No doubt, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has been one of the most influential and polarizing figures in the state of Washington for more than a decade. Carroll was hired in 2010 at the age of 57 years old. He came from USC where he was wildly successful. He was a 7-time Pac-10 (as the conference was known then) champion, 2-time Orange Bowl champion, 4-time Rose Bowl champion and 2-time National Champion between 2001 and 2009.
His accolades and resume were absolutely impressive. As head coach at USC he had a record of 83 wins and19 losses. When he took the job in Seattle, a huge piece of his contract was that he wanted full control of roster personnel. Since he was given a roster that was not ready to compete for a playoff spot let alone a title, he had a long road ahead of him to make the franchise successful.
Between 2010 and 2012 Carroll, along with general manager John Schneider, appeared to be a drafting geniuses. In those three years, he managed to draft the following:
Russell Wilson seemed to tire of the Seahawks recent drafts
2010
Round 1 – Russell Okung
Round 1 – Earl Thomas (the 1st member of the Legion of Boom)
Round 2 – Golden Tate
Round 4 – Walter Thurmond
Round 5 – Kam Chancellor
2011
Round 1 – James Carpenter
Round 3 – Kj Wright
Round 5 – Richard Sherman
Round 6 – Byron Maxwell
Round 7 – Malcolm Smith
2012
Round 1 – Bruce Irvin
Round 2 – Bobby Wagner
Round 3 – Russell Wilson
Round 6 – JR Sweezy
During that three years span, Pete Carroll and John Schneider put together drafts that managed to gain 14 starters. And helped build a championship roster.
2013 and 2014
The years that followed appeared to see the magic of Carroll and Schneider dissipate. The 2013 and 2014 draft classes were the two weakest classes in terms of talent in Pete’s tenure with the team to that point.
The 2013 draft was so bad that the best player, by far, to come out of it for Seattle is tight end Luke Willson who was great in the locker room and a backup on the field.
The largest head-scratcher in 2014 would be the selection of receiver Paul Richardson. Not only did he play against lesser competition than the others drafted after him but they put up better numbers and look significantly more explosive.
Let me name the players drafted after Paul Richardson in 2014: Davante Adams, Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry.
You can imagine how much more explosive Seattle would’ve been if they would’ve drafted properly in just one of those two years. No one’s perfect and it’s very difficult to determine in the draft who will be good and who won’t be, however, Paul Richardson had a 3rd-to-4th round projection on him from many sites. Adams and Landry were both projected higher, both had stronger household names, both looked more explosive on film, and had better collegiate careers.
2015 started well and 2016 had players the Seahawks should have held on to
In 2015, the team did well drafting pass-rusher Frank Clark at the end of the 2nd round and return specialist/deep threat Tyler Lockett at the top of the 3rd round. Lockett has been a staple of Seattle football for years and he carved out a role as a top threat for Russell Wilson.
After that, though, Seattle had six picks. None worked out in Seattle. Mark Glowinski has had a somewhat decent career but most of that has come after he left for Indianapolis in 2018.
In 2016 the Seahawks 1st round pick was Germain Ifedi. Seattle took Ifedi in an effort to get back to running the football well. Ifedi at the time did not seem like a bad selection and no one got up in arms at the pick. In fact, 12s pretty much breathed a sigh of relief as it was refreshing to see the team not trade back as fans had been accustomed to.
The problem with Ifedi became abundantly clear, though, after he was the worst-graded tackle by PFF in his rookie year. After 2016, Ifedi looked like he was too slow to keep up with quicker edge rushers. After Ifedi’s rookie year, it seemed he had the entire fan base calling for him to be moved to guard. The move to guard didn’t happen until he signed with the Bears as a free agent in 2020. And actually, Ifedi has made for a pretty good guard.
In Ifedi’s last year in Seattle, he had 13 penalties. In his first year in Chicago, Ifedi had only 5.
2017
The 2017 draft is probably the most underwhelming draft class in the careers of Carroll and Schneider. Schneider did his usual trade-down act once again. A series of absolute mind-boggling transactions took place before Seattle made their first selection of the draft. This is what Seattle did:
- Trade 26th overall pick to the Atlanta Falcons for the 31st pick in the 1st round, 95th pick in the third round, and 249th pick in the seventh round
- Trade 31st pick to their arch-nemesis the San Francisco 49ers for the 34th overall selection in the 2nd round and the 111th selection in the 4th round.
- Trade 34th pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars and getting in return a 35th overall pick and 187th pick in the 6th round.
- With their first selection in the 2017 NFL draft, the Seahawks select Malik McDowell. Yep, all that for Malik McDowell.
Malik McDowell would never play a single down for the Seahawks after an ATV accident before the 2017 season started. The selection of McDowell sparked a series of unfortunate events that changed the face of the Seahawks.
McDowell not playing for the Seahawks led to Seattle trading a 2nd round pick plus Jermaine Kearse to the Jets for Sheldon Richardson. Richardson played in Seattle for one year and then departed in free agency after Seattle missed the playoffs for the first time in the Russell Wilson era.
