As time clicks off towards training camp, we look at how the Seahawks stand at every position on their team, possibly excluding waterboy.
We start off with quarterback, the ship steward, where the situation is anything but clear. Cheney seems set to be the stage for a battle of titans, and the Seahawks face a starting quarterback controversy that could turn out to be unexpectedly nasty.
A-ha! Psych! Just seeing if you're paying attention!
For the completist in all of us, though, let's survey the goods:
There are no issues with Matt Hasselbeck. He's the starter, barring a handwritten decree from God himself. Even in that case the decree has to be signed in triplicate with witnesses from at least four of the G8 nations.
About the only question concerning Hass is whether he'll ever attain the status of deity enjoyed by Holmgren's past QB projects Joe Montana, Steve Young, or Brett Favre, but the only people asking that question are pundits like myself looking to fulfill word counts. I can't even think of any special items Matt needs to address in training camp, aside from establishing rapport with new receiver Nate Burleson. Based on how he dealt with one-year-wonder Joe Jurevicius last season, I doubt Matt and Nate will have any serious problems. They won't even have any comedic problems.
Seneca Wallace, who made a total of 25 pass attempts last year, is similarly entrenched as the second-stringer. For a lot of Hawk watchers that's a somewhat bittersweet fact. The off-season hope was that the Hawks could find a dependable, veteran backup quarterback in free agency, as sort of an insurance policy that would free Holmgren to occasionally line Wallace up as a receiver, which he was in college. The window seems to have shut on the Hawks making such a run at a QB in the off-season, which seriously reduces the chance we'll see Wallace as an X-factor in receiving sets.
The good news is that we have a second-stringer that many Hawks consider the best overall athlete on the team; the bad news is that unless Hass goes down, we won't see him that much. We'll always have the NFC Championship game, Seneca.
The off-season QB search for a new third guy couldn't have done very much to build David Greene's confidence. Last year's backup-backup is considered to be on the bubble this year, and he'll have to make big improvements to solidify his spot. It's no secret the Hawks are less than enthralled with Greene so far, with Holmgren saying in June that it hasn't been an "easy transition" for the '05 third-round pick. There are palpable jitters about Greene, even as #3.
But the Hawks may not have another reasonable choice than Greene. A couple of months ago an obvious candidate would have been NFL Europe star (excuse the phrase) Gibran Hamdan, who would have played in the last World Bowl (excuse the phrase) if not for a broken ankle. The still-nagging injury could prevent him from meaningful camp practice in August. If Hamdan gets healthy he might have a very decent shot. He does have experience as an starter. Granted, it's only for the Amsterdam Admirals, but he was a starter.
Finally, all we can guarantee the Hawks' 06 lower draft pick Travis Lulay, who had a mildly inspired college career at Montana State, is that has a solid chance of making the practice squad. Unless he produces a training camp epiphany bordering on the miraculous, it looks like Lulay will need to hit the Gap for some red shirts.