5 quarterbacks Seahawks should wait to take in the 2023 NFL draft

The Seattle Seahawks likely still need their quarterback of the future but waiting until the 2023 NFL draft might be the best route to take.

The Seahawks might not be bad enough in 2022 to have a chance to pick Stroud or Young but then again, they easily could be. The NFC West is a very tough division that the Seahawks finished last in in 2021 even while having Russell Wilson for most of the year. Drew Lock might be better than expected but he clearly is no Wilson.

The Seahawks at least picked up a high first-round choice in this year’s draft but that definitely shouldn’t mean taking a quarterback with the pick. This isn’t the year to do that. For one thing, Seattle needs to find a long-term left tackle. And a long-term shutdown corner. Seattle has a lot of needs and needs to build the team well and then find a quarterback, not the other way around.

5 quarterbacks the Seattle Seahawks should take in the 2023 NFL draft

Fortunately, this year’s draft has lots of very good-to-great edge rushers so Seattle could get two of those, even if they wait until the second round to choose them. With their first pick, the Seahawks could grab a high-end CB.

Maybe Seattle re-signs Duane Brown for a couple of seasons and waits to choose Brown’s replacement next year when Seattle has even more top-end draft capital. Jake Curhan was OK at right tackle so maybe he stays there in 2022.

But for the Seahawks rebuild to truly work, Seattle needs to wait on drafting a quarterback until 2023. Here are five quarterbacks worth taking next year.

Hendon Hooker, Tennessee

Hooker played at a much better level for him in 2021 after transferring from Virginia Tech to Tennessee. Hooker can play another year in college – his sixth overall – because of new NCAA rules due to how COVID-19 affected the 2020 season and it’s fortuitous for him. While he was great last year, he needs to show that the reason he was good was that he has excellent skill and not just UT coach Josh Heupel’s system.

Hooker, however, is extremely athletic and throws a great deep ball. He is also big enough to be an NFL quarterback at 6’4″ and 220 pounds. But is he a system quarterback that throws great in rhythm or is he a quarterback who can make changes at the line of scrimmage and throw on the move?

Hooker isn’t going to step in on day one of 2023 and be the Week 1 starter. It is going to take him some time to get used to Shane Waldron’s system. The great thing, though, is that Hooker will be coming from the SEC so the speed of the NFL won’t be as difficult to acclimate to as, say, Malik Willis as Willis played at Liberty.

Hooker, unless he absolutely goes off in 2022 (which is definitely a possibility because Tennessee’s offense should be very good), is unlikely to be a first round draft pick. The Seahawks currently have two first-round picks in 2023. Hooker might be a steal in round two but this would only mean Seattle finds its future quarterback while also building a good team around him.

Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina

McCall offers NFL teams more of an immediate answer than Hooker, most likely, simply because he takes care of the ball so well and doesn’t turn it over. Plus, he is extremely accurate and this means keeping drives alive. This is something Seattle didn’t do in 2021, even when Russell Wilson was healthy.

Wilson was a great quarterback but he far too often over the last few years tried to get 30 yards when the team only needed 2 or 3. This is something the Broncos will learn about Wilson too. The AFC West is ridiculously tough at this point and Denver will have to win some close games. Not giving the ball back to quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Derek Carr and Justin Herbert will be important but Wilson will do that by going for the home run too much.

McCall has a decent arm, mind you. I am not saying if Seattle takes him in 2023 that he will simply be a game manager and not throw long to DK Metcalf. McCall will but he also seems to have an awareness of what down and distance means.

If Seattle is trying to build back its defense and get back to the team it was in the early 2010s with a dominant defense and a quarterback who doesn’t turn the ball over but can still make a play or three that changes the outcomes of games, McCall might be the guy.

Jake Haener, Fresno State

Haener has a ridiculous arm. His only issue is maybe he isn’t the greatest decision-maker. After playing well for Fresno State in 2021, he entered the transfer portal and then decided against it and came back. This after he played at Washington his freshman year and then transferred.

That kind of wishy-washiness is going to hurt him with an NFL team who knows their quarterback is bought-in. Sound familiar, 12s? It should. Some teammates thought Russell Wilson tuned out last year.

But that arm of Haener’s. That great and magnificent arm with its quick release and accuracy. He wasn’t perfect last year as he hurt his hip and that affected his play but it also says a lot that he gutted out playing the rest of the season when maybe he shouldn’t have. But that also shows that he can play through pain, a must in the NFL.

Haener also doesn’t turn the ball over very much. In 735 pass attempts at Fresno State, Haener has thrown just 15 picks, or 2 percent of his throws have been picks. In 2021, that number dipped to 1.8 percent. And really except for two games, when Haener threw 4 picks against Hawaii and 3 against Boise State, he threw just 2 interceptions in 402 passes.

Haener can throw with accuracy from multiple arm angles as well so if he is forced to move around in the pocket, he is still good. Haener could easily move into the early part of the first round with a great 2022 performance but Seattle will likely have at least one top-ten pick next year.

C.J. Stroud, Ohio State

The top two quarterbacks likely to be available in the 2023 NFL draft are far and away better than the 2022 prospects. No offense to Malik Willis and others, but C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young would be the top quarterbacks taken this if they could be chosen. In fact, Stroud and Young could go with the first two picks next year.

Stroud is bigger than Young as Stroud is 6’3″ and 215 pounds and the likelihood he will get to 225 pounds. But even then Stroud is unlikely to lose any of his immense athletic ability. He can move around in the pocket easily, run when needed, and already appears to have great footwork.

In his first season playing in college, Stroud threw 441 times in 2021 and completed 71.9 percent of his throws for 44 touchdowns and just 6 interceptions. Stroud had seven games where he didn’t throw any interceptions last year and after throwing one in each of his first three games threw just three the rest of the way. Against rival Michigan State, he was 32 of 35 for 432 yards, 6 touchdowns and no interceptions.

There is no throw Stroud can’t make and will be well-coached at Ohio State. While there have been several OSU quarterbacks who did well in college but maybe not that well in the NFL, Stroud seems different. He is more of a pure passer than a system quarterback.

Bryce Young, Alabama

Bryce Young, like Stroud, has played just one full year in college. Young did throw 22 passes in 2020 but this was mostly in garbage time. When asked to take over quarterback duties in 2021 after Mac Jones left for the NFL, Young did something no other Alabama quarterback had ever done: Win the Heisman Trophy.

Young was amazingly good and didn’t even show his full capability. He wasn’t asked to run very much, for instance, but when he did showed great ability to make tacklers miss. In the NFL, Young will need to scramble quite a bit more and NFL teams already know Young can likely turn that into a positive as well.

But Young is incredibly accurate with a strong arm and appears to have no weaknesses. The only one he might have is that he isn’t as tall as Stroud as Young is just 6-feet tall and 200 pounds. Maybe NFL will worry about him taking too many hits and if he can hold up?

But that would be the team’s fault and not Young’s. No team, given the chance, should pass on taking Young. He doesn’t put the ball into harm’s way – 7 interceptions in 547 attempts in 2021 – even though he is asked to throw the ball 20 yards or more a lot. 23 percent of Young’s pass attempts were of that distance last year.

Young has great touch at any distance but can also squeeze the ball into tight windows. Imagine him throwing to D.K. Metcalf for many years and how happy that would make Metcalf as his production numbers should be huge. Maybe Seattle won’t be bad enough to draft Young but there’s also no guarantee next year they won’t be.