3 under-the-radar players Seahawks should take in 2022 NFL draft
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks enter the 2022 NFL draft with needs at important positions like cornerback, edge rusher and left tackle. But Seattle started their run of success by finding diamonds in the rough in the early 2010s drafts, like Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman.
Seattle might not find the next Chancellor or Sherman in 2022 but there is also no reason they cannot.
The three players that follow could end up being very good players who help the Seahawks win a lot of games in the futrure.
3 under-the-radar players the Seattle Seahawks should take in the 2022 NFL draft
Kicker Cade York, LSU
What? Take a kicker in the draft? Well, yes. For several reasons. And I will start with the first one and the most obvious one: York is really good and that includes being great from long range. At LSU, York made 15 of 19 field goal attempts from beyond 50 yards. Read that again. That is incredibly precise from so far away. And kicks from beyond 50 can be the difference between a victory and a defeat.
The next reason for taking York, maybe with a fifth-round selection (of which Seattle has two) is that York should be good and inexpensive. Jason Myers was fantastic in 2020 and not quite as good in 2021 but still solid, yet releasing Myers would save Seattle $4 million in cap space. Myers is due to make $5 million in 2022 but only $1 million must be paid if Myers isn’t on the team.
The third reason is that while York didn’t handle kick-off duties in college, he clearly has the leg strength to drive the ball. So does Myers but Myers has seemingly struggled with driving the ball on kick-offs. Seattle, and therefore Myers, ranked 31st in the league last year in touchback percentage (37.35 percent).
Maybe this was partly by design but Myers wasn’t great at it in 2020 (21st in the NFL) and continuously kicking off to another team will eventually cause a team to give up a long return at the wrong time. York, besides his accuracy overall (he was 54 for 66 in his college), should be able to help after Seattle scores too with long kick-offs.