The 2017 draft did have a player that would have changed the fortunes of the Seahawks had he been drafted. That player is Wisconsin’s offensive tackle Ryan Ramcyzk. Ramcyzk wasn’t drafted until the 32nd pick after the Saints traded up to get him from the New England Patriots.
After one year of abysmal play by Germain Ifedi, the entire fan base was ready to move Ifedi inside at right guard and try a new option at right tackle. For many 12s, they saw Ryan Ramcyzk as a solution to that hole. Unfortunately, Pete and John didn’t share that same sentiment. While Malik McDowell didn’t play one single snap for Seattle. Ryan Ramcyzk is still playing near an All-Pro level at right tackle.
Through five years, Ramcyzk has only allowed 12 sacks in total. Russell Wilson spent the vast majority of his time in Seattle scrambling after the pocket broke down. Much of the issue had to do with the combination of the Seahawks consistently whiffing on their offensive line draft picks and Seattle choosing not to spend big in free agency.
2018 and the Seahawks go running back first (and not cornerback)
In 2018, the Seahawks shocked the football world with their first-round draft selection after missing the playoffs (in 2017) for the first time in the Russell Wilson era and seeing the break up of the ultra-popular L.O.B. (Legion of Boom).
The pressure was on as the fans began believing the Super Bowl window for the Seahawks was beginning to close especially after the release of fan-favorite and out-spoken cornerback Richard Sherman.
In 2017, Russell Wilson accounted for 82 percent of the total offense and he was also Seattle’s leading rusher with 586 yards. The need for a quality running back was high, especially for a “run first” head coach. The 2018 draft was filled with running backs. While the Seahawks had a talented running back on their roster, he hadn’t yet shown he could stay healthy for a full season. Chris Carson had injury issues in high school, college and as a rookie in 2017.
So, the team traded the 18th overall pick to the Green Bay Packers moved back to the 27th overall pick and elected to select Rashaad Penny. Prior to the draft, I ranked Penny as the third-best running back coming out of this draft. I also had a late 2nd round grade on him and at no point did I see that he was worth a first-round snag.
This particular draft was deep at running back and I was convinced you could find talent in the fourth round. Penny wasn’t expecting to be drafted in the first round and based on his interviews. Strictly speaking from my own opinion, it appeared to me that he didn’t want the limelight that comes along with being a first-round pick. Something that should’ve been uncovered through the interview process.
2019
In 2019, the team procrastinated on re-signing Frank Clark, the standout edge rusher. Clark took over for a traded Michael Bennett and a medically-retired Cliff Avril. At the time the team was taking too long to sign Clark (Seattle placed the franchise tag on Clark) Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, decided to make edge rusher Demarcus Lawrence a $20 million a year player.
After the Lawrence signing, Clark declined to sign his franchise tag and was ultimately traded to the Kansas City Chiefs and in return, Seattle received the 29th pick in 2019 plus a second-rounder in 2020.
The Seahawks then had two first-round picks in the 2019 draft. The 21st pick and the 29th pick. After trading away their only premier edge rusher, Seattle needed help on the edge. When the 21st pick rolled around the Seahawks, however, elected to go back to their old ways and trade that pick away.
Sitting at the 21st pick was 6’6″ edge rusher Montez Sweat who ran a 4.5 40 yard dash at the combine. Instead, Seattle chose to replace Clark with LJ Collier. Collier currently looks like if he doesn’t turn around his career in 2022, he’s going to find himself out of the league.
Russell Wilson, on the other hand, has been a model of consistency. A company guy since he arrived at the VMAC in 2012. From his intro interview to his exit interview, he has claimed how much he wanted to win. He told 12s and anyone listening he wanted to win more titles and he wanted to win them in Seattle.
When he found out that teams were calling and Seattle was entertaining those calls he began to wonder what other opportunities might be out there for him. I believe Wilson realized Seattle did not have a winning team built. They had failed to build a championship roster around his talents.
So let’s put this into a better perspective for you. In 2018 (pre-DK Metcalf) if the Seahawks drafted correctly this is what that team could’ve looked like offensively:
Quarterback: Russell Wilson
Wide receiver: Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett and Davante Adams
Running back: Chris Carson and Nick Chubb
Offensive tackle: Duane Brown (left tackle) and Ryan Ramczyk (right tackle)
Instead, this is how it actually looked:
Quarterback: Russell Wilson
Wide receiver: Doug Baldwin, Tyler Lockett and David Moore
Running back: Chris Carson and an injured Rashaad Penny
Offensive tackle: Duane Brown (left tackle) and Germain Ifedi (right tackle)
Seattle missed the window to build a championship roster which led to Wilson losing faith in the management’s ability to build a winning roster that would help Wilson’s legacy. Wilson made it clear he wants to win and when he kept hearing rumors that he could be traded he began flirting with those rumors. Now Russell Wilson plays for the Broncos.