The likelihood that Kelly’s spread option attack will work against NFL defenses isn’t high. I find it tough to believe that Kelly last long with the Bucs unless he switches to an NFL offense, and if that’s the case, why hire Kelly at all?

On the other hand, this isn’t a surprising hire at all. Kelly’s name has been linked to the Oakland job, then the Indianapolis job, and then finally the job down in Tampa. He clearly was interested in the NFL or he wouldn’t have kept coming up on everyone’s radar. All it took was someone willing to meet his demands and he was headed to the NFL.

Kelly takes over a team that completely quit on former coach Raheem Morris. Tampa last their last 10 games, falling to a 4-12 record. There is talent there, though, with both QB Josh Freeman and former Oregon Duck LaGarrette Blount in place on the offense.

It’s pretty obvious that Seahawks will be looking for an upgrade at QB this off-season, so I decided to make a list of every one that will be available via free agency.

The Starters:

Drew Brees There’s no way he’s going anywhere. He’ll re-sign with the Saints, or be given the franchise tag. He loves New Orleans, and they love him.

Matt Flynn – You’ll be reading a lot more about Flynn in the coming weeks here on the blog. He’s a very realistic option and fits well into what the Seahawks are trying to do.

Alex Smith – Smith will be returning to the niners. A long-term deal is already in the works that will pay him $8-10 mil per year. Smith just isn’t a special player, so the 49ers committing to him is a good thing for the Seahawks.  Continue reading this post »

All this week, Fansided NFL has been announcing our awards for the 2011 season. We’ve finally gotten to biggest award of all, the MVP award. This year, it goes to Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers. For the official announcement, and the story as to why he was chosen , check out NFL Spin Zone.

The voting was fairly close. Roger just beat out Saints QB Drew Brees for the honors. Brees took home the Offensive Player of the Year award in a similarly close vote.

The most interesting player to get votes this year was Peyton Manning, who proved his value by not playing a single snap. Without Manning, the Colts dropped all the way to 2-14.

The only Seahawk to receive a vote did so on my ballot. Marshawn Lynch was given my 5th place vote for his contribution to the Seahawks. Lynch’s stats were good, but not great, thought I don’t think there was a single player more valuable to the Seahawks in 2011 than Lynch.

The rest of my ballot looked like this:

1. Drew Brees
2. Aaron Rogers
3. Tom Brady
4. Calvin Johnson
5. Marshawn Lynch

Break a decades-old record for the most passing yards in an NFL season and you’re probably going to bring home a large number of awards, and Drew Brees can count this among them. The official announcement is on the NFL Spin Zone, check it out.

This was easily the closest of vote of all the awards we’re giving out. Charles Rogers was awfully close here. Rogers also put up monster stats, and led his team to a 15-1 record, so it’s not all that surprising that it was close.

My ballot for this award looks like this:

1) Aaron Rogers

2) Drew Brees

3) Calvin Johnson

Now, before give me too much crap over it, let just say that I believe that it’s ok that a player is 1st on my MVP ballot and 2nd on my offensive player of the year ballot. I get that Brees had a special year. Putting Rogers ahead of Brees on this ballot is because he deserves recognition as well.

As for Calvin Johnson, lets just say that Megatron is freak. He dominated games from the receiver position this year in a way that even Larry Fitzgerald couldn’t duplicate. Johnson’s season might be one of the best we’ll ever see from a receiver.