Let me preface this scouting report by saying that I know Terrance Ganaway personally, and he is truly one of the nicest people I've ever been around. The first day that I was on the team at Baylor University, Terrance was the first person to come up to me and introduce himself and welcome me to the team. He made sure I belonged with the team and he invited me to dinner right off the bat. That said, I will still try to be as objective as possible with this scouting report to try and give you an honest analysis of Terrance as a player.

Ganaway is a well-built power-back at 6'0" and 238 lbs but also has the wheels to hit the home run too at the college level. He had two 80-plus yard touchdown runs in his career - one of those runs was against an FBS school (Sam Houston State) and the other was against the Washington Huskies in the Alamo Bowl (sorry I had to bring that up Dawg fans).

A lot of Baylor fans were curious as to who would step up at the running back position following the departure of Baylor's 2010 starting running back Jay Finley to the NFL (incidentally, Finley was drafted in the 7th round by the Cincinnati Bengals and was briefly a member of the Seattle Seahawks practice squad this season - though I haven't seen whether he will be retained with a futures contract for the offseason). Ganaway certainly answered the call in 2011 with a breakout season, amassing 250 carries, 1,547 yards, and 21 touchdowns for the Baylor Bears. That's an average of 6.18 yards per carry. Not bad.

Quite honestly though, it is difficult to judge how much of Ganaway's success at Baylor should really be credited to Terrance. Did Baylor's passing game with Robert Griffin III make Ganaway a better runner? Or did Ganaway make Robert Griffin III a better passer?

Strengths:

Power: There is no denying that Terrance runs the ball with a ferocious attitude. Rarely will a single defender bring him down alone, he commands the defense to rally to the tackler, and it takes multiple defenders to take him down. He loves to lower the shoulder and deliver the boom.

One-cut running ability: Ganaway is a fantastic natural runner. He will be patient to set up his blocks and then when he sees that hole open up, he plants his foot and rockets forward to open space. If there is no green grass ahead of him, Ganaway makes the most of the play anyway and lowers his shoulder to get some yards.

Durability: Ganaway has never battled any serious injuries, as far as I know. He's never had any surgery of any kind and he is 100% healthy, which is phenomenal considering he shouldered the load with 250 carries this season.

Ball Security: Ganaway is superb at protecting the ball. He has strong hands and carries the ball tightly with correct technique and he simply does not fumble.

Weaknesses:

Receiving Skills: Ganaway only had six catches throughout the entire 2011 season and rarely has the ball thrown this way. He doesn't have the greatest hands in the world and is one area he could stand to improve in.

Lacks Elite Speed: While Ganaway did have some long touchdown runs this season, he simply does not project to have the ability to hit the home run ball at the NFL level with the speed defenders have there.

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Free agent QB Matt Flynn seems to be a lightning rod when it comes to sparking conversation among not only Seahawks faithful, but all NFL fans these days. It's no surprise, given the number of teams reportedly seeking a QB this offseason, that a player like Flynn conjures up such strong opinions and generates so much discussion.

Earlier in the week, I tweeted that the Seattle Seahawks had no interest in pursuing Matt Flynn. That news received mixed reaction. Some 12's were delighted by it. Others were disappointed that the front office is in some way missing the boat on Flynn. And then there were the skeptics. "How do you know? I'm not buying it. Why isn't anyone else reporting this?", etc. That can be expected.

Now, Thursday, Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers went on ESPN Radio in Milwaukee and said, among other things, this about Flynn's potential landing spot:

So, I think you have to look at Miami obviously, Seattle. John Schneider knows Matt and he's pulling some strings up there with them.

I was immediately bombarded with tweets by 12's addressing this contradicting report. So, I wanted elaborate a little bit on the info I received, and also talk a little bit about the how the NFL media rumor mill works for those who aren't familiar with things "behind the curtain", because it's not something written about too often.

I'm not writing this to be pretentious or to stroke my own ego, so hopefully that's not the impression you get. Danny, Davis, and those around here who know me personally, will tell you how far that is from the truth. But if you're interested in this whole Matt Flynn situation you can read more after the jump.

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"Are you not entertained?"

This is the third in a series of posts designed to build on Davis' theory of the Green Bay Roster Model and its concepts therein. In his theory, there will be a roster churn every year, averaging about 13 players a year. This series expands on those hypothetical concepts and asks, where will the churn hit?

