2005 Draft... worst top 10 ever?

by: Chris Sullivan

Lets take a look:

1. Alex Smith - SF - Seems to be quite a dud, eh?
2. Ronnie Brown - Miami - Obviously good, but injury prone
3. Braylon Edwards - Cleveland - Finally had a year worthy of his draft pick in 2007, but very slow start to his career
4. Cedric Benson - Chicago - B-U-I, D-U-I, C-U-T
5. Cadillac Williams - TB - Like Ronnie Brown, good, but even more injury prone
6. Pacman Jones - Tennessee - No commentary necessary
7. Troy Williamson - Minn - Already on his second team, nothing close to a 7 pick
8. Antrel Rolle - AZ - Was drafted as a cornerback, is being moved to safety this year because he couldn't keep up
9. Carlos Rogers - Washington - Not too shabby, really, but probably hasn't lived up to a top-10 pick
10. Mike Williams - Detroit - 4 years, 3 teams, 2 touchdowns

Ouch. Compare this to the next ten picks, where we have multiple probowlers and a few just-misses: Demarcus Ware, Shawn Merriman, Jammal Brown, Erasmus James, Marcus Spears... and of course, Lofa Tatupu late in the second. Has there ever been a better linebacker class? Read More!

Previewing the NFC West

by: Mike Parker

Some experts at ESPN.com recently took a look at the NFC West, and let's just say it was more than a little encouraging to hear what they had to say.

They analyze the potential trainwrecks that make up the rest of the division at first, and for once I actually agree with an analyst's assessment. (Wow, hello alliteration.) The 'hawks bit comes at the very end. It's worth hearing them shoot down our division rivals first anyway.

Among the best things said - and what I've been saying as well - was that Matt is now the best QB in the NFC now that Favre retired. They also even poked at the increasingly-evident possibility that this could indeed be a Super Bowl team in the making. What also put a smile on my face was when they mentioned the offense is now "over the top."

Enjoy, everyone. And happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Read More!

Seahawks Headlines of yester-year

by: Chris Sullivan

Hey all, slow day in Seahawkdom, so I figured we could take a look back, with a humorous tint, via Fark.com headlines featuring the Seahawks over the last few years.

October 19, 2004: Jerry Rice traded to Seattle Seahawks. Special ramps installed in locker room. [Link dead]

January 30, 2006: Seahawk's Matt Hasselbeck in car accident in Detroit. Prediction: It will be the hardest hit he gets all week. [Alright, a Hawks fan!]

January 31, 2006: As if to prove that no one likes the Seattle Seahawks, the "best quotes" from media day are ALL Steelers [Link Dead]

February 6, 2006: Judge orders a "Go Seahawks" cheer prior to sentencing. Rusty the Baliff unimpressed

March 22, 2006: Sniper holds downtown Pittsburgh hostage. Seahawks fans whine about cops letting him get away with it [Jerks... okay, no more Super Bowl stuff]

September 11, 2006: Patriots ship Deion Branch to the Seahawks for a pound of Starbuck's house blend

September 7, 2007: Seahawks get bashed on backside Bush blitz [actually somewhat interesting story]

December 1, 2007: Seahawks RB Shaun Alexander will be sitting down again on Sunday versus Philly. In other words, he will start.

January 9, 2008: Seahawks kicker to wear heated pants during Saturday's game in Green Bay to keep his vagina warm [hahaha]

Sorry guys, I know its not the most original stuff, but I got a kick out of a few of them.

Happy Father's Day everybody (especially my Dad, and my brothaaas - Tim, Tom and Jim)!



Read More!

What does a Marcus Trufant hit feel like?

by: Chris Sullivan

Well, if he's going full speed, its going to hurt. 1600 lbs of force, according to this old article that may have slipped through some people's fingers before. Its about the physics of a good hit, and features Trufant quite a bit. This got me thinking, who has the most potential to knock some teeth out?

Using some loose calculations, I put some numbers together. It should be noted that the 20 or 10 yard splits would probably be better for the defensive linemen, but I wanted to keep things consistent. Here's a little table for your perusal, and again, its all back-of-the-napkin, but gives us a good idea:

Player	40 Yard Dash	Weight	Force
Lofa Tatupu	4.63	226	1,737 lbs
Leroy Hill	4.62	229	1,764 lbs
Darryl Tapp	4.75	265	1,985 lbs
Lawrence Jackson	4.82	270	1,993 lbs
Marcus Tubbs	5.01	318	2,259 lbs
Brandon Mebane	5.10	295	2,058 lbs
Red Bryant	4.95	324	2,329 lbs
Kelly Jennings	4.41	180	1,453 lbs
Marcus Trufant Julian Peterson	4.38 4.57	199 240	1,617 lbs 1870 lbs

Thats my BOY right there, Red Bryant has the most crush-potential! Of course, we know in a game the interior linemen aren't actually going to get up to speed, but don't go trying to steal their cars when they're 120 feet away. Looks like Tapp might be the best one to avoid coming off the line.

UPDATED: Thanks to Hawkfan[#####] I was able to throw J Peterson's numbers up -- Hawkfan found an 8 year old news story with his 40 time... awesome work! Read More!

World Champions

by: Chris Sullivan

At least in Africa! An oldie but a goodie from The Onion, thought you guys would enjoy it (or want another excuse to vent about the robbery). Read More!

Ranking Running Backs

by: Michael Steffes

I am jumping in a car and heading for Torrey Pines folks, but before I do I thought I would pass along this. In a now regular segment digesting The Sporting News' positional rankings, I present to you...Running Backs.

