2015 NFL Draft: The Haul

Entering the NFL Draft on Thursday the Seahawks had arguably six holes to fill, four of which were greater than the other two. The primary needs were addressing the Offensive Line (twice) adding a Wide Receiver and a Kick/Punt Returner. The secondary needs were adding another pass rusher and a corner.

More from Seattle Seahawks Draft

When it came to the actual order in which to draft the positions, I believe the Seahawks got it right. Defensive End is one of the positions where the talent drops off very quickly from round to round. Along with Left tackles and Quarterbacks, if you want to get a quality player at these prime positions you better do it early.

Enter Frank Clark, he is one of the many players in this draft who had off the field issues causing their draft stock to fall. He had first round talent who the Seahawks were able to pick up at 63. It’s a risky pick but I’m sure the front office did all the background research they needed to. You may or may not like the pick but he’s one of us now so we root for him to succeed both on and off the field.

Next is WR/KR Tyler Lockette. He is the opposite of Clark off the field, absolutely no character concerns whatsoever. He actually takes care of two needs with one pick. If you were to draft Jaelen Strong, who was available at the time, they would have also needed to take another player later in the draft to return kicks. With Lockette you get it all in one. He isn’t the big outside receiver we may have been looking for but he can play outside as well as inside and he is the best returner in college football.

Now it was time to address the Offensive Line. With there first pick in the fourth (#130) they selected Terry Poole out of San Diego State. He played Left Tackle for them, but projects to either play Guard or Center for us next year. The next pick was at #134, I was waiting to hear the name Michael Bennett at this point but it never came, instead they went OG Mark Glowinski out of West Virginia. He is more of a true guard, who could just slide right into James Carpenters vacated spot.

Then came the fifth round, or better known to Seahawks fans as the Cornerback round. We all knew what was coming it was just a matter of what name we heard. The name was Tye Smith, a 6 foot 195 lb corner from the small school of Townson. At that size he might be better suited for the slot in our system.

Finally we get to rounds six and seven where we had three remaining picks. This is generally the area where teams take flyers on players. It started with a player who is an athletic god but has only played one year at Defensive End and he is Obum Gwatcham from Oregon State. He started his career as a WR then transitioned to a DE last year for the Beavers. There other sixth round pick was DT Kristjan Sokoli from Buffalo who has already been listed as an OG and will probably never sniff the Defensive Line. This is another JR Sweezy project in the making, it will be interesting if Tom Cable can work his magic again. Last but not least was DB Ryan Murphy from Oregon State, he is a big dude coming in at 6′ 3″ 215 lbs. When a player gets listed as a DB instead of a CB, SS, or FS that generally means that he really doesn’t have a true position, so the Seahawks could use him anyway they want to. You would think it would be as a Safety due to lack of depth but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.

In all the last three picks all might end up playing different positions than they did in college. Gwatcham has been rumored as possibly switching to TE, Sokoli was drafted as a DT but will move to the Offensive Line and who knows where Murphy will end up.

In all I believe we should be happy with our draft, we addressed all our needs. I still would have liked to have added a true center to our team either in the draft or through the undrafted free agency process but I believe in Tom Cable to get someone who can hike the ball. It was a long three-month wait for the draft but I’m glad its over. Time to start looking at 2016 mock drafts now.

Next: Super Bowl XLIV and the importance of undrafted free agents

More from 12th Man Rising

Home/Seattle Seahawks Draft