Seahawks' Complete 2011 Draft Class

Ladies and gentlemen, your newest Seattle Seahawks.

Seahawks 2011 Draft
Rd	Pick	Player	Pos	School	Ht	Wt	#*
1	25	James Carpenter	RT	Alabama	6'4"	321	67
3	75	John Moffit	RG	Wisconsin	6'4"	314	62
4	99	K.J. Wright	OLB	Mississippi State	6'3"	245	50
4	107	Kris Durham	WR	Georgia	6'5"	216	84
5	154	Richard Sherman	CB	Stanford	6'3"	195	42
5	156	Mark Legree	FS	Appalachian State	6'0"	210	25
6	173	Byron Maxwell	CB	Clemson	6'0"	202	41
7	205	Lazarius Levingston	DE	LSU	6'4"	292	96
7	242	Malcolm Smith	OLB	USC	6'1"	225	53

* - Thought I would guess everyone's jersey numbers. Bold indicates a confirmed jersey number per Seahawks.com; the rest are my own wild guesses, pending comeuppance.

With the #173 Pick, the Seattle Seahawks Select Byron Maxwell, CB, Clemson

Three defensive backs in a row. Guess Pete Carroll is also serious about special teams. Wonder what this means for Walter Thurmond, Kam Chancellor, and Brandon Browner.

With the #156 Pick, the Seattle Seahawks Select Mark Legree, FS, Appalachian State

Can't complain about the Seahawks thinking depth at this stage. 22 career interceptions perk the ears.

With the Josh Wilson Pick, the Seattle Seahawks Select Richard Sherman, CB, Stanford

A tall press corner (6'3") at 195 pounds? Interesting.

Russ Lande: Seahawks get a real steal by grabbing CB R. Sherman in the 5th rd as he has great size, athleticism & ball skills to develop into starter.

Sounds like mostly upside, but what's up with the logjam at corner?

With the #107 Pick, the Seattle Seahawks Select Kris Durham, WR, Georgia

Sweet! Another big WR with low numbers for John Moffitt to throw to.

Quick expert opinions:

Doug Farrar: Durham faster than your pssession receiver. Quick to/thru seam, good downfield. Vertical. Cuts on short routes. YAC guy.

Rob Rang: For Seahawks fans panicking about Kris Durham, check out Youtube video. + Acceleration, body control for size

Eric Williams: Durham said his visited Seattle before draft, and has been working out with Charlie Whitehurst in Georgia.

Russ Lande: Love the pick of Kris Durham (WR - Georgia) as he has the height, speed, jumping ability and hands to be a big, dangerous down field threat.

Hawk Blogger: Don't know Kris Durham, but he sounds like a Stokley understudy. Tall slot guy with good speed and hands.

Rob Staton: I like the Kris Durham pick. Good size and hands, worth a flier in round four. 

Still wondering the production is despite playing behind AJ Green. Durham's route arsenal was awful limited. Still, he has the tools to grow into some NFL skills. Just surprised we passed on Edmond Gates, Greg Salas, and Tanden Doss for a guy without numbers.

With the #99 Pick, the Seattle Seahawks Select K.J. Wright, LB, Miss State

I know nothing about this guy except he's lanky, a projected Will linebacker, and his highlight reel showed a lot of dropped interceptions.

At least it's a defensive pick.

Quick Reaction to the Seahawks' First Two Picks

The Seahawks' early selections of offensive linemen James Carpenter and John Moffitt illustrate a truth: that Pete Carroll is completely sincere and determined in his vision: to turn the Seahawks into a run-first team. He is defying the established patterns of NFL success and forging ahead in his own way.

You have to at least admire his gumption. The man backs words with actions. It's refreshing to see a consistent direction and forthrightness in our front office.

With a number of available prospects of great talent intersecting severe team need (Ryan Mallett, Jimmy Smith, Marvin Austin, Justin Houston), Seattle chose twice to disregard some undeniable holes in favor of investing in the offensive line, trading down at one point to do so. Carpenter and Moffitt's talent is certainly there. Carpenter may actually be the underrated gem of this class. Make no mistake on that - the picks themselves weren't bad.

With the 75th Pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks Select John Moffitt, G, Wisconsin

I'll resist the urge to make a "curds and whey" joke here.

At least we'll have a strong line to protect Charlie Whitehurst as he overthrows everyone.

