A few notes and thoughts from Seahawks beat reporter Bob Condotta as the NFL combine kicks into gear Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Your humble correspondent has arrived in Indianapolis, where the NFL Combine will be held the next six days.
It’s Wednesday and Thursday, though, that will be the big ones for Seahawks’ fans.
First, Seahawks general manager John Schneider will meet the media here at 12:15 Seattle time. It’ll be the first time he has talked to the media at-large since the NFL Draft last May, with the team preferring that coach Pete Carroll be the public voice during the season.
Carroll will then speak Thursday at noon Seattle time, his first session with the media since the day after the divisional playoff loss at Carolina (we’ll have full reports on each of those sessions).
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There’s been a little bit of news since then, notably the retirement of Marshawn Lynch. It’s worth noting, though, that the team has yet to put Lynch on its reserve/retired list. That’s because Lynch has yet to file retirement papers, something he will be expected to do at some point since he has two years remaining on his contract. And because of that is why the team has yet to announce that Lynch has retired.
Since this is a national event the questions here often also tend to more broad. But there should be more than enough Seahawks’ tidbits to pass along.
As for what will happen here, here’s a pretty darn good guide to it all from the New York Giants’ website. Here also is some good info from the league itself on how the Combine works.
As noted there, the players will meet the media by position group. Today, for instance, the offensive linemen, kickers/punters/snappers and running backs will be available to the media. So that will include WSU’s Joe Dahl and former Puyallup High star Josh Garnett, each of whom has been projected as players the Seahawks could have interest in.
Thursday it’s the quarterbacks, receivers and tight ends. Friday it’s the defensive linemen and linebackers. And Saturday it’s the defensive backs.
The on-field workouts don’t begin until Friday, and go in order of the position groups listed above.
As the event begins, a few random notes, quotes and thoughts:
1, Remember the dust-up between Rams’ punter Johnny Hekker, also a Bothell High grad, and Cliff Avril in week 16?
Hekker recently donated $5,000 to Avril’s foundation, the Cliff Avril Family Foundation.
2, And remember former Seahawk linebacker Heath Farwell, a special teams captain in 2013?
He’s here working for his agent, Bruce Tollner, specifically helping the players during their workouts. Tollner’s client list includes what may be the top two QBs in the draft in Cal’s Jared Goff and Carson Wentz of North Dakota State.
Farwell is retired after suffering an injury in 2014 but hoping to stay in football.
3, The NFL schedule will be released in late April (and in typical NFL fashion, the announcement of the date of the announcement will likely come with much fanfare a week or two before that. But expect the schedule to be released before the draft April 28-30). A few of us last night agreed that a Seattle visit to Los Angeles for what would be Pete Carroll’s return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum might be a natural for the first Monday night of the season. That’d give the Seahawks a short week heading into week two.But the Seahawks will have a few of those at some point. All just my own speculation at this point, though.
4, Former Seahawk and founding Legion of Boom member Brandon Browner is indeed expected to be released by the New Orleans Saints on March 9. But initial word here is the Seahawks would be unlikely to bring him back. Browner will be 32 when next season begins. Same goes for Fred Jackson. He recently said he wants to keep playing. But that won’t happen with the Seahawks.
5, Whatever happens here this week, it likely won’t be as strange as the first NFL Combine I covered here in 2014 when San Diego State running back Adam Muema disappeared before his position group workouts, later saying that God had told him to skip the Combine because if he did, then he would play for the Seahawks, which he said was his “dream” team. Muema, though, hasn’t played for anyone since then, let alone Seattle.