Conceding the Ryan Mallett Anti-Hype

Thirty-two teams can't all be wrong multiple times. The NFL must know something about Ryan Mallett that we don't, and that something must be ominous. There's no other way to explain Mallett's stunning fall into the early third round on draft day. The rumors that had been floating around about his character and work ethic must have had something to them after all.

If only we knew what that something was. We don't have any better idea now than we did back in January.

A few people, like 17 Power's own Scott, have questioned my objectivity regarding Mallett. (I'm glad he's doing so. That's the reason I brought other guys on - to keep me accountable.) But while I may have been sympathetic for the guy over the (at the time) empty smear campaign directed against him, I really wasn't rooting for Mallett as an individual. I just desperately, desperately want the Seahawks to resolve the quarterback situation and move forward with their future. And from a talent standpoint, Mallett was by far the best solution. I was so sold on his talent that I was willing to eat a second-round pick and move up 10 spots in a Twitter mock draft to nab him.

Then the draft came along, confirming the adage "When there's smoke, there's fire." Mallett was passed on by team after team. I still remember Michael Crabtree's face as it comically fell when Seattle passed on him at #4 in the 2009 draft. Apparently there was something to his baggage rumors as well. His contract holdout proved that.

'Course, some Seattle fans even now think that Crabtree would have been a better pick than the "safe" guy we grabbed instead. A few would even have tolerated his contract holdout for the sake of having something on offense. How will we be looking back at Mallett in three years' time, having had him snatched out from under our very nose by the New England Patriots?

Straight Shots on Seattle's Draft, Part 1

Seattle's 2011 draft will probably please the typical Seahawks fan, who still believes that the offensive line is the foundation of a good offense. And a good defense. And a good special teams. And William and Kate's marriage. And the continued rotation of the earth about its axis.

It will also please you if you're content that our current starting QB is Charlie Whitehurst and our current starting 3-tech DT is Barrett Moen.

You're probably not so giddy, however, if you believe the swelling evidence that NFL success is tied to the quarterback much more strongly than it is the offensive line.

The Seattle Seahawks did their best in the 2011 draft given their position, but failed rather conspicuously to address the team's greatest needs with the most assured offseason mechanism - high draft picks - available to them. They didn't demonstrate the savvy sense of value they showed last year, and they didn't supply the team with the immediate impact that a fortunate-to-be-7-9 team requires.

It's easy to appeal to free agency at this point, but we don't know when free agency will begin. We don't know that Matt Hasselbeck, Carson Palmer, Nnamdi Asomugha, Brandon Mebane, or anyone else will be available or even interested to sign with Seattle once it does. Seattle has risked its 2011 season on a complete unknown. That's a gamble no matter how you slice it.

All this on the altar of a very specific vision that grows clearer by the moment, but has yet to be validated at the NFL level. At least there's a vision.

Let's go through this one round at a time.

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?

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.)

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.)

Saturday Sound Bites: Kolb, Cornerbacks, Mallett

Backtracking on Kolb

Peter King of Sports Illustrated is now denying that the Seahawks were the team to offer a first-rounder for Kevin Kolb. CSN Philly cites a source claiming that this fervent suitor of Kolb's is in fact the Arizona Cardinals. Since it's ridiculous to think that the Cards would sacrifice the #5 pick in 2011 for Kolb, the most likely offer was a 2012 first-rounder.

The Cornerback Chase

Adam Schefter names the Seahawks as a likely candidate to pursue former Oakland CB Nnamdi Asomugha. This looks like mere speculation, though we should make room for Schefter's reputation and the validity of his information flow.

On the other hand, Tony Pauline of TFY Draft Insider reports that Seattle could turn elsewhere in its CB hunt: Jimmy Smith of Colorado, a draft possibility at #25. Rob Staton has long rated Smith higher than most and remains convinced that his talent is worth the character risk revealed at the Combine, after which several teams supposedly scratched Smith from their draft boards.

