Happy Father’s Day. With offseason workouts completed and a little over a month until training camp begins, I decided this would be a good time to take another look at the roster. You can view the Seahawks depth chart here. As always, let me know what you think in the comments section.

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Except for perhaps another free agent addition or two to fill out the roster along with the team’s draft selections, the Seahawks roster is in large part what it will look like when the team begins its first minicamp in April. So here’s another look at the team from each position heading into April. Seattle currently has 65 players on the roster, and has lost seven of its own players through free agency.

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Here’s our first positional roster analysis for 2009 as we head into the combine. With rosters being expanded to 80 players, this is more of a rough, overall look at who is on the roster early in the offseason, and what issues the team will need to address in the next couple months with the draft and free agency on the horizon. We’ll update this several times before training camp begins in July, so this will serve as our first peek.

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The Seahawks really have 55 players on their roster because of the suspensions of Rocky Bernard and Jordan Babineaux. So they will have to make two more roster decisions next Monday, Sept. 8, when those players return to the active roster.

A couple thoughts there: They were able to keep both Baraka Atkins and Jason Babin, giving them 10 defensive linemen. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them go.

But also, maybe they kept somebody like Brandon Coutu hoping that teams fill out their practice squads and active rosters this week, then they will cut him next week and try to slide them onto their practice squad after everybody else's is full. Or, if they happen to find a punt returner, they do the same thing with Forsett.

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Placed on Injured Reserve
WR Ben Obomanu
DT Chris Cooper

Terminated Veteran Contacts:
WR Bryan Gilmore
DT Larry Tripplett

Waived:
DB Jamar Adams
QB Dalton Bell
DT Kevin Brown
WR Michael Bumpus
C Ben Claxton
DB Marquis Floyd
P Reggie Hodges
DB Kelin Johnson
C Nick Jones
FB David Kirtman
G Pat Murray
TE Joe Newton
LB Dallas Sartz
WR Trent Shelton
DE Nu’u Tafisi
T Kyle Williams

I know you all are waiting patiently for the roster cuts, as am I. I spoke with the Hawks about 50 minutes ago, when they told me they should be sending out an email in about half an hour. That has come and gone. As soon as I get the information, I will post it up here and then do an evaluation.

As a reminder, I will be blogging in pregame and during the first half tonight, after which I will be writing on some tight deadlines.

Before that, though, I wanted to detail some of the key matchups tonight:

Logan Payne vs. Jordan Kent: This may be a bit of a misnomer, and it may just be Payne fighting for a job. And some think it is Payne vs. Ben Obomanu. But I think they love the fact that Obo can play every position and knows the playbook better than anybody. Kent may have secured himself a job with his earlier play, which means Payne may have to convince them he can do something in a game situation to make then want to keep him. This may already be a foregone conclusion because Tim Ruskell has to have an idea about whether he is going to place Deion Branch on the PUP list. If he is, Payne is likely to stick. If Branch is active, Payne is most likely a goner. But, he still has the chance to convince them otherwise.

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Hey folks, I just landed on my flight back from San Diego. I did a roster analysis while I was on the plane, which is a little premature since it includes some of the players who will be cut. But it'll give you something to chew on until those announcements are made. I have a call in to the Hawks regarding Lofa's injury, but they are currently not answering. Just to give you a heads-up, their MO this preseason has been to announce the injury the day after the MRI, so they may not be releasing anything on that today.

OFFENSE

Quarterbacks
Average kept past six seasons: 2.8
In: Matt Hasselbeck, Seneca Wallace, Charlie Frye.
Longshot: Dalton Bell.
Comment: Frye increased his value with strong showing Monday night against San Diego.

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I know, I know, there still is a game to be played tonight that could have a bearing on the decisions tomorrow. But let's be honest, the cut from 80 to 75 is a bit of a joke. It's almost like they threw something in there to keep it interesting for a day. Why not just wait until the end of the week and keep everybody around until then. Anyway, since they have to cut 5 spots tomorrow, here's who they could be:

OL William Robinson: I'm not exactly sure why he is still around, other than they haven't been able to come to an injury settlement with him. But he was not doing very well when he was healthy, and now he is just taking up space on the roster.

OL Nick Jones: He injured his calf on Friday, which could mean a little extra in an injury settlement as well.

WR Trent Shelton: We haven't seen much of him lately, and the other receivers need all the work they can get.

LS Tim Lindsey: This is assuming, of course, that Tyler Schmitt is able to come back from his sore back.

