Chuck Darby is/was good for us in ’05. He was too small and slow as well. Manuel, our secondary glue that year, was also too slow. I’ll take a good football player over a talented and roided Tony Mandarich any day.

Nothing. That’s exactly what you want to see in a rookie. He’s demonstrated that he has a great motor and an excellent work ethic. Those are the kind of guys you want on your football team even if they’ll never aspire to be much more than special teams players and rotational subs.

You kind of have to temper your expectations though. So far he’s demonstrated very early in his rookie season that he has potential. There’s not a lot else you can really say about the guy at this point. I don’t think he’ll clear waivers because potential is good and other teams who have building to do along their front seven are going to notice.

The relative level of competition has been beaten to death – so what if the 3rd stringer is a 10 year vet. He’s still 3rd string, which means the 1st string guy is that much better.

2nd, there’s more to DE play than just rushing the passer. Even a guy whose only job is to rush the passer has to have some ability to read the play and defend the run/play action/screen, etc. Last year, Babin got the sacks but didn’t hold his ground that well and wasn’t much against the run.

I love Reed’s tenacity and endless motion to get free on the pass rush, but he takes himself out of the play too a lot. A lot of productive college pass rushers wash out of the league because all they can do is get a sack, at the cost of blowing up a big hole in the defense when they take themselves out of their assignment trying to get to the QB.

BTW Babin has done nothing since Seattle cut him, and regarding all these fan preseason favorites, I’ve never seen any comments from actual professional football observers that the Seahawks are cutting great players in order to save face. Only fan fiction on that.

Last year, everyone was mewling about Justin Forsett getting cut. The Colts did claim him because they suffered tons on injuries to their backs and return men. But they ended up releasing him in October, which is why he’s back with Seattle now. For all the Forsett fan love, he wasn’t that huge a talent.

I repeat – if Nick Reed is playing well on special teams, he’s on the team. If he can play as the 7th LB, he’s on team. If Nick Reed can’t, he’s on the waiver wire.

Some of you remind me of Steve Kelley writing in the Seattle times 15 years ago or so. Seattle had FA QB Sean Salisbury, who always lit it up in preseason. Seattle finally cut him, and Kelley wrote a piece on how Seattle just cut the QB that could get them to the Super Bowl, and that they’d eternally regret it. Sound familiar?

Too much dead cap to cut Branch. Maybe Branch plays the whole season this year?

Reed has done well in the OTA’s, he has done well in