It¡¯s Super Bowl Sunday https://www.theseahawksfanshop.com/hats , 9 is set to air this afternoon, and huge portions of the country will tune in to watch the Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots face off with the Lombardi Trophy on the line. The question posed to Seattle Seahawks fans for the past two weeks since the conference championships were held has been simple: should Hawks fans root for the division rival that beat them twice this season or should they root for the team that bested them in the Super Bowl four years ago? Let¡¯s take a look at some of the arguments for and against each side. Never root for a division rival (Go Patriots!)This isn¡¯t hard to understand. The Rams have been a thorn in the side of the Seahawks for much of the time since realignment in 2002, with the exception being from 2005 until 2009 when the Hawks won ten straight against the Rams. However, since the Seahawks hoisted the Lombardi trophy on February 2, 2014 the Seahawks and Rams have faced off ten times, with the Rams winning seven of those games. That includes Seattle having dropped six of the last eight contests between the two squads, including each of the last three by a combined score of 111-69. The Rams are the only NFC West team that hasn¡¯t lost a Super Bowl since realignment (Go Patriots!)This is pretty simple: The Seahawks (2014), San Francisco 49ers (2012) and Arizona Cardinals (2008) have all lost in the Super Bowl since the NFL realigned for the 2002 season. While the Rams lost two Super Bowls prior to that (1979 and 2001), they have not had much postseason success to speak of since the NFL shook things up. In fact, the Rams lone post-realignment playoff victory prior to this season was the 2004 27-20 defeat of the Seattle Seahawks at Century Link, a week before getting obliterated 47-17 by the Atlanta Falcons in the Divisional Round. The Rams would have a more difficult time going forward if they win (Go Rams!)There is a school of thought that exists that if the Rams win, it could lead to some of the the older players on their roster retiring, such as Andrew Whitworth, John Sullivan and Aqib Talib to retire, which would make 2019 more challenging for the team. Along the same lines, there are those who believe that winning a Super Bowl ring could make players who are extension eligible in the coming seasons more expensive, such as Marcus Peters, Tyler Higbee and of course Jared Goff. How much truth to this there actually is is hard to quantify, but it¡¯s an idea that has certainly been floated out there. The Patriots are the reason Rick Mirer was drafted by the Seahawks (Go Rams!)For those who are old enough to remember the disaster that was the 1992 Seattle season, in Week 3 of that year the Seahawks and Patriots played in Foxboro in a barnburner of a game that Seattle won 10-6. As a result of the Seahawks win in that game, when both teams finished out the season 2-14, the Patriots got the first overall pick in the draft and the Seahawks got the second. Now, Drew Bledsoe is never going to wind up in the Hall of Fame Seattle Seahawks Hoodie , but he was certainly better than Rick Mirer over the course of their careers. And, Bledsoe was better than the majority of the quarterbacks the Seahawks had through the 90s. So, as the big game draws near, which team will you be rooting for? Over the past week plus we¡¯ve looked through eight of the nine draft picks of the Seattle Seahawks from the 2018 NFL Draft in order to attempt to grade the most recent draft class with the benefit of a season of hindsight. So far we¡¯ve gone through the selections of First round running back Rashaad Penny,Third round defensive end Rasheem Green, Seventh round quarterback Alex McGough, Sixth round defensive end Jacob Martin, Fifth round tackle Jamarco Jones, Fifth round punter Michael Dickson,Fifth round linebacker Shaquem Griffin and Fourth round tight end Will Dissly.That leaves just one member of the 2018 Seahawks draft class left to be evaluated, and that is obviously Cornerback Tre Flowers, a sixth round selection out of Oklahoma State University. Flowers was yet another in a not short line of college safety to professional cornerback conversion projects for Pete Carroll, following in the path of players like Eric Pinkins and Mike Tyson. However, the path for Flowers has been far different than that of Pinkins and Tyson, who never successfully made the transition to cornerback in the NFL for the Seahawks. And for those who know what they are looking at and analyzing, the selection of Flowers by the Hawks did not come as a surprise, as Field Gulls own Matty F. Brown predicted back in the spring on the morning of day three of the draft. (Author¡¯s note: Matty may well have been correct on Wyatt Teller and Ian Thomas, but we¡¯ll never know. Thomas, a tight end, was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the fourth round, and with their next pick the Hawks selected Will Dissly. Teller, an offensive lineman was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round, and two picks later the Seahawks drafted Jamarco Jones. So Marshawn Lynch Color Rush Jersey , has anybody ever seen Tony Romo and Matty F. Brown in the same room?)Flowers, as would be expected, struggled at times during his rookie season, but he also showed enough to warrant hope for the future. Add in the fact that he played much of the season as a member of an extremely young secondary, and it is no surprise that the team struggled at times to stop opposing offenses. However, Flowers remains extremely young, as he and Shaquill Griffin team up to make a starting cornerback pair that combined is about the same age as Tom Brady. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, as Brady is 41 years old, and both Griffin and Flowers are set to turn 24 later this offseason, it¡¯s not as much of an exaggeration as one might first imagine. However, looking past just his age and his status as a conversion project, Flowers played a significant amount as a rookie in 2018. Specifically, his 903 defensive snaps were the most that any Seahawks draft pick has played on either offense or defense since Justin Britt logged 1,058 snaps as a rookie in 2014. Just to put how many snaps Flowers logged in perspective, here¡¯s a sampling of some other recent Seahawks draft picks and how many snaps they have played since being drafted:2016 3rd Round Pick TE Nick Vannett: 890 offensive snaps2016 3rd Round Pick RB C.J. Prosise: 251 offensive snaps2016 5th Round Pick DT Quinton Jefferson: 707 defensive snaps2016 6th Round Pick C Joey Hunt: 181 offensive snaps2015 6th Round Pick LB Eric Pinkins: 5 defensive snaps2015 5th Round Pick TE Luke Willson: 2,564 offensive snaps2015 5th Round Pick CB Tye Smith: 125 defensive snaps (with the Tennessee Titans in 2017)So, that¡¯s just a sampling of some other draft picks and how much they have contributed since being drafted. Obviously, Flowers will need to continue to show growth and development to maintain his starting role, but if he can do that and get good injury luck, there¡¯s no reason to doubt his ability to be a long term contributor for the Seahawks.In any case, it will certainly be interesting to watch the defensive back group continue to develop in the coming seasons. The Hawks are loaded with young potential in the secondary. and after consecutive seasons of a middle of the road scoring defense it will certainly be fun to watch what Carroll can do as the league continues to move more and more towards a passing league.