Dave Boling of The News Tribune spent some time talking to Seattle Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable over the weekend, the results of which you can read about in Boling’s column this morning.

Cable said it’s night and day in terms of his unit’s overall depth, pointing to how guys like Breno Giacomini and Lemuel Jeanpierre gained confidence by filling in for starters John Moffitt and James Carpenter during the second half of the season.

Boling: Tackle James Carpenter, a first-round pick, and fellow rookie guard John Moffitt both went down with knee injuries in mid-November, and tackle Russell Okung, a first-round pick in 2010, was lost with a torn pectoral in early December.

But Cable said he saw enough in those guys before the injuries “… that all of a sudden you start saying, ‘Wow, that’s why we got them.’ ”

Breno Giacomini jumped in at right tackle, and Paul McQuistan and Lemuel Jeanpierre plugged in just about everywhere else as the running game continued to build to critical mass.

“There was a ton of pride in those guys being able to do (what they did),” Cable said of the fill-ins. “But I’d rather not go through that again.”

The benefit, though, is that “we know we have a group, top to bottom, where your eighth or ninth guy can go in and win for you,” Cable said. “So our depth got taken to a new level.”

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Art Thiel of Sportspressnw.com says Seattle Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin passed the speed test on his first day with his new team.

More impressive, Thiel said Irvin seemed to pick things up pretty quickly.

Thiel: Searching for meaning on the first the first day of rookies’ padless football practice against air is barely more productive than looking for life on the moon from one’s porch.

But one thing was plain Friday at Seahawks headquarters, even without a telescope — the scouts weren’t lying: Bruce Irvin is meteor-fast.

It will be an object of much entertainment for Seahawks fans, and help quiet the debate over the most talked-about pick in the NFL draft’s first round last month. More impressive to coach Pete Carroll, who knew about the speed, was Irvin’s quick take on the more cerebral parts of the enterprise.”

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My story today focuses on the beginning of the Seattle Seahawks rookie minicamp, which opens this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

Of course, we’ll be there and I will file a report this afternoon. All eyes will be on rookies like defensive end Bruce Irvin and quarterback Russell Wilson.

But of particular interest will be Utah State linebacker Bobby Wagner, who’s already been penciled in to replace David Hawthorne at middle linebacker.

At 6-0 and 241 pounds, Wagner is an upgrade from Hawthorne athletically. During Wagner’s pro day, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds, had a vertical jump of 39.5 inches and an 11-0 broad jump.

On the field, Wagner led Utah State in tackles three straight seasons, earned all-conference first-team honors three times, and was a four-year starter. He was also named the North team’s most outstanding player at the 2012 Senior Bowl

“He brings a unique skill set in terms of his ball sensibility and versatility,” said Eric Stokes, Seahawks assistant director of college scouting. “He’s played both inside and outside linebacker while at Utah State. He can pass rush, he can drop – the kid can run like the wind.

“We’re really excited about him.”

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Dave Boling of The News Tribune offers some observations from Wednesday’s workout which includes one overarching theme – the Seahawks looked fit and trim early in the team’s offseason conditioning program.

Boling also gives us his impressions on two new players, defensive lineman Jason Jones and offensive lineman Deuce Lutui.

Boling: Two of the new free agents, for instance, are obviously eager to make impressions.

Defensive lineman Jason Jones, at 6-5, 276 pounds, is all angles and levers. If slapping your way through a series of blocking dummies in a hurry is any indication, Jones seems to be a perfect fit as an interior rusher on passing downs.

And the new No. 72 is the surprisingly svelte guard Deuce Lutui, whom you may recall from the days when he was stretching out Arizona Cardinals jerseys. Lutui failed the physical last year with Cincinnati and returned to Arizona as a backup.

Although said to have been topping out in the 400-pound range, he’s listed at a believable 338 now, having slimmed down by adopting some vegan concepts in his diet.”

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Clark Judge of CBS Sports believes that head coach Pete Carroll could have the Seattle Seahawks back in the playoffs after a 7-9 campaign in 2011.

Judge lists the Seahawks as one of five teams that missed the playoffs last season that could be back in the postseason in 2012. Along with Seattle, Judge says Chicago, Philadelphia, Buffalo and San Diego are teams on the outside looking in last year that could be back in the playoffs in the upcoming season.

Judge: Seattle is chasing San Francisco in the NFC West, and the last time they met — late last season — they fell just short, losing by two points after quarterback Tarvaris Jackson fumbled with a little more than a minute left. Those Seahawks played great defense but didn’t have enough offense. These Seahawks think they fixed the problem with the acquisition of quarterback Matt Flynn, and maybe they’re right. Flynn has only two NFL starts, but he was marvelous in both. I don’t know, but this looks like a carbon copy of the 49ers’ blueprint, a club that can hammer you with defense and put just enough points on the board — largely thanks to its running game. It worked for San Francisco. Why not here?

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Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders breaks down game film from college on new Seattle Seahawks defensive end Bruce Irvin. And his conclusion is that the Seahawks indeed did not reach on selecting the speedy pass rusher at No. 15.

Tanier: What we see, again and again, is a pass rusher who is able to make his left tackle take an incredibly wide set, then work back inside of that blocker, before the blocker can initiate any real contact. That last part is key: keep watching the tape, and you see Irvin avoid blocks, bounce off blocks, or make a pass rush move or two before he gets blocked.

“That is what the Seahawks and Jets were looking at. Both teams have no problem putting a “designated pass rusher” on the field for about 40 snaps per game. Neither Carroll nor Ryan will put an Irvin-type at defensive end, let alone inside the tackle’s shoulder, where Irvin lines up at times on these cutups. Neither team was concerned about Irvin’s one-dimensionality, because that dimension includes a very critical skill: the ability to threaten the edge of the pass protection with elite speed and change-of-direction quickness.”

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Check out this video above on Seattle Seahawks seventh round draft choice Greg Scruggs.

The University of Louisville product only started playing football his senior year in high school at St. Xavier High in Cincinnati, Ohio. Scruggs first love was basketball and playing drums in his school’s marching band. But he finally played football his senior year, and earned several scholarship offers, including Miami of Ohio and Tennessee.

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The Seattle Seahawks once again selected a couple players a little rough around the edges in this year’s draft, something former Seattle head personnel man Tim Ruskell usually did not do during his time with the Seahawks.

When Ruskell took over he had to deal with the fallout of players like Jerremy Stevens, Rocky Bernard and Koren Robinson, so part of his job was to clean up the image of the team.

But as Dave Boling of The News Tribune notes in his column today, Pete Carroll and John Schneider have shown a willingness to take calculated risks on players with hiccups in their past. It paid off when they traded for Marshawn Lynch after his off-the-field struggles in Buffalo. Mike Williams also had his share of work ethic and weight issues, but found a fresh start in Seattle.

In this year’s draft, West Virginia’s Bruce Irvin, North Carolina’s J.R. Sweezy and Louisville’s Greg Scruggs all had things in their past worth looking into.

Boling: As general manager John Schneider explained before the draft, certain offenses are non-negotiable and there are obligations to the franchise for responsible behavior. But the brain trust also preached the value of second chances for the worthy.

“It’s part of the post-Ruskell reality that the Seahawks are not putting together a Scout Troop.”

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