The NFL channel's college player rankings now have John Carlson of Notre
Dame ranked as the number 1 TE in the draft. I watched a live interview with
him and Fred Davis and it was said that Carlson would be doing all the
events but Davis was only going to run in select trials.

That really sours the milk for me on Davis even more. As I've pointed out
many times in the last couple of weeks, Davis has a reputation of being slow
for the position and it was assumed that interested teams would get a chance
to see a better performance at the combine. It looks as if he's trying to
mask the problem by not performing at the combine in any event where the
weakness will show itself. He's also one of the shortest guys at the
position at around 6' 3".

There was a great interview with Marcellus Bennett in the Seahawks Insider
who is the guy I've been touting.

http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/seahawks/2008/02/22/tight_end_martellus_bennett_quotes

He's a funny guy and talks about how much he likes blocking as well as
catching the ball. He's also worked at stutter step moves and other pro type
stuff in his Junior year at Texas A&M. He's also ranked as the number 1 TE
in some rankings. He's still considered to be the most complete TE out there
mainly because of his love of blocking and attention to the finer points of
the position. He's also Texas A&M's all time leading TE in receptions. I
keep saying it but it bears repeating, this is the guy we really need
because he does it all. He had 65 pancake blocks last season and is
considered an equally good blocker with his fingers in the dirt as he calls
blocking on the line of scrimmage as well as downfield. He might be
available in the second round but I doubt he'll last till our second pick.

John Carlson is also a fine looking prospect at the position and one I'd
rather see than Davis even at the # 25 pick. In his interview, he talked
about intending to be a complete TE and working on his blocking to make it
so. That tells me that he's not accomplished at it yet like Bennett is. I
like his measurables better than Davis though.

I believe that these three TE's (Davis, Carlson, and Bennett) will all be
gone by the time our second round pick comes up. If there's no one that
falls to us at #25 and we don't see a value player there at that position
and we consider it a reach to take one of these TE's at that pick, one move
I could support would be to trade down for a 2nd rounder in the top 10 picks
and I'm sure one of those three TE's will still be there at that spot and we
can get an extra pick in a very deep draft for TE's and RB's as well as some
other positions. That extra pick could very well allow us to select a DT
and/or CB and still spend three picks on a RB, TE, and OG in the first 4
rounds. That covers every critical position except a WR if we lose Hackett.

We should be able to get another player or two in free agency if needed.
Being able to sign Trufant to a regular contract will really determine how
active we can still be in free agency. $9.4 million is a lot of cash to have
to spend on one player in a single year and if we can't come to terms with
Trufant, we'll be tight under the cap. Next year he'll cost even more as a
franchised player like Jones did for awhile there. I'd almost even rather
trade him or get the two first round picks for him if he doesn't want to
agree to terms because of what it does to our other needs and our ability to
satisfy them. Rumors are that the Giants will make a pitch for a sign and
trade deal with us. Maybe a 1st round pick, Shockey, and a 2nd or 3rd
rounder might do it in place of two first rounder's. We could use the 1st
rounder and the extra 2nd or 3rd rounder to move up in this draft and get a
good CB to replace Trufant and with our TE situation resolved, we can use
our 1st rounder on another much needed player like a RB, DT, or even a WR if
we need one because of losing Hackett. I could go for that trade.

Rucker from Louisville and Finley from Texas are both guys that could become
a good TE for us but I would expect outside of Davis, Carlson, and Bennett,
you're looking at some one that's not going to be the big time player we
would like to have this year and will need a year or two to season before
really busting out. Rucker and Findley could be there at our # 2 or our # 3
pick and there's also that big guy out of Tennessee (Brad Cottam) who could
possibly even last until our 4th rounder. That's 6 TE's that could any one
of them come in and play better than we've had for a couple of years now and
I believe all could developed into a solid TE.

That's what makes this the deepest draft in quite some time for TE's. Last
year there were only a couple in the whole draft that could be considered as
good a prospect as the 6 guys I listed in this post as an example. This is
definitely the year we need to use one of our first 3 or 4 picks on a TE who
can put the position out of the area of a big need every year for at least 4
or 5 years.

One way or another, this is the Seahawk's year to acquire a TE and I'll be
hugely disappointed if we don't do it somehow.

--
William P. Tomisser
"Power Of Ten" Band
www.poweroften.net
Anchorage, Alaska

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