In my first two installments one and two I talked about the wide receivers and the offensive line. We will flip the page now and talk about the defense, focusing on "The Line." The traditional 4-3 set has two big husky guys in the middle to run stop, and two faster guys on the outsides to pressure the QB but that are big and strong enough to also "set an edge" or funnel a play back inside to the linebackers.

We are not a traditional 4-3. This hybrid called the 4-3 over shifts the linebackers to the strong side, because of the shift it calls for different types of linemen than a traditional 4-3. Personnel wise it appears closer to a 3-4 with three husky guys and four linebackers. For us we play with that type of personnel, only one of our linebackers is effectively a down lineman who is a dedicated rusher. That rusher, as most know, is the Leo.

Beyond that, Pete Carroll loves to use substitution packages to "cover" any weaknesses left by base packages and special teams. This can sometimes make for extraordinary play, but often times results in the churn. Also because of the blending that occurs on the line I will only separate Leos from other linemen. A typical 3-4 team may only keep 6 or 7 linemen, sometimes as few as 5, but the typical 4-3 carries anywhere form 8 to 10 linemen. You can add into that number that generally one or two will find a spot on the practice squad and you can have up to 12 defensive linemen on a team at any given time. Generally speaking though, the average is 8 and 2, for a total of 10 linemen.

Defensive line is also one of those places that has been severely churned over the last few years, this does not in any way eliminate the need to acquire new talent, in fact it may be one of the spots Seattle needs to focus on most.

In 2011, the Seahawks were, depending your point of view, either the top of the worst, or the bottom of the middle in both sacks and pressures. Most of that is because the scheme calls for a penetrating 3 tech, and on passing downs having two effective ends who can get to the QB. We had one DE who performed and none of the other components.

Lets start with the Leo position, since it is extremely critical in generating pressure.

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TGIF it's Friday, y'all.

Seahawks showing interest in Courtney Upshaw? " Seahawks Draft Blog
Depending on your level of faith in the internet, Pete Carroll really likes Courtney Upshaw. An anonymous Alabama fan going under the moniker of ’8:16am’ supposedly entered an impromptu game of basketball with the Seahawks Head Coach during Senior Bowl week in Mobile. The conversation turned to the Crimson Tide players available this year, where Carroll supposedly revealed his admiration for Upshaw: "He thinks he is a better player than Von miller. He said Von was more athletic, but Upshaw is stronger, more technically sound and doesn’t have weaknesses."

Kendall Wright: Does Size Matter? " Pick 256
Baylor standout and 1st round hopeful Kendall Wright is an impressive wide receiver prospect. However, listed at (a generous?) 5’10 190, Wright is smaller than most potential 1st round WR’s . While he might be the most exciting of all the top players in the 2012 WR class, Wright is looking to become just the 15th WR shorter than 6’0 selected in the top 20 picks since 1980. Not only is it unusal for a WR of Wright’s stature to go early in the draft, but it’s becoming increasingly rare. Take a look at these numbers:

"Super" Undrafted WR’s " Pick 256

Defense Wins Championships? " Pick 256
You’re probably familiar with this old football axiom: "defense wins championships." Recently though, some have claimed that perhaps we are entering a new era – one where offenses rule. Will today’s younger generation grow up saying "offense wins championships"? Probably not. Take a look at the post-merger Super Bowl winners and their offensive and defensive rankings (points scored/points allowed):

Draft 2012: Mayock's Top Fives - NFL Draft Preview - Rotoworld.com
As Senior Bowl all-star practices kicked off Monday in Mobile, NFL Network’s Mike Mayock released his top-five player rankings at each position. Mayock's ranks have not yet made their way onto NFL.com, so after reading this writeup, consider yourself early to the party. We don't like to be late.

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I've seen a lot of posts suggesting that doing mock drafts and discussing what position of need should be 'targets' is ridiculous because free agency is before the draft and who knows what signings the Seahawks will do, and what free agents will leave. I don't agree that it's premature to do mock drafts before free agency at all. There are a few reasons for that.

One, in doing mock drafts and assessing who might be available when we are on the clock, it gives you a sense of what positions you 'have to' target in free agency because the guy that fits your team the best may not be there by the time you draft.