Unfortunately the TSN does not think very highly of Tim Ruskell's running back makeover. They have the Seahawks ranked 14th of 16. Ouch! Here is what they say.

They made a lot of changes, but it's hard to say they'll be better. Julius Jones hits the hole hard but averaged 3.6 yards for Dallas in '07. T.J. Duckett has good size.

Not a ringing endorsement for sure. However I will argue back that running back may be the least predictable position on offense. Ryan Grant? Came from nowhere last year. Adrian Peterson... people new he was going to be good, but not THAT good. The entire Giants backfield last year was a mix and match scenario, and they turned out OK. I am trying not to get too high or too low about the Seahawks running game until I see it in action. Running the ball is a mentality, not the product of having one player who looks good gettin' off the bus. END Read More!

Special Teams - Do they matter?

by: Chris Sullivan

The other day, Michael posed the question -- what are your Hawk concerns going forward for 2008? For me, the biggest question mark is our Special Teams. Last year, as we all know, our long snapper situation made both Fudge and Assclown Brown look bad, but other than that they were... alright. I decided to do a little investigation into how good or bad they actually were, how we've ranked in the league over the last 5 years, and see if I can use some of that information to project how we might look next year.

To do this, I've utilized the incredible website, one of my favorites, Football Outsiders. They analyze the NFL game by game, processing every single play and assigning value to each result on all sides of the ball. They come up with a DVOA number -- Defensive-adjusted Value Over Average. The caliber of team you're playing comes into play, the situation -- is it 3rd and 19 or 3rd and 1 -- a 2 yard run has much more value in the second situation than the first! and so on. It's a great system, a little complex, but it seems to come up with pretty good numbers...

I spent about an hour crunching all the numbers, trying to show how important the Special Teams are only to find... they're not all that important. Correlations between the seeded playoff teams and special teams DVOA range from 0.04 (virtually no correlation) to 0.80 - very high correlation. What this means is, essentially, its a crap shoot.

I wanted to know how important Special Teams really is -- it sure feels important. In reality though, of the top 5 Special Teams DVOA ranked teams, only one (San Diego) made the playoffs. Of the top 10, only 3 made it. Compare this to the top 5 Defense (Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, San Diego) and Offense (New England, Indie, Jacksonville, Dallas and Green Bay); every single team in the top 5 made the playoffs. Read More!

Summing Up Mini Camps

by: Michael Steffes

Scott Johnson of the Everett Herarld has written an article for this morning summing up the latest round of mini camps. It is nothing special, but considering it may be one of the last Seahawks related articles we get for a while, please read and enjoy.

Johnson talks about the awful weather last week, and some of the competitions to watch during camp in July. It would also appear he talked with TJ Duckett, who he quotes several times in the article. The team is incorporating a whole lot of new pieces this year; so far so good. END Read More!

PFW Likes Hawks Chances

by: Michael Steffes

There are bunch of things I could cover from this magazine that are worth talking about, but I have a Lindy's to get through too. So here is an overall feel of what PFW thinks about the Hawks....

POWER RANKING: 5... Only behind Dallas (2) from the NFC.

"Mike Holmgren is hoping his retierment party takes place in Tampa"

PROJECTED RECORD: 12-4

"While a storybook Super Bowl swan song for Mike Holmgren might be asking a bit too much, a fifth straight divison title and a sixth straight playoff berth for the Seahawks look like very strong possibilities"

PROJECTED NFC WEST STANDINGS

Sea 12-4
Az 10-6
StL 6-10
SF 3-13

FYI, the magizine does not have specific rounds drawn out, but picks Dallas, NO, GB, and SEA as division winners, with AZ and NY as the Wild Cards. Judging by the projected records, they have the Hawks and Dallas both with 12-4 records, receiving the playoff bye. I think I might be to nervous to eat on turkey day. They pick Dallas to lose to NE in the Superbowl. That seems to be a pretty popular pick, which almost ensures it won't happen. Good news for Hawk fans. END. Read More!

Four Seahawks Make PFW Top 50

by: Michael Steffes

One of my favorite annual readings is the ProFootballWeekly NFL Preview. With a little free time on hands I finally go down to cracking the cover this morning. One of the annual articles is the PFW top 50 players. This year, four Seahawks litter the list.

The list is created by surveying a mix of coaches, executives, and scouts. To see your listed Hawks...

Big Walt checks in at 19. Surprisingly this is up from last year where he was ranked only 27th. It wasn't too long ago he would have been top 5, but age catches up with all of us. That said, Walt will be on this list for a few more years. Especially considering he is still rated by PFW as the top tackle in football, "by a healthy margin."

Matt is next at 31. This is his first apperance on this list. He is the lowest ranked QB in the top 50. He falls behind Brady (1), Manning (2), Palmer (7), Rothlisberger (15), Brees (17), and Romo (18).

Surprisingly right behind Matt at 35 is... Marcus Trufant. Also his first apperance on the list. Marcus is just ahead of Terrance Newman, but 2 spots behind media darling Asante "watch me underperfom now that I got paid" Samuel.

Kind of in a shocker, it is Lofa who is last among Hawks at 45. Only two other middle linebacker made the list, Urlacher at 23 and DeMeco Ryans at 49. Lofa was not on last years list either.

Droping off of PFW's list from the Hawks are Julian Peterson who last year was ranked 28th, and of course Shaun Alexander who was 44th in 07. Also note, Steve Hutchinson does not appear either; he was 32nd last year.

As for team accolades, well only the Cowboys do better with 5 players. Not to surprising. The Hawks have 4 along with Indy and SD, who are much more widely recognized as talent laden teams. More from this mag to follow. Read More!