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| Bruce Irvin (pictured above) was the Seahawks first round selection. |
After all the misinformation, hype, and over analytical
talking heads from every sports media source in America, the NFL 2012 College
Football draft is in the books. Now, it's time for those same talking heads to
overanalyze what the 32 football franchises have done to try and improve their
team's chances of competing for a Super Bowl. Just one day after the draft has
completed, already power rankings on how each team fared with their selections
is being released on several online sports websites. Popular belief is that the
Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas
Cowboys are considered the real winners over the weekend. The losers? The
Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks are considered the teams that did the
least to improve their roster, but wait just a minute… Like anything else, it
depends on which so-called pundit is doing the analyzing. Like anything else,
opinions are just that, they are a statement to put a value on something that
is quantitative only by the result of the variables that occur when potential
has been reached or has not been reached. Immediate reaction by practically
every sports television analyst was that the Seahawks coach and GM made a
monumental mistake by selecting West Virginia defensive end Bruce Irvin with
their first round selection (15 overall). The comments were among others;
"he's too light" and "he has too many off field issues" and
"he's a one trick pony" and "there are way too many other
quality selections available to choose Irvin with the 15." Well, one of
the things that these so-called draft experts did not consider was what Coach
Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider had planned with the best pure
pass rusher in the draft. The critics repeated "ad nauseam" was that
Bruce Irvin offered you nothing more than "an ultra-quick quarterback pass
rusher with the best "get off" of any player in the draft."
Another self-professed draft expert said "If you have one play and you
want to get to the quarterback, Bruce Irvin is the best athlete in the draft to
make the sack but you have to have." Now, I've been around football long
enough to know that that's not such a bad thing and in a league of pass, pass
and pass again, getting to the quarterback is essential and why not draft a specialist
come into the game with a very high percentage chance that he's going to get to
that quarterback and he's going to put him on the ground and perhaps even
separating him from the football and giving your offense another chance to take
the field immediately. That's a pretty good thing and I can't quite understand
why the experts have pounded the point into every listener and viewer watching
the draft that this NFL, this 2012 NFL season will require each team to have a
rush that is capable of putting pressure on the quarterback at will. Is Bruce
Irvin a little light at 245 pounds to play a down lineman? He is if you are
playing against a primarily running football team, but there just aren't very
many teams left in the NFL that features the run as their primary attack on
offense. Quarterbacks have become even more important than ever before and it's
indicative of the sizable contracts they demand and the team’s inevitable focus
on creating a franchise quarterback to build their team around. Now, without
creating a Saints like bounty, it is imperative that your defense goes after
the quarterback like men possessed. Without the major motivating desire being
to hurt the quarterback, you must disrupt every action that he has to move the
ball forward through the air or to hand it off to a runner. The more time your
defensive line, linebackers or secondary stand in the offenses backfield, the
better chance we have of creating chaos for the quarterback or anyone he
intends to distribute the ball to. This is a fundamental part of football in
the 21st century and who better equipped in the NFL draft of 2012 to do that
then Bruce Irvin? Simply put, he's the best pure pass rushing defensive end in
the draft. The next complaint by the experts; Bruce Irvin has character issues.
Irvin did have a tumultuous upbringing and has made mistakes in his young life;
he was involved in an armed robbery of a home and has had some drug related
arrests as a high school kid. After Bruce decided to drop out of school as a
junior in high school, his mother said "If you don't go to high school,
you're out." She wasn't ambiguous about her meaning, from what it sounds
like. She simply didn't want her son to take to the streets as a way of living,
as a way of surviving as a way of anything. She used the only thing that she
had at her disposal to try to impress upon her young son exactly how important
it is to stay in school and receive an education. The young Irvin decided to
take his chances out on the rough streets of Atlanta. He said they were the
darkest times in his life. Then, he met a mentor that would change his life.
This person saw something in Bruce Irvin and took action. His name is Chad
Allen and Irvin is very careful to remember the friend who cared enough to show
him another way. Allen encouraged Bruce to go back to school and earn his GED
and get himself into college and utilize his rare gift. He did just that, got
his diploma and transferred to a junior college for a short stint before moving
on to West Virginia where he garnered 23 sacks in just two seasons working only
as a sack specialist in specific game scenarios. Pete Carroll tried to recruit
Irvin, while he was head coach at Southern Cal, but at the time his academic
status made him ineligible to join the Trojans at USC. Carroll said that he had
been looking for a player like this his entire coaching career. He’s quite
pleased that at last, he has seemingly found that player in Bruce Irvin.
Looking back at Seattle's draft class of 2012, I'm
encouraged and not just as a homer. I truly think Pete Carroll and John
Schneider had a plan and they executed it to the best of their ability in a
draft that was heavy in defensive players. and they utilized what was available
to the best benefit of the entire team. One of the things that Coach Carroll
has said numerous times in the newspaper and on sports radio is that he likes
his roster. Well, if you really like the players on your roster, then you
should spend the draft picks and free agent acquisitions in a way that
preserves the talent you already have and enhances the areas of weakness that
you feel your club is suffering from. I think they did that and they did it
very much like Frank Sinatra would. "Their way…" Now it's time to
test their theory and see how those draft picks pan out. It's not always about
getting the best players for your team. It's about getting the right players.
Players Selected:
1st: Bruce Irvin, DE, West Virginia
2nd: Bobby Wagner, LB, Utah State
3rd: Russell Wilson, QB, Wisconsin
4th: Robert Turbin, RB, Utah State
4th:Jaye Howard, DT, Florida
5th: Korey Toomer, ILB, Idaho
6th: Jeremy Lane, CB, Northwestern
6th: Winston Guy, S, Kentucky
7th: JR Sweezy, DT/G, North Carolina State
7th: Greg Scruggs, DE, Louisville
Seattle announced the undrafted rookie free agents who agreed to terms, a
list that includes two Pac-12 wide receivers: WR Phil Bates (Ohio
University), CB London Durham (McNeese State), G Rishaw Johnson
(California, Pa.), WR Jermaine Kearse (Washington), TE Sean McGrath
(Henderson State, Ariz.), T Jon Opperud (Montana), DB Deshawn Shead
(Portland State), DE Monte Taylor (Cincinnati), WR Lavasier Tuinei
(Oregon) and K Carson Wiggs (Purdue).
