Back on the horse, we'll round out the offensive skill position players today, and then run through the defense Friday-Saturday. The point of these is to get an idea of how these players have played throughout the season, and how they are playing now - with an emphasis on the later. Some will be briefer than others, depending on how much information I have, how much their play has been covered in recent weeks and how important they are to this team entering the post season. Catfish?

Matt Hasselbeck

Somewhere around midseason I mentioned that Hasselbeck was having his best season as a pro. Don't know exactly how much consensus there was on that, but people certainly weren't going out of their way to say it. Well, now it's basically a point of fact. Beck's in the Pro Bowl, may eclipse 4,000 yards, and in light of the complete lack of rushing attack and the sporadic health of his two best receivers (Yes, Hackett and Branch are both better than Engram, though Engram has had an excellent season. I will elaborate on this in Engram's retro.) it's, really - if anything is - incontrovertible that Hasselbeck has never played better.

Instead of listing his feats and failures, I think it would be more instructive to take a scouting tack. That is, if I were to make a profile of Matt Hasselbeck, 32, professional quarterback, how would I describe him.

Strengths: Accurate; 3 player base read, can survey the whole field if given time; Exceptional midrange pass; Excellent short range pass; good pocket awareness; some scramble; excellent decision making; excellent timing; excellent audible ability; durable.

Weaknesses: Poor deep pass; lapses in pocket awareness; average overall arm strength; No ability to break tackles; mediocre roll out ability/ability to throw on the run; Sometimes too conservative.