John Schneider breaking down Seattle’s draft

I’m taking a day today, but we’ll get back into the drafted players tomorrow. In the meantime here’s GM John Schneider discussing the 2014 class:

57 Comments

  1. Steve Nelsen

    I love this draft class. P-Rich potentially opens up the field and the play book. Norwood is a perfect replacement for Tate. KPL and Pinkins are perfect Seahawk style defenders. Cassius looks like a good add to the D-Line rotation. We have some competition for Bowie at right tackle and a back-up/potential replacement for Okung at left tackle. I can’t wait to see Kiero hit somebody. Lots of speed, athleticism and leadership. We even got a couple potential “8th round picks” like Jeffcoat who could stick.

    The trades to get the three extra picks look really good.

    • Mark

      I love how they win by being unconventional. No one could ever predict the Seahawk’s picks. Doubt continues and keeps feeding the fire.

      • Belgaron

        I love Kiper’s “D+” overall draft value rating and he gave Santa Clara an “A”. Given Kiper’s track record for rating Seahawks drafts versus how they actually perform, that’s great news. Plus its great bulletin board material to motivate the rookies.

  2. Steve Nelsen

    And don’t forget adding Terrelle Pryor in exchange for a 7th round pick. If Wilson, Jackson and the coaches give him the chance to develop that he didn’t get in Oakland, we might have a solid complement for Russell.

    • Arias

      Since he’s in the last year of his rookie contract and is not expected to be re-signed next year, it’s hard to see how they traded for Terrelle to be anything more than an emergency backup for Russell in case he goes down this year.

      • Steve Nelsen

        True. I am cautiously optimistic that he appreciates the situation he is in and resigns. I know he still wants to be a starter but I think he will realize that there are no teams that will pay him as a starter. Give him a couple years of development and a couple successful preseasons and he might be seen as a potential starter again.

        • Arias

          Well, he’s got one year to make the most of it here. I’m curious whether he survives training camp. Knowing what we do about how competitive the whole environment is and that those without a dog mentality don’t have a chance it makes wonder whether Pryor is even cut from that cloth. I guess we’ll find out, but should he display anything less than a stellar attitude and approach I think it’s safe to assume he’ll be gone. Carroll won’t waste another day of training on him.

          • SHawn

            I think BJ Daniels is on the way out, not sure if he is practice squad eligible. Price will be and I think we keep one of these 2 on the PS.

            Terrelle Pryor and Tavaris Jackson are in a battle for the number 2 spot. Tavaris is the front runner IMO, I think Pryor could have an edge if he is willing to be a receiving target on occasion, even if only as a decoy. I think we cut the odd man out and go with only 2 QBs on the initial 53, like we almost always do.

    • Madmark

      Travis Jackson Has looked really good during preseason and the stats prove it now he’s been healthy. He has the teams respect but he is older and only on a 1 year deal. Pryor could be a changing of the guard so to speak as RW backup. If nothing else there’s going to be some great competition at QB position in camp this year.

      • Arias

        I have a hard time buying that Tarvaris Jackson has ever looked good just because preseason is a poor measuring stick to judge him. He’s always been poor in the clutch, and that means regular season games. Garbage time and preseason is not the way to measure whether he’s improved his ability to play when it counts during real games.

        • Steve Nelsen

          He has the respect of his teammates in the locker room and that says a lot for him. Those guys are focused on winning and they can easily tell the posers from the real deal.

          • Arias

            Yeah I understand that. I’m just going by the results on the field in 2011. Not one 4th quarter comeback or game winning drive in seven attempts. Even Whitehurst had a game winning drive. TJack always just seemed off and could never seem to grasp the whole offense. They’d send eight guys up to the box to blitz and he couldn’t make the hot read and determine who the easy open receiver would be. Stuff like that just annoyed the hell out of me. The guy had already been in the league, what 6 years? There was just no excuse for that sort of ineptitude.

