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NFC West draft needs: San Francisco 49ers could use Matt Elam - NFL.com
The San Francisco 49ers boast one of the NFL's best defenses, but they need a safety to replace Dashon Goldson. How about Matt Elam? Chris Wesseling examines draft plans in the NFC West.

2013 NFL free agency - Nnamdi Asomugha, Brent Grimes among potential bargain free agents - ESPN
Bennett played last season with a torn rotator cuff but still produced 9.0 sacks for the Bucs. Yes, the Seahawks are taking a shot here as Bennett eventually will have to fix the shoulder. But again, this is a one-year deal (valued at a little less than $5 million) for a productive player who provides some position versatility.

Cosell’s Take: The safety switch, Part 1 | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! Sports
One of the things I absolutely love about my job as executive producer of “NFL Matchup” is the amount of time I spend watching NFL coaching tape. It’s the visual foundation of the show, of course. More importantly, everything we talk about derives from thorough and detailed tape study. I can always hear Ron Jaworski, going back to our early years together, around 1989-90, telling me, “I don’t know what happened until I put in the tape”. As I’ve learned over time, truer words were never said.

Character, Media, and the NFL Draft: A Sour Cocktail | The Rookie Scouting Portfolio
I’m 43 years old. Since I was 15, I’ve held 16 types of jobs with 9 different companies. I’m not counting the four soul-sucking hours I spent as a stock boy at a Winn-Dixie. On my lunch hour at that job, I walked out the door and kept walking. Two miles later, I made a beeline to the manager’s office at the apartment complex where I grew up. The next morning I was collecting trash and cleaning the grounds.

Monday draft notes: Fluker going early? « Seahawks Draft Blog
If you’re hoping the Seahawks draft some kind of swing tackle/guard at #56, the above tweet probably concerns you. Supply might not meet demand.

Report: Seahawks hosting cornerback Antoine Winfield - Blog - MyNorthwest.com
The Seahawks could rank cornerback among their offseason priorities even though Brandon Browner and Richard Sherman form what might be the best tandem in the league. Marcus Trufant, 32, spent last season as the team's nickelback, and the Seahawks may want to find an upgrade even if Trufant decides to put off retirement for another season. Winfield is no spring chicken himself, but he was productive enough even at age 35 to start 15 games last season for the Vikings. Winfield has 27 interceptions during his 14-year career and made the Pro Bowl following the 2008, '09 and '10 seasons. He has experience playing in the slot, which would likely be his role in Seattle.

Hawks work out four QBs, but sign receiver | Seahawks Insider - The News Tribune
Swain, 27, ran routes and caught balls from the four quarterbacks today. The San Diego State product was a seventh round choice in 2008 by Green Bay during general manager John Schneider’s time with the Packers. Swain caught six passes for Green Bay in 2010, and hauled in two receptions while with San Francisco in 2011. At 6-foot and 200 pounds, Swain was cut by the 49ers during training camp last year.

Dave Krieg's Strike Beard: The Cresting Wave (Again)
Book learning skills were what I had to offer the world, coupled with an obsessive streak that I have never shaken. None of this added up to an easy connection to my rather traditional, emotionally distant father, who tried to butch me up by teaching me how to box, to fish, and so on. Nothing worked, and we were in very different orbits by the fall of 1983. There was one glimmer of hope for me in his eyes: I had gotten interested in football. It started in the strike-shortened 1982 season, when I stumbled upon a Seahawks game on TV and got sucked into it. Quickly he cultivated my love for the NFL, even though he was much more of a boxing fan himself. I got a black and white TV for my room for Xmas, where I would watch the last couple Seahawks games and the '82 playoffs.

How Andy fell for Alex | National Football Post
Kansas City head coach has a longtime connection to his new quarterback.