I personally lean towards Asomugha. He'd be incredibly expensive, yes, but he plays a foundational position and plays it better than almost anyone in the league. He's getting up there in age, but like Champ Bailey and Charles Woodson, he has the physical/mental profile of a CB who ages well. Seattle has plenty of cap room and can afford to make waves in free agency. What we don't know is how such pricey, assured-to-start signings would fit into Pete Carroll's competition philosophy, which eschewed a big name like T.J. Houshmandzadeh in favor of the cheap Mike Williams and the unknown Ben Obomanu.

Smith, on the other hand, will reveal how Carroll and John Schneider weigh character risks. The team has signed questionable personalities like Williams, Lendale White, and Marshawn Lynch, but none of those were terribly costly to sign or to cut. Smith's status as a first-round pick, would skew that cost-benefit ratio quite a bit. Carroll looks for motivated players and complete embracing of the team philosophy, and the big knock on Smith is that he plays lazy and acts self-entitled. This accusation itself sounds a bit lazy, the kind of typically vague and intangible criticism that could be genuine or a plant. Even so, in my judgment, Asomugha is the more proven commodity.

Ryan Mallett Visits Seahawks

Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett has a visit scheduled with the Seahawks, amongst several other teams, next month.

Hard to read into these kinds of things. Tim Ruskell was notoriously coy when it came to revealing his draft choices, talking up most of the logical selections and then turning around and taking the one guy he hadn't paid any attention to. Schneider has not bothered with such games, having met with both Russell Okung and Earl Thomas before the draft.

Also, as a first-round quarterback, Mallett will be expected to schedule visits with more teams than players of other positions might. It's therefore difficult to read into these visits as indicators of potential interest, except to say that the Seahawks are not forgoing their due diligence on the top 4 QB's just because they're stuck at #25 and probably unable to get one.

I do find it interesting that Jake Locker has been invited to work out for only one team, as opposed to the multiple visits of Mallett, Cam Newton, and Blaine Gabbert. Of course, that could be because Locker's pro day isn't until the 30th.

The Little Guys

Seahawks Draft Blog lists some late-round prospects that Seattle has visited with. S Chris Conte, OT D.J. Young, QB Mike Coughlin (backup at Boise State), and LB Lawrence Wilson lead the list. LB Justin Houston will also work out for the Seahawks. There was also Montana tackle Michael Person, who has a fan in a knowledgeable high school coach I know; he says that tackles in Montana tend to project as guards in the NFL, but Person definitely has the attitude looked for by new Seattle O-line coach Tom Cable.

Hometown Discount

K Olindo Mare has expressed a desire to return to Seattle and is willing to take a smaller contract to do so. His primary concern is not uprooting his family.

What's in a Name

Qwest's purchasing by CenturyLink foretells an imminent (but not yet confirmed) renaming of Qwest Field to CenturyLink Field.

Dave Krieg's Strike Beard provides some welcome perspective in this tizzy. I will merely add that, much like the neon green uniforms, nobody's going to care that much if the Seahawks are winning.

Will Herring Keeps Busy

Backup LB Will Herring is using his lockout time productively by opening a local fitness center. Says he also has plans to compete for a starting spot. Sounds familiar.

Forecasting an Early Run on Draft Quarterbacks

I wanted Ndamukong Suh so badly last year. I kept toting the idea of trading our #6 and #14 picks to Detroit to move up to #2 for him. It seemed to make so much sense; wouldn't the Lions benefit more from two franchise players instead of just one?

My peers, meanwhile, manufactured cheaper scenarios that envisioned Suh or Gerald McCoy falling to #6 as Detroit took a left tackle instead. Incumbent Jeff Backus didn't seem to be cutting it, and the Lions had signed Corey Williams to bolster the D-line; perhaps they were patching the defense with free agency and targeting a left tackle with the pick! Once Suh fell past Detroit, the other teams' needs would make at least McCoy available to Seattle. It made so much sense.

