Seahawks draft profile: Yetur Gross-Matos could come with question marks

The Seahawks need an edge rusher or five for the 2020 season. Could some help come via the draft in the form of Yetur Gross-Matos?

Remember the great Seahawks pass rush? No? It has been some time since that was the case. In the early years of the 2010s Seattle had a front four that could put heat on opposing quarterbacks. In 2019 that didn’t happen. I am pretty sure that current defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. doesn’t know how to get creative and dial-up a good pass rush from nothing. So he needs talent. That could come in the NFL draft if Seattle takes Penn State’s Yetur Gross-Matos.

Seattle needs to do several things to do better in 2020 than 2019’s 28 sacks, second-worst in the NFL. One is to re-sign Jadeveon Clowney. Two is to then get Clowney some help, a lot of it. Some of that help could come in free agency but a lot of it needs to come in the form of young edge rushers via the draft. Gross-Matos could help. But he comes with some issues.

Strengths

There is no doubt that Gross-Matos brings forth a dynamic skill-set. He is big and quick and can get around tackles. He is 6-foot-5-inches and weighs about 270 pounds. Once he gets into an NFL workout routine he will gain muscle and could weight 275 or more. But that shouldn’t hurt his quickness.

In the last two years he spent at Penn State he had 34.5 tackles for loss and 17 sacks. He has a nose for how to make plays. And he should only get better. Though he played in a 4-3 at Penn State, he was mostly ill-used as sometimes he lined up at nose tackle (seriously!) and moved around the line. He should be a better pro than a collegian.

Weaknesses

Pete Carroll loves to have a cohesive locker room. There is a reason the Seahawks let players like Richard Sherman walk. They were disruptive to the team atmosphere and Carroll is all about team-first. At Penn State, Gross-Matos was named in a lawsuit for hazing a former player. Maybe Gross-Matos wasn’t involved and maybe nothing really happened or maybe it did, but Seattle might also stray away from a player with any chance of being connected to something that isn’t team-first.

Overall

Seattle needs pass rush help. There are several players, like Iowa’s A.J. Epenesa, in this year’s NFL draft who might help Seattle long-term. Gross-Matos is certainly potentially physically capable of making the Seahawks better at getting to opposing quarterbacks. If he is still around late in the first round or early in the second round (when Seattle inevitably trades down) and if Gross-Matos is cleared of any issues he might have had at Penn State, then Seattle should choose him. But there might be too many ifs and buts for Seattle to do so.