Head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider have built the Seattle Seahawks into one of the winningest franchises in the NFL over the last 13 seasons. They've done this by usually making the correct personnel moves. This includes, of course, drafting well.
Where would Seattle be even today had Carroll and Schneider not decided to choose Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner in the 2012 NFL draft? In the two drafts prior to that, Seattle picked up players like Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor. The bedrock of one of the best defenses in the history of the league - the Seahawks defense from 2012 through 2015 - was built quite a bit from the draft.
And while the 2022 Seattle draft looks like a success and the 2023 version could do almost as well, Carroll and Schneider have blown a few picks as well. Some of these have even set the franchise back a year or so. But here are the five worst choices made by Carrol and Schneider.
No. 5 - Seattle Seahawks running back Rashaad Penny (2018)
I really hate having to put Penny on this list. He's an extremely likable guy who wasn't consistently good in Seattle because he didn't want to be good. He just got injured a lot. Whatever a person can hurt, Penny did. He was like a modern-day C.J. Prosise. But Penny clearly wanted to play and after beginning the 2022 season fairly well, he once again (of course), got hurt. He cried tears of disappointment and many of us felt like crying right along with him.
But Penny did have his temporary moments. He was so explosive in the final five games of 2021 that he led the NFL in yards-per-rush even though he only played in 10 games and only ran the ball 119 times. He had 360 yards rushing in the last two games of the year combined. Penny could have been a spectacular running back with the Seahawks but when it came time to re-sign him again this offseason, Seattle took a hard pass.
Penny is now with the Philadelphia Eagles and will probably have a tremendous season. To be honest, the man deserves it as he is a good dude. That's why putting him on this list is difficult, but also a must. Penny was taken at number 27 overall in the first round of the 2018 draft and the team simply needed Penny to be more available in his five seasons in Seattle.
No. 4 - Seattle Seahawks safety Marquise Blair (2019)
Blair had one thing in common with Penny: He couldn't stay healthy. I guess maybe make that two things in common with the running back: Blair also flashed potential in extremely limited reps. But his injury history was something that Seattle simply had to move on from and he was a surprise release before Week 1 of last season.
Blair was chosen in the second-round of the 2019 and 47th overall. That kind of selection should mean the player is going to work out to some degree. Blair was a punishing tackler and had some speed, though he sometimes took too many chances when he went to tackle someone. He never seemed to learn the difference between tackling aggressively and tackling aggressively using the proper technique.
In his rookie season of 2019, Blair actually started three games and in Week 8 of the season he was in on 11 tackles and forced a fumble in Seattle's 27-20 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. The following week, however, Blair found himself out of good position in coverage and Seattle's secondary was abused in a 40-34 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That would be the last time Blair would ever start in the NFL.
Over the course of the next two years, Blair only played in eight games for Seattle. He did manage to record 2 passes defended and a tackle for loss, but Seattle just didn't seem to trust him with more repsonsibility. Maybe he wasn't open to taking direction very well, but Pete Carroll and his coaching staff just seemed to sour on the former second-round pick.
No. 3 - Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman L.J. Collier (2019)
Talk about a guy who doesn't seem as if he could accept coaching, something must have happened with L.J. Collier in the offseason before the 2021 season because Collier went from starting every single game of 2020 to being a healthy scratch for most of the games in the first half of 2021. To be fair to Seattle's coaching staff, even when Collier started al of those game in 2020, he didn't really produce that much.
By far his most productive season, Collier still only had 3 sacks, 4 tackles for loss, and 7 quarterback hits in 560 snaps in 2020. His Pro Football Focus (subscription required) reflected that as well as Collier received poor grades across the board. He wasn't good against the run, and wasn't much better rushing the passer. Seattle took him in the first round of 2019 probably hoping he could be the next Michael Bennett. He wasn't.
2019 was a weird draft for the Seahawks. Their top two picks, Blair and Collier, were busts. But their third pick (the last pick in the second round) was DK Metcalf who, of course, is among the better receivers in the NFL. Seattle also chose Phil Haynes in the fourth round and Haynes might end up being the starter at right guard in 2023.
For Collier, his fifth-year option was rightfully not picked up by the Seahawks for 2023, and he left in free agency and signed with the Arizona Cardinals on a one-year, $1,232,500 deal. That's a pretty far fall for a guy who was once a first-round choice.
No. 2 - Seattle Seahawks receiver D'Wayne (Dee) Eskridge (2021)
Of the players on this list, Eskridge is the one guy that is still currently on the Seahawks roster. He might end up being great one day, and that would come after I recently wrote an article saying how Seattle should release him. If he does become a very productive player, feel free to direct your social media toward me and say, "Lee, you're still an idiot!" Because I still hope I am wrong about Eskridge.
But while Eskridge hasn't yet done much of anything for Seattle in two seasons, his third year is somehow starting off even worse. After an acknowledged domestic issue this offseason, Eskridge will be suspended for the first six games of the 2023 season. Eskridge was already in a battle for a WR4 spot - not even in the top three - and his suspension is clearly not going to help him in terms of playing time or how he is viewed by 12s everywhere.
Eskridge was Seattle's first pick in the 2021 NFL draft. He was chosen in the second round and 56th overall. While that's not a massively high choice, that Seattle took him with the team's first pick obviously means the team saw something of Eskridge in college where they thought he could be productive as a pro. He hasn't been at all.
In his two seasons, he's missed 14 of a possible 34 games. It might seem as if Eskridge has missed more but that's only because he is basically invisible when he is on the field. In the 20 games he has played, Eskridge has just 17 catches for 122 yards and he has rushed the ball 6 times for 69 yards. He has the speed to be a downfield threat, but not the route-running ability, it seems.
Eskridge stands out even more as a draft bust because Seattle only had three picks in the 2021 draft and with the way Eskridge has played the team might as well have had just two choices.
No. 1 - Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Malik McDowell (2017)
Since the Eskridge suspension and fan anger about that, I have seen a lot of social media posts that Eskridge is the worst draft pick for Seattle since Aaron Curry. Curry was not a great choice, but he still isn't as bad as the Malik McDowell pick. Curry also happened before Pete Carroll and John Schneider arrived in Seattle to start running the team, therefore Curry wouldn't be on this list anyway. But Curry somehow managed 5.5 sacks in his Seahawks career. McDowell went some better (or worse) than Curry.
The same offseason that Seattle traded back out of the first round only to make McDowell their first choice in the 2017 draft in the second round and number 35 overall, McDowell thought it wise to get on an ATV and have an accident that would hurt his leg and head so badly that he would never play for Seattle. He would not even practice for the team. Seattle tried to rid themselves of the player by waiving him in 2018 but no team picked him up so he returned to the Seahawks on the non-football injury list.
He was waived again in 2019 and became a free agent. There were doubts that due to his injuries that McDowell would ever play for any team in the league. But the Cleveland Browns, in all their wisdom, decided to take a chance on him and McDowell actually played in 15 games for the Browns in 2021 and had 3 sacks. But then McDowell being McDowell, he was arrested in January 2022 for, among other things, assault on a police officer. The Browns released him and McDowell didn't play last season for anyone.
Malik McDowell is the worst pick under Pete Carroll and John Schneider because even though he had red flags before the 2017 draft, the team was content to trade out of the first round and get McDowell. He never played for Seattle.