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How the Seahawks won the draft among NFC West teams

By Andy Excell

Sep 20, 2020; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll celebrates following the final play of a 35-30 victory against the New England Patriots at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 20, 2020; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll celebrates following the final play of a 35-30 victory against the New England Patriots at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Seahawks had the best draft in the NFC West even with just three picks. Why? They filled the needs they had heading into the 2021 season. Here’s how.

Prior to the draft taking place, I did a piece that ranked the existing rosters of all 32 NFL teams. I thought it would be a good idea to revisit that piece after the draft to see which one the NFC West teams have fared well or not so well in the draft.

Of my top ten team rosters in the NFL in my previous piece, four were NFC West teams.

Seahawks had the best draft among all NFC West teams

Pre-draft rankings

My ranked were thus:

  1. Cleveland
  2. Tampa Bay
  3. Green Bay
  4. LA Rams
  5. New Orleans
  6. San Francisco
  7. Minnesota
  8. Tennessee
  9. Seattle
  10. Arizona

In determining which NFC West team has improved most as a result of the draft, I have re-ranked all 32 teams taking into account the draft picks made. The result of which is that with reference to 2021 only the top 6 places remain unchanged.

The Seahawks have gone up two places to seventh overall with Minnesota and Tennessee each dropping  a place and New England coming in to tenth place at the expense of Arizona who fall to eleventh.

Using this as an indicator of whose draft is going to have the most positive impact in 2021, the Seahawks, Patriots and Raiders had the best drafts, whilst Buffalo and Houston had the worst drafts.

Although Houston has plummeted from 19th to 32nd as a result of seemingly accepting the loss of DeShaun Watson is inevitable one way or the other, though they also managed not to address obvious needs on their D-line, at defensive end and at running back.

Similarly, Buffalo failed to fill gaps on the defensive line, especially defensive end, and linebacker. For me, New England had the best draft of any team, filling all their needs and making some great value picks along the way. The same could be said for the Raiders, getting Trevor Moehrig at safety in the second round is one of the best picks of the entire draft in my opinion.

Back to the NFC West though, let’s take a look at each team’s draft.

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