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Seattle finished the 2011 season at 7-9 after a 2-6 start, and that was with an injured quarterback and piecemeal offensive line. The plan put in place by general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll seems to be taking, as the Seahawks are young, aggressive, and enthusiastic on both sides of the ball. What angles would Schneider play in the draft to try to catch the suddenly dominant 49ers?

The Seahawks will trust their talent evaluation over any consensus views

Sure, there have been reports that Bruce Irvin would have went in the top 20 if the Seahawks hadn't taken him, but the pick still went against the grain of every single mock draft and player ranking available anywhere in the football media. The team's choice of James Carpenter in the first round of the 2011 draft was equally unexpected.

Irvin's status as the best pure speed rusher in the draft and the Seahawks need for that skill to complement starting defensive end Red Bryant made him an excellent fit, one that more of us should have noticed in hindsight.

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Former TCU running back Ed Wesley had one of his dreams denied when he left school early and was not selected in the NFL Supplemental Draft on July 12. On Thursday, however, he found out he had another lifelong dream fulfilled.

Jimmy Burch, of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reports the Dallas Cowboys have signed Wesley after running back Darrell Scott was released for failing his physical.

Wesley hopes to join Tyson Thompson and Philip Tanner as undrafted backs from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who have been able to make the Cowboys' roster. He will be competing with Tanner and yet another undrafted running back from the Metroplex, Lance Dunbar, for a roster spot.

Burch reports that Wesley said he has always dreamed of playing for the Cowboys, and that he has been a fan of the team for his whole life. He called the team "something that is in our family's blood." Wesley left school early to help take care of his mother, and it was his mother who broke the news about the Cowboys' interest to him. 

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The San Francisco 49ers were oh-so-close to getting to the Super Bowl and executing an astounding turnaround under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. With a dominant defense returning all 11 starters, general manager Trent Baalke had the luxury of focusing his picks on players who could get the 49ers over the top in the next one or two years. What would his strategy be when it came time to exercise the team's picks?

 

Baalke is taking the shotgun approach to fixing the offense's lack of punch at wide receiver

After adding Randy Moss and Mario Manningham in free agency, the 49ers seemed set as far as new additions to the wide receiver corps to help out Alex Smith in the passing game. So what did they do? They drafted a smaller, speedy wide receiver in the first round along with star running back LaMichael James.

AJ Jenkins could end up being a great selection, although he has had the spring of a first-round bust. James has barely practiced with the team because of Oregon's late-finishing school year. The draft pick could have been used to patch bigger holes on the O-line, or given the team something they lacked on offense, like a big receiver. 

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It was a tale of two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals. A 1-6 start and injury to starting quarterback Kevin Kolb made it seem like the team was ticketed for a return to the top five of the draft. Enter John Skelton, an improved defense, and the punch provided by first-round pick Patrick Peterson in the return game, and the team rattled off seven wins in its last nine games to finish 8-8.

What would long-time Cardinals brass and current general manager Rod Graves do in the draft to keep the momentum going?

 

The Cardinals must have really loved Michael Floyd

Not that Floyd isn't an imposing prospect with a rare size/speed combination. The Cardinals have the best wide receiver in the league, and they were without a second-round pick. Floyd was widely seen as a best player available pick because of the possible intersections between need and value that the Cardinals passed up at edge rusher and on the offensive line. There were clearly suitors in the market for a trade up at that point in the first round, so the Cardinals could have easily traded down to patch the hole in their draft left by the Kevin Kolb trade.

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New York Jets third-round pick Demario Davis had coaches and players alike raving about his leadership, work ethic and versatility this spring. The name "Ray Lewis" was even thrown around by head coach Rex Ryan. Davis is going to have to wait a bit to pick up where he left off after failing a conditioning test at the open of training camp. 

Kimberly A. Martin of Newsday reports that Davis popped a hamstring according to Ryan, but Ryan doesn't think it is "that severe". Dennis Waszak Jr. of the Associated Press reported that Ryan also said the injury caused Davis to fail his conditioning test.

Davis was seeing time in the first-team subpackages because of his ability to drop into coverage and rush the passer with equal aplomb. If he misses most of camp with this injury, it will hard for the Jets to trust him in those situations early in the season.