This is the very definition of wishful thinking. Football movements have many interpretations; the Williams move was a support for Suh, not an alternative. You can create a scenario that's possible, but is it realistic and reasonable? Any theory that requires a long procession of things to go wrong for other teams to benefit us should automatically be re-examined. In the end, Suh and McCoy went at #2 and #3 respectively, leaving us to ask ourselves, "Why did we ever think that Detroit and Tampa Bay would pass those guys up?"

It's wishful thinking to assume that any of the top four quarterbacks - Blaine Gabbert, Cam Newton, Jake Locker, or Ryan Mallett - will be available at #25. Sure, it could happen. Unlike most draft years, not even the #1 pick is locked in, and there are literally millions of possible draft simulations to wade through, including some that drop a top QB to the Seahawks. The problem is, each such scenario involves a number of very QB-hungry teams passing up a potential franchise QB, in favor of either an in-house solution that tanked in 2010 or an unremarkable/aging/unproven free agent (some of whom may not even be open to trade).

UPDATED: Mock Drafts Placing Ryan Mallett with Seattle

Mock drafts change about as often as the weather, but this week a handful of high-profile mocks seem to have converged on one prospect for the Seahawks at #25: Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.

Rob Staton at Seahawks Draft Blog was the first I noticed. Most of you probably follow him (and should be) and have seen his protests of the raging criticism and groupthink that have dogged Mallett for months. Yet in all that time he hasn't actually pegged Mallett as a good candidate for the Seahawks, which should tell you something about his objectivity. The fact that Staton looks for positives on the guy says less about his opinion of Mallett and more about his desire to balance out the hype machine.

Well, this week Staton took the plunge, mocking Mallett to Seattle at #25. It got interesting when he was joined by Rob Rang of CBS Sports, Don Banks of SportsIllustrated.com, NFL.com writer Steve Wyche, and even NFP's Wes Bunting, who helped contribute to the negative publicity on the Arkansas QB. All are currently projecting Ryan Mallett at #25.

The convergence is probably coincidence. Nobody quoted any sources or illuminating new scraps of information on why Mallett might be destined for Qwest Field. Sometimes hunches just come together...although it's not uncommon for such "collective hunches" to be noticed, expanded upon, and turned into a hype wave of its own. That's how Mallett's stock started to drop in the first place.

Here's what they said:

UPDATED Thursday Links

I'll have some original (and controversial, and possibly unpopular) content up on Monday. Another installment of the "Looking Back" series will arrive on Saturday, I think.

Meanwhile, on this final day of the CBA that we've enjoyed for 18 years, a few Seahawks happenings. Check back for updates!

• UPDATE: The NFL and NFLPA have agreed to a 24-hour extension of labor talks. This move is being popularly seen as a stepping stone to a longer extension, and at the very least as increasing goodwill between the two sides. Brian McIntyre also optimistically notes that the last such extension during a labor dispute (in 2006) eventually led to a new agreement.

• UPDATE: TE Chris Baker was cut by the Seahawks. Baker's disappointment as a receiving threat and the emergence of Cameron Morrah made this a non-surprise.

• QB Matt Hasselbeck has rejected Seattle's latest contract offer, and ESPN's John Clayton has reported that the two sides aren't anywhere close to an agreement. It appears that Seattle is trying to keep Hass's contract lean and incentive-laden to give them the ability to opt out easily if Matt can't produce, which has to be a consideration given his dropoff in the last three years. Hass, on the other hand, seems to think he can keep playing.

• The Seahawks have waived QB Nate Davis, reports Brian McIntyre. Davis' brief acquisition from the 49ers seemed to indicate the importance of the QB position to the team, but apparently Davis hasn't shown what he needed to. It could also mean that Seattle is confident in its ability to either re-sign Matt Hasselbeck or replace him through the draft.

