Where Do They Come From?

by: Michael Steffes

With the draft a mere 9 days away, I thought to pass the time, I would start a series of posts looking at where the Seahawks come from. Not home towns, but draft rounds instead. The idea of this intrigued me because of all the roster turnover in the last three years. It will also allow a look at whether draft position is critical to success, or is it really the mental make up of the player. Obviously, players with the measurables are going to be drafted higher.

So to start, we will be looking at the undrafted free agents. We will be counting down towards the first round, expected sometime late next week. I have limited the look to players who have made the active roster at some point, and thus this analysis does not include all of the players on reserve/future contracts who are being given a shot in camp.

To see the breakdown.....




WAIT AND SEE...

Kevin Hobbs, Logan Payne and CJ Wallace. Hobbs has been up and down between the practice squad and active roster. He seems to provide acceptable depth for CB injuries. The other two are a bit sexier in the minds of Hawk fans. Both were UFA's last year. Wallace made the team right out of camp, eventually ending up on IR. Payne was brought up to the active roster near the end of the season, however he never made a game day roster. Payne has inspired a lot of gushing around Kirkland and the first half of this year is his time to show it. Wallace looked like a promising special teamer before his injury, but questions remain whether he would be a capable fill in if a safety were to go down.

HONORABLE MENTION

DD Lewis, Lance Laury, and Will Heller... Ahh, got to love our reserve linebackers. Both Laury and Lewis are special teams demons, however neither provides a good nights sleep to coaches if a linebacker goes down. However, Lewis, has made a career for himself and Laury won special teams player of the week last year. Heller has made a find career for himself in the blocking tight end niche. He had about a 100 yards receiving and 3 TDs last year. That will probably keep him around for a while longer.

CREAM OF THE CROP

Weaver, Russell, Babineaux... Three key players on last years squad were UFA's. All of these players have made a name for themselves. Weaver and Babs mostly to Hawk fans, and Russell enough that he received a nice free agent contract. All of these players have moved from undrafted to key players. Weaver and Russell were starters last year, Weaver from week 4 on. Babs, while not a starter has made an instant impact since coming into the league. Somehow when the big play needs to be made Babs has found himself in the middle of it. Just ask Dallas. Not many undrafted guys ever get the nickname "Big Play", so he deserves all the recognition he gets.


BEST OF THE BUNCH

This might surprise you, but it is Olindo Mare. While it is not surprising that a kicker would make it in to the league undrafted, you can't argue with the heights his career ascended too. He was one of the top kickers in league for about an eight year period, including being voted to a Pro Bowl and being given 1st team all pro honors in 1999. He is the only UFA on the team to be given honors such as these.