Bullet Points! Ricky Foley, Leo Ends and Other Seahawks Miscellanea

it’s kind of a lukewarm thumbs up on Graham. Better than I was expecting. Anyway, the end prospects were just underwhelming this year. Don’t want to be stuck with an underwhelming prospect from this year because we needed more rush, and an underwhelming safety from next year cuz we’ll come to need a safety.

We filled what holes we could, leaving end unfilled, but got good prospects, and I’d much rather have it that way.

But I loved the Earl Thomas pick.

next year’s class of defensive linemen is keeping my optimism afloat. If we’re able to play semi-successful football with our ragtag collection of defensive linemen, I’ll be pleased. If we can’t and we fail, at least the talent will be there for the drafting.

Just waiting for it to come out.

Kudos to you Mr. Morgan. I write scripts (try to) and animation/film related stuff (though not professionally yet, still trying)…so I know how daunting it can be….tip my hat to ya…

now lets see if it’s actually good or not… ;)

My practical side supports drafting Earl Thomas.

I would rather the Hawks had drafted Suh.

Seems like we should be debating whether they should have traded up for Graham, not traded Tapp, or some other option that was available.

I guess that means I’d rather the Hawks had lost MORE games last year.

When I saw that the Eagles had traded ahead of the Seahawks, I was pretty sad because I thought for sure it was to take Thomas. Given Carroll’s track record when it comes to coaching safeties (Joey Browner, Ronnie Lott when people thought he was done, Merton Hanks, Tim McDonald, Lawyer Milloy, Troy Polamalu) I just feel much better about any Safety he’s excited about over any other position. It’s kind of like Holmgren selecting a QB, it’s not like he’s not ever going to get it wrong, but you still like his chances.

I don’t think I ever even heard of Graham being considered by the Hawks either. I had figured that if we were going to draft a DE, it was going to be Derrick Morgan. I’m sure for some people Brandon Graham probably sounds more appealing because it was the Eagles that drafted him, sort of like how a few people commented how they couldn’t help but have second thoughts about cutting Mike Teel once New England claimed him (although he’s already been cut since). If it had been a team like the Falcons, Texans, or Bengals, there is probably less reason to second guess.

To me he’s far more likely to reach his potential than Thomas in a far more important position. But I’ve never understood all of the Thomas love.

Most interesting sentence in the piece, I thought. I’d like to hear you expound on that one a bit, John.

Hawhorne was an exciting player in 2009, but not without flaws. He deserves more ink – er, pixels.

“there’s good points, some bad points/find a city/find myself a city to live in…” Anyways, it’s good to see that, between this and “Eric Berry is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens,” we’re getting liberal doses of David Byrne weirdness.

Speaking as a non-Seahawks fan (but a budding sympathizer, based on the quality of this blog) and someone with a pretty rough idea of the team’s specific weaknesses, you should be angry about missing out on Graham. He put up 20 tackles for losses in 2008 and 25 last season, which, weak competition or not, ain’t no joke. Moreover, he had his best games against the best (relatively speaking) competition, putting up at least two TFLs against Iowa, Penn St., Ohio St., Michigan St., and Wisconsin both seasons.

In terms of size, style, and technique, he’s strikingly similar to Trent Cole. He could improve his repertoire of moves, but he almost never sacrifices run responsibilities for a successful pass rush. I’ve got no idea if that discipline, combined with his relatively small size, translates into the versatility required to play linebacker even part time (to say nothing of dropping into coverage), but I’m extremely high on him as an every-down 4-3 defensive end.

Meanwhile, I’ve agreed with pretty much all of John’s analysis on Thomas. A potentially spectacular coverage safety, but poor tackler/run defender. He also garnered his interceptions playing centerfield for a defense that led the nation in TFLs last year, so who knows what he’ll do on a team with such a limited pass rush? Though I’m a safety enthusiast, I still think defensive end is the most important position on the defense, and with even a little attention drawn away from him (by Aaron Curry, I suppose, in this scenario), Graham would have produced. I don’t know enough about the scheme Carroll’s going to bring to the table (4-3 under principles like at USC?) or about the state of your secondary as-is to comment on the selection of Thomas. What I do know is that Graham is a safer bet (and more complete player) at a more important position, which also happens to be a position of dire need for the Seahawks.

by adding one. @PeteCarroll asked his followers for some questions. Some football questions. I asked, anticipating that teams will run at Leo until we make them stop, how is he going to prepare for that? But all he answered were the softball lobs, like what kind of season will the Huskies have, and how’s Leon Washington’s rehab coming along.

He asked for football questions, man.

but I still am glad we took Thomas over any of the DEs available in April’s draft. None of them really wowed me. Not Graham, not Morgan, not any of them. I don’t buy into the mind set of we needed a pass rush more than a DB (which I think was the case, though it was close our coverage was just as bad as our rush last year) therefor we must draft a DE any DE early. if its a week class you do what we did, take Thomas in the end he’ll prove to be the better player than any of the DEs we could have had. IMHO

Besides, and I am positive PC and Co.are aware of this, 2011 is looking to be a freaking stellar year for pass rushers, especially if a few of the Jr’s. that are expected to come out, do so. So while I agree our pass rush is looking suspect again for 2010, in the grand scheme of things looking beyond what is needed for just this coming season. taking a top DB prospect in Earl Thomas when we had the opportunity to land him will prove to be the right pick in the long run.