Seattle Seahawks Mock Draft Tuesday 5.0

Round 4

Seahawks select Chase Claypool, WR/TE Notre Dame

It seems odd to draft a wide receiver in the second, then double down and take one in the fourth. But when the value is there, you don’t simply ignore it. Plus, Seattle did this very thing last season, selecting D.K. Metcalf in the second round and Gary Jennings in the fourth.

The likelihood of Chase Claypool falling to this spot in April is low, but the Seahawks could theoretically take him sooner than this, so let’s work our profile. Claypool is a big wide receiver. So big that teams asked him to participate in the tight end portion of the NFL combine.

Claypool checked in a 6’4″, 238 lbs at the scouting combine and wowed everybody with his 4.42 forty-yard dash, 40.5″ vertical, and 126″ broad jump, while also putting up 19 reps on the bench press. Claypool didn’t do any of the agility drills.

Claypool would be a nice compliment to Metcalf outside, as both players have the speed, size, and strength to bully smaller DB’s who want to try and press cover them. Claypool excels at coming down with contested catches and has a large catch radius.

In addition, Claypool is an aggressive run-blocker who routinely pancakes defenders to spring his running backs for big gains. He also has been a premier special-team cover man. Both of these traits are quite Seahawk”y” and should help Claypool’s evaluation with the team.

Claypool doesn’t have elite hands and his route tree is in need of some work. He likely didn’t do the agility drills because it isn’t the strength of his game. We saw what a bad 3-cone drill did to Metcalf’s draft status. But we have also watched how little those things matter when the receiver has the size and play strength to get through contact and the speed to make players pay.

Claypool at tight end would make sense. He has the physicality in the run game and the size to match. But having a versatile player like Claypool makes a lot of sense from any NFL team and his contributions on special teams and in the run game will be tough for John Schneider and company to ignore.

Round 4: Seahawks select A.J. Dillon, RB Boston College

In short, A.J. Dillion is a physical freak. Seattle needs running back depth in 2020 to prepare for the returns of Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny and may need to replace Chris Carson after the season. Dillion can certainly do that and then some.

Dillion is big (243 lbs), fast (4.53 40), explosive (41-inch vert, 131-inch broad), and strong (23 reps at 225 lbs). Dillon’s closest athletic comp, according to Mockdraftable, is Ricky Williams. But if you look at the combine numbers of Derrick Henry, the two results are remarkably similar.

Both backs are physical battering rams. Both are fast and explosive. So why is Henry a second-round pick and Dillon isn’t? Well, Henry went to Alabama, Dillon went to Boston College. And while there may be other factors, when you look at the two profiles side by side, there wouldn’t appear to be.

Dillon would be a steal in the 3rd round and we know the Seahawks are interested. It almost makes too much sense for the Seahawks to select Dillon on day 3 if he can get there. Dillon checks a lot of boxes. Possibly, too many to ignore.