• Anyone looking to understand the CBA chess game between the league and the players absolutely must give this ESPN article a read. It does a great job of taking the obtuse legal wording and various scenarios in the CBA drama and reducing them to layman's terms.

• Rob Staton of Seahawks Draft Blog has another piece up on Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett. Rob has carefully modulated his words to show neutrality on the guy and avoid becoming a Mallett shill; what he's really addressing are the lazy journalism and raging groupthink that have dogged Mallett for months.

• LG Robert Gallery, former protege of new Seahawks O-line coach Tom Cable and potential free agent of interest for Seattle, has confirmed that he'll be leaving the Oakland Raiders.

Second Opinions: Ryan Mallett and Cam Newton

Hmmm...this place is quickly turning into a Ryan Mallett blog. I need to write about Red Bryant or something, quick.

My opinions aren't perfect, and in this day and age of information overload and relative anonymity, I think it's important for a writer to have accountability. Therefore, you'll often see "Second Opinions" pieces here on 17 Power. Read them as me going "I might have been wrong". This week's lesson is not to take too much stock in what the media says. Yep, pretty basic. I might be a bit of a project as a writer.

I stand by my slight disappointment on Ryan Mallett's Combine interview. I don't think the video shows the "meltdown" that Doug Farrar refers to, but he did flash the petulance that's rapidly becoming his trademark. I think he could have helped himself by avoiding that. It compared poorly to the well-rehearsed, easygoing-on-the-surface interview of media darling Cam Newton and left a lot of people saying that Mallett would have to ace his private team interviews and the throwing drills on Sunday in order to make up for the lost ground.

Well, by many accounts, Mallett did just that. His throwing on Sunday was the best at the Combine, showing great power, accuracy, and ease of throwing. It was enough to remind the league that Cam Newton is still a project as a passer, albeit with stratospheric upside.

UPDATED: Thoughts on the Combine's QB Interviews

I wrote a while back on my annoyance with idle, unconfirmable rumors against college football prospects, so it should mean something that I'm a little let down by Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett's interview at the Combine on Saturday.

To summarize, he just doesn't appear to have helped himself much with the interview. Naturally, he immediately got peppered with questions about his off-the-field issues (which seem to be zeroing in on drug abuse), and his first response was to laugh it off. Once the questions continued, he began flatly insisting that "NFL teams know what they need to" and, in response to another round of those questions, ended his interview without preamble.

That's going to make Mallett look like he has something to hide. Admittedly, the only way to avoid that look was to come out and talk about the allegations, and there could have been valid reasons not to do so right now. But he and everyone else knew that the focus of this interview would be those off-the-field flags, and the abrupt ending to the interview didn't depict a guy who felt comfortable with himself. He came across to me as simply having lost his cool. (Watch for yourself here and here.)

Roundtable: Six Seattle Prospects to Watch

As the country turns its attention to the NFL Scouting Combine today, 17 Power has grouped together the six first-round draft candidates that are most commonly being mocked to the Seattle Seahawks at #25 in the upcoming draft. These are the guys that seem to make the most sense for the Seahawks on the basis of Best Player Available - the intersection between the most talent available at that spot, and the greatest need for the Seahawks, with neither taking undue precedence over the other.

So we've individually rated all six prospects and come out with an interesting consensus. The players are listed in the order we would draft them if all six were still on the board at #25. Contributing to this nonsense are 17 Power writers Brandon Adams, Scott Williams, and John Campbell, with a guest appearance from Kyle Rota of NFL Draft Reports!

Enjoy - and remember to keep an eye on these guys at the Combine.

Tracing the Ryan Mallett Anti-Hype

The segment below is taken from a PFT article describing why QB Ryan Mallett is bound to fall out of the first round on draft day.

One month ago, we passed along a report from NFL Network’s Albert Breer stating that Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett’s draft stock would be adversely affected by “off-field issues.”

Though we’ve yet to uncover any damning specifics aside from Mallett’s seemingly harmless 2009 arrest for public intoxication, Breer’s report appears to be backed up by Adam Caplan of FOXSports.com.

