I see the Times is reporting that the Hawks have agreed to terms with Courtney Taylor, the sixth-round receiver out of Auburn.

I confess to a vast absence of excitement over these signings. The important thing is they’ll all be there when camp opens. Without a first-rounder, there’s very little drama to this. You want terms? For the most part, each will make a little less than the guy drafted ahead of him and a little more than the guy drafted behind him.

Here’s what you do want to know about Courtney Taylor. He’s got nice size, 6-1, 209 and decent speed. Draft reports claimed he would not be a vertical threat in the NFL, but he looks almost identical to me to Ben Obomanu, another former Auburn receiver, who seems to have progressed nicely heading into his second year with the Hawks. Taylor set an Auburn school record with 153 career catches. In 2004, as a flanker, Taylor caught 43 passes to Obomanu’s 25. It’s clear that Obomanu is working to take Taylor under his wing, as the two always seemed to walk on and off the field together during minicamps. The problem facing Obomanu, Taylor, and others, including athletic rookie Jordan Kent and minicamp surprises Joe Fernandez and Logan Payne? There’s not much room on the 53-man roster for them with Branch, Hackett, Engram and Burleson established ahead of them by virtue of experience, talent and contract status.

There was a little draft-day hub-bub when Courtney Taylor was announced by the Hawks and we all dove into the internet searching for background. As we all discovered quickly, when we pulled up a website named for Courtney Taylor, the Auburn receiver shares a name with a porn star who is not at all hampered by modesty. Those with company laptops started asking about ways to clear the memory cache.

After Taylor was drafted, the sports editor from a newspaper in Pickens County, Alabama, emailed me and asked if I’d file some reports for him of the two players from tiny Pickens County on the Seahawks roster. Courtney Taylor and Walter Jones. I told him I wasn’t sure Walter Jones had even met the kid. Apparently Jones’ hometown of Aliceville is just a few miles away from Taylor’s home in Carrollton.

I’m going to tell you about one play during a June minicamp practice that leads me to pinpoint one Seahawk player who looks ready to emerge as standout.

Last year at this time, Rob Sims was getting ready for his first training camp with the Seahawks. He had been a fourth-round pick out of Ohio State. Some of the draft reports questioned his work ethic, and whether he’d be able to control his weight. They must have been looking at a different guy because from the very start of training camp, Sims was fit, strong and surprisingly well-prepared. Some veterans beat him with certain moves, of course, but he got a surprising number of wins or stalemates against even the vets. He can bench press 515 pounds, so strength certainly was not an issue.

I sat down with him for a column interview early in camp because he was the one rookie who impressed me as a guy who had the wherewithal to really contribute if that turned into a position of need. Frankly, I thought he looked better than starter Pork Chop Womack after the first week. Sims was very articulate during the interview, telling of the impact of his father’s death just a few weeks before. Mickey Sims died of a heart attack at age 51. The two had been very close, and the elder Sims, who played for the Browns in the ‘70s, had dedicated endless hours working with Rob for this NFL opportunity he would never get to see.

“I’m still hearing his words every day,” Rob said. (I’ll paste a copy of the column from July 31, 2006, onto the bottom of the blog. I would link it, but I pulled it from the archives and I think it might be password protected). After that story was published, I encountered a first: One of Sims’ professors from Ohio State sent me an email praising him. I’ve heard from coaches, fans, relatives, etc., but never a professor. “What a great young man he is,” the prof said. “ … a true leader and a very funny guy.”

Line coach Bill Laveroni loved his attitude from the start. “… he’s a solid man, and that’s the kind of guy we want on our team,” he said.

With Pork Chop fighting injuries and the line being steadily shuffled, Sims started getting some time with the first unit, and finished as the starter the final three games of 2006. Sims naturally dealt with a learning curve last season, and suggestions were that he occasionally had assignment breakdowns on late check-offs or tricky stunts. I would not expect that to be a concern this season.

