By Jared Stanger
We have entered a new era of Seahawks football. Pete Carroll has been removed from his head coaching duties. And while many people are, rightfully, thinking about who will be the next coach of the team; I’m wondering how this will affect a rapidly approaching draft.
I’ve never done draft writing without Pete’s ideas of player profiles in mind. I think I first started looking into the draft beyond the first round players in 2011. I did my first Seahawk mock draft in 2012 through my facebook account. Twelve years later and the format and location have changed a few times, but this is the first time the primary voice on philosophy and mentality has changed.
There’s an element of mock-drafting that is: this is what I would do. But there’s also an element of: what will the team I’m projecting for actually do. Without a coach in place, and potentially even after one is named, I’m more or less forced to do the former. This is what I would do.
With a new coach; I think the potential for player turnover is higher than it has been in recent history. I’m going to steer into that idea. I’m going to be aggressive on player trades and cuts.
The first trade I’d look to make is Geno Smith to Tampa. The Bucs have the 9th-most cap space for next year. Former Seattle coach Dave Canales is in the building as OC (for now). Incumbent QB Baker Mayfield is a free agent. And Tampa isn’t in position to hit on a top 10 QB in the draft. Let’s get the Bucs’ 2nd round pick for this year which is roughly #51, and be happy to have some more cap space.
The second trade I’m looking to make is at safety. This is another cap dump. I don’t care which of our safeties get us there; I’d just look to trade either Jamal Adams or Quandre Diggs for a conditional 5th round pick (*if player doesn’t hit conditions it reverts to a 6th). I tend to think Quandre holds the better value. He’s been healthier than Jamal. He didn’t open his mouth and be gross on social media. The Commanders are set to lose their safety Kamren Curl to free agency, and they have a ton of cap space.
The third trade is gonna be the controversial one, but it also is the most value. I’m gonna trade DK Metcalf to the Titans for a 2nd round pick in 2024 and 2nd round pick in 2025. The Titans have a ton of cap space. They have a big-armed young QB. And their second best WR (not TE or RB) behind Nuk Hopkins was Nick Westbrook-Ikhine last year. They could use another target.
And the final trade is within the draft. I’m trading back my #16 to the Packers for #25 and #57 overall.
After all this movement, our final draft board will look like:
t-1.25
t-2.38
t-2.51
t-2.57
3.78
t-3.81
4.118
t-5.137
5.150
6.193
7.232
There’s a few more things I would like to address. In previous mocks I talked about trading to acquire Detroit backup QB Hendon Hooker. I still see value in acquiring Hendon, but maybe Detroit is hesitant to let him go. I still think we want to go into the draft with a QB in-house. Drew Lock is a free agent, and I’ve traded Geno away. It’s the Matt Flynn scenario from 2012. We’re gonna want some veteran presence to compliment the rookie we draft. I’m mostly looking for a bargain. I could see John Schneider going after Sam Darnold, who I think he liked out of college. Gardner Minshew got the Colts to 7-6 in his starts. I think Josh Dobbs holds some interest.
I would also like to take any cap room we’ve created from the aforementioned trades, and cutting Jamal Adams, and aggressively target an edge rusher in free agency. The list includes Josh Allen, Brian Burns, Chase Young, Danielle Hunter, or Josh Uche (who Seattle was rumored to be in talks to acquire at the last trade deadline). Uche may be the value play from that group.
Now, let’s draft.
#1.25 – OC, Duke, Graham Barton
We’ve needed to invest in the center position for years and haven’t done it. The team did not seem excited to give 2023 draftpick Olu Oluwatimi the keys to the crib, instead keeping one-year rental Evan Brown as the starter all year. Graham Barton is a very smart player, an aggressive player, and a player that most people project will move from Left Tackle to an interior position. Many people are projecting Seattle taking Florida State DE Jared Verse. To me, when Verse played Barton head-up, Barton won more of the reps.
