Seahawks face a huge test with the handling of their first round pick
In less than three weeks, the Seahawks brain trust face a huge test. Whether they pass or not all depends on what they do with that first round pick.
Whether they’re retooling, rebuilding or rebooting, the Seattle Seahawks have major decisions to make in the upcoming draft. I’d say this is easily the most critical draft since Pete Carroll and John Schneider ran their first back in 2010.
You have to admit the Seahawks did a fairly good job in that draft. Here’s who they drafted with their first three picks:
Russell Okung, T, 1st round. 8 year starter, 2 Pro Bowls
Earl Thomas, DB, 1st round. 8 year starter, 6 Pro Bowls, 3 All-Pro First Team
Golden Tate, WR, 2nd round. 6 year starter, 2 Pro Bowls
Not a bad haul, right? Gee, almost forgot; they also picked up this guy on day three:
Kam Chancellor, DB, 5th round. 7 year starter, 4 Pro Bowls
When you lay the foundation for an iconic unit like the Legion of Boom in one draft, that’s a pretty good draft. When you complete the build the very next year by drafting Richard Sherman in the fifth round, Byron Maxwell in the sixth, and bringing in Brandon Browner from the wilds of Calgary, you clearly know what you’re doing. Four Pro Bowls split by Okung and Tate is pretty solid, too.
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That was then. What will the Seahawks do now?
Seattle had nine picks in that draft, including the two first rounders. Starting in 2013, Carroll and Schneider began their noted penchant for trading down to add more picks to their arsenal. Including 2013, the Seahawks have held onto their first round pick just once. They selected guard Germain Ifedi with that pick. He hasn’t been terrible, but Pro Football Focus ranked him 59th this year among all tackles. He was rated even worse in his rookie season at guard. You can get that kind of performance from a day three pick.
Which brings us to the 2018 draft. Do the Seahawks keep it? There’s been a lot of talk that Seattle will stay in that slot to draft Richard Sherman’s replacement. Much of that has centered on cornerback Josh Jackson out of Iowa. I’ll admit, he certainly looks the part.
Then you remember Sherman himself wasn’t drafted until the fifth round. And you recall Seattle’s newest legit member of the LOB, Shaquill Griffin, was drafted in the third. As Derek Tweedy wrote in one of his great combine reports, there are a lot of quality players available at cornerback. Most draft sites state as many as seven will be available in the second round. Derek’s favorite, Tony Brown of Alabama, is projected to be there in the third or fourth round. Isiah Oliver is another player Derek really liked, and he’s one of those projected to be available in the second round.
Seahawks cannot afford to keep the first round pick
I’m not going to run through every possibility, but you get the point. I think it would be a huge mistake to draft Jackson, or any other player, in the first round. It isn’t that Jackson isn’t worth a first round pick. It’s that Seattle just has one pick until day three this year.
That means if the Seahawks stay put and take Jackson (or whoever) with the 18th overall pick, their next pick will be the 120th overall. Now if you know for certain that Jackson will be the second coming of Richard Sherman, you make the pick. He’d be worth passing on a chance at the next 101 players. Well, maybe. Putting that much draft capital into one player is a huge risk, when your next choice is 100 players later.
Depth isn’t a problem for Seattle in this draft. They have eight picks. Unfortunately, four of those are in the fifth round and another two in the seventh. You can’t rely on getting a Chris Carson in every draft. Which is Carroll and Schneider would be very smart to do what they’ve done in free agency, and pass on the chance at one great player to get a lot of really good ones. That’s how they’ll pass this test.