Northwest Sports – Seahawks Preparing For The Draft, Plus the MLS Round-Up

Put away your MLB blog for a second because it’s time to focus on the professional football scene in the Northwest, where Seattle is getting ready for the upcoming NFL draft which starts on Thursday. In the other type of “football”, we look at the three teams plying their trade in Major League Soccer.

Seattle Seahawks

A BetOnline.com review of Seattle’s needs would show that they could fill a number of positions in the draft in New York City, but they have a pressing issue in the middle of their defense as Barrett Ruud doesn’t appear to be healthy and head coach Pete Carroll doesn’t know how long it’ll take to get Ruud up to speed. That means the Seahawks could be looking towards Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly if he is still on the board and even though Kuechly isn’t an athletic specimen by any means, he has a nose for the ball and the Seahawks are in an NFC West with San Francisco (Frank Gore), St. Louis (Steven Jackson) and Arizona (“Beanie” Wells), who all have running backs capable of breaking for big games. Carroll was known for his defense at USC, so it isn’t surprising that he is trying to improve the team’s defense first because that is the way to raise your profile among those that use price per head sportsbookservices; you can’t move up until you can stop teams from scoring and that is the focus of Seattle right now, although they did move to pick up quarterback Matt Flynn in the offseason.

MLS Round-Up

Vancouver has been one of the sports betting surprises early in the season as they’re third in the Western Conference after a 1-0 win over FC Dallas on Saturday. The Whitecaps will head to Columbus next as they’ll go for their second stint of back-to-back wins in 2012. Seattle is just a point behind Vancouver, sitting on 10 points as they return from a two-week break with a trip to Chicago, and the break should have recharged their batteries as the Sounders look to continue their solid form to start the season. Meanwhile, Portland is mired in last place in the conference, but they ended a four-match losing skid with a 1-0 win at home over Sporting Kansas City, who had won their first seven games and this could be the game that jumpstarts the Timbers’ season. Portland will look to keep it going as they head to Montreal this weekend, and they’re an expansion team, so it sets up perfectly for the Timbers to ride their momentum to a win and a move up the online betting ranks.