Coffee & Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Wednesday

Higgity hump-day, you all.

Miller gives Seahawks weaponized tight end | Seattle Seahawks | The News Tribune
With a star-studded group of playmakers on offense that includes Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson, Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice, quiet and unassuming tight end Zach Miller might be the Seattle Seahawks’ key contributor on that side of the ball.

The best rivalry in today's NFL is Seahawks-49ers. | SportsonEarth.com : Mike Tanier Article
Peyton Manning versus Tom Brady is so 2005. Ravens versus Steelers jumped the shark when Byron Leftwich tripped over the end zone last year. The Cowboys-Redskins rivalry is over: The 21st century won. Bears versus Packers? Great for bratwurst festivals, so-so for the rest of the nation.

NFL Quarterbacks: Air Yards vs. Yards After Catch (1992-2012)
While passing yards are thought of as an individual quarterback stat in the NFL, we know a good chunk of those yards come from the receiver after he catches the ball. That’s why it would be beneficial to separate the air yards from the yards after catch (YAC).

USA TODAY
"I could have gone to other teams, but I'm in the eighth year of my career now, and I'm just trying to get to the Super Bowl," he said. "I'm all about winning championships. I feel like that was my best chance among the teams I could choose from."

Embrace Debate: Who’s the better young quarterback, Colin Kaepernick or Russell Wilson? | Fanspeak's NFC West Blog
ESPN’s Ron Jaworski recently completed his rankings of who he believes are the top 32 quarterbacks heading into the 2013 NFL season. I know that Jaworski is a former NFL quarterback and I respect his opinions as an analyst but I believe his list is a little out of whack. Jaws doesn’t have Drew Brees or Eli Manning in top 5, instead he has Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan. That just doesn’t seem logical considering what Brees and Manning have accomplished so far in their careers…but I digress

Bills cut Mark Anderson | ProFootballTalk
The Bills brought in a pair of free agent defensive ends to anchor their pass rush last season and neither move worked out exactly as planned.

Interview with Senior Bowl Director Phil Savage
John is at the Mountain West Conference media days this week. He ran into former colleague and current Senior Bowl director Phil Savage to talk all things 2014 NFL Draft. After the break take a listen to over twenty minutes of draft related items from Savage.

Seahawks offseason report: Ready for a title run
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll recently leaned back in a chair while conducting an interview with USA TODAY Sports and picked what he thought was the perfect word to describe his team's offseason.

Seahawks land at No. 4 in PFT’s preseason power rankings | ProFootballTalk
The Seattle Seahawks finished last season as the second best team in the NFC West and will start the 2013 season in the same place in PFT’s preseason rankings.

49ers Roster, 90-in-90 breakdowns: Ricardo Lockette - Niners Nation
Breaking down the 90 players on the 49ers offseason roster in 90 posts (over 90 or so days). Today we focus on Ricardo Lockette.

Kawakami: 49ers' off-field issues quiet Jim Harbaugh's hyperbole - Marin Independent Journal
Getting off the high horse isn't always easy or enjoyable, especially for Jim Harbaugh, a full-gallop coach if there ever was one.

Best of Ron Jaworski’s best await Legion of Boom
The Seahawks will face seven of Ron Jaworski's Top 11-ranked quarterbacks this season

How quarterbacks fared under pressure - NFC West Blog - ESPN
First-year starters filled four of the top five spots in Total QBR while under pressure last season.

'It's just a big part of the swag' - NFC West Blog - ESPN
Colin Kaepernick loves athletic shoes and thinks the ones we wear say something about our sense of style. He's right. The next time you're in a public place, check out the shoes your typical middle-aged guy is wearing. Keep an eye out for those blue-on-white New Balance 608s and you'll see what I mean. They're everywhere and must be mandatory issue in certain demographics. Guys like Kaepernick aren't wearing them.

Condotta: Seahawks Training Camp Preview
The Seattle Times' Bob Condotta and CineSport's Brian Clark discuss the lofty expectations that follow the Seattle Seahawks into training camp, and which areas the team must address in camp.

Colin Kaepernick on Super Bowl loss: Something was stolen - NFL.com
"It got to a point," he said, "where we could hear (the Packers' defenders) arguing while we were in our huddle. 'You're supposed to do this,' or 'You have to do this, then the other.' At that point, our offense was like, It's over. As soon as you start turning on your teammates, you're not going to be productive. You know you have them in the palm of your hands."

Jim Harbaugh: 49ers' Michael Crabtree 'looks great' - NFL.com
The San Francisco 49ers won't have Michael Crabtree to start the 2013 NFL season, but coach Jim Harbaugh is encouraged by the injured wide receiver's rehab progress.

'Hawk Talk With Cole: Training Camp Intro!
About this time last year, the Seattle Seahawks were in a completely different position. They were just heading into a 3-horse race for the starting quarterback position. There were analysts doubting Pete Carroll and John Schneider over their 2012 draft class. One year later, there is a franchise quarterback under center and nobody is questioning Carroll and Schneider due to fearfulness of what may happen with the 2013 class. Check your phone constantly from this Thursday until the 14th of August for news from Seahawks Training Camp!

Baalke Discusses Failed Wright Trade
“We don’t get into why a player passed or failed a physical,” Baalke shared. “Our medical staff wasn’t convinced he was ready to be put on the field.”

49ers Blog and Q&A: Lattimore looking forward to the day he gets knocked down
Marcus Lattimore says he'll know he's fully recovered from his knee injury when a linebacker, lineman, safety - anyone - knocks him to the ground.

St. Louis Rams | News
Head Coach Jeff Fisher speaks to the media after the July 23, 2013 training camp practice.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Watt Happens: A Look At Tipped Passes
There are many reasons why I thought the Defensive Player of the Year award should have been unanimously handed to J.J. Watt in a cakewalk. There was the obliteration of the Defeats record. There was the fact that he maintained a 98 percent Run Stop Rate and was generally a factor in the run game even when teams ran away from his side of the line.

League may use police experts to check player tattoos | ProFootballTalk
In the wake of the Aaron Hernandez arrest, some eyebrows were raised at the news that authorities were scanning his vast array of tattoos for evidence of gang connections. As it turns out, it's standard practice when potentially putting inmates with rival gang ties in the same jail space.

Which Passers Were Most Effective on Third Down in 2012?
Scott Kacsmar recently wrote about Robert Griffin III’s struggles on third downs last season. Despite Griffin’s otherworldly rate stats, that was one area where he really struggled in 2012. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how all quarterbacks fared on “third downs” last season. I put that in quotes because I’m including fourth down data, but don’t want to write third and fourth down throughout this post. Regular readers may recall I did something similar last November, but now we can work with full 2012 season numbers.

44-Day NFL Warning: The Way-Too-Early Position-Battle Winners, Quarterback Edition - The Triangle Blog - Grantland
I know what you’re thinking. Most teams don’t even open training camp until Friday, so choosing the winners of the league’s highest-profile position battles before these guys take a single snap is a fool’s errand. To that I say that you obviously aren’t aware of my never-ending quest to embarrass myself. For the next few days, we’ll be anointing starters around the league based on nothing but speculation and guesswork. Because here at the Triangle, we’re all about science.

How Many Feet Does it Take to Fill Steven Jackson’s Shoes? | The Tailgater
The Rams offense used to consist of Steven Jackson and a bunch of guys you never heard of. Now, Jackson is gone. But that does not doom the Rams to irrelevance. Their defense, their rebuilt receiving corps, and their knack for luring the 49ers and Seahawks into ugly slugfests put them in position to be the NFL’s biggest spoilers this year, if not a Wild Card dark horse.