Two, it also gives you an idea of how much you may need to spend in free agency on a player. For instance, if Lynch was demanding $7M/year for 5 years and you knew that Trent Richardson would likely be there at pick 11/12 (he wont be) or if there were say 3 elite backs in this draft class, you may decide to let Lynch go for that price. If it was a weak draft class for running backs you may approach Lynch differently and think his demands are about right based on the free agent market, what he brings to our team and what is available in the draft. It all plays a part.

What I want to accomplish with this article is to see what might be available to us in free agency that fits our team style and what I believe PC and JS are looking to accomplish.

I want to take a look at the defensive options. I can't possibly list all of the players that are available for any given position (example: roughly 38 DE free agents) so I'll narrow down the list a bit and base it on skill set, then I'll list some possible targets available in the draft (various rounds) that again I believe would be 'targets' based on what I believe the team is looking for. First up: Defensive End

DE: Free Agents (pass rushing)

1) Mario Williams - Texans - DE/OLB - Williams tops this list based on his name and reputation. He has speed off of the edge and will get pressure on the QB. He's only 27, but comes with some risk. He is coming off of two injury plagued seasons in where he only played in five games this year and 13 games in 2010.

2) Cliff Avril - Lions - DE - Avril had probably his best year of his career this year with 11 sacks and 6 forced fumbles (9 sacks and 1 FF in 2010). The knock on Avril is his run defence, it's pretty non-existant. He's going to get paid by someone.

3) Anthony Spencer - Cowboys - He puts up decent number for DE/OLB, 6 sacks and 4 forced fumbles. He had a couple of really poor games in 2011, but overall is a good/experienced option that may not come cheap, but less that top two. In 2010, Spencer had 5 sacks and 2 FF, 2009 had 6 sacks and 2 FF... consistent that way.

4) Jeremy Mincey - Jags - DE - Mincey is coming off his best year as a pro, registering 8 sacks and 4 forced fumbles. In 2010 he had 5 sacks and 0 forced fumbles. To me, Mincey is a tweener... is he coming into his own and becoming a force on the line or did he just have a great year in a contract year? He's 28 so his window is shrinking to figure it out.

5) Jonathan Fanene - Bengals - DE/DT - I like him. He's a guy that can move inside and play DT as well, he is a good run stopper with quickness to get to the QB, he had 6.5 sacks this year, only played in two games in 2010, but had 6 sacks in 2009. He's not going to force any fumbles for you (0 in career), but he's an all heart guy.

6) Robert Mathis - Colts - OLB/DE - Age 31 - Worth a post 9.5 sacks 3 FF in 2011, 11 sacks 1 FF in 2010, 9.5 sacks and 5 FF in 2009. Might be better suited as our WILL LB than DE, but hey that's not my job to assess... here are the facts: Gets to the QB! Playmaker (37 forced fumbles in career), Yes he's 31 but has good 3 years left in him as starter.
Other notables available: John Abraham age 34, Andre Carter age 33, Michael Bennett age 26 (RFA).

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Speaking of improving the pass rush...

If you haven't been paying attention this week, there's a little thing going on called the Senior Bowl. Playing in this Senior Bowl are several players that have been either mocked to the Seahawks in round one or talked about as targets for the Seahawks in round one so for the sake being thorough, we should entertain the idea of some of these players in cobalt blue. I call them the 'big three' because they are the three premiere defensive ends in the game and many believe that's where Seattle will be looking early. There are obviously other players to consider in this game, but it's unclear how likely any of them will be considered at the 11th/12th pick.

The three senior OLBs/sDEs that everyone is talking about are North Carolina's Quinton Coples, South Carolina's Melvin Ingram, and Alabama's Courtney Upshaw.

DE Quinton Coples (6'6, 281):

Coples is one of those players that has me intrigued going into this year's draft and the inconsistent reports on his talent, drive, and ability make him a guy that could easily slip to 11/12, or even later, and be a target of opportunity that Seattle might not be able to pass up. Prior to the Senior Bowl, there were some negative reports that came out on his effort this season despite the idea that he'd be the number one rated D-lineman coming into 2012. Rob Staton published a few articles detailing that here ('Quinton Coples is overrated') and here. I respect Rob's opinion a great deal and he puts a ton of research into all of his articles so it was interesting to see the contrast of his take recently in reports from the Senior Bowl singing Coples' praises. Maybe he's turned the corner from a bad senior season?

