NFL Football Picks: 2009 Seattle Seahawks

The 2008 season was pretty much a disaster for the Seattle Seahawks. Coach Mike Holmgren was basically just fulfilling his contract in preparation for his retirement and every receiver worth anything was injured for most of the year. Their quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck went down early with an injury and was out for the majority of the season as well. When you combine no quarterback with no receivers, you're also not going to have much of a running game. They stumbled through to a 4-12 season and a top five draft pick. Did they do anything in the offseason to garner enough hope that they'll make a run this year? If you're in search of free football picks, expect a better team, but not good enough to unseat the Cardinals in the division.

The Good News: The offseason saw some good things happen. First of all, Matt Hasselbeck is healthy again and has looked very sharp in the preseason. Having him back for a full season will do wonders for the offense. In addition to getting him back, they also added a new #1 wide receiver through free agency. T.J. Houshmandzadeh comes to Seattle from the Bengals and should immediately be their best option. They will also see their stable of receivers from last season healthy again like Nate Burleson and Deion Branch.

Since the running game was pretty anemic last year, they also went out and got Edgerrin James to play out of the backfield. He should be an instant upgrade and will bring experience to the team. While he had an up and down year last year, his run in the playoffs proved that he still had it.

The defense should also be better than last year as well. In the draft, they picked up what some people thought was the top player in the draft in linebacker Aaron Curry. He is unbelievably fast and talented and should immediately have an impact. This allowed them to trade linebacker Julian Peterson to the Lions for defensive tackle Cory Redding. They also picked up cornerback Ken Lucas to add to the secondary.

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The Bad News: Although they gained several players, they also lost a few solid ones as well. For starters, a very good Giants defense snatched up their defensive tackle Rocky Bernard. While they picked up a couple of defensive tackles to replace him, you never know how it will work out until the games are being played. They also lost consistent possession receiver Bobby Engram. His ability to convert on third downs was uncanny. He just had a knack for where the defense was and just set down exactly where he needed to. His contribution will be hard to replace.

Outlook: If you're looking for free NFL picks, I would say that the Seahawks will finish second in the division this year. I think they'll miss the playoffs, but will be much improved over last year. Expect them to play better with all of their pieces back in the fold, but to still come up short.