More Reasons Turkey Day Will Be Great

by: Michael Steffes

A while back I posted a link to a story in which the Sporting News had begun ranking positional groups by team and conference. If you recall, they rated the Seahawks third overall, but Marcus Trufant ranked as the best NFC corner. Well, they seemed to have stopped putting these articles online, but they are still running them in the magazine.

This week they rank the linebackers. The NFC is ranked like this.

1. Cowboys
2. Seahawks
3. Bears
4. Bucs
5. Packers

TSN has the Boys ranked first. The first fallacy here is comparing 3-4 squads with 4-3 squads, but I understand that would complicate things. With the Cowboys using a 3-4, their outside linebackers are essentially defensive ends. In the middle they will have Zach Thomas and Bradie James, if Thomas can stay on the field this year with out suffering any further concussions.

Regardless, as far as pure linebackers go the Seahawks should be tops. They did have two of their starters in the Pro Bowl last year, and generally speaking, Seahawks don't go on team reputation, like Cowboys do. *cough*Roy Williams*cough*Ken Hamlin*cough* If you add Patrick Kerney to the Seahawks squad you would get a more accurate comparison, but then again, the Seahawks are probably better. As you have heard me say several times, I believe the Hawks to have the best starting linebackers in the NFL.END