Coffee & Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Friday

Boom - links.

The Failure of Head Coaches | NFL Philosophy
That title is actually misleading. Most head coaches failures aren’t really their own. Honestly. The blame should be placed squarely on the front office and owners who hired them. By hiring the wrong guy for the job, they’re setting him up for failure. It’s not the coach’s fault for accepting a high paying promotion with great power even if he’s not ready for it. Who wouldn’t?

Mike Wallace, Rashard Mendenhall lead list of risky free agents - NFL.com
The Pittsburgh Steelers usually do things the smart way. That is why teams should steer clear of Rashard Mendenhall, argues Adam Schein, as he lists nine free agents to avoid.

Sports Radio Interviews » Blog Archive » Mike Glennon Is Hoping to Follow In Former Teammate Russell Wilson’s Footsteps
On his relationship with Russell Wilson: “Once he went to Wisconsin we texted briefly. This year we didn’t text as much because I knew he was pretty busy. I hope to get in touch with him in the future. It’s amazing the year he had. It was so great to see him do so well. It looked like it was like college again for him. He was doing the same things there as he was at NC State so it was definitely amazing. It gives me a lot of confidence. The past two quarterbacks our coaches have had were Matt Ryan and Russell. Both went on to have great rookie years and definitely gives me a lot of confidence that I can go in and do the same thing.”

A few minutes with Jesse Williams | Seahawks Insider - The News Tribune
Alabama defensive lineman Jesse Williams earned the nickname “Tha Monstar” for a reason At 6-3 ½ and 323 pounds, Williams is a powerhouse inside, demonstrated by his 600-pound bench press. But the native of Brisbane, Australia also is surprisingly agile because of his rugby and basketball background.

Film study with Desmond Trufant - NFL Videos
Washington cornerback Desmond Trufant joins Bucky Brooks in the NFL.com podcast studio for an in-depth look at what it takes to be a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Tavon Austin, Dion Jordan among most versatile draft prospects - NFL.com
NFL evaluators love prospects who can contribute in many ways. Daniel Jeremiah spotlights five multifaceted weapons in this draft class, including West Virginia's Tavon Austin and Oregon's Dion Jordan.

Bennett the best free agent DE - Free Agency Dose - Rotoworld.com
Lance Zierlein uses Advanced Statistics to show that Michael Bennett is this year's top free-agent defensive end.

Clayton: OLB Philip Wheeler an option for Seahawks - Blog - MyNorthwest.com
The Seahawks will be looking for a new weakside linebacker assuming two things:

Categorizing Offensive Linemen - Evaluations - Rotoworld.com
Lance Zierlein identifies traits NFL teams seek in offensive linemen and categorizes this year's top OL prospects.

Richard Sherman's takedown on 'First Take' - NFC West Blog - ESPN
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has been making the media rounds recently to promote charitable causes important to him, including the "Students With A Goal" campaign featured on the team's website recently. The media tour turned into a media beatdown Thursday when Sherman, known for his playful trash talk, turned serious in verbally attacking ESPN's Skip Bayless on "First Take."

Seahawks star Richard Sherman speaks to Southland students [Video] - latimes.com
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman spent time in his old neighborhood, talking to high school students at Compton Dominguez and Verbum Dei.

Pro Days: Interest high in Arizona QB Scott after pro day - CBSSports
First meeting scheduled with Eagles; Cardinals, Jaguars, Seahawks, Bills also taking close look

The Shutdown Corner draft podcast with Greg Cosell: Evaluating the QBs | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports
You didn't think that we were finished doing podcasts with our buddy Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN's NFL Matchup just because the NFL season is over, did you? Well, if you did, fear not -- we're back in the saddle (and Greg's now writing for Shutdown Corner as well) to do a new series of podcasts in which we evaluate the draft prospects by position. We start with a group of quarterbacks that have been much-maligned because there isn't an obvious superstar in the bunch ... but there are a lot of interesting prospects (and projects) in the 2013 draft class. Greg has taken his decades of experience, and oodles of coach's tape, and transferred both to the college side just in time for the pre-draft process.