Caplan wrote on Twitter Tuesday night that Mallett is “almost certain” to drop out of the first round of April’s draft, even going so far as to say it “wouldn’t shock (Caplan) to see Mallett fall to the third (round).”  Similar to Breer, Caplan cites “baggage, and not the kind you carry” as the main reason for Mallett’s projected draft-day slip.

Read that first sentence and notice its psychological impact. One would look at that and naturally think, "Hmmm, for all this buzz to be going on, there must have been something big behind that original Breer report. That 'off-field issues' snatch must be part of a more comprehensive, descriptive piece. I'll click on it and see what's generating all this buzz."

So you click on it and find...another PFT article referencing the same original report. The article admits that Breer doesn't go into detail about Mallett, but you're still thinking, "OK but come on, there must be more to it than the words 'off-field' and 'issues'." So after a brief grunt of annoyance and strange flashes of the movie "Inception", you click down another level and finally arrive at the original source expecting to see at least some elaboration, some insight into this great big hullabaloo. It can't be all coming from just one two-word phrase...right?

Here's what you find in the original NFL.com piece:

NFL Network: Seattle in first-round QB hunt

NFL Network's Albert Breer comments on Seattle's quarterback intentions: (emphasis mine)

   With Charlie Whitehurst difficult to count on as a "quarterback of the future," and Matt Hasselbeck's contract up, Seattle has planned for months to seriously consider pulling the trigger on a new signal-caller in the first round. ... There are likely three quarterbacks going in the top half of the first round: Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, Auburn's Cam Newton and Washington's Jake Locker. Now, to get any of those three would require a serious move up and a heavy cost to Seattle, and that means there would have to be serious conviction on the part of the staff. Maybe Carroll has that with the hometown kid Locker...But otherwise, all this might mean the team would be left with the option of Ryan Mallett at the bottom of the first round, and the Seahawks already are well aware of the kind of risk he presents from a character perspective.

   One way for the Seahawks to address their quarterbacking question could be to make another run at Kevin Kolb. ... Remember, the Browns and Seahawks made inquiries last offseason about Kolb but were rebuffed as it became clear the Eagles preference was to deal Donovan McNabb. Cleveland, of course, has insight because of GM Tom Heckert's Philadelphia roots, while Seattle was another West Coast offense team that figured Kolb's transition could be a smooth one.

My take: This strikes me as nothing more than makes-sense speculation. A few disagreements I have:

• Kevin Kolb is indeed a hot commodity - in the sense that a hot stove top can scorch your hand. He's an untested QB and his very limited action in 2010 hasn't changed that. Something else that hasn't changed is his price tag of two first-rounders - a price Seattle walked away from last year when they actually had those picks available. Why would they go back to the well now?

• I have a creeping hunch that a surprising run on quarterbacks will occur early in the first round. As in all four top prospects (Gabbert, Newton, Locker, Mallett) gone in the top half of the draft, perhaps sooner. The draft is top-heavy with QB-hungry teams and has seen a number of free-agent QB experiments sputter and die this year (e.g. Donovan McNabb, Jake Delhomme, Jason Campbell, Brett Favre, Troy Smith, Kyle Orton, Derek Anderson, Trent Edwards), possibly making the free agent route a little unseemly. Struggling teams need new franchise faces to rejuvenate the fans. Rookie QB's are always a hot commodity. Plenty of GM's and coaches think they have what it takes to turn first-round projects into stars. Combine these factors, and you have the makings of an early run.

• If Mallett falls to #25, is that really such a hard choice for Seattle? Footwork schmootwork...the only real reason Mallett's stock is falling is those un-confirmable character flags. The guy knows quite well what he has to show in the next few months to maximize his stock. Give the kid a chance. His on-the-field abilities are starting to make him look like the most NFL ready signal-caller in this draft, other than the out-of-reach Gabbert.