I put together a good set of links for your morning vice, whether it's a cup of joe or a pack of cigs. Enjoy.
Feature - two.one.five magazine: "At 32 years of age, you have just had your most impactful season with the Seattle Seahawks. Why do you suppose that is? Are you getting better with age? Yea, I guess so! You know, I have had more opportunity in Seattle. I loved Indianapolis, but Seattle has given me more opportunity. Regardless of how well I did in the preseason, Indianapolis would still use me the same way. And it’s hard to leave a successful team like that. But I had to go somewhere I would have more opportunity."
Good interview with free agent Raheem Brock.
Extra Blockers | ProFootballFocus.com: "Khaled Elsayed of Pro Football Focus dissects a third piece of the NFL's pass protection puzzle."
Though the number range for the entire league is between 5 and 6, the theory that the Seahawks constantly had extra blockers on the line to help protect Matt Hasselbeck is sort of confirmed here. According to these statistics, the Seahawks averaged 5.64 players on the line per snap in 2010, which was 9th highest in the league.
FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Broken Tackles 2010: Pretty interesting article here and it's not good news for Seahawks' fans. According to their analysis, FO shows that both Lofa Tatupu and David Hawthorne rank near the league's worst in 'broken tackles', ie, missed tackles.
Terrelle Pryor is a legit NFL WR prospect | National Football Post: "At 6-6, 235 pounds, Pryor is a really gifted athlete for his size with the ball in his hands. His combination of size, strength and explosion allow him to routinely break tackles with a devastating stiff arm and create after contact. He’s a strider who possesses sneaky straight-line speed that seems to consistently outpace defenders’ angles and also displays enough short-area quickness to create in tight areas as well."
Swing Points Week 16 - Seattle Seahawks @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Bucs Nation: "And, of course, there was still a small chance of the Bucs making the playoffs. But to do so, they'd have to beat the Seattle Seahawks first. The Seahawks weren't exactly a good team, but they had managed some upset wins earlier in the season. They were 6-8 coming into the game in a very weak division, but they had managed to beat the Chargers and Bears previously. A weak quarterback, a poor offensive line and a poor secondary made this a pretty easy matchup for an injury-wrecked Bucs team, though."
Sander of Bucs Nation takes an in-depth look at the Week 16 game featuring the Bucs and Seahawks. I've re-watched this game recently... it sucked. We played like hell.
Eagles’ young DB Adams eager to 'earn stripes': "The lockout is a trying time for Adams. The defensive back, who spent two years with the Seahawks, just finished his first year with the Eagles last season and has two more left on his contract. He’s a young player yearning to make a name for himself. "I’m just ready for the lockout to break, so I can get out there and earn my stripes," he said. Adams played in seven games as a Seahawk during his two years in Seattle, but got his first NFL start in the Eagles’ last regular season game of 2010, a 14-13 loss to Dallas. "It was great," he said. "It was a dream come true. I worked really hard out in Seattle and played in some games, but never got to start, never got to play the whole game. It’s different when you come into games and come back out.""
I'm bummed that Adams was let go. I thought he showed some promise. He's now catching on with the Eagles and they apparently have high hopes for him.
The NFL's 'Williams Factor' - NFL - Yahoo! Sports: "6. Which Mike Williams will be a more productive fantasy wideout: the one in Seattle, or the one in Tampa Bay? Before proclaiming the Buccaneers' Mike Williams a no-brainer fantasy selection ahead of the Seahawks' Mike Williams — on PFW's most recent 2011 fantasy draftboard, they are ranked 12th and 35th, respectively, among wide receivers — you might want to take a little closer look at the Seahawks' pass catcher. It's worth noting that Seattle's Mike Williams actually played hurt much of the time in what turned out to be a breakthrough 2010 campaign. He missed two games due to an ankle injury and had other ailments (sore shoulder, broken finger) that forced him to miss his fair share of action in other games. With better health, most close observers believe he could have caught 80-85 passes and topped 1,000 yards. He has made a concerted effort to lose a few pounds this offseason in an effort to be more explosive. That's not to say he will do better than the Bucs' Mike Williams, who had a team-high 964 yards receiving and 11 TDs as a rookie last season. In my fantasy world, though, the Williams in Seattle is worthy of being considered a top-25 wideout."
NFL.com news: Trade market could be long-term casualty of lingering lockout: "But the longer the lockout lasts, the more I believe the trade market will be hamstrung as well. There are generally some interesting deals that get swung during training camp/preseason, with teams showcasing excess players to drum up the best market possible. Veterans like Pete Kendall and Jason Taylor, just to name a couple, have changed teams at that time of year in the past. But if training camps are greatly truncated -- or even eliminated -- this year because of the lockout, it could result in a stifled trade market."
