Aaron Curry is one of the better LB prospects to hit the top 7 in years, the counter trend is Draft 08 and 09 were two of the heaviest Tackle prospect drafts since the Pace/Jones/Tarik Glenn in 1997 and the Turley/Tra Thomas/Flozell Adams draft in 1998. The seahawks rolled the dice on a 35 yr old player coming back and playing at a high level so they chose Aaron Curry, which could be said to mirror JT coming back to Miami at 35 and passing up some good OLB prospects. The difference is, a OLB is replacable, a LT is not, generally speaking, the Seahawks were primed for a good season with Hasselback returning and Housh signing as a FA.. In this, the Ireland Tuna Sparano strategy paid off, we went with the solid pro bowl tackle instead of the Dorsey's or Gholston's of the world, the Seahawks rolled the draft dice and lost and it could cost them a season if they cannot scramble to find a decent enough fillin at LT.
I liked Eugene Monroe, great technician but man, he has zero mean streak and didn't always finish blocks. I thought Michael Oher could be a fit for their zone blocking scheme that they're going to more of this season but I knew he wouldn't pass the character test for them. He's just got so many questions and you need to get at least a CC grade to be on their draft board, which I don't think he made. I think its tough to criticize a team for passing up a player at a important position when the team was not comfortable with the options there. I could see why they passed up on Oher and Monroe and then went with the best player available. I would bet that if Jason Smith dropped to four, they would have taken him though.
Well, the thing of the Seattle problem is..Walter Jones underwent microfracture surgery...at 35...and he did so rather late in the process, the seahawks just assumed that Jones would be fine, and days rolled by and he never practiced, and they just sort of ignored the whole situation. And in Draft 09, trade downs were historically cheap, the Ravens moved up to snag Oher with just a pick swap (NE got the Ravens #28 for NE's #23 and a single 5th round pick). A fifth round pick? Seattle should have been able to trade back into the first rd to snag Oher at least....now they have Max Unger instead...
Put yourself in their position. Say Oher didn't make the big board for you, which is possible in Seattle. Would you trade up to pick someone that isn't even on your board? I wouldn't. If I wrote him off pre-draft, why would I suddenly slide him into my draft board and pick him?
Well, there is little need to focus on Oher, the larger, strategic issue was trade ups were relatively inexpensive, Ebon Britton went off the board in the 30's, Phil Loaholt went after Unger, there were prospects at LT still on the board they just chose to ignore them and went with skill/movement types of players. This with the knowledge that Walter Jones was having major knee surgery. Stopgap veterans just are not a good way to go, it rarely works, with the Seahawks reliance on the passing game, and the loss of Marcus Trufant as well, they have lost two of Ireland's three key positions, shutdown Cb and quality Left Tackle...
Right, I agree with you there. They should have drafted someone. However, I don't think they should have forced the issue in the first round, just because they're weak at the spot. A team shouldn't force anything that they aren't comfortable with, in my opinion.
It is not that Oher is a wonderful prospect, it is more that a team that ignores strategic needs with talent to fill those needs still on the board, they are asking for a disaster "injury plagued" season when common sense would have told them to hedge their bets. Trufant is out indefinetely with a bad back, Seattle is in trouble before the season really begins simply because they did not follow a less risky strategy.
Well here is the thing, Ireland would have doubled up with G/T prospects just in case, that is where the "draft two" strategy is soo effective, they do not concern themselves with the player per se, they concern themselves with assuring two good prospects will be available for a need position. Their draft is all over the map, a OLB, a Center (in the forties!!) and they traded their #3 to Chicago so they could select Jarron Gilbert, they simply ignored Jones's knee problems. I bring this up because the situation was not a random lightening bolt hitting their roster, it was predictable to even the casual fan.
Tim Ruskell or whoever is running the draft show over there is not Ireland. From what I know, he doesn't do much of doubling up, despite it being a good strategy. Not to mention, his drafting is something like 60 % character, 40 % talent. His (and when he worked with McKay) draft process is a bit different than others. Unless I'm in the dark over a previous injury sustained by Marcus Trufant, I wouldn't say that his injury was predictable. In the case of Walter Jones, sure. Again, I'm not arguing that they should have drafted an OT, I'm simply arguing that they shouldn't have forced the pick in the first round.