Seahawks Trade Down from #57

This is convoluted...I think this is what I saw...

* Seattle (#57) trades down with Detroit 18 spots into the mid third (#75).
* Detroit coughs up their mid 4th rounder (#107).
* Seattle (#157 and #209) and Detroit (#154 and #205) swap 5th and 7th round picks, Seattle jumping up a few picks in each instance.

According to updated draft value charts, Seattle lost about 32 points on that trade...about the value of a late fifth-rounder. Detroit should have just coughed up their fifth entirely. Oh well.

With the 25th Pick in the 2011 Draft, the Seattle Seahawks Select James Carpenter, OT, Alabama

Analysis and opinion coming tomorrow afternoon, once I repair my newly-perforated wall.

The Draft and Character Risks

One last thought as the 2011 NFL Draft (finally) commences today...

I'm not sold on Pete Carroll. I don't know whether he has what it takes to compete at the league level yet. In his first year as Seahawks head coach, he's shown good and bad. He's certainly demonstrated that he can inspire and motivate even a poor team, get them believing in themselves. He can attract a quality coaching staff. He's not shy in free agency and can scrounge up decent talent out of almost anywhere. He's installed a defensive scheme that has documented weaknesses and prioritizes shutting down the run, which honestly shouldn't be a huge priority. He's shown an inflexibility on scheme that needlessly deprived Seattle of a couple talented players. He's betrayed a possible over-valuing of tools, like height.

Something we have yet to see is how he handles character risks with his high picks.

A number of late-first-round prospects commonly mocked to Seattle possess what we call "character concerns". This would include QB Ryan Mallett, CB Jimmy Smith, DT Marvin Austin, and DT Nick Fairley if he falls far enough. LB Justin Houston and DT Christian Ballard can be added to that list now that we know he failed a Combine drug test.

Character concerns can include anything from legal issues (drugs, alcohol, domestic problems) to on-field red flags (laziness, immaturity, cockiness, disrespect for authority). They can also range anywhere from confirmed and undeniable, to rumored and dismissible.

This stuff has to be taken into account when you evaluate a prospect. You don't draft a crucial player who runs the risk of leaving effort on the sidelines or getting thrown in jail for that crucial division game. This is why a player's draft stock takes a hit if this stuff comes out - draftniks know that teams will dismiss him more easily.

What about Carroll?

The Mallett Ultimatum, Part 3: Scheme Fit?

I don't have any idea what kind of offense Pete Carroll will be running in 2011.

You don't have any idea what kind of offense Pete Carroll will be running in 2011.

The media doesn't have any idea what kind of offense Pete Carroll will be running in 2011.

Truth be told, I don't even think Pete Carroll has any idea what kind of offense Pete Carroll will be running in 2011.

Why? Because Pete Carroll doesn't know who his quarterback will be yet. This is a quarterback-driven league whose successful offenses are built around the QB, not the other way around. Draft a good QB, construct the offense around his skill set, and you can start your rebuild any time. Wait for a QB who perfectly fits your abstract playbook, and you're at the mercy of the whims of the draft. You might be waiting years, and GM's don't have years to turn teams around.

It would be foolish for Seattle to rigidly adhere to an offensive philosophy instead of a quarterback. I personally don't see any proof that Carroll is even going to be that rigid. We know what he has said to the cameras, which means nothing. We know whom he has pursued in free agency, which means more. We know what he's done on the field, which is also valuable. And we know what works in the NFL, which might be the most important consideration of all.

Let's use that stuff when it comes to guessing Seattle's draft next week. Yes, this has to do with Ryan Mallett, because arguing in favor of flexibility allows us to envision Mallett as a Seahawk next week. Bias? Maybe, but I don't think it's a deadly one. Judge for yourselves.

A question to ponder: if Carroll is so excited about arm strength and mobility, then why did he trade away Seneca Wallace?

RUMOR: Carson Palmer to Seattle for Mid-Round Picks

Don't panic if Seattle doesn't draft a quarterback on Thursday - it might just mean that they already have one coming.

Rumors are heating up that Cincinnati QB Carson Palmer has a trade deal in the works with the Seattle Seahawks, and that the asking price is incredibly generous: a 5th-round draft pick and a 3rd-round (at the highest) pick in 2012, and a contract significantly less than either his current contract in Cincinnati or the contract that Matt Hasselbeck asked the Seahawks for.