CB Marquis Floyd: He came in late after Derrick Johnson got hurt on his third play of his first practice, and he may be departing early.

With a morning walkthrough that is not open to the media, I thought I'd do a roster analysis looking at where things stand since the Bobby Engram injury was announced. The more I look at it, I think they may be a bit unbalanced, taking a spot from the defense to give to the offense. Here is what I worked out:

OFFENSE

Quarterbacks

In: Matt Hasselbeck, Seneca Wallace, Charlie Frye
Longshot: Dalton Bell.

Running Backs

In: Julius Jones, Maurice Morris, Leonard Weaver, Owen Schmitt
On the bubble: T.J. Duckett, Justin Forsett
Longshot: David Kirtman
Comments: The decision on Duckett is interesting. I still think he is in, if for no other reason than insurance in case one of the others gets hurt. And I also think Mike Holmgren envisions using him as a battering ram at the end of games where the Seahawks have a lead and need to run out the clock. Plus, he was given $4 million guaranteed. Forsett is a talent whom the coaches love but is probably headed for the practice squad.

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This is obviously WAAAYYYY in advance of reality, but here is a preliminary prediction of how the roster and practice squads work themselves out:

OFFENSE

QB: Matt Hasselbeck, Seneca Wallace, Charlie Frye

RB: Julius Jones, Maurice Morris, T.J. Duckett, Leonard Weaver, Owen Schmitt (My guess is that if Duckett was not given such a sizeable signing bonus, they may not keep him given that they haven't figured out how to use him. But since he is making significant cash, they don't have much choice.)

TE: John Carlson, Will Heller, Jeb Putzier

OL: Walter Jones, Mike Wahle, Chris Spencer, Chris Gray, Rob Sims, Sean Locklear, Floyd Womack, Mansfield Wrotto, Ray Willis

WR: Bobby Engram, Nate Burleson, Courtney Taylor, Ben Obomanu, Logan Payne

Physically Unable to Perform: Deion Branch

DEFENSE

DL: Patrick Kerney, Lawrence Jackson, Darryl Tapp, Baraka Atkins, Rocky Bernard, Brandon Mebane, Craig Terrill, Red Bryant, Marcus Tubbs, Chris Cooper

LB: Julian Peterson, Lofa Tatupu, Leroy Hill, D.D. Lewis, Will Herring, Wesley Mallard, Lance Laury

DB: Marcus Trufant, Kelly Jennings, Deon Grant, Brian Russell, Josh Wilson, Jordan Babineaux, Kevin Hobbs, C.J. Wallace

SPECIAL TEAMS: Ryan Plackemeier, Olindo Mare, Tyler Schmitt

So here are the issues: What do you do with Marcus Tubbs? Obviously you will have a better idea come training camp of his ability to recover from back-to-back knee injuries, but if you want to keep around the former first-round pick, then you not only can't keep Larry Tripplett, you likely have to sacrifice somebody on offense; to me, that person is Jordan Kent. As talented as he is, he has not developed quite enough and is a perfect guy for one more year on the practice squad. The danger is that he gets plucked by somebody else (Jim Zorn). But I think it's a chance they might have to take because it would be hard to keep only six linebackers because of special teams, it would be hard to keep less than eight defensive backs and it would be hard, with the type of money they have paid T.J. Duckett, to keep less than five running backs. Beyond that, when Deion Branch comes back, they will have to make a decision on one of the other WRs, probably Logan Payne (though that is assuming there are no injuries, which we all know is not likely). With the roster the way I have it set up, they already had to make tough decisions on Tripplett, as well as Mike Green, Omare Lowe, David Kirtman, Joe Newton, Kyle Williams and Howard Green. That being said, here is a possible practice squad:

K Brandon Coutu
OT Kyle Williams
TE Joe Newton
WR Jordan Kent
RB Justin Forsett
WR Michael Bumpus
OL Steve Vallos
FB Dan Curran

On to the defensive side of the ball, where the Seahawks currently have 31 players under contract. Again, we’ll use the number of 25 players on the defense, with the remaining three players being Ryan Plackemeier, Olindo Mare (or someone better) and long snapper Tim Lindsey (or someone better). Let’s say that since Tim Ruskell is traditionally better at selecting defenders, both his picks on defense will make the roster, meaning there are 23 spots left for that side of the ball. (And yes, I do know that if we say they keep two defenders, it skews the average of five Ruskell draft picks making the roster because yesterday we said four offensive players will make it. Work with me here.)

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