Eric D. Williams took over the Seahawks beat and Seahawks Insider blog in December. Williams has covered the Seahawks, Sonics and high school sports for The News Tribune since joining the paper in 2006. Eric lives in Tacoma with his wife and two children.
Tacoma News Tribune columnist Dave Boling also contributes to the Seahawks Insider blog.
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With the draft now over I finally had a chance to update our Seahawks mock draft results. And we have a winner.
Schlede was the only contestant to get two of Seattle's seven picks right, correctly picking Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry's selection in the first round, and then also predicting Oregon defensive end Nick Reed's selection in the seventh round.
Others who got one pick right include: Eric Williams (Aaron Curry), Dougula (Curry), Fuzzman55 (Max Unger), Seahawklovertoo (Unger), Brosco13 (Unger), JacDG (Unger) and CamanoIslandJQ (Deon Butler).
Thanks for all who participated. And Schede email me privately so I can get a prize pack.
Check out the final results here.
We are who we thought we were. And that’s not very good when it comes to correctly selecting who the Seattle Seahawks will draft.
With three picks left, only seven contestants have correctly picked at least one of the Seattle Seahawks selections so far.
They are: Eric Williams (Aaron Curry), Schlede (Curry), Dougula (Curry), Fuzzman55 (Max Unger), Seahawklovertoo (Unger), Brosco13 (Unger) and CamanoIslandJQ impressively picking Penn State receiver Deon Butler, although he had him going in the seventh round.
We’re going to give CamonoIslandJQ credit anyway, along with anyone else who correctly picks a Seahawks draft pick, regardless of where they are selected.
So now it comes down to who will correctly guess the next of Seattle’s last three picks, should they take that many.
Here’s the entire list of contestants in this excel spreadsheet. If I’ve missed someone let me know.
Here’s my updated mock draft heading into this afternoon’s selections. There are few changes, most notably I moved USC quarterback Mark Sanchez up and have him going at No. 8 to Jacksonville. Sanchez is the wild card. He could go as high as No. 2 today to St. Louis. More likely though Washington, the Jets or Denver will move up to eight and grab him there.
Ask and you shall receive. Some folks in the comment section thought it would be interesting if we put together a Seahawks mock draft, attempting to predict who the Seahawks might take with the team's 10 picks, and I agree.
So here’s my attempt to predict who Seattle might select this weekend. Post your own mock draft in the comments section down below, and I’ll throw them on an excel spreadsheet and announce the winner on Monday. Again, one per customer please.
I'll post my updated, first-round mock draft on Friday. And later today I'll have a report on Seahawks GM Tim Ruskell's pre-draft press conference.
OK, so here is the situation that Mike Holmgren finds himself in this week:
With only four days between now and the game against the Oakland Raiders, and his top three quarterbacks suffering some sort of injury, what does he do against the Raiders?
He certainly is not going to throw Matt Hasselbeck out there and risk having him injured just before the season opener in Buffalo. He does not yet know the severity of Charlie Frye's knee injury, though Frye said his knee was sore. And while Seneca Wallace played tonight, Holmgren said he did not even plan on allowing Wallace to throw a pass until they found themselves down by a point with 2 1/2 minutes left.
A lot of course will depend on what they say on Tuesday about Frye's injury and if that will restrict him. But it is an interesting question nonetheless: Who does Holmgren go with?
And before you say Dalton Bell, this was Holmgren's response when he was asked about playing Seneca late: "We didn't have any choice really. I wasn't going to put Dalton Bell in against them."
This is my mock draft for tomorrow's News Tribune:
1) Miami Dolphins – Jake Long, OT, Michigan: The sides have already reached an agreement on a five-year, $58 million contract, with $30 million guaranteed. He is only the second offensive lineman since 1970 to go No. 1.
2) St. Louis Rams – Glenn Dorsey, DT, LSU: The Rams had only 31 sacks last season, fourth-worst in the NFC, though Chris Long also is a possibility here.
3) Atlanta Falcons – Matt Ryan, QB, Boston College: The Falcons have many needs, but replacing Michael Vick is at the top of the list.
