Third and Long: Three Seahawks Who Will Have a Make or Break Season

I've selected three Seattle Seahawks players that are going to have a make or break season in 2009. Both on offense and defense. So let's get started.

1.) QB Matt Hasselbeck—Last season Hasselbeck missed nine games. Now Hasselbeck has a new No. 1 WR in T.J. Houshmandzadeh, along with a healthy Deion Branch, Nate Burleson, and rookie speedy WR Deon Butler.

Now Hasselbeck has no excuses and if he gets injured for an extended peiord of time this year, he'll be looking the other way come the 2010 NFL draft, where the Seahawks would be looking at Sam Bradford or Colt McCoy with their first-round picks.

2) C Chris Spencer—This is Spencer's contract year.  And the Seahawks drafted talented G/C Max Unger in the second round of the 2009 NFL draft.  Also, the Seahawks have Steve Vallos.

So, it's completely up to Spencer. He can perform great, keep his center job, and force Unger to LG, which would be great as well. OR he can fail and turn his job over to Unger. I could possibly see Unger starting at C for the start of the season, depending on how it goes.

3) WR Deion Branch—Branch, like Hasselbeck has been injured a lot in the past years. Now a lot of Seahawks fans said that Branch was going to get cut or traded. The bottom line is this, Branch has way more value to the Seahawks than some other team.

Mora and Ruskell saw at the end of last season how good Branch really is. He played his heart out and came back at the end of the season when they were already out. He cares about this team. And when healthy, he completely deserves that SB MVP he won. Now he has to do it in Seattle