There seems to be some lockout optimism in the air today - Shutdown Corner - NFL Blog - Yahoo! Sports: "Breer also points out that if the preseason is skipped, it costs the league about $1 billion. I can't believe that something so worthless is actually so valuable, but there it is. A billion dollars would seem to be a good motivator to negotiate seriously."
For quarterback coaches, "control freak" is a normal state - Shutdown Corner - NFL Blog - Yahoo! Sports: "Professional football is about so much more these days that just "drop back and fling it." Whatever the problems may be with the way the Shanahans are running the Redskins, offensive complexity is not among them."
Moss, T.O. or Burress? One play caller says safest bet Burress - NFL - CBSSports.com Football: "You're an NFL club looking to sign a veteran wide receiver when the NFL lockout ends. The problem is: You don't know where to turn next. There are three playmakers out there that are intriguing -- Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Plaxico Burress -- but you don't know which to choose. In fact, you don't know if you should choose any of them. So where do you go? I posed that question to an offensive coordinator I respect, someone who coached with and against these guys for years, and I asked if he could help by deconstructing each in a loose scouting report. He said he could ... and he did."
NFL.com news: The time is now for NFL, players to get a deal done: "The players and owners have a limited time to get a deal done to keep the entire upcoming season intact."
Seahawks Blog | The Matt Hasselbeck roller coaster rides again | Seattle Times Newspaper: "Enter Sports Illustrated's Peter King. Count him among the people who believe Hasselbeck will be elsewhere. He said so during a late-night Q&A on Twitter in which he answered more than 65 questions ranging everything from Mary Anne or Ginger -- King opted for Mrs. Howell -- to the future of the Seahawks QB:"
Q&A with Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald - NFL - Sporting News: "Q: Everyone assumes the Cardinals are ready to go after a seasoned No. 1 quarterback when the lockout ends, but what's your take on last year's two rookie starters, John Skelton and Max Hall? A: "Both are really talented. They kind of got thrown in there prematurely last season, but it made them both stronger. They have worked extremely hard this offseason to get better. I'm happy with their progress and the coaches would feel the same way.""
Haslett on Haynesworth: ‘He doesn’t want to do anything’ - Shutdown Corner - NFL Blog - Yahoo! Sports: "I'll say this for Jimmy Haslett. He tried. He did everything he possibly could to get the uber-rich but lethally unproductive human tree stump Albert Haynesworth(notes) to buy into the Redksins'program. He had to know that when he replaced Greg Blache as the team's defensive coordinator in 2010 and tried to install a 3-4 defense, he was doing so with personnel more aligned to 4-3 schemes."
Slimmer Brandon Pettigrew makes his Lions workout debut | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: "Receiver Nate Burleson said he’s returning to Seattle to have a minor surgery on his right elbow. Burleson hurt the elbow in November against the Dallas Cowboys. It swells up periodically -- today, it looked like a softball -- and he has to have the fluid drained and a bursa sac removed."
Teams That May Gamble on Terrelle Pryor - Mocking The Draft: "3. Seattle Seahawks- Seattle is another team lacking a long term quarterback solution. Pryor's upside might be tough to pass up."
Mike Williams and Goodell's challenge - NFC West Blog - ESPN: "The Seattle Seahawks' leading receiver this past season is living proof that people can remake themselves through resolve and humility."
6/8: Peter King doubts Matt Hasselbeck will be back with Seahawks - Blog - MyNorthwest.com: "Brock Huard weighs in on what Peter King said about his doubts that Matt Hasselbeck will be back with the Seahawks."
Mac's Football Blog: Hasselbeck's Future With Seahawks: "King addressed the topic today on "The Brock & Salk Show" on 710 ESPN Seattle. "Oh, c'mon. Who thinks that Matt Hasselbeck is going to be around?," King asked show hosts Brock Huard and Mike Salk. "I don't. It isn't only what (ESPN analyst) Trent Dilfer, one of his best friends, said, you know on draft day. I'll be honest with you: what has surprised me is every time--I've said this two or three times since the end of the season--and the utter shock every time I say it."
Attempting to make sense of Seattle’s QB conundrum « Seahawks Draft Blog: "If only to emphasise how long this lockout has dragged on, we’ve been discussing this issue for what seems like an eternity. The Seahawks fan base is definitely split between those who feel staunchly that Hasselbeck should stay in Seattle and those who believe it’s time to move on – with very little middle ground. The debates at times have been venomous and defensive and truly this is an issue that needs to be resolved as quickly as possible if only for everyone’s sanity."