For the past three seasons, most Seattle Seahawks fans have been treated to watching starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck get chased out of the pocket, just to throw an interception or get injured.

Help could soon be on the way.

That is, as long as they don't screw this one up.

WITH THE 25th pick in Thursday's NFL Draft, the Seahawks have a few options.

Either pick up an offensive lineman to go with a system that former Idaho coach Tom Cable will eventually install, or pick former Washington quarterback Jake Locker.

In retrospect, this whole idea of drafting players with a lockout is kind of a bad idea.

Then again, the day that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell listens to me is a long, long way away.

Locker is the right guy to replace Hasselbeck, should they opt to draft another quarterback to add to the roster.

He's played in a system under Washington coach Steve Sarkisian that was ran at USC for a few years under coach Pete Carroll, who has since taken on the head coaching job with the Seahawks.

All signs point to Seattle wanting to bring Hasselbeck back, but for how long remains to be seen.

The only thing I know is that with the future riding on Thursday's decision - it better be the right one.

LOOKING BACK at the track record for the city of Seattle, it probably won't end well.

After failing to get a new arena, the Seattle Sonics, who are still the only men's franchise from the city to claim a world title, bolted to Oklahoma City when Clay Bennett bought the team.

It just makes watching the NBA playoffs even tougher when the Oklahoma City Thunder appear to have a shot at a world championship.

The Mariners at least got something right when they signed Felix Hernandez to a multi-year contract extension and he responded by going out and winning the American League Cy Young Award.

This year, it doesn’t seem that anything has gone right — and since an Opening Day complete game, Hernandez failed to win again until Thursday night.

Between players asking out of the lineup to wearing ear plugs, it’s gone from bad to bizarre and we’re not even out of the first month of the season.

Needless to say, many Seattle fans will be tuning into next week’s draft will a little more than just optimism.

In the past four years, they’ve done everything from losing the Sonics, watch as the attendance at Safeco Field plummets and have the Seahawks go from division champs to the butt of a few jokes — even though they advanced to the second round of the playoffs last year.

Hasselbeck, despite his best efforts, can’t last forever and his replacement will likely come from this draft.

Hopefully we don’t get Locked out.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.