Mock Draft Round-up...

By Chris Sullivan

While it may be a little premature to think about the draft with a few key free agency decisions left to be made, I know I'm not the only one who has had it on my mind. That said, I tossed together a table of who the big sites have us taking in the first round. There's no clear consensus (and it wouldn't necessarily matter if there was, with Ruskell and his unpredictable picks), but it is interesting to look at where things are as of right now. I imagine these will change a fair amount for each mock draft that has us picking a running back after this past week... For analysis and chart...

Mock Draft	Date	Seahawks 1st Pick	Grade	Pos. Rank	Overall Rank
NBC Sports	N/A	Sam Baker - OT - USC	86	6	44
Scout.com / Fox Sports	03/08/08	K. Balmer - DT - N. Car	92	3	20
Vic Carucci - NFL.com	03/07/08	J. Stewart - RB - OR	94	3	18
WalterFootball.com	03/05/08	B. Albert - G - VA	89	1	53
DraftKing	03/04/08	J. Stewart - RB - OR	94	3	18
Mel Kiper	03/04/08	D. Thomas - WR - MSU	88	6	29
Sports Xchange	03/04/08	K. Balmer - DT - N. Car	92	3	20
Football Expert	03/02/08	F. Jones - RB - Ark	87	4	36
FF Toolbox	02/29/08	K. Balmer - DT - N. Car	92	3	20
ESPN - Todd McShay	02/29/08	K. Balmer - DT - N. Car	92	3	20
SI - Don Banks	02/28/08	D. Keller - TE - Purdue	86	2	40
NFL Draft Countdown	02/27/08	J. Stewart - RB - OR	94	3	18
Pete Prisco	02/14/08	Fred Davis - TE - USC	88	1	30

As you can see, the popular pick [as of about a week ago] is Kentwan Balmer, a big defensive tackle from North Carolina. This is clearly a problem area for the Hawks, especially with the departure of Darby and the always questionable health of Tubbs. There is no doubt that we will draft a DT this year, its just a question of whether we use our first pick on one, especially one with durability issues as Balmer is tagger by Scout.com. There was another DT we picked up a few years back with durability issues in the first round... 23rd overall -- Marcus Tubbs. He's played in less than half of the games he should have been starting in over the last three season... yikes.

A few people also have us picking a TE in the first round, but I'm in the same boat as a number of other commentators on the Blog: why use a first round pick and first round money on a Tight End unless they're truly amazing? At least neither Keller nor Davis have any criminal record (or allegations, from what I've heard), but in a deep tight end class like this it often comes down to how you bring the player up into the organization. Look at the RBs were taken before Shaun Alexander in the draft and how much better he did than practically all of them.

I personally would love to see us get Brandon Albert (G) or one of the many Offensive Tackles. Failing that, Balmer looks like a winner... however, I'm holding out my personal judgment until April 25th, where we can see how everything has gone in free agency and what our true needs are (and how the players all perform on their pro days).