4) Oakland Raiders – Chris Long, DE, Virginia – Despite reports that suggest otherwise, it is too tough for Al Davis to pass on former star Howie Long’s son.
5) Kansas City Chiefs – Vernon Gholston, DT, Ohio State: The loss of Jared Allen makes picking up a player along the defensive front paramount.
6) New York Jets – Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas: The talented back slips – relatively speaking. He is too talented for the Jets to pass on, assuming he gets past the Raiders.
7) New England Patriots – Keith Rivers, LB, USC: The Patriots could afford to lose their own first-rounder because they got this one from the Niners. They use it to add depth to their defense.
8) Baltimore Ravens – Sedrick Ellis, DT, USC: Ellis is the best player left on the board and the Ravens have needs just about everywhere.
9) Cincinnati Bengals – Branden Albert, OG/T, Virginia: He’s big enough to slide to tackle even though he played guard for the Cavaliers.
10) New Orleans Saints – Leodis McKelvin, CB, Troy: Top three corners are from small schools. McKelvin says he can be like Devin Hester.
I've updated the NFL Draft Scout 500-player rankings to reflect where the players have been selected through the first 21 picks. That Excel file is here. A positional look at the first 21 picks: six defensive linemen (four DEs), six defensive backs (three CBs), two receivers, two offensive linemen (Ts), two running backs, two linebackers and a quarterback.
NFL Draft Scout's Rob Rang has thrown lots of information our way over the last several days. It's a lot to digest. I've combined his projections into an Excel file that allows for easy sorting by round, overall choice, name, specific position, general position, positional need and college.
Each entry also includes a few words from Rob explaining why he thought the player might make sense for Seattle at each pick. The positional need column, labeled "Sando priority", shows how each position ranks in terms of Seattle's perceived needs. That information is offered as a general guide. I assigned the needs in this order: DL, OL, TE, DB, LB, RB, WR and QB. This allows us to rank the players by perceived need within projected order of selection.
We also get a projected positional "hot list" for the Seahawks, as determined by Rob, and a fun way to look at the picks Seattle actually makes. Note: This blog entry was updated to include defensive backs, who were initially left off the list. The file was updated again once I received Rob's projections at quarterback.
Thanks to the reader who pointed out that NFL Draft Scout's Rob Rang has updated his three-round mock draft (1, 2, 3). He has Seattle drafting Akron G Andy Alleman (second round) and Ohio State DT Quinn Pitcock (third round). For those of you wondering, I've got Seattle taking WR Deion Branch with the 24th overall pick. Take that one to the bank.
Rob Rang's latest mock draft has the Seahawks selecting Michigan DE LaMarr Woodley with the 55th overall selection. Rob has hit on a couple of Seattle's second-round choices in recent seasons. This choice is subject to change as he makes updates over the next few weeks.
I would expect Seattle to address one of its lines on the first day of the draft. The team needs a fourth defensive end. The team might also need another big body at defensive tackle, given that Marcus Tubbs is attempting to return from a serious knee surgery. Re-signing Floyd Womack and Chris Gray gives the team options on the offensive line, but Mike Holmgren said he'd still like to add one or two prospects at the position.
Note: The Seahawks have taken a lineman in the first or second round in both of Tim Ruskell's previous drafts as team president (Chris Spencer and Darryl Tapp).
The Seahawks do not own a first-round choice in the upcoming draft, but Pat Kirwan sees New England taking a receiver in the 24th spot once occupied by Seattle. Kirwan's first 2007 mock draft, subject to change as more information comes his way, is here. NFL Draft Scout's Rob Rang, a periodic contributor here, sees the Pats taking a defensive end there (his mock is from Feb. 20, and he plans to update it soon).
Another PDF file compares my picks against Rob's picks and the actual picks, with direct hits in gray and first-round whiffs in red (Excel version). Note: Rob influenced my choice of Kelly Jennings as the Seahawks' pick. In 2003, another person (who shall remain nameless) influenced my last-minute decision to scratch off Marcus Trufant as Seattle's pick (ostensibly because Carolina was definitely going to draft him).