Your immediate reaction is one of mocking incredulity. Those fanboys again. No way that would ever happen.

Well, there is a specific set of circumstances that could give sensible framework to the trade. Those circumstances have been authenticated separately by Rob Staton at Seahawks Draft Blog, working from a well-connected source he trusts, and a Seahawks.net forum member who also claims a contact within the Bengals organization. Adam Wright of Seahawks_Talk tweeted back in March that Palmer was being targeted by Seattle, and Sam Farmer of the LA Times has theorized the move as well, though the latter's comments could just be speculation.

There's also this Deep Throat with some intimate info that contradicts nothing we know about the situation. (Text, but NSFW).

Validating this rumor feels a little like validating the moon landing. There's a ton of quick, convenient contradictions that look good on the surface, but explore each of them with the facts and each sticking point goes away. The challenge is to overcome the "Oh, come on" reflex - the feeling that if you have to spend more than 5 minutes justifying something, you're just on the wrong path.

Here's the obvious counter-arguments:

The Mallett Ultimatum, Part 2: Too Many Holes?

Part 1 of the Ryan Mallett series can be found here.


In typical fashion, much of the sports community is only now taking a fair look at the Arkansas signal-caller and judging him in the light of actual NFL attributes. He's a polarizing figure, to be sure. All it takes in this reactionary pre-draft environment is one notable writer or reporter to laud a guy, and suddenly everyone starts jumping on board. ESPN ran a front-page piece on him this week. Phil Simms pumped up the guy. Jon Gruden hosted a whiteboard session in which Mallett blew Cam Newton and Andy Dalton out of the water in a demonstration of his grasp of pro-level offensive concepts. And now Greg Cosell, a knowledgeable scout and draftnik, is tweeting about him in the context of actual NFL offenses.

With the hype machine finally swinging in Mallett's favor for once, expect a resurgence of his draft stock. Some draft experts will keep Mallett in Round 2, but I'm fairly sure they'll be proven wrong on draft day when some desperate team reaches for him.

And it's not insane to say that said team should be the Seattle Seahawks, even despite rumors that they're not interested. (Rob Rang claims they still are.)

Which is why, when our little draft team traded up from #25 to #15 to select Mallett in the Mock Three Twitter draft, we raised a few eyebrows. Several people asked why, Adam Wright of Seahawks Talk thought it too costly, and a couple guys said we could have waited until the #57 pick to grab him, if not the third round.

Most of the rest of you just say - rightfully - that the team has too many holes to fill and can't afford giving up a second-round pick to trade up.

Here's part two of my defense.

UPDATED: Seahawks Draft Rumors, April 20-21

If you're reading me, you're probably already following Seahawks Draft Blog's Rob Staton on Twitter and have seen what I'm about to pass on. He's been dropped a few nuggets, supposedly from the inside organization, on how Seattle is looking at the upcoming draft. Rob and I both know this source to be reliable, having conveyed accurate info on the Seahawks' actions in last year's draft.

Here's what we've been told:

(UPDATED for new info on Thursday night)

The Mallett Ultimatum, Part 1

Yep. I'm driving this bandwagon.

Just to be clear, I don't believe in grabbing any old first-round QB just because he's first-round. Plenty of teams have busted with that mentality. I also don't believe that he's an instant fix to every problem on a football team, nor that other picks can't help the situation. And I don't believe in throwing a rookie QB to the wolves on a team that can't afford him one iota of protection.

So when I say that I consider Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett the most likely-to-succeed prospect in this draft, it's for good reason. I've analyzed the guy, compared him to the other options, and emerged convinced that selecting this guy will bring bigger returns than any other. Sure, my judgment is fallible, but at some point you have to pick a belief and stick to it. I believe that Mallett has what it takes to win in the pros, and that he has it right now. The other guys do not, and it's questionable whether they ever will.

So here's my take on why Seattle should rate this guy very highly on its draft board. In the interest of sparing my generous readers from having to read essays, I've broken it down into three parts. Enjoy part one, in which I take a look mostly at Mallett himself.

(You might also appreciate the more technical scouting report of Kip Earlywine over at Seahawks Draft Blog.)

