Terry Mosher 3

TERRY MOSHER

 

07 May 2016:   Views                     of the Dallas Cowboys during rookie minicamp at the Cowboys headquarters in Irving, Texas.   Photo by James D. Smith/Dallas Cowboys

DAK PRESCOTT

 

Okay, I know it’s cooled off today (Saturday, August 27), but my mind is still hot with many thoughts swirling about with many of them of the political nature. But that’s not what I want to get rid of today in the Boneyard. I want to talk sports a little bit, just to ease some of the pressure from my busy mind.

First of all, I don’t know what to make of the Seattle Seahawks. They still seem to be slow starters, as they have been for awhile now. That would seem to give a lot of credit to the coaching staff because they usually play much better in second half of games. And this stretches back to at least through last season.

Of course, too, the Seahawks scored 17 third-quarter points last Thursday while playing their first unit against the Dallas Cowboys’ second unit. So that proved nothing. But they did look better until they got down to the last part of the roster in the final quarter when it was like a mess out there on the field.

What looked good was the Cowboy’s rookie quarterback, Dak Prescott. He is one heck of a prospect. Prescott, who played at Mississippi State, looked like he’d been playing in the NFL for years. He looked real good.

You know, that brings up an interesting point. Why was Prescott, who passed for 60 touchdowns and rushed for 40 more TDs in his Mississippi State career not picked in the 2016 NFL draft until the 4th round (135th pick overall)? I know he was charged with a DUI, although he was acquitted of all charges at trial. But is that enough for him to drop down to the 4th round?

Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were taken first and second in the draft. Paxton Lynch was taken 26th in the first round and Christian Hackenberg was taken with the 51st pick in the second round. Jacoby Brissett was chosen with the 91st pick in the third round, Cody Kessler was the 93rd choice in the third round and Connor Cook was the 100th choice in the fourth round (the Seahawks will face him Thursday in their final preseason game when they visit Oakland) and then, finally, the Cowboys picked up Prescott.

That means seven QBs were picked before Prescott, who may be the best of the lot. So how does that happen?

Of course, this is just the preseason in the first year of these QBs pro careers and a lot of things can change in a few years and maybe the future will prove that teams were correct in the order they picked these signal-callers. But I still think Prescott is something special.

On the other hand, I’m not sold on Trevone Boykin, the free-agent signee that appears to be ticketed for a back-up role with the Seahawks. He fits the mode of quarterback that the Seahawks like now – a scrambler who can run well and who can throw on the run well.

Maybe I’m just too eager to pass judgment. Experts say it takes from two to three years for quarterbacks to adjust from college to the pro games. That is especially so in these days when most college teams are playing some version of the spread offense that is so different from the homogenized pro-set game that the pros play. I think money kind of rules the professional game in that there is so much money invested in quarterbacks that they do everything possible to protect them, which means they invent offenses geared to provide maximum QB protection while also moving the ball forward.

Quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Boykin, who are relatively short for the professional game (Wilson is a shade over 5-10 and Boykin is six-feet tall), are not common. Pro teams like their QBs to be about 6-4 with a cannon for an arm and physically big enough to weather crushing hits.

Wilson (and Boykin) runs more than I believe you want, but so far Wilson has escaped being crushed by those big defensive monsters that are typical these days in NFL D-line fronts. If he ever goes down – and it’s not IF but WHEN – Boykin better be ready, and right now he is not.

Boykin, for me, is probably two years away from adjusting to the pro game. His accuracy is not there yet, and he doesn’t always make the best (or sane) decisions. If Wilson goes down, the drop off will be considerable and the Seahawks could be in big trouble. But, then, you could say that for a lot of teams, although not Dallas because Prescott, to me, is ready to step in if Tony Romo gets hurt, as he often seems to do. In fact, Romo suffered a broken bone in his back on the third play of the game Thursday night against the Seahawks and will be out from 6-to-8 weeks. So Prescott has his chance.

I’ve been hinting at the unpredictability of drafts, whether it’s Little League, the MLB, NBA or the NFL. It’s difficult to be precise with your picks. I helped pick some young kids in basketball and baseball drafts and later I would wonder what did I see or not see from the tryouts that made me choose this or that kid or not choose this or that kid?

It was a crap shoot and I was not real good at it. So should I expect people who have done this throughout their long careers be exact when it comes to drafting? Better than me, obviously, but you still see a lot of mistakes being made.

For example, what did the Seahawks see in Christine Michael when they drafted him in the second round (62nd pick) of the 2013 draft? They missed on him because he was not mature enough to handle being drafted that high. He probably was not mature enough to be drafted, period.

It’s why he was traded to Dallas and then cut loose again. Washington picked him up and had him on its practice squad. The Seahawks needed a back when injuries sidelined Marshawn Lynch and Thomas Rawls, so they resigned Michael.

So three years after he was originally drafted, Michael looks like the back that the Seahawks thought he was. They were wrong the first time, but now appear to be right.

So why were they wrong?

It goes t o character, I think. Everybody is different, and everybody matures at a different pace. A guy like Wilson who had his heard squarely on his shoulders from an early age is the rarity. A guy like Michael is more typical.

This brings me to Ezekiel Elliott, the 6-0, 225-pound speedster that runs like a Mac Truck, and proved it Thursday against the Seahawks. Elliott is being monitored closely by the Cowboys who are already concerned about him after he was spotted visiting a marijuana store before Thursday’s game at CenturyLink.

That visit may prove nothing. But there are many stories in pro sports about gifted athletes who just can’t help themselves and wind up doing stupid things that cost them millions in career earnings.

Okay, enough of that. Just when I began to think maybe the Mariners were going to make a big push and capture a wild card spot, they go into a three-game swoon where in two of them they wrestled defeat from the jaws of victory by blowing ninth-inning leads.

Then they beat one of the best pitchers in baseball – Chris Sale – Friday to get back on track, at least temporarily. So what gives with them? Why can’t they sustain the push?

The Mariners (68-60) are now two games back of the second wild card spot held by Baltimore and are one-game behind hot Detroit (69-59), which is on a five-game winning streak, and are just one game in front of Houston.

There are 34 games left for the Mariners, including today’s game against the White Sox in Chicago, so time is running out. Of course, I didn’t expect them to be in the post-season race so this is all gravy to me. It would be nice, though, for them to make one final push and make it.

My youngest son and son-in-law are already clamoring for me to secure tickets for them to see the Pac-12 football game at Husky Stadium when pre-season North Division favorite Stanford visits on September 30.

The Washington Huskies were ranked No. 7 in the country by Sports Illustrated and I don’t disagree with that. They have a chance to be special, as do the Washington State Cougars. So this might be a good year for in-state college football on the big national stage.

I covered Washington football (and basketball) for nearly 30 years for the Kitsap Sun and I had a lot of goose bump moments watching the Huskies play over those years. One of the best college teams I ever saw was in 1991 when the Huskies were undefeated (12-0) and were co-national champions with Miami (also 12-0). I am bias, but I believe Washington, which whipped Michigan 34-14 in the Rose Bowl game, would have beaten Miami if they had met.

It’s time for me to move on. I feel better already now that I have gotten some things off my mind. Take care.

Be well pal.

Be careful out there.

Have a great day.

You are loved.