The Seahawks have set off a firestorm of speculation today, again, by sending a rather ostentatious contingent to the Texas A&M Pro Day that included Seahawks GM John Schneider, head coach and ultimate decision maker Pete Carroll, and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. Ostensibly, they were there to watch QB Ryan Tannehill throw for the first time in a quite a while after Tannehill sat out workouts at the Combine while recovering from a broken foot.
Tannehill did well, completing passes to WR Jeff Fuller and RB Cyrus Gray, both of whom - incidentally - the Seahawks might have some interest in as well.
Furthering speculation that the Seahawks are enamored with the Aggie QB was the news emerging that Pete Carroll and John Schneider joined Jeff Ireland, Joe Philbin and the Miami Dolphins representatives at dinner last night with Ryan Tannehill. While some painted it like the Seahawks simply showed up uninvited and sat down at the table, Miami beat reporter Ben Volin pointed out it was a pre-planned occasion for both teams to sit down together with the QB. Joe Philbin and John Schneider are old friends from their time together in Green Bay.
The Seahawks very public display of interest can really mean anything so I'm not even going opine one way or another. As has been widely publicized, the Hawks also showed great interest in Ryan Mallett and Jimmy Clausen in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and we saw how that ended up. The Hawks could have legitimate interest in Tannehill despite their recent signing of Matt Flynn, or they could just be putting pressure on Miami to stay at #8 and take him if that's their preferred quarterback this year. If Miami feels that they could take a, say, pass-rusher at #8 and then trade back into the late 1st round to grab Tannehill as well, that would potentially mean one less pass-rush option for the Seahawks at #12.
Smoke screen or not, teams like to weave a web of tangled lies in order to keep their enemies guessing. We really won't know one way or another until April 26th.
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