Rookie Running Back Robert Turbin
Photo credit: Bleacher Report

This is the latest installment of our "State of the Seahawks" series. Click here to view the state of the quarterback position. 

Last year the Seahawks running attack was the vocal point of the offense, spearheaded by the pro bowl tandem of Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson. But then Marshawn had a little too much beast mode for one night.

On July 17, Lynch got charged with driving under the influence after he was arrested near his hometown of Oakland. His court date is set for August 14, conveniently right in the middle of training camp.

What’s really concerning is the fact that Lynch has gotten in trouble with the law before, which includes a suspicion of sexual assault, a hit and run incident, and a misdemeanor gun charge. Add this recent DUI to the list and NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell might have no choice but to slap a 4 to 6 game suspension on Marshawn.

OK, so let’s say Lynch is suspended for the first 6 games of the season. Who would take his spot as lead rusher?

The Three Quarterbacks
Photo credit: Seahawks.com

Every day for the next week I will be selecting a position group to analyze as part of our new "State of the Seahawks" series. First up: The Quarterbacks.

From 2003 to 2010, the phrase “quarterback competition” was foreign at Seahawks training camp. Matt Hasselbeck was the starting quarterback, and there was no disputing that.

Now fast forward to 2012. The phrase “quarterback competition” is the only thing people are talking about at the VMAC.

For the past week, Matt Flynn, Tarvaris Jackson and Russell Wilson have supposedly been battling it out over who will be the starting quarterback for (at least to start) the 2012 Seahawks with so far no man really taking a significant lead on the other two. One day it’s Matt Flynn taking reps with the 1^st team, and then the next day it’s Tarvaris Jackson or Russell Wilson.

But it really isn’t a competition when you get down to it. The Seahawks wouldn’t have signed Flynn to a 3-year, $26 Million contract with $10 Million guaranteed to have him sit on the bench for a couple years behind Tarvaris Jackson. And all indications are that Flynn will be the starter going into the season, as he has reportedly been the most consistent of the three.

Friday, June 29^th, will go down as a huge day for the University of Washington’s 2013 recruiting class. Thanks in large part to the work of former California Golden Bear coach Tosh Lupoi, UW received commitments from seven athletes at their Rising Stars prospect camp. Lupoi, known to be a recruiting guru, also helped shore up the 2012 class at the 11^th hour; his most notable acquisition being Scout.com’s #3 overall prospect, Shaq Thompson.

Daeshon Hall, Lavon Coleman, Elijah Qualls, Andrew Basham, Caleb Tucker, Damore'ea Stringfellow and Poasi Moala made the decision to commit all at once in Seattle, a tactic Lupoi used while at Cal to bolster excitement around the program.

On a perfect sunny evening in Seattle, Sounders fans were treated to two long awaited spectacles; a Sounders win and the return of number 11, Steve Zakuani.  After a ten game winless streak and a near year and a half absence, both events made for a memorable night at Qwest Field.

The Sounders came out of the gate with guns blazing hoping to take three points in one of their few summer home games.  The formation had been altered slightly from previous games with Mauro Rosales playing a withdrawn forward role as Fredy Montero sat on the bench.  Alvaro Fernandez appeared to have finally begun to find his form as he made several darting runs from the outside wing and playing some great give and go football with Rosales and Eddie Johnson.  The game was tied 0-0 going into halftime.

Editor's note: SeaTown Sports correspondent Kevin Neuzil is living in Tennessee for the summer, and put on the scouting hat on Tuesday while he watched the Mariners Double-A affiliate, the Jackson Generals face the Montgomery Biscuits. Neuzil kept his eyes on prized Mariners prospect, pitcher James Paxton. What follows are his observations and notes while he watched Paxton on Tuesday.

1st inning:

• Five straight fastballs to first batter, mid 90s.
• First curve a little loopy, just missed on a good change.
• Third batter really fooled on a change up out of the zone, another groundout.

2nd inning:

• First batter singles to deep right on a decent change up.
• Good location on fastballs so far.
• Threw his fourth change up, not one for a strike yet. Make that five.
• No hitter has had a good swing on his fastball.
• Cheap slow roller down 3rd line for a hit.
• Nice double play off a well placed fastball and weak groundball.

3rd inning:

• Two good breaking balls for first K.
• First good change up, right on outside corner. R
• Real quick inning, very efficient with good tempo on mound.

4th inning:

• Much better breaking ball this inning, better location with good break, not overly sharp though.
• Got last two batters out with it.
• Fastball still with good velocity

Final stat line: 4 innings, 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 2 strikeouts

Finishing thoughts:

• Efficient pitcher and no walks. Very promising. Only one batter made decent contact. Final pitch count was 62.

• His velocity is pretty good. Sat around 92-94 all game, touching 96.  The change-up was 81-83 which isn't fast but he doesn't change his motion or arm speed to throw it so should be effective when he can locate it (which I didn't see at all). Curve was low-eighties as well which is a bit slower than you'd like to see but not by much and it was good enough where even though he didn't have the best location, it was enough to induce some weak contact and swinging strikes.

• The fastball success was probably a combination of speed and location. 94 is by no means slow but most hitters are going to be able to get around on it unless its well placed, which from what I saw it definitely was. He was able to throw it inside and out, to both righties and lefties, and when he missed (which was rare) he missed out of the zone, not over the plate.

• I think he needs to work on mixing his pitches up (at least from the small sample I saw). There was a point mentioned it in the notes where he threw five straight fastballs to a batter, which no matter how well placed in the majors that just won't work.  Change-up location at least on tuesday was also a pretty significant question mark. While it's clear his curveball is an effective pitch for him, I'm  interested as to why he didn't go to it more. He was only in for four innings which might partially explain the high fastball use, especially if he was expecting to go deeper into the game.

