We’ll have another live chat on the forum starting at 15:30 PST. I’m not surprised Pete Carroll discussed trying to accumulate another second round pick yesterday, the depth left on the board is incredible. I suspect the Seahawks will look strongly at running back and linebacker in rounds 2/3, but there’s enough quality available to look elsewhere.
On offense, Peter Konz is going to make someone very happy in round two. A center at Wisconsin who can also play guard, he may be the best player left in the draft. Also on the board in terms of the offensive line – Jonathan Martin, Cordy Glenn, Kelechi Osemele, Mike Adams and the wildcard Amini Silatolu. The Seahawks aren’t likely to go offensive line, but we could see an early rush today.
Receiver has some great depth in the form of Rueben Randle and Stephen Hill, plus there’s a few other names that could creep up after San Francisco drafted AJ Jenkins late in round one. Off-field issues have troubled Dwight Jones but he’s still an extremely talented player available in this draft. The top tight ends – including Coby Fleener – remain available. At running back we could see Lamar Miller leave the board quickly after New York drafted David Wilson at #32.
Defensively, Courtney Upshaw is going to make a fantastic value second rounder for a team like Baltimore. Vinny Curry and Andre Branch are two other pass rushers who offer value to teams who went in different directions in round one. Devon Still and Jerel Worthy offer interior presence. At linebacker – potentially a target area – Zach Brown, Mychal Kendricks, Bobby Wagner and Lavonte David all remain. There’s talent at corner to be had too, we could see a ton of corners go in round two. Will we see Kirk Cousins and Brock Osweiler drafted today?
It wouldn’t surprise me if Seattle used the depth in round two to accumulate more picks and trade down. However, they can’t be too cute. Having picks is fine, but missing out on a good crop of players in round two would be a killer. Seattle can get an impact player in the second round and probably another in the third. I’ll be surprised if Seattle leaves without a running back today, unless they see better value for Saturday.
Reaction to the Bruce Irvin pick
Draft Pundits I’ve spoken to today…
Tony Pauline: “Just heard they wanted to trade down into the 20’s but couldn’t pull off a deal and said, ‘what the heck’… major reach.”
Chris Steuber: “Bruce Irvin could be a Chris Clemons type defender. He will get sacks. He’s very good off the edge; deceptively strong.”
Dan Shonka: “Major reach could have gotten him later. Can’t play the run.”
National links
Mike Florio at PFT: “Per a league source, at least seven teams had Irvin rated as one of the top 15 players available in the draft.”
Chris Chase at Yahoo: “Five years ago, Bruce Irvin was arrested for breaking into a drug dealer’s house and spent two weeks in prison. Last month, he was accused of knocking over a magnetic sign that was sitting atop a Pita Pit delivery car and was arrested again. On Thursday night, he became a first-round pick in the NFL draft.”
Steve Kelley at the Seattle Times: “They had their pick of pass rushers, and they chose the most obscure and the most controversial. Bruce Irvin better be good.”
Dan Hanzus at NFL.com: “The choice marked the first shocker of the draft. Irvin showed explosive physical ability during his time at West Virginia, but character issues played a large part in why many draft experts labelled him a second-rounder at best. Pete Carroll didn’t share the same opinion.”
Don’t forget to check out my instant reaction to the Bruce Irvin pick from last night (click here) and also Kip’s analysis (click here) and preview for today (click here).
Below you’ll find Bruce Irvin’s combine interview, worth watching for more background:
Rob!Irvin was a reach at that point but they eventually had to make a pick. Im not mad at they way our front office works they just work for personel fit not playersthat are all around. This is a good thing to define a role for a young player as they develop. It just leaves us fan going “what the heck?” And thats no fun to cheer for but come playing time we will all root for our team and see it all work out. Btw im rooting for polk in the second aotnd lavonte in the third. Thanks for the hard work kip and Rob!
Interesting that he played JUCO as a Safety. I wonder if he can cover? Can he develop his coverage skills to a point they become useful in addition to his primary role as a pass-rusher?
I loved this interview and had not heard or seen it before. Thanks.
Wow, that guy has already dealt with some heavy stuff. He would have had to mature in a hurry or end up on the bottom. Intresting filmclip!
Personally I am guessing that he plays some LB with that speed he has, and his history of Safety shows he already has some coverage skills.
I see this guy all over the field, speed rushing and dropping into coverage. Can u see frank gore drifting out for a little screen action and then getting blown up by Irvin? I like him already!
He has what Upshaw lacked, killer speed! But, without the brute strenGth. Now landing Upshaw in the second round…? would that be weird or what?
Amazingly, a scenario where Courtney Upshaw is available at #43 is very possible. Baltimore surely likes him, but they really need an OL and several good ones are available. J’ville needs a pass rush end, so more likely to go for Curry. A couple of other teams have a lesser need for a bull OLB, but all those teams have higher needs than Upshaw. What we have discussed for months, that Upshaw would come in as Sam/Elephant with a move by KJ Wright to Mike, could still happen. If not, probably David or Kendricks, unless Pete falls in love with one of the tall WRs. This is pure speculation, since after yesterday, it is clear that no one can predict what Pete & John will do, even when they tell us directly (“we need a speed pass rusher”). Rob and Kip’s source may yet prove right.
Several good choices for linebacker are available including Upshaw, Lavonte David, Ronnel Lewis or Kendricks. One is bound to fall to us. I prefer them in that order.
The source also said Seattle likes other players too, and we have a pass rusher now. I don’t expect the Seahawks to draft another pass rusher in R1. And let’s be clear here – our source said guaranteed pass rusher with the first pick. That was correct. I made the projection for Upshaw – knowing he was liked – and I was wrong. Irvin was the guy instead. I’ve been told there are other priorities in R2/3 after the pass rusher was taken so I wouldn’t expect Upshaw to be the pick even if he’s available.