    • AlaskaHawk

      I am rooting for home town favorite Keith Price from University of Washington to take over the 3rd QB spot from Pryor and all others. Say what you will about Tevaris but he is still our number 2 and far above the other rookies in our lineup. I hope there is a good battle between Price and Pryor. At the end of the day, Pryor may be better off as trade bait for a 4th rounder next year.

      • Arias

        So a team that wasn’t willing to offer more than a 7th last month is going to step up to the plate and offer a 4th for Pryor? What would have changed that they’d up the ante like that? Especially after the draft when they would have presumably drafted their cheap rookie QBs that aren’t going to be coming off their rookie deals after the season?

        • AlaskaHawk

          It would take a couple changes:
          First PC coaching staff works a miracle and coaches him up to a higher level.
          Second a great preseason.
          Third some other team loses a couple QBs to injury and is desperate.

          He was worth more then a 7th round when Oakland picked him. He had a poor showing there, but who wouldn’t with that team? We went shopping on the discount rack. The question could be why did we bother? He will never replace RW. There must be some reason for giving away a 7th.

      • James

        Price should keep his game face on. If he can make the practice squad this year, it is entirely possible that both T-Jack and Pryor are let go after the season for cap room, and Price could wind up #2 behind RW and have a nice career here as Russ’ backup.

        • Arias

          Couldn’t agree more. At least as RW’s understudy for a few years. I see him getting restless and not wanting to settle as a career backup and wanting to go somewhere where he’s got a chance to start but he’s enough of a film study rat to make it as a backup initially I think.

  3. Scott Allen

    What a great piece of audio. I live in Portland and we have literally no coverage of the Seahawks. Its nice to hear something substantive and exciting.

    • Belgaron

      Yeah, there are lots of good shows to be found about the Seahawks on the podcasts for 950 KJR and 710 ESPN Seattle.

    • David M

      if you have a smart phone, download the tune in app. search for 710 espn and add it. you then can play it on your phone through the car if you plug it in. if you have an aux cable or usb. the app dosent use much data

      • bigDhawk

        Kiro 710 ESPN even has their own app. It’s really slick and works better than than tunein on my phone.

  4. Nate

    Weird draft, but I will take the depth.
    Can’t believe Britt was a Santa Clara 40 Whiner fan though.
    JeanPierre Schilling and VanRoten are more than capable G depth. Schilling being rated the highest. So watching Britt and Bowie duke it out at RT should be exciting.
    Who knows. Bowie could end up LG.

    • Madmark

      VanRoten was SPARQ freak himself when he was drafted. I think he just hasn’t been coached up like seattle can do. He started a few games for green bay last year because of injury so maybe its his time to step out of the shadow and shine in Tom Cables ZBS.

    • Belgaron

      If you listen the interview with Coach Cable, he is very high on Carpenter being where he should have been heading into last year (health-wise). Cable said Carpenter still could turn into the player they hoped he be when they drafted him. He’s very sold on Carpenter and Sweezy keeping those starting roles at this point. They are putting Scott at LT.

      • AlaskaHawk

        Sold as long as the guards don’t ask for more then a million per year. You can see the rookie replacements waiting for their turn.

      • James

        For whatever reasons, Carp showed up here three years ago hurt, fat and out of shape. His knee only seemed to get right mid point last season, so he could at least get in shape to play ok. If indeed he is now healthy, is at 320 lbs, and can stay healthy all season, you will be amazed. Good pass pro, and he will open holes for Beast Mode that looks like a rhino just tore through the other team’s D-line.

        • Rob Staton

          The lockout did not help Carpenter at all.

  5. Robert

    The quality of the depth that PCJS continue to accumulate/develop is amazing. I expect JS will trade a couple of surplus players this summer for Draft picks to extract some value out of our cuts. I wish we could start another team in Tacoma with our extras!