MockThree Draft Underway

Rob Staton of Seahawks Draft Blog, Danny Kelly of Fieldgulls, and myself are participating in a mock Twitter draft. You can follow along by searching for the #MockThree channel on Twitter, or follow me on Twitter for periodic updates.

Amongst the biggest early surprises (Newton still available at #8?) is San Diego trading up to #2 for LB Von Miller - giving up the #18, #50, and #89 (the Whitehurst trade pick, BTW) to do so.

I'm not sure which team got rooked worse in that deal. San Diego ate an entire starting draft to lock themselves into a #2 contract for a linebacker. Denver gave up a potentially franchise-altering prospect for three picks that are theoretically unlikely to match the on-the-field impact of a #2 pick. They also lost got shortchanged by approximately the point value of a late first-rounder, no matter which chart you use. In a way, both teams lost on this one, in my humble opinion.

Everyone is trying to trade down and stockpile picks, but there is such a thing as valuing picks over players. The whole point of the draft value points system, the whole point of a #2 pick being equal in points to two lower first-rounders, is that the #2 pick is supposed to impact his team as much as those two lower players combined. Players aren't rated top five for no reason, and the chart doesn't exist for no reason. That's why QB and defensive linemen usually go quickly in real drafts, and why linebackers don't; the former play at more significant football positions than linebackers.

San Diego and Denver's picks are obviously theirs to do with as they like, but when I mentioned how bad a deal I thought it was, their GM's threw out the names of a handful of top five picks notorious for how badly they busted. Fair enough. But we all tend to worry over the horror stories, because in a way busts get more attention than successes. Top 5 picks may have their bust rate, but they also have a much higher ceiling. You could, I suppose, interpret Denver's move as playing it safe. But still, why would they gift such a priceless pick to a division rival?

San Diego had a nice haul of picks to spare, sure, but why wouldn't they be served by just using all those picks? Hell of a draft. Saying that two second-rounders are worth more than a first implies that all picks are equal in value, which they aren't. Players and trades are unpredictable.

I'm rapidly coming to the belief that the best draft position for a team is not higher or lower, but exactly where they already are. Plenty of championship teams take what they're given and just...pick good football players.

Oh well. Just my useless thoughts. Stay tuned.

The Perfect Quarterback's Personality

People talk about what a risky business the evaluation of quarterbacks is, and they aren't joking. That minefield is littered with the wreckage of general managers and head coaches' careers who have latched their reputations to the backs of colossal busts. Or the ascendancy of geniuses like Bill Belichick, whose reputation is partially established by a quarterback he passed on 5 times in one draft.

Once a talent evaluator has established that a quarterback has the physical skills to play at the position, and the intelligence to read defenses, call audibles, and in general not lose the game due to plain ol' stupidity, what is left?

The personality of the winning quarterback. Don't hire a private investigator to see if the guy is snorting coke off of a hookers' backside in his down time, hire a psychiatrist to see if the guy is a pain in the ass to play golf with.

Let me explain. I think great quarterbacks share a few qualities, none of which are related to physical skills or test related intelligence. They are, as follows (with credit to grinch11, who jogged this post with a reply over at Fieldgulls):

Redefining Arm Strength, Epilogue

Real quick today, I offer an article from Matt Bowen of the National Football Post that analyzes an 85-yard touchdown pass from Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.

As soon as you read the phrase "85-yard touchdown pass", you probably imagined a deep bomb to a streaking wide receiver who'd gotten behind the defense, right? Nope. This article is actually an excellent example of how arm strength isn't all about distance, but about velocity and zipping the ball to an underneath receiver before the defender can get there. It's a throw that college QB prospects are required to make if they want any respect from scouts, because it's a throw that NFL teams use all the time. This, and not this, is the definition of "beating safeties deep". A strong arm can split apart even a fast, disciplined defense.

Enjoy Bowen's breakdown. Be warned, it's heavy on the X's and O's.)

Where Do Real Offenses Come From?

We Seahawks fans are a unique breed. We're still riding high on the memory of 2005's Super Bowl offense, that unstoppable smashmouth machine. The reliable running game that defensive coordinators feared, the sharpness and zip of Matt Hasselbeck's play as he threw without duress, the favorable job the defense enjoyed of merely keeping opponents from outracing Seattle's points total. All enabled by a once-in-a-decade peak of skill and chemistry along the offensive line, complemented by an elite runner and a 6th-round quarterback obtained in trade. The Seahawks were catapulted to the top of the conference on the backs of that historic line, giving the team an aura of invincibility and the 12th Man the first taste of nation-wide respect they'd experienced in twenty years.