The Jets should err on the side of caution with Davis's return because of the propensity for hamstring injuries to linger or become aggravated if a player returns too early from them.

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Robert Woods was still able to catch 111 balls for 1,292 yards and 15 touchdowns last year despite playing through an ankle injury. That kind of production made him the top name on most lists of wide receivers eligible for the 2013 NFL draft. News out of Southern California could make the condition of his ankle more important to teams evaluating his stock than it was a few weeks ago.

Pedro Moura of ESPN Los Angeles reports that USC head coach Lane Kiffin said Woods is not yet 100 percent. Moura added that Woods has not yet been medically cleared to practice, and Kiffin also said the ankle "never recovered the way it was supposed to," and that there have been "setbacks."

The Sports Xchange reports that Kiffin said Woods was only "75 percent" last year during his standout season, which is impressive, but it also makes one wonder if he did permanent damage to the joint, especially in light of its inability to heal completely by late July after offseason surgery. 

Woods should be commended for his ability to produce through pain, but the intense once-over that teams give draft prospects in the combine could reveal that his ankle will never be truly right again if he rushes back from his slow recovery or opts to avoid additional surgery needed to correct the healing process.

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The new collective bargaining agreement has done its job of getting the rookies to camp on time. Only seven draft picks remain unsigned, and only one, Titans first-rounder Kendall Wright, has officially missed the rookie reporting date for this team.

Let's review the holdouts and what the holdup is with their contracts.

 

Minnesota No. 4 overall pick OT Matt Kalil

According to Mike Florio of ProFootball Talk, offset language to protect the team in case Kalil is released before the contract is up is the issue.

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It's that time of year—NFL training camp is upon us once again. And with it, of course, comes the delightful endless stream of storylines and subplots heading into the new season. Focusing on the youngsters, however, who are the top 10 rookies we'll be watching as training camps unfold?

While the obvious answer would be to list the top 10 picks from the 2012 NFL draft, that wouldn't seem quite right.

Everyone knows who their teams' top picks were, and they will undoubtedly be under heavy scrutiny with every move they make and every sound byte they give. Getting outside the first round, here are the rookies you should keep an eye on this training camp.

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The NFL offseason was dominated by talk of the New Orleans Saints, but in the worst possible way. Bountygate resulted in harsh punishments for coaches and players alike, and the team also had to surrender its second-round pick this year.

In a division that sees turnover at the top almost every year, the Saints had been able to win two out of the last three division titles, including one Super Bowl championship season. With no first-round pick because of the Mark Ingram deal and no second-round pick, how would Mickey Loomis attempt to keep this team on top via the draft?

 

The Saints Must Not have had Many Pressing Needs or a Deep Draft Board

Perhaps Loomis is drunk on boom/bust gambles after Jimmy Graham became one of the best third-round picks in recent memory last year. Graham was a basketball player who hadn't even caught 20 passes in his college football career when the Saints took him.

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Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

The Bears finally got their coveted big receiver this offseason. Actually, they got two—Jay Cutler's old No. 1 from Denver, Brandon Marshall (via trade), and former South Carolina jump-ball specialist Alshon Jeffery (after trading up in the second round of the draft). From the sounds of Cutler's comments about Jeffery, only Marshall will be making a big impact at the beginning of the season.

All spring, while Jeffery was battling cramps in the team's rookie minicamp, all we heard from the Bears about their wide receivers was that Devin Hester was their most outstanding wideout in OTAs. Really, this year was going to be the year for Hester to break out as more than a return man. The skeptical (and likely correct) response was that, in reality, Hester was just keeping Jeffery's spot warm for him. 

When Cutler spoke to season ticket holders in a conference call Tuesday night, he did say Jeffery was "great" in the offseason, according to Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune. The more operative statement about Jeffery from Cutler was "less is more." Less snaps, that is, equal more impact.

Cutler said Jeffery's role at the start will involve "not a lot of thinking." He went a step further and stated that Jeffery's natural ability to "go up and get the ball, get out of breaks quick" would be the focus, and reiterated that the team would "find ways where he doesn't have to think much."