    • Belgaron

      Don’t forget they have 4 comp picks coming!

      • RJ

        We do?

        • Belgaron

          Absolutely, they haven’t been awarded yet but they will be 2015 picks. They will be based on performances by the free agents lost but the contracts they signed feeds into the designations. It will probably go 1x4th, 2x5th, 1x6th or something similar.

          • James

            Won’t have to trade down….could even trade up for a special guy, like a DT.

            • hawkfaninMT

              Getting a little ahead of ourselves… But for future reference you can’t trade comp picks. Obviously we could trade our 32nd pick in any of these rounds still though

              Not my confidence

              • hawkfaninMT

                note not not

  6. Cysco

    I think it really telling that JS was very coy about their process for determining which players have the personality to fit in their locker room. It’s obvious they are very serious about this aspect and view their process as something proprietary and unique to their team.

    It’s like they use SPARQ to filter down to player with unique physical characteristics, then use their secret “Seahawk Personality Cohesion Metric TM” to decide which players have the proper mental makeup.

    I imagine next year we’ll spend more time discussing the personality makeup of players.

    • Bjammin

      Good insight Cysco. Well said.

  7. Belgaron

    Listened to the KJR Schneider interview twice now on the radio show (they replayed it this AM). I was clearly in the wrong about how they approached needs this year. Clearly WR and OT were specific needs that they felt compelled to fill before their cutoff of no 3rd rounder. And they needed more picks so they felt compelled to move back as far as their board allowed. Very interesting stuff. I’m curious who the 7th rounder was that got snatched in front of them.

    • Belgaron

      So not getting either Beau Allen or Brandon Watts (unclear which one he was referring to) was the “upset” he mentioned. Schneider said this was the only upset in their draft so they clearly didn’t feel Easley was in that category.

      • Cysco

        Yah, seems like the “Seahwaks had Easley stolen from them” stuff was pretty overblown. Especially since other reports coming out now are saying that Seahawks weren’t going to take him and that they had Richardson’s name on the card before they traded down.

      • Belgaron

        Looks like it was Brandon Watts, LB, Georgia Tech, 6’2″ 235. At his pro day he ran 4.49 40, 10’3″ broad jump, 37.5 vertical, and 16 bench reps.

        Schneider said they didn’t think others knew about him. He was their target for their 7th rounder.

        • Belgaron

          Make that 6’0″.

        • James

          Small will probably turn out to be an all-pro FB….haha.

        • Steve Nelsen

          Watts went to Minnesota. He looks like a classic Seahawk linebacker prospect. Not sure if/how he fits into the Vikings scheme. I will be watching him during camp to see if he gets released and we have a chance to pick him up or maybe trade for him.

    • Arias

      They’ve always drafted for need in the early rounds though, with 2013 the only year they had the luxury of making an exception.

      • Belgaron

        Yeah, I’ve come to understand that this is just a nuanced description. For example, QBs don’t like to be labeled as “game managers”. And GMs don’t like to be labeled as “need fillers” like a shift manager at McDonald’s. Fortunately, the Seahawks have a franchise QB and a young, top-tier GM who can be described as artists at their crafts in addition to sometimes doing the dirty work, managing a game or drafting a need.

        • Arias

          I thought it was interesting how JS mentioned that they also really liked Matthews and Latimer, just that they liked Richardson more … but that if he were gone that’d probably be who they would have targeted next.

    • Rob Staton

      I think you nailed it here.

  8. Madmark

    I really excited by the UDFA’s that have decided to come to Seattle to compete for a roster spot. 1 guy I mentioned Greg Shultz a G/T from Utah St will be in camp for Seattle. In Field Gull’s article there was quite few Good player that will be here trying to make the team and I wouldn’t be surprised if 1 or 2 of the UDFA’s make this team and a few more make the practice squad. What an original idea of putting out a pamphlet to UDFAs in a draft class so big with 90 or juniors turning pro. The vision to understand that not all these guys would be draft was a new trend setter for the NFL to come. Just something else for other teams to copy Seattle.