What a great clip. I love this guy. I hope he turns into the steal of the draft.
Next up my personal wish list (I know it’s asking alot) Michael Kendricks, Lamar Miller, Tommy Streeter, Devon Still, or George Illoka.
The more I watch, the more I like this pick. He really fits ou scheme well. And I watched that 3-3-5 defense in the videos on Smith. I was astounded he was playing a role usually reserved for much bigger men. He won’t have to do that playing the Leo. He was often matched up 3 rushers versus 5 blockers with the focus being on keeping him away from the QB. This guy is going to be lined up with Red, Jason Jones, and Mebane if playing at the Leo and with those three plus Clemmons if blitzing. I can’t think of many offensive lines capable of stopping that kind of pass rush.
the tony pauline thing and the draft as a whole: How is it a major reach? If you CAN’T get to the 20’s and you REALLY covet a player, and there are record trades in the first round, what is a team supposed to do?
Pete: Well this guy is my ideal LEO…
John: But EVERYONE, says he is only to be picked at the 23rd spot or later, so at 15 that’s pointless to pick him there Pete, let’s look at our board and see who fits at exactly 15, you know that’s how the draft works?
Pete: Well now that you pointed that out to me, that sure clears it up, let’s take a look at our board, plus the mocks of several major pundits, and find out who they say is the 15th best player, regardless of our scheme, team needs, or anything else.
John: That’s a good plan…hey Pete, why do we even scout anyone anyways, there’s so many writers with such good track records like Mel Kiper, what’s he at 22% right…why don’t we just pay for the espn draft insider and pick whomever he says is at the spot that corresponds with us….
Major Reach. I don’t know about that. this guy more or less epitomizes the expression “we need to get faster in our front 7”
I think the concept of reach is about to become extinct for the most part. If the uncertainty of who picks where continues going forward and picks become more fluid as time goes on, then players will be picked in the order in which any team feels it needs to pick at to get the player they want. This is different than teams moving up to a position where a player should go. It’s now like an closed bid process where you have to get to a point for ANY player that you believe your competition won’t go.
The term ‘reach’ is a misnomer anyways, it insinuates omniscience over the talent and future of 600+ NFL prospects. Seahawk fans would do well to ignore any story who’s premise revolves around applying the word ‘reach’. I realize this is pointing out the obvious, but there’s no winning with the media- even when JS/PC prove them wrong, they crank up that spin-machine and go to work weaving fabrications.
Leading up to the draft, it’s hard to understand what a “deep” talent pool really means. But sitting here at the start of Day 2, it becomes incredibly apparent. Usually at this point I find myself hoping that a handful of players make it to the ‘Hawks pick which never ends up happening. But today is different. There are well over 15+ players who I would absolutely love to see suit up in those shiny new Nike unis and I am super excited for this rodeo to start. The funny part is I could very well see Seattle making some wild pick that throws everyone for a loop even if Upshaw or Brown are on the table. Touchmakers, be ready.
On another note, Deuce Lutui made his way to the skate shop my brother works at during the draft. He was looking at longboards, so his weight was the hot topic. In addition to being super excited to be back with Pete, Deuce claimed his waist was down to a 42 and in the words of my brother he was much closer to 300 than 375. And compared to his wikipedia page pic from Sept 09’? Much more svelte. I’ll say this, I truly believe Lutui will have a much more successful season in Seattle than Gallery did, despite the fact that many saw Deuce as a veteran stop-gap at best.
What’s funny is they damn near told us who they were going to pick in the pre-draft media session. “We may surprise you with our pick”. “We want a speed pass rusher and he does not have to fit the normal prototype”. Schneider doing his Homer Simpson “Mmmmm, Speeeed!” Hindsight…….
Touchdown makers indeed…..Here we come Brian Quick….I really don’t know, but I could see something awesomely ridiculous happpening tonight.
There are so many hybrid defenses and specialized roles now that it’s impossible to come up with a straightforward list of players like DE’s or LB’s in general and then rank them in a way that will apply to all teams. I don’t think draft experts even differentiated between 3-4 DE’s and 4-3 DE’s while ranking, until they had to explain why Tyson Jackson got drafted so high. If the Seahawks really needed a dynamic speed rusher who could one day regularly get 10+ sacks per season, Irvin was maybe the only guy on the list with the potential to do that. There are several 7-10 sack guys around who are more well-rounded, but I guess that wasn’t good enough. My general reaction on Irvin is that if he’s the kind guy that is needed to make the defense work and then he’s unique this year, glad we got him, but wish it had been a little later and we could’ve added another pick (unless the Jets rumor was real). There’s a little bit of the winners curse aspect I’m feeling. Hope Irvin’s the defensive version of Cris Carter – all he does is get sacks.
I also think the 49ers are getting unfairly criticized for the AJ Jenkins pick. Yes, he’s the first pick out of a group of 2nd and 3rd round WRs that are about equal in grade, but what if the 49ers needed a guy as a true deep threat? Only Jenkins and Hill fit the bill – not bigger possession guys like Jeffrey, Sanu, Randle, etc – and Hill drops passes all the time. Jenkins sure made my Northwestern team look really bad last year, as bad as Blackmon made Stanford look.
For today, I like the idea of linebacker in round 2, since I don’t particularly want to see Ruud starting, but I certainly don’t think they should limit themselves by positional needs. Many guys would work great. Now just watch them go mess up everyone’s 2nd round predictions again and take Trumaine Johnson.
Wow. What brutal honesty. Those were not softballs thrown. That is a stand up guy, regardless of talent.
I will root like a madman for him. I hope we extend Clemons to encourage him to tutor Irvin well.
Homer. Love it.