Skip ahead to the last minicamp. The offense was going through running plays against a scout defense. Sims, at left guard, pulled from the line, bellied back to gain depth, and circled around the left side. I don’t know what this 310-pound guy clocks for 40 yards, but his quickness and agility over a curving 15-yard path was attention-getting. He targeted an opponent from the secondary, maintained control, and wrapped up the defender. At game-speed, it would have been a knockout, and maybe a touchdown block. Not only did he get there, he was in perfect position to “finish.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was just one play in a non-contact drill in June. But the physical skills it displayed were very impressive, making Sims look far closer to a first-round stud than a fourth-rounder with question marks. Credit the scouting department for identifying his value, credit the staff for developing him … and credit the late Mickey Sims for the inspiration that keeps him motivated. A lot of things can happen to knock linemen off their developmental path, but Sims is one to keep your eyes on.

--Here’s a copy of that column from last training camp.--

INTERIOR VOICE DRIVES ROOKIE LINEMAN
(Copyright (c) 2006 The News Tribune)

CHENEY - Typically, after a good practice like Sunday morning's, when he performed well in drills, Rob Sims would whip out his cell phone and provide a block-by-block recap of the action for his father, Robert "Mickey" Sims.

No one was more interested than Mickey, of course, and no one was more invested in Rob's performance, since Mickey had spent much of his life grooming his son for this exact opportunity.

On June 7, when Rob Sims was in Seattle at a Seahawks minicamp, Sergeant Sims of the Cleveland Metroparks Ranger Department died of a heart attack at age 51.

He was eulogized as a humble, jovial and spiritual man whose prodigious size (6-foot-5, 350 pounds) and perpetual grin caused him to be called: "The Gentle Giant."

Sunday afternoon, Rob Sims spoke of how much he missed those phone connections, but the lines of communication, he said, remain.

"I'm still hearing his words . . . every day," Rob Sims said. "Every day."

The words that passed from father to son were more specifically applicable than the customary "Do your best, buddy," and "never give up." Mickey Sims understood big-time football because he played for the Cleveland Browns in the 1970s.

Of his messages, the one most frequently emphasized was the need to stay hungry and motivated, because Mickey Sims conceded that he came to take the game for granted, and his career was truncated because of lax work habits.

"It was a huge point for him," Sims said. "That's why I try to go out every day and push as hard as I can. He always said he was good enough to play in the league longer, but he got a little cocky. He stressed that to me many, many times. He made sure I had the work ethic in me. And it was great having someone like him who knew what it was all about."

Mickey Sims lived his advice, working two jobs much of the time.

"He worked for the parks and did security, too," Rob Sims said. "We were trying to get him out of it; that's what we were going to do if I made it here. I don't think we were really hurting (for money) but he always wanted to do more."

Rob Sims started on the offensive line for Ohio State for most of four seasons, then was drafted in the fourth round by the Seahawks. When coach Mike Holmgren called to welcome him to the team, Sims was in church with his family.

The sermon that Sunday: Catching a Dream.

In the first few days of his initial training camp, Sims has been impressed by the diligence of his fellow offensive linemen, how they study their meeting notes and prepare for the day's challenges.

So, he watches tackle Walter Jones, whom he says is a blocking "textbook," and he tries to catch on to the tricks of the veterans on the line, Robbie Tobeck and Chris Gray.

At the moment, Sims is listed at left guard behind Floyd "Pork Chop" Womack, but he looks comfortable and hardly out of place, acquitting himself well in blocking drills.

"I think he has a great attitude," Holmgren said. "He's physically strong enough; he moves well, he can pull, he can do all those things for a big guy."

With a bench-press maximum of 515 pounds, Sims is already among the strongest of the Seahawks.

"He's got skills and he works hard," said line coach Bill Laveroni. "He's got quick feet and power, and he's smart enough that he's going to learn the offense quickly."

But there's more to Sims than that, more depth, more substance, more of the inner resources that sometimes separate offensive linemen into a group distinct from their teammates.

"You know, he's a solid man," Laveroni said. "And that's the kind of guy we want on our team."

And that's the kind of assessment that would make Mickey Sims proud.