Coffee & Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Tuesday

Football!

Local graduates try to impress NFL scouts | High School Sports - The News Tribune
For Zach Johnson, the regional scouting combine at the Seattle Seahawks' facility on Saturday offered his first real opportunity to show what he could do in front of NFL scouts. Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/03/24/2527897/local-graduates-try-to-impress.html#storylink=cpy

Pro days losing pre-draft relevance, but they still serve a purpose - NFL.com
Per usual, Alabama's pro day featured a bevy of top-tier prospects, including D.J. Fluker and Chance Warmack. So, where were all the NFL higher-ups? Albert Breer explains the demise of pro days.

Cosell’s Take: Geno Smith is still a work in progress | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports
The time is upon us. It is one month until the 2013 NFL draft. As is always the case, there is only one position that generates unbounded passion and emotion: quarterback. Perhaps that is even more indisputable this year given the lack of that one, or two special talents like Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III. With the field more wide open, as it were, the debate only intensifies as to who is the best NFL prospect among a larger group. For some, only one or two quarterbacks are part of that conversation; for others, that discussion must include six or seven.

Titans agree to terms with DL Pitoitua | Titans Insider
Pitoitua played in 15 games last season with the Chiefs, including 10 starts. He finished 2012 with 51 tackles, and two sacks. He played two seasons with the Jets before joining the Chiefs. Pitoitua also visited the Jets last week, and the Seahawks and Eagles also expressed an interest in him during the first two weeks of free agency.

Spotting trends in NFL roster composition - NFC West Blog - ESPN
Tony Villiotti puts together interesting NFL breakdowns on his website, draftmetrics.com. His latest study ranks current NFL rosters by total starts in 2012. Subtotals show how many of those starts come from holdover players vs. those acquired this offseason.

Monday draft notes: Carson Palmer destined for Arizona? " Seahawks Draft Blog
Part of the draft process is to keep an eye on the other teams in the NFC West. One development today could have an impact for arguably the weakest team in the division.

Carson Palmer as potential Cardinals option - NFC West Blog - ESPN
Carson Palmer could become available to the Arizona Cardinals and other teams with unsettled quarterback situations. A few thoughts on the possibilities:

Should Seahawks Fans Be Concerned With About Michael Bennett's Shoulder? - 12th Man Rising - A Seattle Seahawks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.
Torn rotator cuff. Sounds bad.

Reassessing The Value Of Breno Giacomini - 12th Man Rising - A Seattle Seahawks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.
I’ll admit that the number people commenting on this site the last few days in support of Breno Giacomini greatly surprised me. I’ve become used to a generally level of unabashed Breno-hate on the web. I had come to believe I was one of his "supporters" simply because I didn’t want him run out of town on the first available bus.

Percy Harvin Will Make The Read-Option Even More Dangerous For The Seahawks - 12th Man Rising - A Seattle Seahawks Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and more.
One of the things I did as soon as the Seahawks acquired Percy Harvin was to start diagraming up variations of the read-option that would take advantage of his skills. I haven’t been able to share any of those because my napkin drawings simply don’t translate to the internet.

Dwight Freeney could be New Orleans Saints target - NFL.com
Dwight Freeney left Denver Broncos headquarters without a contract last week. Could the pass-rush-needy New Orleans Saints get him if they fail to land cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha?

Cordell Roberson shows he’s worthy of NFL look - NFL.com
Cordell Roberson, WR (6-foot-3 1/4, 205 pounds) — Roberson — who was not invited to the NFL Scouting Combine — ran the 40-yard dash in 4.54 seconds with the wind and 4.69 seconds against the wind. He had a 33 1/2-inch vertical jump and a 9-foot-3 broad jump. He posted a time of 4.62 seconds in the short shuttle and 7.37 seconds in the three-cone drill. He also performed nine lifts of 225 pounds on the bench press. Roberson — who is Stephen F. Austin’s all-time leading receiver — had a very good workout, and he’s a likely rookie free-agent pickup following the 2013 NFL Draft based on the position that he plays.

John Simon of Ohio State finally gets chance to work out - NFL.com
Simon (6-foot-1, 257 pounds) ran the 40-yard dash in 4.68 and 4.73 seconds. He had a 34-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot-1 broad jump. He ran the short shuttle in 4.42 seconds and the three-cone drill in 7.10 seconds. Simon did not lift on the bench press since he did not want to take the chance of re-aggravating his shoulder injury.

Pro Day Preview for March 25th & 26th | National Football Post
Russ Lande gives insight into some of this week's upcoming Pro Days.

Now it's on you, Jay | National Football Post
With his offensive pieces in place, it's time for Bears quarterback Jay Cutler to step up.

The Time Value of Draft Picks
How do you compare the value of a draft pick this year compared to a draft pick next year? NFL teams have often used a "one round a year" formula, meaning a team would trade a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th round pick this year for a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd rounder next year. But to my knowledge, such analysis hasn’t evolved into anything more sophisticated than that.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | State of the Team: Denver Broncos
The 2013 "State of the Team" articles will run daily through the NFL draft. These offer a snapshot look at a team’s roster, with players classified by color based on how they fit their role. My analysis is based on film study, not statistics, although we will try to note when my judgment differs significantly from FO's advanced stats, and explain a little bit why. Starters are in bold, and you will notice that there are 12 "starters" for each unit rather than just 11. This denotes the extra playing time that nickelbacks and third receivers usually get in today's NFL.

Post-Free Agency Mock Draft - NFL Draft Preview - Rotoworld.com
See where all the top prospects -- like West Virginia's Geno Smith -- land in Evan Silva's first mock draft of the 2013 offseason.

The Tape Never Lies: What position will Datone Jones play in the NFL? | 100 Yards and Running | Blogs | theScore.com
I can remember the debate over why Mario Williams was struggling in his first two years in the NFL. One reason for his inconsistency was playing each end position, which theoretically should be an easy flip of alignments, but in practice it’s not. Left tackles are generally more athletic than right tackles, and right tackles are usually the stronger of the two, while the Y-tight end usually lines up on the right side. Also, more runs are called in that direction, and the footwork and handwork is mirrored too.

Pro Days: Steelers' GM might see Harrison clone in Buckeyes' Simon - CBSSports
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert was one of 12 NFL representatives on hand Monday to watch a private workout from 2012 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year John Simon, a DE/OLB hybrid who Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called the "heart and soul" of his team.

Alex Smith, Ed Reed, Elvis Dumervil lead crop of top transplants - NFL.com
A number of notable players, including Alex Smith and Elvis Dumervil, have changed teams since the end of last season. Bucky Brooks ranks the 10 most significant player moves of this offseason.

The best drafting teams from 2000 to 2007
In this post I derived the expected value of the contribution of each draft slot based on Pro-Football-Reference.com’s Approximate Value system. You can see the full draft chart here. Once you know what the expected value is for a draft pick, the next step to grading a draft pick is to measure how much actual value was provided. As before, I used the marginal Approximate Value generated by each player in each of his first five years, with the caveat that a player is only credited for his AV after his first two points of AV. Using that formula, Patrick Willis, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Maurice Jones-Drew come in as the three most valuable picks over that time period.

3 Pressing Questions: Broaddus On Safety, RB & Texas Pro Day
Football analyst Bryan Broaddus tackles three pressing questions for the Cowboys. This week, he talks about the needs at safety and running back and what he’s looking for at the University of Texas Pro Day on Tuesday.

Ranking the Tight Ends for the 2013 NFL Draft | FirstRoundGrade.com
Below is FRG’s current ranking of the top-15 tight end prospects in the 2013 NFL Draft: