Seattle Seahawks Choose Taylor Mays

Matt Klug — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:15:20 -0400

This is the very first thing we should hear at the draft in 2010. Players like him don't come around very often. The fact that he calls Seattle home is a dream come true.

He was an All State football and track athlete in High School at Odea in Seattle. His father played for the Huskies and a few teams in the NFL. His mother is an Executive at Nordstrom. He decided on USC because he wanted to create his own legacy. So it would seem he has the Ruskell character and pedigree of school.

He is a four year starter on arguably the best program in the country at USC. He's been an All American since his sophomore year and was second team All American his Freshmen year.

He was clocked at a 4.29 his Sophomore year and Pete Carroll has no problem telling anyone that Mays is the fastest kid on the team and that really means something when you're at Southern Cal.

He has one more season left and has been told by Carroll that he will become more involved in the defense at his free safety position which should lead to some amazing numbers in 2009.

I know that everyone likes Eric Berry, but he is tiny. He's only 5'11" and weighs 211lbs. I'm impressed with his ability to play safety but you can't give up 6'3" and 235lbs for that. His skill level is not that much greater if it is at all to overcome those numbers.

It would be a travesty of Lincecum type proportions if the Seahawks don't pick up Taylor Mays in the first round of the draft. I don't care if it's Denver's pick or the Seahawks, but it has to get done or we will pay severely.

We have been burned in this city before by not picking up our hometown players I hope we don't repeat those mistakes in 2010.

I think it is very apparent to most Seahawks fans that our Safeties need help and if Hasselbeck stays healthy I think he can play a few more years. That gives the Hawks time to focus on getting the best player available and hoping that Ruskell can find us our next QB or RB in the second-seventh rds.

The Seahawks' defense is on the verge of something special and with Mora and Bradley at the helm it can happen. Mebane, Tatupu, and Mays holding down the center of the field would be devastating.

So when the time comes for Ruskell to make that pick I hope that he makes the right decision and realizes that the best stuff is homegrown.

Do We Really Need a Big 12 Quarterback in 2010?

Matt Klug — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:21:40 -0400

The recent conversation on what QB we should take got me thinking. Why are we going so crazy over Big 12 QBs? I personally think we should take Colt McCoy but if history tells us anything, we probably should run the other direction and find someone else. Big 12 QB's stink in the NFL.

Over the last 10 years, only 13 QBs were drafted out of the Big 12. 7 are currently back-ups with possibly one exception, Josh Freeman who might start this year.

This distinguished list of incredible college players includes Chris Simms, Kliff Kingsbury, BJ Symons, Vince Young, Brad Smith, Sage Rosenfels, Josh Heupel, Michael Bishop, Reggie McNeal and Seneca Wallace. Most of these QB's had insane college careers and are either out of football or riding pine in the NFL with little chance of ever starting. Seneca Wallace started only due to the injury of Hasselbeck.

What happens to these incredible players once they reach the pros? I understand any QBs from Texas Tech because of the system, but what about the other players? Most of these former Big 12 QBs were blue chip recruits, played well in college and then disappear in the NFL. If they are talented in high school and college, why can't they transition to the pros? Most of these players have moved to multiple teams over their NFL careers yet none of them can seem to crack the starting line-up or stay in the league. So if multiple NFL coaches can't help them, it drives me to believe it must have been taught to them in college.

Big 12 schools fail to train their QBs for the next level. They only care about winning the National Championship, which is good, but you need to mold these top QBs for their future. Most kids going to an Oklahoma or Texas are looking to go pro and these coaches know this, yet they don't teach them what they need to know. I base this comparison on the number of QBs that come out of the Pac 10.

20 QBs have been drafted out of the Pac 10 over the last 10 years. 16 are still in the NFL with a whopping 6 starters including Kellen Clemens or Mark Sanchez as starter for the Jets. For a conference that has typically been seen as weaker than the Big 12, they sure do produce top rung QBs. USC is a football factory just like Texas and OU but they seem to produce pro caliber QBs, actually 25% of QBs drafted out of the Pac 10 came from there. It’s not just USC, Oregon State, Stanford, Cal, ASU and even WSU with Alex Brink (he’s on Houston). They all are creating pro QBs and they all played in different systems. SEC is very similar to the Pac 10 in grooming QBs as well. 4 current starters are out of the SEC and with 6 others riding the pine in the NFL.

As I mentioned earlier, I really like Colt McCoy and think he has the tools to be a talented QB in the NFL but I’m still a little nervous about going after either him or Bradford. Maybe we need to look at the Pac 10 again or possibly, jump over and seriously consider Tebow or someone in the SEC. I’m really not sure who the answer is but we need to be very careful when looking at a QB from the Big 12.

Bleacher Report - Articles by Matt Klug

Seattle Seahawks Choose Taylor Mays

Do We Really Need a Big 12 Quarterback in 2010?