Saturday, February 21, 2009

Sando Chimes in on Seahawks' Best Options

by: Mike Parker

As expected, Mike Sando became immediately inundated with Crabtree-related emails as soon as news of the receiver's injury broke. Sando answered one question regarding the Seahawks possibly passing on Crabtree and opting to take an offensive tackle, such as the underachieving Andre Smith:

I'm not expecting the Seahawks to target an offensive tackle in that spot. Teams running zone blocking schemes don't always need the elite tackles. The situation with Michael Crabtree is a little harder to predict, but I think the Seahawks would probably lean toward a safer pick if they had any reservations about Crabtree or his health. That would seem to fit Tim Ruskell's approach.
Sando went on to say he could see the Seahawks taking a front-seven standout if they shifted their focus to defense with the No.4 pick, but I have a sneaking suspicion that's going to be avoided. In fact, zone blocking scheme aside, I could even see Ruskell going for Jason Smith, with the intention of eventually making him a Walter Jones replacement. But at this point, the last few days have proven to make the 2009 draft even more of a question mark. Is Stafford really that good? Is Andre Smith a colossal bust in the making? Is Jason Smith really worth the hype? Is Crabtree's foot really not a big deal, like he just said in BillT's post? No one knows.

But it'll sure be fun to find out. -END-