Which positions are most consistent from year to year?
In most fantasy football leagues, eligible players are divided into 6 different positions: quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, placekicker, and special teams/defense. Imagine a league that includes a seventh position, team captain, which earns points each week based solely on the initial coin toss. For example, if you’ve got the Raiders as your starting TC and the Raiders win their coin toss, you get 30 points; if the Raiders lose their coin toss, you get nothing.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | The 2007 Draft: Six Years Later
As we do every year about this time at Football Outsiders, it is time to step into the time machine and take a trip back to the April of six years ago. There were top quarterbacks with questions. There was a freak wide receiver who had put up phenomenal numbers with a legendarily bad college quarterback. There was a rock-solid left tackle who elected to spend draft day on a fishing boat instead of being feted in New York City.

Mayock Disappointed with Defensive End Class | The Sideline View
“I was excited to see Bjoern Werner, Damontre Moore and Barkevious Mingo because all I heard about was that they were top five or ten picks,” Mayock said when asked his thoughts on some of the early hype surrounding the DE position. Unfortunately for Mayock (and all of us), the tape belied his early expectations as he came away “kind of disappointed in that group of kids who were hyped so highly.”

Mayock Talks Offensive Line with Lance Zierlein | The Sideline View
“You know, what’s interesting is that if you watched early tapes of [Lane Johnson] at Oklahoma it’s okay," Mayock opined. "The later tape is pretty darn good and the Senior Bowl was excellent. If you want to bet on the kid, it’s a pretty good bet because you can see progress. And you know - four years ago the freaking kid was a quarterback!”

Are GMs Wasting Time and Draft Picks? | The Sideline View
There is a fine conundrum in the NFL at the moment. General managers are trying to find franchise quarterbacks – whatever that means – from a small group of prospects to mask their own inadequacies as well as their team's inadequacies. If finding a franchise quarterback is so hard, why not build a team around an above-average passer? I know, I know, it's crazy to even bring it up. After all, to win a championship one must find a franchise passer… at least that's what the common thought circulating around the league is. But is that common thought even true?

Panthers well-represented at Brandon Hepburn’s pro day - NFL.com
randon Hepburn, ILB (6-foot-2 7/8, 241 pounds) — Hepburn ran the 40-yard dash in 4.54 and 4.56 seconds. He had a 36-inch vertical jump, a 4.47-second short shuttle and did the three-cone drill in 7.31 seconds. He stood on his numbers from the NFL Scouting Combine in the broad jump (10-foot-4, and good and bench press (21 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press).

2013 NFL Mock Draft: April 8th Update
A mere 17 days away until the first pick is announced in the 2013 NFL Draft, and there is still so much debate about how the first round will shake out. Geno Smith is likely to go Top 5, but which team is still undetermined. How teams will view high risk, high reward prospects like Ezekiel Ansah, Barkevious Mingo, and Tavon Austin is still undetermined. And the question mark about how many quarterbacks go in the first round is still up for grabs.

Sio Moore Scouting Report: NFL Outlook for Connecticut LB | Bleacher Report
In today's NFL , linebackers can be asked to wear a lot of hats in their duties at the second level of the defense, just as defenses themselves change sets and personnel packages depending on the game situation...

Jon Bostic Scouting Report: NFL Outlook for Florida ILB | Bleacher Report
Sharrif Floyd is getting most of the attention among the 2013 NFL draft prospects from the Florida Gators defense, and what he isn't getting is going to Matt Elam...

MAQB – QBs in the Draft | The Scouts Notebook
The 2013 QB class is far and away the most interesting class we’ve seen in a long time. By interesting, I don’t mean great, awful, talented, or not talented; I mean there are so many opinions and possibilities that I’d bet a lot of $$ that no analyst comes even close to who goes where and when. That’s not to say a lot of analysts out there aren’t on top of their game, it’s just there are so many questions around these QBs that can’t be solved from an outside perspective.

Draft Notebook | The Scouts Notebook
* QB Zac Dysert is a really interesting prospect. There are times when he looks like a really good QB. He’s a better athlete than some realize. He actually ran for 108 yards against Akron this year. Dysert throws well on the move. He’s not a pure pocket passer.

2013 NFL draft: Jonathan Franklin, D.J. Swearinger among potential surprise picks - SBNation.com
If Tyson Alualu can be a top 10 pick, anything is possible.