So why would we desire anything else? Why would we care how other teams get along? A lot of us honestly don't even watch non-Seahawks football. I hadn't until 2009, when I started suspecting that Seattle's QB issues were independent of the other problems on offense. I started researching the history of playoff teams, especially those who repeat. I learned a lot from draftniks who observe the draft tendencies and priorities of teams that succeed (and those that don't). I built a picture of which positions build off each other and which ones feed into which. And I came away with an inescapable conclusion.

Seattle's 2005 offense is a weird outlier. It's an exception to the rule. Most playoff offenses don't hinge on the offensive line nearly to the degree that the Seahawks' did that year. Some Super Bowl offensive lines have even been downright mediocre. But almost every single one of them is led by a great, and usually first-round, quarterback.

Which has no small amount of pertinence to how Seattle goes about rebuilding. Quarterback first, or everything else? Draft a QB early or later? If there's a debate raging stronger than Matt Hasselbeck, this is probably it.

SackSEER and Seattle's Pass Rush Prospects

I wrote earlier about SackSEER, the Football Outsiders model that tries to project the NFL success of college pass rushers. It uses four specific factors to do this: short shuttle time, indicative of agility; vertical leap, which can show potential for burst and explosiveness off the line; per-sack college productivity; and college games missed. The models is restricted to 4-3 defensive ends and 3-4 linebackers and gives its results in the form of five-year sack totals.

I cautiously respect SackSEER because 1) it uses sound statistical methods to deduce which tools and conditions can be used to predict success; 2) those tools and conditions have tangible connections to success; 3) it's honest about its shortcomings; and 4) it's reasonably accurate.

SackSEER analysis of this draft's pass-rushing prospects was just released and offers a few against-the-grain opinions on some of the speed-rusher prospects being mocked to the Seahawks.

Might Seattle Trade Down?

Dan Kelly over at Fieldgulls is theorizing that the Seahawks could be caught up in a frenzy of trading in this year's draft, with QB-desperate teams trying to move up and beat other teams to the punch.

Rob Staton of Seahawks Draft Blog jumps into the trade discussion by suggesting five first-round trade possibilities, some of which include Seattle as a contestant.

Another angle is Rob Rang's belief that teams will be shier about trading down this year due to the lack of a CBA. The previous CBA allowed teams to attach longer contracts to early first-rounders, but nobody knows what rules will be attached to those picks this year. Teams may not want to give up the extra years of ownership of those guys when they might not be able to use those players in their rookie season.

My take:

More Than Just a QB Away: Offense

I don't blame national football pundits for not knowing much about the Seahawks. It's not as if they don't have time for anything but studying Seattle's roster. They've got 32 teams to cover, and believe me, researching and writing articles on pro football is a time-consuming job.

So when NFL.com's Steve Wyche slapped a pic of Matt Hasselbeck onto an article entitled "QB all that's missing from these teams", I didn't immediately spit out my Mountain Dew. Despite the fact that the Seahawks are hurting immoderately at almost every position and that a quarterback will not solve everything, I just decided to give the guy a break. I'm not insecure about my team; I don't need sportswriters to give the Seahawks their deserved diligence in order to feel good about them. Their defeat of New Orleans gave me two years' worth of punk-headed confidence to coast on. And besides, it's just too easy to mock sportswriters. Picking on easy targets makes you look the worse.

Nevertheless, I knew Wyche was wrong without even reading the article. For all my rants about the QB position and how its importance justifies no other draft pick at #25 if a top-four QB remains, the Seahawks have dire needs all over the roster.

So here's my shot at a position-by position assessment of Seattle's roster. Just to be different, I'll assess each position on a scale of one to ten - ten indicating a well-filled position, one meaning a bleeding hole.

Hawks and Hasselbeck: Half Seconds

It's believed that Matt Hasselbeck reinvented himself in 2010 as a vertical quarterback. He certainly looked more successful at the deep bomb from my armchair. It was no small task for him to accomplish this transformation, set at his feet by 2010 offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates. But Bates is now gone, leaving us to wonder what value that transformation will have going forward, and how complete it was.

