From: jorgand@sumax.seattleu.edu (Dave Jorgan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: Seattle Update (9-3-92)
Date: 4 Sep 92 01:05:09 GMT
Organization: Seattle University, Seattle, WA






	Seattle info on the brink of the regular season:


	 Brian Blades has signed. Seattle has a two week exemption
for him. He may well be activated by game day Sunday, but most likely will
not start or see a great deal of action, since they are still familiarizing
Blades with the new offense. Blades, however, approves highly of the new
scheme.

	Travis McNeal also signed, a one year pact. He probably will not be
activated for Sunday's action. He may find room on the roster, since Seattle
kept three tight ends. Probably Ron Heller would get the ax if McNeal is
activated. McNeal offers more blocking potential, but never really grasped
the Knoxian offense in four years- he has a week or two to assimilate the
Flores offense.

	Michael Bates is the last unsigned player, and odds are he will not
sign this year- Flores has stated it would upset things if Bates did seek a 
pact for this season. Seattle has no place to store a raw, untried reciever.
Thus, Bates most likely will sign in the offseason, if at all.

	Offense:  Seattle may very well have new starters at every offensive
position save two next year. Only John L. Williams and Tommy Kane will still
be playing their old positions, and even Kane may not due to a ankle injury.
The entire line has been changed. 

	LT: Ray Roberts
	LG: Andy Heck
	C: Joe Tofflemire
	RG: Darrick Brilz
	RT: Ronnie Lee/Bill Hitchcock

	TE: Paul Green
	QB: Kelly Stouffer
	RB: Chris Warren
	FB: John L. Williams
	
	WR: Tommy Kane
	WR: Louis Clark/Doug Thomas

RG would still be filled by Bryan Millard, but he's on injured reserve with a
bad back. Seattle is very thin at tackle- Roberts is the only really healthy
tackle they have. Seattle doesn't know which person wil play at right tackle,
Lee practiced but Hitchcock did not. Blades may reclaim his spot in time,
Joe Tofflemire has (at last!) beaten out stiff Grant Feasel at center.
Fortunately, the Bengals do not appear to have a ferocious pass rush, so
Seattle will not be as heavily tested on the line as they could be.

	The line itself is proof that Flores is taking a long-term approach
to this season. Under Knox, they probably would have put Heck back at LT
and kept the old offensive line intact (barring injuries.) Even though the
new lineup has been spotty, Flores is going to let them learn on the job,
even though it isn't the best combination Seattle can put up *right now.*
If Roberts can even be average this year, he'll have a big head start towards
being a quality tackle in the future. Clearly offensive line coach Hudson
Houck thinks Roberts has an enormous amount of talent, he's never started
a rookie at left tackle before in all his years including those at USC
(he must have meant freshman or something like that) or at the Rams.
He said he never had anyone nearly as good as Roberts, but of course he meant
a rookie as good, since he had many All-Americans and All-Pros in his time
elsewhere.


	Defense:  Seattle was forced to keep more defensive ends than they
wanted due to injury. Michael Sinclair and Jacob Green went on the IR.
Seattle kept Tyrone Rodgers, another DE. The release of Eric Hayes means
Seattle no longer has a young tackle to bring up for the future. They
lost Mike Friar to the Bengals. Seattle still has Joe Nash, Jeff Bryant,
and Keith Millard at tackle but all are 30 or over, so it would be nice if
Seattle had a youngster waiting in the wings to bring in a couple of years
from now. Seattle re-signed CB Malcolm Frank and S Nesby Glasgow, but they
really hoped a better CB would be out there on the waiver wire to pick up.
I hoped Seattle would get Darryl Pollard from the 49ers, but the Bucs picked
him up. They'll have to tighten up the coverage if they are to do anything
this season, and the d-line will have to put more pressure on the QB. The
run-stopping game is OK. Keith Millard appears to be OK as far as his knee
goes, but he's not really in playing shape yet due to his long layoff
during pre-season. Thus, Seattle has lacked some punch at left tackle, and
Jacob Green hasn't been around, so they've missed his rush at left end.
Kind of strange when you depend on a 35 year old for your outside pass rush
but.... at any rate Seattle could opt to play Tony Woods at left end on
passing downs, or could bring Terry Wooden in on a LB blitz. Traditionally
Seattle does not send the LB's in as pass rushers- Rufus Porter plays as
the right end on passing downs.
	Robert Blackmon is considered the most improved player in camp,
and he says now that he is more comfortable with the system he is going to
devote himself to making more big plays- and big hits. He wants to hit a lot
harder this year. Remember his rookie season he had the temerity to say he was 
a "10.5" on a scale from 1-10 as a hitter, and was in the Ronnie Lott class.
Well, it hasn't shown so far, but Blackmon wants to make it happen this year.
For sure, Seattle could use a hitter like Kenny Easley of old, but Blackmon
is 3 inches shorter and 10 pounds lighter, and Easley was maybe the best
athlete ever to play at safety, so that's a tall order to fill. But, he
did make some impressive athletic plays in pre-season, including a spectacular
one handed interception against SF (called back to due penalty against
Robinson.)

	LE: Jeff Bryant
	LT: Joe Nash
	RT: Cortez Kennedy
	RE: Tony Woods

	RLB: Terry Wooden
	MLB: Dave Wyman
	LLB: Rufus Porter

	LCB: Dwayne Harper
	FS: Eugene Robinson
	SS: Robert Blackmon
	RCB: Patrick Hunter


	Late news: Seattle signed 6'8" 300 pound John Hunter, OT, who 
was cut by Tampa Bay. They need him as insurance until Hitchcock and
Lee are 100%. Brian Treggs was re-signed to the regular roster, but if
Blades is activated, Treggs will most likely be send back to the practice
squad. I am guessing Treggs, if he sticks, will handle the punt return chores
for Seattle. The local papers said Flores will alternate Warren and Mayes
as RB's according to situtation, rather than just parceling out the time as
I thought. No statement on how he would determine the subsitution patter,
but the article stated Warren was the better reciever (possibly), the bigger
and faster player (both true), but Mayes the more elusive runner and the
better short-yardage runner. Which really mixes things up- I can't tell
you how they would subsitute given the weird mix of talents like this. The
5'11, 201 lb. Mayes in short yardage? The 6'2, 226 lb Warren on passing
downs? I have no clue on this, but both will play next week.


Dave Jorgan
jorgand@sumax.seattleu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro