No out-of-left-field surprises that made followers and followers ask “Who–and why–is THAT?!”
No head-scratching reaches on the prime of the draft. No gamers the remainder of the league had as much more distant tasks — if draftable, in any respect.
The Seahawks had clear, pressing wants getting into this 2022 NFL draft, coming off a 7-10 season out of the playoffs for under the second time in 10 years.
They exited this draft Saturday having crammed these wants.
Double-filled them, the truth is.
This was by far probably the most sensible, least why-did-they-pick-that-guy? draft of the Pete Carroll/John Schneider period.
“Wait, what are you saying?” Carroll joked Saturday.
That was after Seattle made the final of its notably utilitarian 9 draft picks.
“It fit, yeah. It did,” Carroll stated. “The opportunities of the numbers where our positions were, it fit the choice.”
New offensive tackles
The Seahawks want two new beginning offensive tackles this coming season. So they made Charles Cross from Mississippi State — “just 21 years old (yet) already the cleanest pass-blocker of this class,” Tacoma-based NFL draft guru Rob Rang of Fox Sports stated — the ninth-overall decide in spherical one Thursday. “Sweet Feet” Cross is prone to substitute unsigned 36-year-old Duane Brown as Seattle’s beginning left deal with.
Cross is a throwback to how Carroll first rebuilt the Seahawks. The 70-year-old coach’s first decide for Seattle 13 drafts in the past was Russell Okung, the sixth-overall alternative in 2010.
They drafted Abraham Lucas from Archbishop Mitty High School and Washington State, in spherical three Friday. He goes to compete with 2021 undrafted rookie shock Jake Curhan to interchange departed Brandon Shell as Seattle’s new proper deal with.
Carroll has stated enhancing the staff’s cross rush was a prime precedence. Lack of pressuring opposing quarterbacks into errors is essentially why Seattle and its Thirty first-ranked protection produced simply 18 takeaways final season, the fewest in staff historical past.
In spherical two Friday, the Seahawks chosen University of Minnesota edge rusher Boye Mafe.
In Saturday’s fifth spherical, they drafted Ohio State rush finish Tyreke Smith.
Carroll can have them each flying off the sides of the Seahawks protection with returning Darryl Taylor and others seeking extra stress in new coordinator Clint Hurtt’s modified defensive schemes.
Chris Carson’s scenario
Lead rusher Chris Carson’s unknown return from difficult neck surgical procedure in November plus Rashaad Penny’s contract ending after 2022 made operating again a bother spot. So the Seahawks drafted Michigan State’s game-breaking runner Kenneth Walker within the second spherical. Walker romped for 190 yards and 5 touchdowns towards a rugged Michigan protection that allowed solely six different dashing scores all of final season.
The Seahawks performed eight cornerbacks final 12 months. That was due to the departures of 2020 starters Shaquill Griffin and Quinton Dunbar in free company plus a number of accidents and the failure of Akhello Witherspoon, whom Seattle finally traded to Pittsburgh.
Tre Brown, a 2021 Seahawks draft decide, impressed coaches however had his rookie season restricted by damage. Seattle re-signed former University of Washington cornerback Sidney Jones to doubtlessly begin reverse Brown. But Jones is signed just for 2022.
So Carroll and Schneider drafted two cornerbacks this weekend.
Coby Bryant for Kobe Bryant
Coby Bryant from Cincinnati was a fourth-round alternative Saturday. He was the Jim Thorpe Award winner final season as the highest defensive again in main faculty soccer. Schneider stated Bryant, named after the late NBA legend, has already requested the Seahawks if he can put on Kobe Bryant’s immortalized jersey quantity 8 for Seattle.
The most intriguing Seahawks decide of this class would be the different cornerback, Tariq Woolen. The fifth-round decide from Texas-San Antonio is 6 toes 4 and has run a 40-yard sprint in 4.26 seconds.
“It was pretty crazy,” Woolen stated. “Whenever I got the official time, I was like “dang!”
Carroll stated he doesn’t suppose anybody so tall has run so quick in soccer.
Woolen is like Richard Sherman, the Carroll prototype for Seahawks cornerbacks. He’s tall with lengthy (33 5/8-inch) arms. He was a former faculty huge receiver remodeled right into a cornerback. Seattle took Woolen, like Sherman, within the fifth spherical, at 153rd general. One spot from Sherman, the truth is.
