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Seattle finished 26th in the league last year in rushing, averaging just 97.9 yards per game. They were tied for 25th with a 4.0 yard per carry average and they were tied for 27th with just seven rushing touchdowns.

The NFL is a passing league but the Seahawks’ shortcomings on the ground had to be at least part of the reason why the team finished 25th in the league in scoring with just 280 points.

The Seahawks’ problems in the run game can’t be completely blamed on Julius Jones (leading rusher with 663 yards and a 3.7 yard per carry average. Future likely Hall of Famer Walter Jones missed the season. Matt Hasselbeck missed two games and was certainly not healthy all year. But Jones is hardly inspiring as a team’s top running back option. He’s more typically the type of guy coaches are always looking to replace in the starting lineup (witness Dallas and Marion Barber III when Jones was still there).

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After trades before and on draft day four teams ended up with two picks in round one.

I like best the day the Seattle Seahawks had, which may not be surprising given that they were both in the top 14. The Hawks first nabbed Russell Okung, who will likely step in on day one to replace Walter Jones, when the Seahawks’ star left tackle makes his retirement official. The second pick, safety Earl Thomas, has 4.3 speed and was being talked up by some of the draft experts on ESPN as the best safety in the draft. He’ll immediately make the defense better too.

The San Francisco 49ers had a good day as well. There had been some talk that they might go for a speed back like CJ Spiller to complement Frank Gore. Instead, with the Clemson back off the board early, the 9ers nabbed two stud offensive linemen to make holes for Gore instead. Anthony Davis from Rutgers is a 325 pound anchor who will also help protect whoever ends up at quarterback while Mike Iupati, the guard from Idaho, will also be a road grader.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars struggled with attendance in 2009 enough to the point where rumors had the team several months ago considering drafting Tim Tebow in the first round just to get the locals interested in the team again.

They clearly decided Tebow wasn’t worthy of going with a top 10 pick and based on the reports it’s not surprising. They may still be able to get him in the second round if they want him.

But I can’t see fans in Jacksonville being all that excited about the team selecting defensive tackle Tyson Alualu instead. . That’s not to say the University of California product is a bad player – he may be a very solid lineman. Not that Mel Kiper is the end-all, be-all, but he had Alualu ranked as a late-first or early-second round pick.

Yahoo Sports had him as the 69th best player overall.

The Jags need defensive line help, no doubt. But it seems as though they might have been better off trying to swing a trade to move down eight to 10 spots and safely taking him there.

Either way, it’s hard for me to see this pick putting fans in the seats.

Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk.com trashed Jim Kelly a few weeks ago when the old Bills quarterback said he’d have no problem recommending Florida quarterback Tim Tebow to the Bills.

Florio criticized Kelly for the recommendation because Kelly has never been a scout – despite the fact that Kelly acknowledged in his answer to a question that he had never been a scout and couldn’t guess where Tebow should be drafted (Then just a few days later Florio chipped in with draft advice of his own … who are you going to listen to more? Florio or Kelly? I thought so.).

Today Florio puts 49er Hall of Famer Joe Montana in his sites. Montana was asked by NFL.com about Jimmy Clausen, the Notre Dame quarterback who could fall in the draft due, at least in part, to concerns about his attitude.

Montana’s response? “He came in with a little bit more of an attitude than most people wanted, but if you don’t have an attitude, you don’t make it in the league,” Montana told NFL.com. “You can’t be timid and shy.”

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We realize that here at Zoneblitz.com (and at our baseball site) we sometimes rant on particular topics a little too much.  But sometimes, the subjects of our rants make it too easy not to.

Case in point–last week, Andy pointed out that Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk castigated Jim Kelly for saying that he would be comfortable recommending Tim Tebow to his former team, the Buffalo Bills, saying:

“The fact that he was a quarterback doesn’t make him qualified to determine the round in which another quarterback should be drafted. And it especially doesn’t qualify him to assess overall team needs and determine whether Tebow or any other quarterback should be picked instead of the best player available at another position, or the best player available regardless of position.”

Florio thought this was was worthy of a post, despite the fact that:

• Kelly was answering a question from a reporter, not actually making a recommendation to the Bills in their draft war room (that we know of)
• Kelly admitted he didn’t have enough information to decide whether he was worthy of a 1st round pick, but that he would be ok as a 2nd round pick
• Kelly acknowledged that he’s not qualified to make a recommendation as to whether the Bills should use the ninth pick in round one or the ninth pick in round two to get Tebow

Despite this, Florio added:

“If Kelly wanted to recommend players to the Bills, he should have become a scout upon retiring, rolling up his sleeves and grinding away and visiting college campuses and watching film. “

And this:

“Indeed, we doubt that many/any Bills scouts offered Kelly unsolicited advice about playing quarterback during his career.  He would be wise to return the courtesy now.”

Now, five days later, Florio offers up this gem:

“Even if he’s not ready to contribute at the NFL level as a rookie, his long-term potential likely makes him worthy of a selection in the top 20 picks.”

That quote was featured in a short piece about Jason Pierre-Paul, a defensive end prospect considered a “freakish athlete with unlimited potential”, but one that has raised questions about maturity and his readiness for the NFL with “nonsensical answers to fairly basic questions” during team interviews.

Hey Mike, I doubt that any scouts offered you unsolicited advice about how to try cases during your legal career–it might be wise to return that courtesy now.

Otherwise, some other blogs might start wondering just what you’re getting out of hyping a player that has raised legitimate concerns with his behavior during interviews–not to mention the fact that his “huge splash in only one year of major college football” amounted to only 6.5 sacks and only 7 starts (but still 13 games played)–hardly the kind of production that warrants a first round pick.

But hey, maybe you finally found another way to monetize all that traffic your site gets–I would guess that agents would pay pretty heavily to get a recommendation on a site that so many NFL insiders supposedly visit?