He suffered it two days before training camp began. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2009693573_trufant20.html
They probably felt comfortable with Lucas as he's been there before. Also, I believe they'll be playing a lot more cover 2 this year and probably like him in that role.
Which brings up another good point, from what I've been reading the Tampa Two is a dying defense, even Tampa is no longer running it. Which creates all sorts of personnel issues, for example Chris Hovan a typical Cover 2 penetrating tackle has packed on 30 pds to play NT, but the teams that have run the Cover 2 are now faced with a defense full of players who really are defense specific.
I'm not sure I'd say it's a dying defense because there are still teams use it, like Minnesota. I saw some Tampa 2 with Buffalo in their first pre-season game when Poszluszny dropped down the pipe. PIttsburgh also uses a version of the Tampa 2 when they go to 4-3 fronts I believe. Also, I'm not sure how much it will change in Tampa. I know they've got Jim Bates running the show now and he's basically going with the Jimmy Johnson approach. They moved Jermaine Phillips to strong side linebacker I believe, they will have a more aggressive front and the base defense is still a Cover 2, except that their cornerbacks won't be playing eight or so yards back, unlike they did in Tampa, but moreso at the line of scrimmage . They'll have their outside linebackers shoot the gaps on specific zone blitzes but their MIKE linebacker is still going to be dropping and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see them use some Tampa 2. I also think the same applies to Indianapolis, who's gotten bigger on the line. The defensive line averaged 265 pounds per player and they were getting out muscled often so they got bigger lineman but I don't think much will change, to be honest. I agree about the last line. Guys like Ronde Barber are going to do more work because he doesn't have great foot speed but now he's asked to play bump and run. I know he's going to have trouble with that, which is why I could still see a lot of Tampa 2 because they're going to need to roll coverage over in Barber's direction and then they have to have someone drop down the pipe to cover up the area that would be left off by the safety.
Far be it from me to second-guess an NFL team's draft. But seriously, folks... When you draft for need, you run the risk of reaching; that's exactly what Ruskell would have almost certainly done if he had drafted Oher or Monroe at 4. And it's not as if they didn't have perfectly good, franchise player-type options; Curry is one of the most exciting players to come into the draft in a long time. Ruskell and Mora did the right thing IMO.
Curry can definitely pay off long term, but that doesn't help Seattle with the money they've spent trying to bolster their offense with TJ etc. They couldve learned from Carolina and traded a future pick for Oher....traded back possibly twice and nabbed a few extra picks....or just drafted Britton or Beatty. It's not like their other linebackers suck... and if they really wanted an LB, they could've waited till next year when the crop is deep and talented without having to pay left tackle money for one. You solidify what are supposed to be your strengths before you sling picks around. But that's just my view. Oher has been a relentless animal in preseason! Has anyone seen some of the pancakes he's had? Ouch!!
Oher is a beast, I was hoping he would fall to the Phins. Ozzie and the Raverns front office is the best in the business.
And thusly ends the Seahawks gamble, they have run some players such as Brandon Frye and Sean Locker (no, not the Qb). So at the end of the day, the calculation of taking Aaron Curry as well as taking Max Unger and making no provision for the possiblity of Walter Jones not being healthy enough to come back sank the Seahawks season. This was forseeable.
Ouch x2: Funny thing is though, Monroe was benched in Jacksonville in favor of Tre Thomas, but still, they are without a LT and their #4 pick is struggling.
In the last yr of his contract the Walter Jones/Aaron Curry fiasco was all she wrote for Ruskell. Armchair GMing on my part, however as soon as Jones's knee was discovered not to be healing well, Ruskell and Mora jr should have identified two or three young LT prospects and sorted between them for the best candidate to start this season. Instead they had blind faith in Walter Jones expedited recovery to Ireland and Sparano's credit, we have a couple of Tackle prospects on the roster and practice squad as well as a vet who has played LT before, strategically that is light years ahead of where the Seahawks were this season.
