Mark Sanchez to Seahawks: Possibility Almost a Reality

USC quarterback Mark Sanchez, who played only 16 games his entire collegiate career, decided to forgo his last year of eligibility at USC to enter the NFL Draft.

Sanchez made his decision the day after Oklahoma quarterback San Bradford decided to stay in college for at least one more year. From the beginning, when college players can declare for the draft, Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford has been the No. 1 quarterback in the draft.

Currently Stafford is still the highest quarterback on Espn’s “big board” at No. 8. Sanchez, on the other hand, has been flying up on everyone’s mock draft. Sanchez had a great pro-day and did very will at the combine. Now for every team it's different. Some quarterbacks fit the system and others don’t. A lot of people including ESPN’s Scouts Inc. Tod McShay has the Seahawks taking Sanchez at No. 4.

There are fans that say that Hasselbeck is in great shape and has 2-3 years left in him and that he can lead the Seahawks back to the Super bowl. Then there are the fans that say the Seahawks need to draft the heir apparent to Hasselbeck, with either Sanchez or Stafford.

Stafford will be gone to the Detroit Lions first overall, Jason Smith, the offensive tackle from Baylor will go to St. Louis and the best player in the draft, linebacker Aaron Curry will go No. 3 to the KC Chiefs.

That leaves wide receiver Michael Crabtree, offensive tackle Eugene Monroe and Stafford. The Seahawks are turning away from Crabtree because they already have Nate Burleson and Deion Branch. They also added onto that by signing wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh to the “big money” contract.

Giving him a five-year, $40 million contract, $15 million guaranteed. They will not take defensive tackle B.J. Raji from Boston College because they signed Colin Cole from Green Bay, who they are very high on and traded for defensive tackle Cory Redding.

So that leaves just Monroe and Sanchez. Looking at LT/OT, the Seahawks are very happy with the progress that Walter Jones has made coming back from offseason knee surgery.

They re-signed Ray Willis to a two-year contract and they are very high on him, Willis was one of there top priorities in the offseason. And from recent years, teams are looking in the top of the draft to take there next future quarterback. The people that say, “You can take a quarterback like Bomar or Nate Davis in the later rounds” here’s a list for you.

This is a list of quarterbacks that have been taking in the first round and some in the very top of the draft that have been successful in the NFL.

Matt Ryan
JaMarcus Russell, undecided- Just doesn’t have any supporting cast at all
Vince Young-Rookie of the Year, but has a few mental issues.
Eli Manning-Super Bowl winning QB
Philip Rivers-Sat for two years behind Brees and no one is complaining about it now.
Carson Palmer-Great QB on a bad team
Donovan McNabb
Peyton Manning

Sanchez would be in the same situation as Phillip Rivers was in without the trade. Sit for a year or two, learn the system and then take over. Sanchez has the pieces around him to make it happen with Housh, Branch, Burleson, Carlson, and Jones (on occasion).

It’s a lot easier to find a offensive tackle in the draft that can learn and be a future left tackle for the Seahawks than it is finding a quarterback.

Here is a quote form Mark Sanchez him self on the Seahawks drafting him. A little more info with the Seahawks and Sanchez is that they had almost the entire front office at his pro-day. They had dinner with Sanchez on more than on occasion and he already had a private workout with the Seahawks.

Here is Sanchez’s comments on how it went. Sanchez was on 950 KJR in Seattle when he made these comments just FYI.

“I’ve talked to Coach (Bill) Lazor and Coach (Greg) Knapp and Coach (Jim) Mora,” Sanchez said. “They’ve all been excited about me. They saw me work out at pro day. I visited with them quite a bit, and at the end of this week I’ll have gone to Detroit and Seattle, met with St. Louis, Jacksonville.

“I mean you hear everything. I’m all over the map. And I had a great time with coach Knapp and coach Lazor. So I feel comfortable with their system, and it’s very similar to what we ran at SC so it would be a seamless transition. I think it would be great.”

Levy then asked him if he thinks there’s a chance he could go to Seattle at No. 4.

“Sure, that’d be great for both of us,” Sanchez said.

Here is the voice link to the entire Sanchez conversation. http://www.kjram.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=mitchplayer.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/SEATTLE-WA/KJR-AM/Mitch_090416_Mark%20Sanchez.mp3?CPROG=PCAST?CCOMRRMID&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=SEATTLE-WA&NG_FORMAT=sports&NG_ID=KJR950AM&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=&SERVER_NAME=www.950kjr.com&SITE_ID=645&STATION_ID=KJR-AM&TRACK=

So that sheds a lot of light on what the Seahawks will do with there first-round pick, fourth overall. That being Sanchez. The rest of the Seahawks needs, OT and LB they could take ILB James Laurinaitis in the second round and move him to OLB just like how the Seahawks drafted Leroy Hill who was a MLB and moved him to OLB.

Now for OT they could look at Fenuki Tupou from Oregon. Also I have a quote from Mike Sando that also sheds some light on the Seahawks and Sanchez.

“Do think Seattle needs to at least consider a quarterback at No. 4, if available. How many times does Seattle expect to draft this early? Might as well take a quarterback now while you have the chance to get a highly rated one.”

Here is the link the the origional article also writen by me http://www.nfltouchdown.com/sanchez-to-seahawks-possibility-almost-a-reality/