Despite what some say about Darrell Bevell's predilection for the West Coast offense, Seattle's new OC comes from the Reid-Childress branch of the WCO that employs Desean Jackson and Sidney Rice. There's no reason to limit our expectations to a mostly short passing game of the kind Holmgren ran. There will be deep passes in Seattle in 2011, and Hasselbeck will indeed have value to the Seahawks if it can be proven that Bates' West Coast Recovery program has turned him into a deep-ball maestro.

Problem is, no successful quarterback in this league actually has the deep pass for his bread and butter. It is the velocity of the football on all manner of throws - short, intermediate, and long - that keeps the chains moving and the ball slicing past defenders. The Packers' game in particular is based on intermediate zip. Arm strength is not shown by distance; it's shown by velocity.

And by that definition, I'm not sure Hasselbeck has ever thrown a deep pass in his life.

Redefining Arm Strength

I have a female friend, 19 years old and a petite 110 pounds, whom I've seen throw a regulation football 30 yards' distance several times in a row and hit the same general area with good consistency.

According to some people's definition of a "deep ball", that makes my friend a pro quarterback prospect. Never mind that her delivery looks more like a pitcher's combined with the heel grab of a figure skater, and never mind the fact that her throws hang in the air long enough for most turtles to get under it from several feet away. For some, the distance a QB can throw is the only measure of arm strength - and the only point. If he can throw long, the thinking goes, then he can succeed in the NFL.

The major hole in this theory is that most defenses are thinking the same thing. And they've invented the safety position to compensate.

Hawks and Hasselbeck: The Tribute

The quarterback position is amongst the hottest debates amongst us right now, and by extension, so is Matt Hasselbeck. The few mentions I've made of him so far have been pretty negative, and since I'm about to embark on another series of posts about the position and how Hasselbeck fits in, I find it important to explain my position on our favorite QB and how I see him and his successor.

How do you let go of a long-term relationship that needs to be let go? You've had a few great years together, but it's become obvious that you need to move on. The future is daunting, the past seems unrepeatable, and the denial is constantly threatening to keep you in the same comfortable spot rather than step out on your own, take new risks, rebuild from the ground up - especially if the relationship you're ending is the best you've ever had. Hard to imagine anything better.

That's kinda how I feel about the 12th Man's relationship with Matt Hasselbeck. He's obviously the best, or at least the most accomplished, quarterback to ever play for Seattle. He's helmed this ship through its proudest moments and stayed at his post through some of its roughest and most embarrassing. That he has caused some of those embarrassments directly does not negate his past accomplishments. He is to be in the Seahawks' Ring of Honor the moment he retires from pro football, and if the Seahawks organization fails at that, I'll have something to say about it. He is the greatest Seahawks quarterback of all time.

And it's time to move on.

Fieldgulls Gets a New Head Writer

Dan Kelly, formerly of the excellent Seehock Blog, has accepted the lead writer's job at Fieldgulls, the SB Nation blog for the Seahawks.

Fieldgulls was rather an empty shell following the departure of former head writer John Morgan, whose comprehensive research and knack for football history really brought a ton of knowledge to the 12th Man's online community. The prolific Kelly is a guy who also puts in the honest hours and whose focus on scouting should make him a great asset during draft season. Fieldgulls should definitely be in your bookmarks if it isn't already.

I've been graciously invited to write the occasional article for Fieldgulls (and a couple other sites), and I'm completely game for that. I do, however, plan to keep my residence and the bulk of my work here at 17 Power. I'm certainly honored that my opinions are sought (even if they're mostly buffoonish blatherings), but do I sound standoffish when I talk about a certain loyalty I feel toward the projects I start and build from the ground up? Part of me would just like to stick with what I've got and see where it ends up.

Besides, I'm stoked by how the Seahawks blogging community has stepped up this offseason and I'm looking forward to how it will fall out. Between Fieldgulls, Rob Staton over at Seahawks Draft Blog, and other players like Seahawk Addicts, Candice Caldwell at 12 the Hard Way, and the irreplaceable Dave Krieg's Strike Beard, there's a great synergy that could be had. It would be awesome to see a circle of shared and re-tweeted opinions for us all to chew on. It's always a relief to see intelligent, informed blogging happen in this wasteland of an Internet, so this could be a great thing.