Does Seattle Have a Drafting Problem?
With the importance of the draft to all NFL teams, I wanted to take a closer look at how Seattle has performed in player evaluation and ultimately, player selections in the last few drafts. Many will have you believe it’s been awful and they may be right. Many have said the success from 2010 to 2012 is purely down to Scot McCloughan’s ability to evaluate talent and the Seahawks have just rode the wave of his success. Lets find out if it’s true.
We know the drafting from 2010 to 2012 was elite, like the best 3 years any team has ever drafted elite. So I’m going to focus on 2013 onwards.
I am going to use a baseball analogy to grade each pick. Strike, single, double, triple and home run.
2013 draft –
Round 2 - Christine Michael Single Round 3 - Jordan Hill Single Round 4 - Chris Harper Strike Round 5 - Jesse Williams Strike Round 5 - Tharold Simon Single Round 5 - Luke Willson Triple Round 6 - Spencer Ware, Strike Round 7 - Ryan Seymour Strike Round 7 - Ty Powell Strike Round 7 - Jared Smith Strike Round 7 - Michael Bowie Single
Of those players, 3 got cut before the 2013 season got underway, 2 never played in any season, 2 lasted 1 season, 3 lasted 2 seasons, one lasted 4 seasons and was extended for a year.
Strikes – 6
Singles – 4
Doubles – 0
Triples – 1
Homeruns – 0
Pretty underwhelming as I’m sure you’ll agree. None of the 2013 draft class remain on the roster, although Luke Willson may be resigned.
2014 draft –
Round 2 - Paul Richardson Triple
Round 2 – Justin Britt Homerun
Round 4 – Cassius Marsh Double
Round 4 – Kevin Norwood Single
Round 4 – Kevin Pierre-Louis Single
Round 5 – Jimmy Staten Strike
Round 6 – Garett Scott Strike
Round 6 – Eric Pinkins Single
Round 7 – Kiero Small Strike
Of those players, 2 didn’t play a single season, 1 remains on the roster, 2 lasted 1 season, 1 lasted 2 seasons, 2 lasted 3 seasons, 1 lasted 4 seasons.
Strikes – 3
Singles – 3
Doubles – 1
Triples – 1
Homeruns – 1
Definitely a subpar draft but certainly better than 2013. Justin Britt is still on the roster and has worked out. Paul Richardson could be classed as a homerun but the fact he wasn’t resigned by the team means I can only value him as a triple. The rest didn’t really provide any value whatsoever in the grand scheme of things.
2015 draft –
Round 2 – Frank Clark Homerun
Round 3 – Tyler Lockett Triple
Round 4 - Terry Poole Strike
Round 4 - Mark Glowinski Single
Round 5 - Tye Smith Single
Round 6 - Obum Gwacham Strike
Round 6 - Kristjan Sokoli Strike
Round 7 - Ryan Murphy Strike
Of those, 2 are still on the roster, 3 didn’t play a single season, 2 played in 1 season, 1 played in 3 seasons.
Strikes – 4
Singles – 2
Doubles – 0
Triples – 1
Homeruns – 1
You could make arguments either way for the 2015 draft. Getting two solid starters who are both likely to get extensions isn’t bad at all but missing on the other 6 is pretty costly for the team as a whole. “could have done better” rings true here.
2016 draft –
Round 1 – Germain Ifedi Double
Round 2 – Jarran Reed Triple
Round 3 – C.J. Prosise Double
Round 3 – Nick Vannett Single
Round 3 – Rees Odhiambo Single
Round 5 – Quinton Jefferson Single
Round 5 – Alex Collins Strike (for the Seahawks at least!)
Round 6 – Joey Hunt Single
Round 7 – Kenny Lawler Strike
Round 7 – Zac Brooks Strike
7 are still on the roster, 1 didn’t play a single season & 2 lasted a single season
Strikes – 3
Singles – 4
Doubles – 1
Triples – 1
Homeruns - 0
This is where it gets a bit harder to evaluate given each player has only been in the league for 2 seasons and may still be learning. For now I am giving them what I’d class as a fair grade given how they have performed to date, but some could easily see their grades increase this season dependant on how they perform. Ifedi, Prosise and Vannett are all players who could see big jumps in performance this season.
I’d say this draft is ‘to be confirmed’ however I don’t envision any homeruns. Jarran Reed seems the only possibility but he seems like a prime candidate that played well but will not be offered a second contract by the team.
2017 draft –
Round 2 – Malik McDowell Strike
Round 2 – Ethan Pocic Double
Round 3 – Shaquill Griffin Triple
Round 3 – Delano Hill Single
Round 3 – Nazair Jones Triple
Round 3 – Amara Darboh Single
Round 4 – Tedric Thompson Single
Round 6 – Mike Tyson Single
Round 6 – Justin Senior Strike
Round 7 – David Moore Single
Round 7 – Chris Carson Triple
Of the 11 players drafted in 2017, 10 remain on the roster which is promising. All these players were rookies last season but this draft class has shown some real potential and although there’s 5 singles right now, every single one of those could ‘move up’ to higher grades. I feel pretty optimistic about this draft as a whole, especially finding your RB1 or RB2 in the 7th round.
Strikes – 2
Singles – 5
Doubles – 1
Triples – 3
Homeruns - 0
So how have they stacked up overall over the course of the last 5 drafts?
Strikes – 18
Singles – 18
Doubles – 3
Triples – 7
Homeruns – 2
Considering the likes of Amara Darboh, Tedric Thompson, Delano Hill, Ethan Pocic, Nick Vannett and maybe even Germain Ifedi could make big jumps in 2018, I don’t think it’s fair to say the Seahawks have been as appalling in the draft as many would have you believe. Sure, for the most part 2013 and 2014 were truly awful. But 2015 had upside as well as 2016 and 2017 looking, on the surface, promising at the very least, I certainly don’t buy what the “JS can’t draft” crew are selling, and neither should you.
It will be interesting to see what JS does with the 2018 draft picks available to him and things will certainly get more interesting if a team does in fact give up a first round pick for Earl Thomas. That will certainly soften the blow or Seattle currently having a total of zero day 2 picks (round 2 and round 3). With their abundance of round 5 picks I can absolutely see a hefty trade up back into the later round 3 area with some of those picks, too. It’s also a given that pick 18 won’t be selected by the Seattle Seahawks, however it is yet to be determined if the team will leave the first round all together as they did last year or if they stick in the first and grab a third rounder as compensation for picking at the end of the round as opposed to the middle of the round.
