Come On, It's not so bad… Really.

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).