The Seahawks absolutely whiffed on the entire draft, in the opinion of former Seahawks quarterback Trent Dilfer.
On an ESPN panel show Saturday afternoon discussing winners and losers in the NFL’s annual selection party, Dilfer, who played four years in Seattle, criticized nearly every pick as as an overdraft.”
It hurts me to say this, because I love Seattle and want them to succeed, he said. But there were better players available at almost every choice they made.
Draft guru Mel Kiper thought more highly of the Seattle selections, especially first-rounder James Carpenter and third-rounder John Moffitt, but generally agreed with Dilfers criticism, although not as harshly.
They reached, said Kiper, no doubt. I agree that this draft didnt help this team.
If you want to play the tortoise game, thats OK, Dilfer said. But they did little while their division rivals, Arizona and San Francisco, got exponentially better.
Dilfer, who played 22 games for the Seahawks between 2001-2004 and was 8-4 in his starts, was also critical of the Seahawks failure to re-sign quarterback Matt Hasselbeck before the lockout.
Hasselbeck, now a free agent at 35, and Dilfer are close friends, so Dilfers remarks can be seen as something of an infomercial for his pal. The Seahawks and Hasselbeck both said publicly before the lockout they wanted his return, but coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider were OK with letting him go into free agency.
After saying it will be very, very difficult to re-sign Hasselbeck, Dilfer criticized the Seahawks for not drafting a potential replacement, TCU quarterback Andy Dalton, with the 25th pick in the first round. They used it on Carpenter, a 320-pound right tackle from Alabama, who was not on the first-round radar of most experts. Even Carpenter admitted he was surprised to be taken so early.
Dalton was taken in the second round with the 35th pick by Cincinnati, after four quarterbacks were taken in the first 12 picks.
Sports Illustrateds Peter King speculated that Hasselbecks likeliest destination is Arizona, which did not draft a quarterback despite an obvious need. In order, King listed Hasselbecks potential destinations as Arizona, Tennessee, Minnesota, San Francisco and Miami.
Tennessee drafted Washington quarterback Jake Locker with the eighth pick in the first round, and finished the season with 38-year-old Kerry Collins at QB.
In a post-draft press conference, head coach Pete Carroll, without referencing Dilfer, said he liked the Seahawks draft, and “we don’t care what anybody says.”
11 Comments
Dilfer is Hasselbecks friend and he’s not thinking straight. The Seahawks drafted 2 offensive lineman to protect the quarterback and improve the running game. So lets see … feature more running to take the pressure off of the quarterback and more time to throw. And they added a receiver. How is that not in the interest of the quarterback? The Seahawks did what any quarterback would want. Dilfer needs to keep his personal emotions in check.
Obviously, Dilfer has a lot to learn as an announcer/analyst. His football experience as a former and fairly decent QB doesn’t make him a scout or a coach. IMO the Seahawks had, prior to the draft, decided that they could go with a veteran QB (and Hass is a vetran as well) over an unproven college QB in this particular draft. Dilfer isn’t privey to the long range plans of JS/PC so he unjustifiably shot his mouth off.
Maybe he’ll learn better than to be so critical in expressing himself with more experience. Kiper wouldn’t know a decent OL player himself without benefit of other peoples (talking heads) opinions, which are just that, opinions.
Carpenter was hand picked by Cable for not just being an excellent OL prospect, but also for his attitude of tough, determined and nasty characteristics which I would guess is 180 degrees opposite the attitude of Locklear. Additionally, the OL had 10 different combinations of players used last year and at least that many the year before, primarily due to injuries. The versatility of both of their OL picks to play multiple OL positions is a very significant upgrade. In the long haul, the foundation has been established on the offensive line and other teams will one day fear (again) the Seahawks OL as in the past.
Dilfer is upset w/ how the Hawks didn’t resign Matt but upset they didn’t draft a replacement for him in the 1st round? My view was that QBs in this draft were being treated like parents buying the year’s toy crazes like beanie babies or tickle me elmo. I would have preferred they picked Jimmy Smith in the 1st but thanks to Cable and how his O-line mauled Seattle last season I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt over the talking heads.
Trent…Trent…Trent. My goodness you are reactionary. You don’t think adding 2 good big bodies to the OL helped the team? I think Matt wants to re-sign and the Hawks want to re-sign – it will happen. You’d be served to think before you shoot your mouth off.
