Wednesday 30 December 2009

Berry to declare? Seahawks watching

Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin admits he fully expects Eric Berry to declare for the 2010 NFL draft after Thursday's Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia Tech. It's not much of a surprise - popular opinion is that Berry will be a high pick next year (something I don't necessarily agree with).

"Eric's played man-to-man coverage, we've blitzed him, he's played back in the middle and he's played down. So to be able to do all those things and then also to play on our special teams as many snaps as he has, he's created a lot of draft value for himself. I would think he'd go extremely high -- whenever he leaves. I would anticipate him probably not being with us next year."

"I told him from my perspective he's done everything he can do. If he wants to go, this is the time to go. I would never want to hold someone back from that, because it would be real hard to live with yourself if you tried to convince someone to stay and then something happened to him injury-wise and they weren't able to get what they had worked so hard for." - Lane Kiffin

The Seahawks will send scouts to the Vols game tomorrow, according to Scout.com's Chris Steuber. He reported on his twitter page yesterday that Seattle, Dallas and Houston will have representatives at the game. It's not difficult to imagine who their focus of attention will be. I've voiced my concern for Berry's tackling qualities a number of times on this blog and I maintain that I'll be surprised if he goes as high as most people appear to think. On October 25th I wrote this article raising the issue, and in September I spoke about why I believe Berry and fellow safety Taylor Mays have been over rated in most quarters.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How does he compare with Earl Thomas? Is it realistic to hope one of the two could fall to the Broncos pick? Safety seemed like a priority before this year's disaster, but now it kind of seems like a luxury.

Rob Staton said...

Earl Thomas has shown a similar ability to be that 'ball hawk' type this year (I think I'm right in saying he had eight interceptions), but his tackling is better. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Thomas ended up being the first safety off the board. He's only a red shirt sophomore, so some might be put off by his lack of experience - but at the same time, his stock will probably never be higher.

I think there's a chance Berry, Mays and Thomas could be there by the Broncos pick. One of them definitely will be.

Savage said...

I think 1st round is way too early to pick up a safety. There are more pressing needs. However I do hope a team in front of the Hawks picks Berry so it will let a better talent fall like Morgan or Bradford. DE and QB are the probably the 2 hardest positions to fill in the NFL, so thats who I'd target.

I am starting to see a few mocks that have the Hawks taking Spiller in the top 10 and it would actually not suprise me if they did take him. If he shows he can handle the ball 25 times a game, then he is definately the biggest impact offensive weapon.

Anonymous said...

At this point, with how bad the seahawks are, I think it would be a mistake to pick a Safety with one of our top 3 picks.

I'm still on the side of spend our first 2 picks on an OT and OG Mike Iupati. Then spend that 3rd pick on the best weapon available (ie Benn, Best, Demariyus Thomas is intriguing) or use it on the likes of a guy like DE Eversen Griffin who may slip because of inconsistency.

As desperately as I want Spiller, I just think he is going to go too high in the draft. His skills are much needed on the Hawks roster, but being a bit undersized, I'm afraid our O-line would just get him hurt. I'd rather beef up the line and get Jahvid Best in early round 2.

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