Thursday draft notes « Seahawks Draft Blog
A lot of attention is paid to sacks, but is it the best way to determine how productive a defensive lineman really is? As this article from Second Round Stats argues, ‘strength of sacks’ can be influenced by a number of factors. Unblocked plays, strength of opponent, quality of team mates. It all has an impact.

NFL Draft: 'Stars' sit, Foster rises to occasion at Illinois Pro Day - CBSSports
The four Illinois prospects expected to be drafted in April -- defensive tackle Akeem Spence, defensive end Michael Buchanan, cornerback Terry Hawthorne and offensive guard Hugh Thornton -- elected not to participate in most of the measured drills during Thursday's Pro Day, leaving scouts grumbling.

2013 NFL Draft Prospect Profile: Jamie Collins | DraftBrowns.com
Jamie Collins is one of the most intriguing outside linebacker prospects in the 2013 NFL Draft class. Collins opened eyes at the scouting combine when he broad jumped 11’7”. This was the furthest any prospect has broad jumped at the combine from 2006-2013 (2006 was as far back as nfl.com allowed me to compare totals). The broad jump is a measure of explosiveness and as Collins showed in this drill, he is an incredibly explosive athlete.

Mike Mayock: EJ Manuel second-best QB in NFL draft - NFL.com
Mike Mayock released the third edition of his position-by-position draft prospect rankings, and the biggest change came at quarterback, where Florida State's EJ Manuel made a big move up the charts.

NFP Pro Day Breakdown - Version 1.0 | National Football Post
Russ Lande passes along info he obtained about Pro Days so far this week.

The real seven rounds of the NFL draft | National Football Post
Tony Villiotti of draftmetrics.com reveals some startling details about league success by round.

49ers tender restricted free agent CB Tramaine Brock | National Football Post
Club has not made a move with S Darcel McBath

NFL free agency: Be careful what you wish for and who you sign - CBSSports.com
Every year fans get excited about what their teams can buy on the free-agent market, and more times than not they're disappointed with the results. That's just a reminder to keep things in perspective when the doors to free agency open next week.

Richard Sherman gets snarky with Skip Bayless, provides a marginal reason to watch ‘First Take’ | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports
If you watch ESPN's horrific "debate" program "First Take," (and under normal circumstances, our first question would be, WHY?), you know that its two primary instigators, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith, are empty, pompous gasbags with no credibility whatsoever. As Smith himself might say at a volume that is impossible to express with sufficient font size, THOSE ARE FACTS.

New York Jets face hard decision regarding Darrelle Revis' future - NFL.com
Despite what you might have read, the decision facing the New York Jets about what to do with Darrelle Revis isn't cut and dried. Albert Breer lays out the real story, and it's not a simple one.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Word of Muth: Free Agent Tackles Part II
Earlier this week I dropped Part I of my free agent offensive tackle rankings. Since then, the Chiefs have franchised Branden Albert and released Eric Winston. This makes the second year in a row I’ve followed the team Winston has played for and been very impressed by his play, only to see him released at the end of the year.

NFL scouts take a look at 6-foot-10, 388-pound Terrell Brown | ProFootballTalk
Terrell Brown barely played college football, getting on the field for only two games during his senior season at Ole Miss. But 6-foot-10, 388-pound athletes don’t come around very often, and so it’s not surprising that NFL scouts are taking a look at Brown.

NFL | Sean Smith expected to command $7-7.5M/year - Rotoworld.com
ESPN's Adam Schefter estimated on NFL32 that Sean Smith will command in the range of $7 million to $7.5 million annually in free agency. Per Schefter, Smith is widely viewed around the league as the top cornerback available. We prefer Aqib Talib, and perhaps teams would if he were cleaner off the field. Smith, who played college ball at Utah, is squeaky clean and only 25 years old. Look for the Chiefs, Eagles, Buccaneers, and perhaps Jaguars to contact Smith when the negotiating period opens Friday at midnight.

NFL Free Agency 2013: Mike Wallace Andre Smith, Fred Davis, more bargains and busts | Audibles - SI.com
Audibles – SI.com - Chris Burke on the NFL

Pro Day Tour: TCU’s Maponga Intriguing At Defensive End
With the NFL Combine wrapped up, scouts, coaches and managers around the league will now turn their attention to college Pro Days to see how future draft picks measure out and test.