Seahawks rookie class shows great promise
By Keith Myers
The Seattle Seahawks got a massive contribution from a pair of rookies last season, but the rest of the class got very little media coverage.
It is common to wait three years before giving a rookie class their final evaluation. This is good practice, but that doesn’t mean we cannot take a look at the early returns and get an idea for how things are shaping up.
At first glance, Seattle’s draft class look fairly mediocre as a whole. Tyler Lockett is the real deal. Frank Clark looks like he’s going to be a tremendous defender. Mark Glowinski looks like he’s going to be a steady-if-unspectacular contributor.
Other than that, there’s a lot of wasted draft picks. Three of the seven picks didn’t even make Seattle’s roster last year.
Here are all seven of Seattle’s draft picks from last season:
| Player | Pos | Round | Starts | Notes |
| Frank Clark | DE | 2 | 0 | Very disruptive defender |
| Terry Lockett | WR | 3 | 10 | All-Pro KR, great WR |
| Tyler Poole | OL | 4 | 0 | Wasted pick. Practice squad |
| Mark Glowinski | OG | 4 | 1 | Looks like future starter |
| Obum Gwachum | DE | 5 | 0 | Cut, now with Saints |
| Kristjan Sokoli | OG | 6 | 0 | Athletic project |
| Ryan Murphy | S | 7 | 0 | Cut, now with Denver |
The problem with grading the draft class is that it completely ignores the impact of undrafted free agents. A third of Seattle’s roster last season was made up of players that went undrafted, so clearly they have a solid history of developing undrafted players.
Last year was no different. In fact, they found a massive star in their pool of undrafted players last season. Thomas Rawls was one of the most impressive players in the NFL last season. He probably would have won the Rookie of the Year award had he not broken his ankle a month before the season ended.
Throw in a pair of promising young wide receivers, and Seattle’s UDFA class almost completely makes up for their misses in the draft.
| Player | Pos | Notes |
| Thomas Rawls | RB | Led NFL in YpC |
| Kevin Smith | WR | Replaced Chris Mattews |
| Kasen Williams | WR | Raw, high ceiling player |
Looking at the entire rookie class, the Seahawks did really well. They got 3 absolute studs, one player who appears to be a starter as early as next season, and three raw developmental players with a ton of potential.
That is an incredible class not matter how you look at it. If at least two of the three high-ceiling projects pan out, it’ll be the second-best rookie class of the Pete Carroll era. (Behind only the 2012 class)
It’ll be a couple of years before we’ll be able to evaluate the class definitively, but the early returns are extremely positive.