    • Steve Nelsen

      I am going to start calling our UDFAs “8th round picks” as a way of recognizing the value that this organization puts on finding and recruiting them. JS was very sincere when he spoke about the “8th round picks” as an important part of the draft process.

      I would love to see some analysis about how we compare to other franchises in terms of how our “8th round picks” make up our roster spots, starting positions and Pro-Bowl players. Baldwin is an obvious success. Kearse was a playoff star last year. Bailey’s contributions helped keep the offensive line injuries from derailing our quest to win the division and have the top seed in the NFC.

      • EranUngar

        31% of NFL players are UDFA. It’s not just an 8th round and it’s not just us. While everybody spends 80% of the time on the 1st. round talent show it’s the work after the draft that builds deep rosters.

  9. James

    I can only laugh at myself for attempting to guess what John and Pete are going to do in the draft. Regardless, it is a blast to attempt to understand their thinking, and to marvel at their success outside the box. I can read about the Seahawks draft 365 days a year, and will be no closer to nailing their picks, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    For example, in R4, Kevin Pierre-Louis was selected ahead of Brent Urban by Baltimore; in R5, Jimmy Staten (4.8 ranking by nfl.com) was selected ahead of John Urschel, OG Penn State, again by Baltimore (5.2 ranking); in R6, Garrett Scott (4.9) was selected ahead of LDT (5.4) and Eric Pinkins (4.9) selected ahead of Daniel McCullers, the 6-7, 352 DT from Tennessee (5.6) by the Steelers.

    In every one of those instances, if offered the choice, 90% of us on this blog would have picked the other player over the one John picked….and yet I am 90% certain that the Seahawks picks will prove to be better players than the other, better-known guys.

    Taking an overview, our R2 picks, Richardson and Britt, were solid picks at need positions, although every expert had other guys rated higher (Latimer and Moses, let’s say). In R4, the Seahawks kept to the straight and narrow, with Marsh, Norwood and Pierre-Louis, all relatively safe, if Seahawky, picks with a proven history, again albeit with higher-rated players available at each selection.

    Then, John and Pete go off the NFL reservation, with the Staten, Scott and Pinkins selections. Do not be surprised if one or two of these completely unknown guys are in our starting lineup in a couple of years. I love it….go John go!

  10. M

    Thought their later round picks (4+) were terrific and I’m warming to Richardson mainly because it seems like they really kicked the tires on NFL press and durability concerns. With Britt, if he can handle Clowney then athleticism at the next level shouldn’t be a problem.

    I think this will turn out to be a really solid draft but still would’ve liked D. Easley as a Seahawk…

    • Belgaron

      Check 5:58 for the tidbit about missing Brandown Watts.

      • Arias

        What makes you think it’s Watts and not Allen?

        • Belgaron

          Yeah, Danny Kelly from FieldGulls thought it was Allen because he has a high SPARQ for an NT. So it really could be either one.

          Watts looks similar statistically to both Pierre-Lewis and Malcolm Smith. With all the salary they are paying the LOB, they are going to have to churn through LBs. I won’t be surprised if Watts gets released or PS so if he was the guy, maybe ‘Hawks will have a shot at bringing him in.

  11. john g

    i kinda missed it with the wr s as well but i get what they did
    upgrade and replacement for tate =check=richardson
    backup for that position and versatility=check=norwood=good hands good speed

    idont really get the ol position…but im not cable and dont really know exactally what hes lookin for ..i have a bit of an idea but im wayyyy sure im not close to figurin it out lool
    that said seems like he wants to get a bunch of guys in there and come out with the best.

    did better on the d side than i thought they would. interested in jeffcoat=clemons type and baily
    nice competition=they higher rated than free agent but they sliped dont know why

© 2024 Seahawks Draft Blog

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