Coffee and Cigarettes: Seahawks Links for Friday

Seattle Seahawks news, rumors, links, info, interviews, analysis, and more!

HeraldNet.com - Seahawks blog: Seahawks finally get a look at their free agents: After waiting nearly a week to practice, Seattle's free agents had to wait a few more minutes to take the field Thursday. Players like quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, receiver Sidney Rice and guard Robert Gallery, all of whom signed last week, were not allowed to practice until the league's new collective bargaining agreement was ratified, which all along was expected to happen Thursday. But when the Seahawks took the field for a 1:45 practice, they had not yet gotten word that the deal was finalized and the new players could participate, so the team waited. Then waited some more. "We though we were being pranked for a minute with everybody just standing out there with their pads on," Rice said.

NFL.com news: Weak in review: How NFC teams improved 2010 problem areas: Seattle Seahawks What was the biggest issue in 2010? The Seahawks won the NFC West and a postseason game despite having an offense that struggled to string together drives. The lack of consistency led the team to suffer several embarrassing blowouts. How have they fixed it? Pete Carroll dumped his previous offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates in favor of Darrell Bevell, who is in Seattle to change the design of the offense. The Seahawks chose to sign Tarvaris Jackson over re-signing Matt Hasselbeck and added playmakers in WR Sidney Rice and TE Zach Miller to add more punch to the passing game.

Seahawks | Matt Hasselbeck a man in motion in Tennessee | Seattle Times Newspaper: Matt Hasselbeck had a hard time leaving Seattle. The trouble had nothing to do with his 10 years as a Seahawk, though that didn't make it any easier. His difficulties going to Tennessee were of a quite literal variety. His flight was delayed in Salt Lake City and he was rerouted to Phoenix, where he ended up spending the night before arriving on Friday, the day he signed a three-year contract with the Titans. "I thought I was going to have a day to kind of get some things in order," Hasselbeck said in a telephone interview.

17 Power, A Seattle Seahawks Blog: On Tarvaris Jackson, Part 1: Seattle fans are currently engaged in an Internet pissing match over with other fans across the league. We are energetically raving, rightfully so, over the spectacular free agency spree that Pete Carroll and John Schneider have just topped with the stunning theft of TE Zach Miller. Added to WR Sidney Rice, LG Robert Gallery, DT Brandon Mebane, RB Leon Washington back in February, and a variety of other secondary pieces, it's a juicy, well-priced, promising, and young haul that Seattle has reeled in. It's a great time to be part of the 12th Man. The nation's knowing, snotty response? "Hmm, who's your quarterback? Oh yeah...Tarvaris Jackson."

2012 quarterback class archives " Seahawks Draft Blog: I’ve written a lot about the 2012 class of quarterbacks and wanted to create a reference point. There’s a fair amount of game tape in these pieces, so it’s also good to keep that close by. I suspect that we’re going to be talking about the upcoming quarterback class an awful lot, possibly to the point of nausea. We might aswell embrace that now. Here’s to nausea.

Josh Wilson trying to convince LB Lofa Tatupu to join Redskins - Washington Times: Eighty-seven of the 89 players on the Washington Redskins‘ roster are taller than Josh Wilson. But what the 5-foot-9 cornerback lacks in stature, he makes up for in energy, speed and enthusiasm. That’s true off the field, too, as Wilson is working to convince free agent middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu to join the Redskins. Tatupu, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, took a physical with the team Thursday, according to coach Mike Shanahan.

Jordan Babineaux To Titans After Seahawks Confusion, According To Report - SBNation.com: Free agent defensive back Jordan Babineaux agreed to a one-year deal with the Tennessee Titans, Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean reported earlier today. But wait! Babineaux then reportedly changed his mind and chose to remain with the Seattle Seahawks.

Niners email every NFL team to trade Taylor Mays - CBSSports.com: When you try to trade a player in the NFL, you carefully seek out potential general managers who might have interest and inquire discreetly about whether they'd like to chat. (I assume that's what happens anyway.) What you don't do is email every team in the league and let them know someone's on the trading block. But that's what the 49ers reportedly did on Thursday as, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, they sent out "a mass email this afternoon to teams around the league to try and trade safety Taylor Mays."

Seahawks: Will Pete Carroll and Taylor Mays Have an Awkward Reunion? " NFL Gridiron Gab: If you’re reading this you probably already know about the fact former USC safety Taylor Mays threw a media tantrum blasting his former head coach Pete Carroll about not being selected with the 14th overall selected when he didn’t even get draft until 49th overall. It’s hard to say if this anger is justified, considering every other team in the NFL didn’t use a first round draft choice and the draft continued over three-fold beyond pick 14 before he even got selected.

The Match-up Zone: 2011 Arizona Cardinals defense under new DC Ray Horton: For those who weren't paying attention, the Arizona Cardinals had one of the worst defenses in the NFL in 2010. In an effort to rebound, Ken Whisenhunt hired Ray Horton (previously with the Steelers) as the new defensive coordinator. In this weeks' installment I'll focus on what the Seahawks will face defensively from the Cardinals this year.

Sports Radio Interviews " Blog Archive " Tarvaris Jackson Has No Ill Will Towards His Past In Minnesota, Acknowledges That Replacing Matt Hasselbeck Is A Tall Task: Most critics around the NFL are confused as to why John Schneider swapped multiple draft picks with San Diego for a third string quarterback in Charlie Whitehurst last off-season, and now has added a career back up in Tarvaris Jackson to compete for the starting job under center in Seattle. According to Tarvaris Jackson in the following interview with 950 KJR, Pete Carroll even said he would be the starter when he signed his 2-year $8 million dollar contract last week.