Rob Rang, in particular, is high on Coples and doesn't have him lasting to 11 in his latest Mock. Per a recent Rang article:

Measuring in at nearly 6-6 and 281 pounds, Coples has the size, strength and athleticism to be a force regardless of scheme. Rated as the No. 1 defensive end prospect and 12th overall by NFLDraftScout.com, Coples is the highest-rated Senior Bowl participant. He hasn't disappointed, terrorizing the South team's quarterbacks and running backs by consistently penetrating the line of scrimmage to blow up plays before they've even begun.

"He's been impressive," one high-ranking team official thought likely to be considering a defensive lineman with their first round pick said Tuesday, on the condition of anonymity. "He played really well on Monday and followed that up with another strong effort [Tuesday]."

"I still like him better inside," the official said. "He's got quickness and power and with those strong hands of his, he can turn interior linemen and get after it. I don't see the explosiveness to be a 10-plus sack guy off the edge in the NFL, but he gives you the flexibility to line him up anywhere... and there are very few guys that offer that kind of versatility."

The official speaks to one of the main issues with Coples and that is the question of where his eventual landing position in the NFL might be. Some peg him as a defensive end, some as an interior lineman. The good news, I guess, is that he doesn't seem to have a problem with either, or both. Per Rang:

"I don't really have a preference, to be honest with you," Coples said following his South Team's practice Tuesday. "I'm willing to play in the 3-4, 4-3 inside or outside. I've been practicing and working on improving so that I'll not only be the best defensive lineman in the draft but the most versatile.""I'm versatile. I can play from the zero [nose guard] to the nine [defensive end lining up outside of the tight end] and get after it.

Fellow Field Guller Davis Hsu believes that one road the Seahawks might take is to draft a defensive end this year with the early goal to play him 15-20 snaps opposite Chris Clemons (a la Raheem Brock), spell Clemons 10-15 snaps a game, and if it were a player like Coples, throw him inside on third downs a la Anthony Hargrove for 5-10 snaps a game.

If you get 45 high-effort and effective snaps a game from a first round draft pick, is that necessarily a bad thing? As Davis said, Aldon Smith didn't play 60 snaps a game and I'm sure his employers are happy. It's an interesting idea, anyway. Some people might be annoyed to see such a high pick go to a rotational player but when it comes to the defensive line, that might be what the Seahawks have in mind.

Because of Coples skillset, this idea does make a little sense for Seattle, in theory. For what it's worth, Mike Mayock still has Coples ranked as his number one defensive end in the draft. That said, his attitude and drive raise a lot of red flags. We'll see.

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Pass rush was a hot topic as the Seahawk's 2011 season came to a close. Then Pete Carroll lit the whole subject on fire in his off-season presser, saying that increasing our pass rush ability this off-season is "a big deal." The question was barely out of the reporters when Pete burst into his response. You could almost hear yet another ADD tangent break off in his mind saying something like, FINALLY! how the heck did it take these reporters 28 minutes to ask me about pass rush? I've already gone over our pass rush situation in my mind a couple dozen hundred times since this press conference began!

In Pete's first two seasons, the pass rush has been frustratingly bad. By the traditional sack total standard we were mediocre at best and we were downright terrible by Football Outsiders' Adjusted Sack Rate standard. However, despite keeping the same defensive scheme, our pass rush short-comings in each season told a very different story.

In 2010 Chris Clemons was literally the only pass rush threat in our front seven on first and second down. That changed on third down and passing downs when Raheem Brock and Dexter Davis rotated in. Brock especially was exceptional. While Clemons was explosive, Brock was steady. They complimented each other perfectly. The QB would avoid the pressure from Clemons straight into the pressure from Brock. Those two made me believe in a three man rush with two LEOs.

In 2011 we improved our pass rush on first and second down through new starters at several key positions; Leroy Hill replaced David Hawthorne at WILL and Alan Branch replaced Brandon Mebane at 3-tech, together accounting for six more sacks from those positions. We also saw KJ Wright replace Aaron Curry at SAM. It didn't show up in the sack totals but Wright displayed a lot of promise as a pass rusher. His length, instincts, and short-area burst could help him develop into a dangerous player off the edge.

Unfortunately, our third down pass rush took a hit. Raheem Brock couldn't recapture the magic of last year and Dexter Davis was lost to IR before the season started with a hip injury. Anthony Hargrove and Clinton McDonald picked up some slack with a better interior rush in these situations but we all know that the edges are where most of the production will come from.

So where does this leave us?

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