Will Seahawks be active in supplemental draft?
By Dan Viens
The Seahawks are scouting an intriguing Canadian WR prospect today, but is he good enough to use a draft pick on?
This Thursday the NFL will hold it’s annual supplemental draft. Once a process that actually produced big names from time to time (Steve Walsh, Bernie Kosar and Timm Rosenbach are a few names you’d recognize) it’s mostly become an afterthought.
Today the Seahawks are in Calgary, Alberta to scout a big college WR who might just have enough upside to warrant using a 2017 draft pick to acquire him.
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Rashaun Simonise is 6’5″, 200 lbs and runs a 4.46 40 yard dash. In 8 games as a junior he reeled in 51 catches for 1079 yards and 11 TD’s. He was declared academically ineligible for his senior year, and after making a few appearances in an independent arena league he decided to give the NFL a try.
You can watch his junior year highlights here.
The Seahawks have been looking for a big WR to help make a difference in the red zone for them ever since Pete Carroll arrived in 2010. But does Simonise have any special traits the set him apart from the likes of Douglas McNeil, Chris Matthews or Mike Williams…..all big WR’s who the Hawks have tried (or are currently trying) to turn into that weapon?
Here’s what one scout has to say about him:
“He’s a man amongst boys on this [CIS] level. I’d equate it to watching lower level FCS or a [NCAA] Division II player dominate. Some of those guys get to the NFL,” the scout said. “He has some raw tools. Best thing he does is track the deep ball. He has some height and catch radius. Long strider, not a real sudden player, but there are some vertical traits of intrigue.”
Enough intrigue to use a draft choice on?
It’s debatable. The league has tightened up the loopholes good players used to use to slip through into the supplemental draft, where some agents thought it was an advantage to set yourselves apart from the rest of the crowd and allow teams to use a future pick on a player who could help them now.
Simonese has certainly generated some buzz, there will reportedly be as many as 11 NFL teams represented at his workout today.
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The Seahawks have only gone the supplemental draft route twice in their history, taking running back Al Hunter in their inaugural year, and spending a 1st rounder on Brian Bosworth in 1987.
Let hope it works out better this time should the team choose to use a pick on the big kid from Canada.