Draftee John Carlson might be dual-threat that Seahawks need

The hands.

They're the first thing that stand out about John Carlson. They're large. Big as oven mitts. And after the Seahawks introduced him at their headquarters on Monday, he offered a handshake as big as it was strong.

Seattle, meet your new tight end. A kid from Minnesota with blue eyes and squared-up 6-foot-5 frame that Seattle picked from Notre Dame's rich tight-end lineage to play the position that is a signature of sorts for coach Mike Holmgren's offense.

Well, at least it was until he arrived in Seattle.

For nine years now, the Seahawks have tried all sorts of things to get their hands around the tight-end situation. They've gone young, drafting Jerramy Stevens and later Ryan Hannam. They've gone old, signing Marcus Pollard last season, who was slowed by injuries and not re-signed. They kept security blanket Itula Mili around until there was nothing left after the 2006 season.

And yet Holmgren never found the production at tight end that Brent Jones provided him in San Francisco or Mark Chmura in Green Bay. Even Stevens' career season — when he was very much a big part of Seattle's record-setting productivity of 2005 — will be remembered more for the balls he dropped in the Super Bowl than the 45 he caught during the regular season.

But there's something else that has been missing in Seattle since that season. A tight end with the blocking starch Hannam provided on the strong side of the offensive line. That's very much a reason why the Seahawks ranked Carlson the top tight end available in this draft.

"In the draft, the tight ends came in a lot of shapes and sizes and skill levels," Holmgren said. "They were kind of different. ... John, in our opinion, was the most complete player."

The tight end is kind of like the tomato of an offense. Fruit or vegetable? Lineman or receiver? So often in today's game, it's an either-or proposition for the guy who puts his hand in the dirt across from the big, bad defensive linemen and then goes running downfield to catch a pass.

"You have those front-line receiver types," Charlie Weis, Carlson's coach at Notre Dame, said Saturday in a teleconference. "Or you have those slugs that can just play at the point of the attack and aren't very good at receiver. ... If you look at the crossbreed, the handful of guys that can do both, he's one of the few that fit that crossbreed."

Those few who can both block and catch are becoming fewer because of the proliferation of the spread offense in college football. That offense changes the nature of the tight end, making him more like a big slot receiver than an NFL tight end who is called upon to block a defensive lineman.

Carlson isn't going to win any foot races down the middle of the field against linebackers, but he isn't reluctant to put his face forward into a block, either.

"The fit appears to be really a good one for us," Holmgren said. "He did a lot of the same things in college that, frankly, we ask our tight ends to do here."

That's why the Seahawks were willing to give up a third-round pick to entice Baltimore to swap spots in the second round, Seattle moving up 17 spots to choose Carlson with the 38th overall pick.

Carlson wasn't going to be there for the 55th pick. President Tim Ruskell said he was certain Carlson would go in the first half of the second round.

"We had inside information that was the area he was going to go," Ruskell said.

There was even a worry Atlanta would pick Carlson with the 37th choice. After the Falcons opted for a linebacker, the Seahawks sacrificed their third-round pick and filled a position so prominent these past two seasons because of an overall lack of productivity.

Seattle is putting a lot of faith in Carlson's hands this season, banking that they are soft enough to catch passes and strong enough to help revitalize the run game with his blocking.

And when Seattle introduced Carlson on Monday, that's the first thing that stood out. Those hands.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com