Oregon runningback LaGarrette Blount
The moon, not the sun, was reflecting off Lake Washington outside the window of Gus Bradley’s office.
The Seahawks’ defensive coordinator was in early Tuesday, as usual. Bradley still was sorting through some notes he had taken on players at last week’s practices for the Senior Bowl all-star game and preparing for a meeting with the other assistants on the staff of new head coach Pete Carroll.
These are interesting times at Virginia Mason Athletic Center. Bradley and defensive line coach Dan Quinn are the only assistants Carroll retained from the staff of former coach Jim Mora. The rest have been replaced by an eclectic mix of veteran NFL coaches, former players turned coaches and long-time college coaches.
But their goal is singular: Finding players this offseason to make the Seahawks better once the 2010 season begins.
Attending the Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Ala., was an preparatory step for Bradley in evaluating the players the Seahawks will select in April with the sixth, 14th and 40th picks in the first two rounds of the NFL draft.
Asked if the experience was more kid-in-a-candy-store or needle-in-a-haystack, Bradley said, “For us, it’s a good introduction to all the top players.”
It’s not that Bradley hasn’t seen these players already. But when you’re coaching in the NFL, much of your Saturdays are spent traveling to road games and fine-tuning game plans for Sunday. Besides, watching college football on TV – or any football, for that matter – isn’t the same as seeing the games in person because you’re presented what the cameras show you, which isn’t always what you really want to see. Especially for a defensive coordinator.
UW linebackder Donald Butler
There are other college all-star games, of course. But the consensus is that the Senior Bowl is the best because of the talent level, the fact that the teams are coached by NFL staffs – those of the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions this year – and the freedom other staffs and scouts are given in the process.
“The perception is that the Senior Bowl is the best,” Bradley said. “Obviously you don’t have any juniors, so there are some great athletes who aren’t there. But as a college player, if you get invited to the Senior Bowl, that’s the probably considered the most prestigious.
“And for us, you get a chance to see the players firsthand in drills and how they adjust to the tempo of practices. It’s a unique atmosphere, because you have the top players right there and all the coaches in the NFL.”
On his way to Mobile, Bradley watched some video of the players. But it can’t take the place of seeing those same players in the flesh. Or repeatedly, as the team’s college scouts do.
“We talk to our scouts, obviously,” Bradley said. “But when we go down there, we formulate our own opinions as well.”
It was former coach Chuck Knox who first increased the involvement of the Seahawks’ assistant coaches in the evaluation process of college players because, as he put it, “The scouts can tell you if a guy can play. It’s the assistant coaches who can tell you if the guy can play for us.”
Bradley agrees with that philosophy and approach, and not just when it comes to college players.
“We’re going to be changing some of the things we do, offensively and defensively,” he said. “So now, we have to say, ‘OK, what do we have? And what do we need that’s going to fit that scheme?’
“Evaluation is an on-going process. You do it all through the year, because after every game you’re evaluating. So the evaluation is constant, even during the season. ”
Which brings us back to the Senior Bowl.
“The Senior Bowl is awesome, from the standpoint of being able to make evaluations in a controlled setting,” Bradley said. “You wish you go to all the all-star games, because you get firsthand looks at how these players you’ve heard about act in certain situations and how they react in a certain drill and how they react to failure.”
Who will the Seahawks take in the first round? It’s much too early to determine that. In fact, it’s too early to even speculate on what positions they will address at six, 14 and 40. That’s what the next three weeks leading up to the scouting combine in Indianapolis are for. Meetings. Continuing evaluations – of the current roster, as well as the college players. More meetings.
It will be the same scenario during the weeks between the combine and the draft. Meetings. Evaluations. More meetings.
And did we mention meetings?