• I would guess he finishes the year in AA, starts in Tacoma next year and has the chance to be a late-season call-up depending on how he
  does.

With a chance to redeem themselves and break a six game winless streak the Seattle Sounders traveled south to face arch rivals, Portland Timbers.  After weeks of banter between fans and players, the day finally arrived.  The Sounders form however, did not.  Seattle fell to Portland 2-1 and gave the Sounders a seventh straight winless match.

The first few minutes of the match actually looked bright for Seattle as it appeared that the team had the intensity and desire to take points away from the Timbers.  Osvaldo Alonso was in exquisite form consistently stripping Portland of the ball and initiating offensive flow.  But his efforts were undermined by ill communication at the back as Boyd scored in the 16^th minute and Horst in the 25^th.  Both goals came about as a result of poor marking in the back line by Seattle.  Hurtado and Burch played decently for Seattle, but Jeff Parke and Zach Scott once again appeared sluggish and subpar often giving Portalnd’s young offense too much space.  This is an issue that has plagued Seattle for much of their winless run and hopefully the return of Johanssen and keeper Michael Gspurning will help resolve the lack of communication in the back line.

A 1-1 draw to Kansas is better than a 4-1 loss to Montreal.  But, the Sounders’ performance in last night’s match still left much to be wanted.  Passing continued to be sloppy in the back line and offensive flow while less lethargic still seemed slightly disjointed.

The match began poorly for Seattle.  In the 8^th minute, lack of defensive initiative to clear the ball out of the back resulted in Jacob Peterson lofting the ball over an out of position Andrew Weber to give Sporting Kansas a 1-0 lead.  Weber, in his first start looked a little shaky overall in his first match as it seems his nerves distracted him from making good positional decisions.  This will likely improve as he gains experience.  To the Sounders’ credit, the team response to being a goal down was excellent as Mauro Rosales upped the tempo in the offensive third and earned a free kick about twenty five yards out.  He drove in the cross and in a spectacular display of technique Patrick Ianni scissor volleyed the ball in to tie the game at 1-1 in the 15^th minute.

Time: 7:00  PM

TV: KONG 6/16

As the ESPN and other supporters begin hyping up the, always exciting, Cascadia Rivalry game against Portland, Saturday, the Sounders must return home for one tune up game before that. Through the last 6 games the Sounders are winless, which is total opposite of their 5 game winning streak to start May. It is hard to pin point exactly what has gone wrong for the Sounders, whether it is injuries, fatigue, lack of motivation, or any other circumstance, but all we know is that the results have not been there. Whatever the reason is the Sounders are looking for the answers as they host second place in the East, Sporting Kansas City.

The Seattle Sounders played a dismal match against the Monteal Impact.  After a three week international break, the Sounders looked as though they barely knew each other.  Passes were disjointed and sloppy and there was no flow in the offensive third.  A slow start and some embarrassing mistakes by Seattle defender Zach Scott allowed Montreal to take a 2-0 lead with goals in the 18^th and 54^th minute.  There is no question that the Sounders lost on the road because of their own poor play.  But the match was ruined by an inconsistent official by the name of Mark Geiger.

It is a well-known fact that the MLS lacks quality officiating.  Many of the game’s biggest stars like Thierry Henry and David Beckham have spoken with disdain towards the whistle blowers of MLS.  In the 56^th minute, Geiger sent off Jhon Kennedy Hurtado for apparently violent conduct.  The play was undoubtedly a foul but an ejection hardly.  The unwarranted red card not only revealed the inadequacy of Geiger but the inadequacy of MLS refs in general.  Only a few minutes later Fredy Montero was the victim of a vicious scissor tackle the likes of which saw Osvaldo Alonso getting suspended for the last two games.  The foul on Montero only received a red card.  This shows that MLS officials have zero concept of how to maintain control of a match.  What is a red card in one situation has to be a red in an equivalent instance.

As a result of Hurtado’s sending off, what was an acceptable loss became a disgrace to the beautiful game as the Sounders were exposed and conceded two more goals in the 58^th and 87^th minutes with poor defending from Zach Scott and Jeff Parke and goalkeeping mistakes from Meredith partly to blame.  Eddie Johnson put in a goal in the 61^st minute from a through ball from Fredy Montero but the ugliness of the match unfortunately overshadowed what was a beautiful piece of play.

                                                                               Photo Credit: Power Showcase

Here's a video of Theo Alexander hitting a grand slam against Juanita

Day two of the 2012 MLB Draft, at around 2:00 p.m. yesterday, the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to take the Lake Washington High School prodigy, Theo Alexander, with the 236 pick (7^th Round.) Almost every Major League team was interested in Alexander, and why not? The 6’2 205 pound outfielder was selected 1^st Team All-3A/2A King Co this year and is known for his excellent bat; batting .471, with 25 runs batted in and 4 homeruns his senior year at Lake Washington High School.

Theo Alexander did commit to play for UC-Santa Barbara next year, but will most likely sign with the Dodgers and forgo college to pursue his dreams of playing in the bigs. This is a perfect fit for Alexander if he decides to sign, as the Dodgers are known for having a great farm system. They have turned prospects such as Matt Kemp, James Loney and Andre Either into solid players today in the MLB. I’d imagine the Lake Washington star to start out in Single-A and work his way through the minors until he is ready. Remember he’s only 18 years old and still has a lot to learn about the game before he can become the next Matt Kemp or a Dodger superstar.

--Evan Baron (BaselineBaron09)