Report: CBA to be ratified, free-agent signees can practice Thursday - Shutdown Corner - NFL Blog - Yahoo! Sports: One of the oddest kinks in the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement was a provision which said that until the full agreement was ratified, players signed to new teams in free agency, or players who signed new contracts with old teams, could not practice. The rule has to do with benefits and injury clauses, but coaches and players haven't been patient with legalities and reasons — they've just wanted to play. According to reports by Mike Freeman of CBS.com and Andrew Brandt of the National Football Post, the new CBA will be ratified in time for the 2011 league year to begin on schedule, and for those newly-signed players to finally practice.

Hyping the Hybrids | ProFootballFocus.com: The 4-3 Under The most common of these shifted defensive fronts is the 4-3 under, used heavily by Tony Dungy and Monte Kiffin in their Tampa-2 defense. It’s present in most playbooks across the league, and is the reason you’ll hear a lot of pass-rushing 4-3 DTs referred to as ‘under tackles’. The under shift in this case is designed to make it very difficult to double-team the 3-technique, pass-rushing DT by having him line up between the guard and the tackle on the weak side. .

Huge sack seasons from DTs in the league have come from guys who play primarily as an under tackle in these shifted fronts, including the 18-sack monster year that Keith Millard put up in 1989. That season was enough to earn him Defensive Player of the Year honors, and still stands as an NFL record for interior defensive linemen. Only 15 players period have bettered the mark. . These various wrinkles to the 4-3 alignment were all born back in the 60s when the traditional 4-3 formations were tinkered by various coaches in both the NFL and the AFL, and the same solutions were found to more than one problem. Not only do these fronts allow a much more beneficial pass-rushing path for one of the defensive tackles, but they also allow the defense to stack players on either the strong or the weak side of the formation, helping to crowd expected points of attack in the run game. .

The difference between the over and under shift rests in the alignment of the defensive tackles – whether they line up over the center and the strong, or the weak side guards. In the Jets’ scheme, regardless of which side the line is shifted towards, both Harris and Bart Scott remain in traditional 3-4 inside linebacker positions, off the line of scrimmage and lined up over the guards, rather than moving along with the shift of the linemen. This differentiates the system from a ‘Scissors shift’, employed by some 3-4 defenses to give 4-3 looks, where the defensive line moves in one direction and the linebackers move opposite.

One crazy week | National Football Post: October of this year will mark my 25th year as an NFL agent and last week will mark the craziest week of my career to date. With four free agents, two unsigned draft picks, 3 undrafted free agents (UDFA), and the surprise release of a veteran client to add more drama to the melee, it was an interesting time to say the least.

Carroll says Miller, Carlson will ‘absolutely’ play in tandem | Seattle Seahawks & NFL News - seattlepi.com: The signing of tight end Zach Miller doesn’t have Pete Carroll scrambling to figure out what he’s going to do with tight end John Carlson. The Seahawks coach already knows.

Are the Seahawks flying south? | National Football Post: Perhaps myself and other critics similarly are underestimating the 2011 Seahawks team, but that is probably what Seattle prefers. As the worst statistical division winner of the modern NFL era, last year’s 7-9 Seahawks were the butt of jokes. They, however, responded emphatically during the wildcard round of the playoffs. In a game remembered for RB Marshawn Lynch’s ground-shaking, 67-yard TD run, the Seahawks knocked off the defending Super Bowl champion Saints, 41-36. So although I think the Seahawks are flying south, team officials likely would insist they are flying under the radar — just the way they like it.

Stanback aims to bolster receivers | Seattle Seahawks - The News Tribune: The Seattle Seahawks recently added a big name in Sidney Rice to the team’s corps of wide receivers. But receiver Mike Williams says don’t forget to keep an eye on a seldom-mentioned but familiar name also plying his trade in that group: Isaiah Stanback. "He’s a big guy," Williams said of the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Stanback. "He’s got the frame, burst and the straight-line speed. I don’t know if he is the fastest in our group, but there is an argument, if you don’t count Deon Butler. "I feel he is going to have a good future here. I’m talking just wideouts. I know he has always been a good special teams guy. He’s been a high-effort guy, so his value to our team is definitely high. He is a willing blocker that wants to get in there and get dirty and get some contact. I think he can definitely impact our group."

QBR: Closer look at NFC West quarterbacks - NFC West Blog - ESPN: Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) should affirm what we know most of the time while occasionally challenging what we think. 

Bing Player Profile - Tarvaris Jackson

Bing Player Profile - Justin Forsett

Bing Player Profile - Red Bryant

Bing Player Profile - Marcus Trufant

Bing Player Profile - Max Unger

Seahawks.com Blog | ROOKIE WATCH K.J. Wright. The fourth-round draft choice has stood out – literally – while working as the backup at middle linebacker to David Hawthorne. That’s because Wright is 6 feet 4. It’s a new spot for Wright, who played outside at Mississippi State. "After looking at him, we really think he’s an inside guy that could do that if we wanted him to," Carroll said. "But right now we need the depth, we need the competitiveness in there and the competition on the inside. So we’re going to keep him there."

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