Woolen stated he is aware of all about Sherman and the All-Pro, Super Bowl-winning cornerback’s Legion of Boom legacy in Seattle.
“I’m just crazy to be in kind of the same footsteps as him,” Woolen stated. “Now it’s what I do when I get there. …
“I went to a team that fits me.”
The depth at huge receiver had thinned through the years with departures of second-liners reminiscent of David Moore in free company to Carolina and Josh Gordon to NFL suspension and eventual free company. So the Seahawks drafted two of these, too, each within the seventh spherical: Bo Melton of Rutgers and bodily Dareke Young from Division-II Lenoir-Rhyne.
Had wants. Got fills.
“We had a good fit,” Schneider stated. “Things kept happening the way they should have.”
What they didn’t do
The one want the Seahawks didn’t deal with was off-the-ball linebacker, within the center to interchange Wagner.
Cody Barton impressed coaches in his sport and a half changing the injured Wagner at center linebacker on the finish of final season. Seattle goes to extra of a 3-4 defensive type this 12 months, which can transfer 2020 first-round draft alternative Jordyn Brooks from weakside to inside linebacker subsequent to Barton this 12 months. And Carroll stated Ben Burr-Kirven, the previous Washington Huskies inside linebacker who had knee reconstruction final summer season, started operating final week, impressing the whole staff.
As for the perceived want at quarterback with Wilson now in Denver: The Seahawks didn’t see it as huge a one as you might have.
Carroll is keenly to see what Drew Lock, the Broncos’ second-round decide from 2019 Seattle acquired as a part of the Wilson commerce, turns into within the Seahawks’ system. The staff re-signed 31-year-old veteran Geno Smith this month to compete with Lock.
Carroll and Schneider didn’t suppose there was a quarterback on this weak-QB draft class that might compete with Lock and Smith for the job. Not as a rookie.
Lock and Smith will not be signed previous 2022. Next 12 months’s draft class is way stronger than this 12 months’s was.
Plus, Cleveland will finally should launch Baker Mayfield due to his assured contract of $18.85 million for this 12 months and the Browns having traded for Deshaun Watson this offseason.
So the Seahawks will not be achieved but including to the competitors at quarterback.
“We’re always competing,” Carroll stated — but once more — when requested about new quarterback prospects.
But that competitors wasn’t coming from this draft.
This was such an easy Seahawks draft, that the GM and staff that had made 84 trades involving picks of their first 12 drafts made just one this weekend. That was a minor transfer, dropping down 13 spots throughout the fifth spherical Saturday and selecting up a seventh-round alternative from Kansas City. That gave the Seahawks 9 decisions on this draft.
Seattle used the additional decide to draft the industrious Young. He acquired his engineering physics bachelor’s diploma final spring and performed final season at Lenoir-Rhyne whereas engaged on his grasp’s in enterprise administration.
“Yeah, we didn’t move around much. I definitely thought we’d move around more than we did,” Schneider stated.
The GM thought he had a commerce up in spherical one, an actual Seattle rarity, however “it disappeared” Friday, Schneider stated. He thought he had a pair choices to commerce down from 9 within the first spherical however these additionally fell by.
So the Seahawks stored uncharacteristically selecting on flip and addressing clear wants.
“We grade for our team,” Schneider stated. “And it did end up trending to needs.”
They will start seeing how their draft picks might assist with these wants beginning Friday with the staff’s three-day rookie minicamp.
“We are fired up about it,” Carroll stated.
“(Now) it’s time to unwrap the packages and the presents and see what’s in there, so we are looking forward to it.”
SEAHAWKS 2022 DRAFT CLASS
1. Left deal with Charles Cross, Mississippi State
2. Edge rusher Boye Mafe, Minnesota
2. Running again Kenneth Walker, Michigan State
3. Right deal with Abraham Lucas, Washington State
4. Cornerback Coby Bryant, Cincinnati
5. Cornerback Tariq Woolen, Texas-San Antonio
5. Edge rusher Tyreke Smith, Ohio State
7. Wide receiver Bo Melton, Rutgers
7. Wide receiver Dareke Young, Lenoir-Rhyne
This story was initially printed April 30, 2022 6:36 PM.
Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL author for The News Tribune. In January 2019 he was named the Washington state sportswriter of the 12 months by the National Sports Media Association. He began protecting the NFL in 2002 because the Oakland Raiders beat author for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native started protecting the Seahawks of their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a previous life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer within the U.S. Army, so he might ask you to drop and provides him 10.