Cutler situation could have big impact on Hawks

This is not an April Fool's Day joke: Pat Bowlen says the Broncos will trade Jay Cutler.

How can this affect the Hawks?

-The Hawks could trade for Cutler directly

-The Lions could trade for Cutler, leaving Matthew Stafford to fall into our laps.

-The Rams or Niners could trade for Cutler. Frankly, both of them should at least TRY to get the guy. In fact, here's the list of teams off the top of my head that SHOULD be trying to get Cutler:

Lions
Vikings
Bears
Redskins
Panthers
Bucs
Niners
Rams
Dolphins
Bills
Jets
Jaguars
Texans
Titans
Browns

That's almost half the league, and a team like the Seahawks could still jump into the Cutler bidding... The next few weeks just got VERY interesting in the NFL, no?

I hate April Fool's Day. There. I said it.

Why?

When I was 12, my friends decided to pull this April Fool's Day prank on me. It was 1987, and when I got to school that day, they told me that Steve Largent had been traded to Green Bay for a second round pick. Being a trusting soul, and not remembering what day it was, I was devastated.

I ended up calling home during lunch and asking my Mom to turn on CNN Headline News and tell me if there was any news about the Largent trade on their sports segment. She said there was nothing about that, but I spent the rest of the day thinking my favorite player had been traded. When school ended, the prank was revealed, and everyone except me thought it was hi-lar-ious. Yeah, it was a regular laff riot.

So no pranks here tomorrow, and y'all should remember to have your bullshit detectors cranked all the way up to 11 tomorrow. Stupid fucking day.

My half-educated guess at the 2009 Seahawks Schedule

I did this last year, and it was fairly fun (I actually called the game at Dallas on Thanksgiving... Crazy, no?). Let's try it again before the official schedule comes out.

We "know" these things:

-Home games: STL, AZ, SF, CHI, DET, JAX, TEN, TB
-Road games: STL, AZ, SF, GB, MN, HOU, IND, DAL
-We won't be playing the Bears, Packers ot Titans in week one, or the Packers or Lions in week 11.
-We won't have home games in weeks 2, 7 and 11, based on the MLS schedule
-Based on our 4-12 record last year and our poor national profile, we'll get an early bye and one national game, probably on MNF early in the season.

OK.. here's how I see our schedule playing out:

1. 9/13 v. JAX (1-0)
2. 9/21 @ AZ (MNF)(1-1)
3. 9/27 v. STL (2-1)
4. 10/4 BYE
5. 10/11 v. DET (3-1)
6. 10/18 @ SF (3-2)
7. 10/25 @ GB (3-3)
8. 11/1 v. TB (4-3)
9. 11/8 @ DAL (4-4)
10. 11/15 v. CHI (5-4)
11. 11/22 @ STL (6-4)
12. 11/29 v. SF (7-4)
13. 12/6 @ MIN (7-5)
14. 12/13 @ HOU (8-5)
15. 12/20 v. TEN (8-6)
16. 12/27 @ IND (8-7)
17. 1/3 v. AZ (9-7)

Ranking the Squads #7: 2006

As usual, you can find the previous installments of the Ranking the Squads project here...

7. 2006
Record: 9-7
Postseason: NFC West Champions, Lost in Divisional Round
Offensive Rank: 14th out of 32 teams
Defensive Rank: 19th out of 32
Turnover Ratio Rank: 27th out of 32
Team MVP: Josh Brown
High Point: Seahawks 21, Cowboys 20
Low Point: Vikings 31, Seahawks 13

The '06ers made their reputation in the postseason, with a dramatic victory over the Cowboys and an OT loss at the heavily favored Bears. Despite an almost completely depleted defensive secondary, the Seahawks recovered from a 1-3 regular season finish to nearly reach the NFC Championship Game.

Before those two redeeming performances, the 2006 Hawks were a mediocre squad repeatedly bailed out by our formerly beloved kicker Josh Brown. Whether it was the capper to a snoozeworthy win at Detroit, both ends of a STL sweep, or the triumphant finish to a SNF win at Mile High, JB was the difference between victory and defeat for a struggling team. Hasselbeck missed four games after a dirty hit from E.J. Henderson and was never 100% after returning, and SA's decline began in earnest despite memorable performances against Green Bay on MNF and versus Chicago in the divisional playoff.

Ahh, but that win over Dallas... It will forever be remembered as one of the greatest wins in franchise history. Here's what I wrote about it at the time...

As usual, I turned out to be wrong...

Nope, no Seahawks @ Cards matchup on MNF in week one, as I predicted a while back... The Raiders not only get to open the season in Prime-Time again, but they also get a Thanksgiving Day game at Dallas. Why?

Here's the week one national games, plus the Thanksgiving Day line-up:

Thursday Sept. 10 (NBC): Titans @ Steelers
Sunday Sept. 13 (NBC): Bears @ Packers
Monday Sept. 14 (ESPN): Bills @ Patriots
Monday Sept. 14 (ESPN): Chargers @ Raiders
Thursday Nov. 26 (FOX): Packers @ Lions
Thursday Nov. 26 (CBS): Raiders @ Cowboys
Thursday Nov. 26 (NFLN): Giants @ Broncos

Also, John Clayton has a story about the NFL considering changing the scheduling formula so east-coast teams won't have to make so many trips to the west coast... As a fan of the team that annually logs more miles of air travel than anyone else, let me be the first to say: Boo. Fucking. Hoo.

Anyway, as usual the NFC West gets no respect. Big shock, huh? It's not like we've represented the NFC in two of the last four Super Bowls or anything.