Sports Radio offers an interview with Mike Holmgren. No doubt his remarks on Hutchinson will get the most interest, and he's non-committal on the Browns, so let's just quote his take on rebuilding franchises.

“You know I think it’s a very valid question you raise. I think to do that with any team, to a certain extent we did it going into Green Bay and a little bit coming into Seattle. It takes a tremendous amount of energy, but there is a certain appeal there, a draw there. There’s something in my personality to that. Taking on those types of projects, that kind of gets me going, but there’s a lot of work to do. The important thing going into any organization is that all the principles, all the decision makers are pointed in the same direction with the same motives, with the same desires and then you have a chance. As you look around the NFL, I’m not sure you can say that about every team and it shows. I think the teams that are successful, through ownership, down through management, down through coaching, there is a singleness, a purpose, there’s enough credit for everybody, no one gets territorial, its just good and it shows on the field. I think in the case of the Cleveland Browns or any of the teams that are struggling, that question has to be answered first before you even have much of a chance I think.”

Football Outsiders weekly DVOA rankings are always worth a read, especially when the Seahawks are doing well.

The statistics are unambiguously positive. Seahawks vaulted up from #21 in total DVOA to #14, with a middle-of-the-pack offense (#17) and defense (#12) . Our DAVE is 14 which needs to be higher, but considering these stats are over the entire season including 3 stinkers, this isn't bad at all.

What surprised me most was our schedule; according to FO, our first 5 games were against middle-of-the-pack teams (18th), but we have the easiest remaining schedule of all teams.

Also Jacksonville is now the least consistent team in DVOA on a week-to-week basis. Go figure.

A bleak-titled AP report is not as bleak in content.

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Just a feelgood piece on 7th-round Defensive End out of Oregon, Nick Reed.

Too short to play DE in the NFL? Maybe. Maybe not.

"Every game film you put on in college you say, 'There it is again.' He has that relentless attitude you're looking for," said new Seahawks defensive line coach Dan Quinn. "So I'm anxious to see if he can transfer the things he does innately well and we can add some more things to what he does." Quinn notes that when he coached Jason Taylor with the Miami Dolphins, Taylor weighed just 244 pounds, though admittedly the one-time NFL MVP was a different style of player with a 6-5 frame. He said Andre Carter played at about 255 pounds while he was with the 49ers as well. "Nick is in that ballpark," Quinn said. "There are not a lot of defensive ends that size, but there are some. It all comes back to if you're a lighter guy, you have to play with a physical nature to still have that presence. "When we're playing we don't say, 'Well, he's 248 or 255.' He's physical, he gets off the spot, he's relentless. Those are the things we're looking for." Reed had the same non-stop motor when he played at Mission Viejo High as a teammate of USC quarterback Mark Sanchez. He wasn't a big-time recruit like Sanchez, but went about proving he belonged at the Pac-10 level as one of the league's premier defenders.