Raven Fan Here

1) Rice is pretty awesome, and the kind of WR we haven’t seen in Seattle in a long time…perhaps ever. Wish we had a better QB to throw to him. To my eyes, he has been as advertised- makes amazing adjustments on poorly thrown balls, will go up and catch anything in his vicinity, and creates really obvious mismatches on anyone trying to cover him. Only concern is injuries, he gets banged up every week.

2) Complicated question to answer! I loved the decision. Watching Hasselbeck last season was like watching your beloved dog enter his old-age years and turn gray around the whiskers and limp around and occasionally piss himself. Pretty tough to watch. We didn’t have the offensive line to protect a QB like that so it was time to let him go. The consensus around here is that Tarvaris Jackson has been a relatively ideal stopgap QB. He is tough and mobile enough to not get himself killed out there, even though he’s currently the most sacked QB in the entire league. He has some of the physical tools that make him exciting in his good games, but makes plenty of horrible decisions to balance that out. Has a tendency to lock onto Sidney Rice when he’s uncomfortable, though he’s shown an ability to spread the ball around when he’s in rhythm. We’re installing talent at all the other offensive positions this year to set up our next QB for success. We’re all looking forward to the draft and think TJ will make a great backup for whoever we draft next spring.

3) Doug Baldwin, undrafted free agent WR out of Stanford. He’s the scrappy slot guy who runs really precise, disciplined routes and can hang onto the ball when Jackson inevitably hangs him out to dry for a safety. Fan favorite, and happens to be leading the team in catches and is tied with Rice in receiving yards (435).

4) Not really (though Tatupu hasn’t been the answer for 2-3 seasons and I can’t say he’s really missed), our LB corps is a concern. I’m sure you heard we shipped Aaron Curry to Oakland, and we’re now starting a rookie (K.J. Wright) in his place, and he hasn’t impressed me much. David Hawthorne and Leroy Hill are solid if unspectacular.

5) Not sure which problem you’re referring to, but we certainly have ’em. Pete Carroll likes big corners with WR builds. He brought in CFL star Brandon Browner, who is fun to watch and a big hitter, but is an absolute penalty machine. Starting opposite him is Richard Sherman, a rookie who has three big plays in two games already, but looks (understandably) a little lost most of the time. Marcus Trufant is out for the season with an injury, as is Walter Thurmond, a promising second-year talent out of Oregon. The talent at FS (Earl Thomas) and SS (Kam Chancellor) makes me a bit more comfortable about the shaky CB play, but I still would have liked us to get one of the big name CBs on the market this past offseason.

6) Balance. Pete Carroll preaches it and you can start to see it coming together. We will draft a QB with our first pick next season. He will have a pretty soft landing when he gets to Seattle. We have great depth at WR. We invested seriously in the TE position with Zach Miller, and have promising homegrown talent behind him. We’re rebuilding the offensive line to Tom Cable’s vision. Lynch has another year or two left in his legs, assuming we keep him around.

Is it totally awesome? Like your first girl?

Everyone knows the big names, Reed, Lewis, Ngata, Suggs, Webb.

Is there a player who doesn’t get the media time of those names but whom you feel is a really important cog in the D?