Time will tell, but if they wanted a real franchise QB, it’s reasonable to think that next year’s crop is exponentially better than this year’s. If they spend this year training up rookies in the system and style they want, then they will quite possibly have a high enough draft position to draft a Matt Barkley or a Landry Jones. And the fans may accept losses based on comparative success in 2010 and seeing rookies contribute in 2011.
There’s no point taking “best available” if you think the best available isn’t good enough to win the Super Bowl for you. And that’s even leaving aside the possibility of getting Carson Palmer on the cheap, as has been rumored. Charlie may not be a world-beater, but we haven’t yet seen what he can really do, in any case. I think Matt is gone.
Maybe Trent (who is a terrific commentator) has watched lots of film, but I’ll bet there are numerous people in the Seahawks organization who have watched more.
The Seahawks draft philosophy this year was drafting for need, physique, and style of play. Unusual, but we’ll see how effective this is as years go by.
It’s ironic that the Dilf is living proof that you don’t need a good QB to win a championship, and now he criticized a team for focusing in on the running game and defense. I guess he thinks he was Tom Brady for a year.
Every Seahawks fan knows that our team has suffered from a pathetic O-Line and from having tiny, skinny corners attempting to cover full sized wide receivers. We have all been complaining about it for the last 4 years at least. Well, guess what? Finally, finally, the bleeding as stopped.
This Hawk fan gives an A+ grade.
One name. Steve Hutchinson. Without him, even the great Walter Jones at tackle was enough to protect Hasselbeck and Alexander’s running game went to the toilet in short order. Powerful, consistent left side offensive line tandums are the key to the west coast offense. Carpenter will either be left guard or strengthen things as the Right Tackle. Watch the Seahawk games from 2004-6 and you’ll see how that thing clicked. I really respect Dilfer but he’s trashing Carroll for not rolling the dice on a quarterback who played 4 soft schedule seasons at TCU? Look at what Carroll did with free agency last year to take a team from the dumpster to two rounds into the playoffs. Could it be that Carroll and Schneider know something Dilfer doesn’t? Carroll said last week that they had the quarterback situation handled but part of the plan happens after the draft (paraphrasing).
Prediction? Carson Palmer, welcome to Seattle. Lynch runs like lightning behind a beefy OL and Seattle wins 10 games.
One name. Steve Hutchinson. Without him, even the great Walter Jones at tackle was enough to protect Hasselbeck and Alexander’s running game went to the toilet in short order. Powerful, consistent left side offensive line tandums are the key to the west coast offense. Carpenter will either be left guard or strengthen things as the Right Tackle. Watch the Seahawk games from 2004-6 and you’ll see how that thing clicked. I really respect Dilfer but he’s trashing Carroll for not rolling the dice on a quarterback who played 4 soft schedule seasons at TCU? Look at what Carroll did with free agency last year to take a team from the dumpster to two rounds into the playoffs. Could it be that Carroll and Schneider know something Dilfer doesn’t? Carroll said last week that they had the quarterback situation handled but part of the plan happens after the draft (paraphrasing).
Prediction? Carson Palmer, welcome to Seattle. Lynch runs like lightning behind a beefy OL and Seattle wins 10 games.
Obviously, Dilfer has a lot to learn as an announcer/analyst. His football experience as a former and fairly decent QB doesn’t make him a scout or a coach. IMO the Seahawks had, prior to the draft, decided that they could go with a veteran QB (and Hass is a vetran as well) over an unproven college QB in this particular draft. Dilfer isn’t privey to the long range plans of JS/PC so he unjustifiably shot his mouth off.
Maybe he’ll learn better than to be so critical in expressing himself with more experience. Kiper wouldn’t know a decent OL player himself without benefit of other peoples (talking heads) opinions, which are just that, opinions.
Carpenter was hand picked by Cable for not just being an excellent OL prospect, but also for his attitude of tough, determined and nasty characteristics which I would guess is 180 degrees opposite the attitude of Locklear. Additionally, the OL had 10 different combinations of players used last year and at least that many the year before, primarily due to injuries. The versatility of both of their OL picks to play multiple OL positions is a very significant upgrade. In the long haul, the foundation has been established on the offensive line and other teams will one day fear (again) the Seahawks OL as in the past.