By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

Seattle fans are as passionate as they come. Hardly televised on a national stage, but when they are the 12^th man is truly showcased. No other team in the NFL can get the rise of their crowd as the Seahawks do. Maybe it’s because they lost an NBA team and don’t want any possible threat of an owner wanting to relocate.

In a different market though, you better believe fans would be much more vocal on decisions made under the eye of Pete Carroll. The latest moves at quarterback could cause enough destruction this season to force Carroll out.

Gambling as a head coach is reasonable, but Carroll keeps close ties to his past with former players. Seattle continues to have low talent on the offensive side of the football especially at wide receiver. For a couple of seasons Carroll rooted for the comeback of bust Mike Williams.

Williams started in 2010 when he had no business doing so. You could not of found another NFL team willing to take a shot at Williams, let alone have him with the first team. His season in 2010 was better than expected but his catches came mainly due to his size at 6’5. He had zero ability to separate from the defender, and just was not a receiver that should have been on the field.

This off-season Carroll brought in two veterans that have hit the tail ends of their careers, in Braylon Edwards and Terrell Owens. Owens could not even get phone calls from any teams for months on months. It’s a low risk investment sure, but why not sign the proper free agents or seek young talent in the NFL Draft?

Sidney Rice has not been the same since his breakout year with Brett Favre, and Golden Tate was a 50/50 talent as a second round pick. Their top receiver a year ago was undrafted rookie Doug Baldwin. The hot potato manuevering with Carroll has been all over the place with this team offensively. Carroll and his coaching staff need to come together with a plan and move forward properly.

What’s going on with the carousel at quarterback is just ridiculous. First the Seahawks brought in Tavaris Jackson for four million a year at a two year contract tenure. Not a bad move considering the Seahawks did not have much to work with a year ago after losing Matt Hasselbeck. Jackson was more of a knee jerk signing to ensure a starter post lockout.

Were I disagree with the treatment of Jackson is their denying him of an opportunity in preseason to prove himself. If you do not want him apart of the quarterback competition, trade or release him before hand. A player getting paid four million a year should not be sidelined during preseason games.

Short tenured contracts seems to be the way Seattle likes to go. Signing Matt Flynn to a three year 26 million dollar contract. Only ten million is guaranteed so the Seahawks would not be on the hook like say the Arizona Cardinals with Kevin Kolb. Money management with their quarterbacks is not the issue, it’s the handling of playing time.

Rookies just do not come in and start. Sure the last couple of seasons has bucked that trend, but the fact that Seattle wants to put in Russell Wilson to start a preseason game is stupefying. Flynn has not been stellar but deserves the opportunity to play based on the contract and research the Seahawks signed him on. All you’re doing is rattling the confidence and brewing controversy even if the team names Flynn starter after Wilson’s start Friday.

Wilson may be the eventual starter for the Seahawks, but Carroll is jumping the gun once again just like his quick free agent signings. This should not even of been a quarterback battle. When have you ever heard of a quarterback just signed for over eight million a year, having to deal with a quarterback controversy as soon as the NFL Draft was concluded?

Never Pete…..never.

Experimenting with signings such as LenDale White can’t happen anymore. Stick to certain players and build forward not backward.

By Zack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

For a minute the football world looked like it would be TO free for 2010. The media was jumping on the fact that Terrell Owens had little interest for months. Teams would speculate at the possibility but ultimately say they were going to look in a different route. The Jets, Seahawks, etc. all decided that Terrell wasn’t worth a years deal. By looking at what happened last season it was not too hard to predict this was coming. Buffalo was pretty much the only team that had strong interest last off-season. Were pretty sure if Terrell had serious options he would have went elsewhere. Come on, who would sign on to play where they knew getting the football would be as hard as Jamarcus Russell throwing an accurate pass over five yards?

A team that is not afraid to be contrarian is the Cincinnati Bengals. They’ve brought in and resigned troubled players in the past like Chris Henry and Tank Johnson. They’ve been subjected to numerous internal issues with players getting in trouble off the field. As the business goes any signing is a risk. Faulting a team for making a mistake is the way things go. No one expected Cedric Benson to resurrect his career. Turning from a third or fourth running back on many fantasy teams to being the main running back. It paid off.

The signing of Terrell Owens is as sneaky as can be. He goes in without having to have the responsibilities of the sole main option at receiver. All the years Terrell Owens has been a number one receiver he played opposite second receivers that were more comparable to a third or fourth receiver. In San Francisco it was JJ Stokes, Philadelphia Reggie Brown, and in Buffalo Lee Evans followed by a bunch of no names. Call it a perfect link but teaming up with Chad Johnson and Antonio Bryant is Owens best fit maybe of his career. Balls are going to be a plenty as well. Definitely at a higher clip than was in Buffalo. Throw last year out, and Cincinnati had some formidable years with there receivers one through three putting up fantasy stats. Chad Johnson, TJ Housh, and Chris Henry were one of the best triple threats in the league.

A Hall of Fame player such as Owens may be putting on the Hollywood smile right now. Away from the camera he is on a mission to show that he still has it. He wants to prove to teams and owners throughout the league that not entertaining or submitting an offer to him was a big mistake. Sure he may have lost a step but he has the smarts, physical tools, and playmaking ability to be that additional threat that makes Cincinnati a scary team.

Compared to last season things look golden for TO. The Bills pathetic offense had a hard time mustering 100 yards a game through the air, and that was a losing team usually down early. Carson Palmer had his ups and downs last season but is now two full years from his 2008 season ending elbow injury. Besides that last year Palmer struggled to find other options besides Chad Johnson. Chris Henry was out with injury before his tragic death, and they had let Housh go. Guys that had been with Carson for years were gone and the high hopes for Lavernues Coles meeting expectations just didn’t happen.

The Bengals have upgraded their offense a few notches with TO and Antonio Bryant. We expect TO to be an above average second receiver. Lots of owners will probably be able to be lucky enough to have TO as their third fantasy wide receiver. Even as a second fantasy wideout on your teams we believe he will pay huge dividends. The yardage totals may not be as large as his prime years but hovering near double digit touchdowns should become an actuality. Last year we had TO on our list of top ten busts, this year we love him. What a difference a one year contract makes.