#2.38 – WR, North Carolina, Tez Walker
We have to spend good draft capital to replace DK. I’d love to target LSU’s Brian Thomas, who presents a similar profile to DK, but his price is projecting 1st round, which I cannot do when we need to invest in the trenches. Seattle loves a good Tez and Devontez was one of the top 10 receiving TD producers in 2022. He transferred schools for 2023 and due to some NCAA redtape bullshit was not allowed to play the first four weeks of the season. He ended up suiting for 8 games, producing 7 TD and 699 yards on 41 catches. At 6’3″/200lbs, he’s not quite DK specs, but still a bigger target than Tyler Lockett and Jackson Smith-Njigba.
#2.51 – DT, Michigan, Kris Jenkins
This is an upside play. My guy that I wanted to draft went back to school. Jenkins is NFL legacy. He’s got crazy athleticism and some really intriguing intangibles. He kind of reminds me of Warren Sapp a little bit. On the downside…his production all year was not there. On the upside…his best game of the year, arguably, was the national championship win over the Joe Moore winning UW offensive line.
#2.57 – CB, TCU, Josh Newton
I don’t know that Seattle needs to draft a cornerback. To me, this pick is about the person. I want to put Josh Newton in the building and in the DB room. We need more people like this. And the tape ain’t too shabby either.
#3.78 – QB, Tennessee, Joe Milton
This is, unsurprisingly, the key to this draft. This year’s NFL playoffs are showing about a 50/50 mix of teams using top 10 overall drafted QB’s, and teams using guys drafted from the “field” (25-250). The Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy guys. To be more specific, I think Milton resembles most closely Dak Prescott in terms of size, skillset, college production. Why Milton is getting the mid-round buzz he’s getting after Anthony Richardson was drafted #4 overall last year is a little beyond me. But I’d be glad to take advantage of it.
#3.81 – LB, North Carolina, Cedric Gray
Linebacker is one of the bigger needs this offseason, so it wouldn’t surprise me or disappoint me if Seattle went LB earlier. I like Cedric a lot and getting him in the 3rd after also addressing some other positions is gonna be a great overall draft.
#4.118 – DS, Wake Forest, Malik Mustapha
When you see a team collectively struggle with something as basic as tackling; that may be enough of a reason to draft a guy. Malik is a great tackler from the safety spot. He’s also very athletic, so I’m kind of exaggerating the tackling to make a point.
#5.137 – OG, Michigan, Zak Zinter
This feels a little late for Zinter, but I’m counting on the lower positional value and the fact that he sustained a pretty serious broken leg in his last game vs Ohio State in November to account for him dropping. It feels a little bit like when Trey Smith fell to the 6th round in 2021 due to some questionable medicals. Zinter, to me, is very much a glue guy that I want to add to the building.
#5.150 – DS, Miami, James Williams
I was late in the process to find James Williams. Which is not an uncommon story for the safety spot. But it’s also partially due to what Williams is as a prospect. He is a 6’5″/215lb safety. In fact, he is so big that the Senior Bowl has listed him at Linebacker. Maybe that’s semantics. As we gradually see transition in the NFL, the Seahawks had already started to use Jamal Adams as more of a linebacker (or maybe that was due to Adams’ particular skillset). I like Williams to bring some intimidation factor back to the Seattle defense regardless of the positional name he’s given. Call him the Buck, call him the Star, call him the Joker…just let him hit people. My only caveat here is that I want more study done on if Williams has a significant weed habit.
#6.193 – RB, South Dakota State, Isaiah Davis
Davis has been in my previous mocks and I’m gonna keep him where he’s at. He was recently added to the Senior Bowl, which may blow up his value, but for now he stays. I would love to see the variety of K9, Charbonnet, and Davis in a RB room. And maybe Mcintosh is something in the future.
#7.232 – LB, Mississippi St, Nathaniel Watson
For a 7th round pick, I’m really just looking around big boards and taking a guy with some kind of outstanding trait at a position of need that is still available. The Seahawks will potentially need to draft two(+) linebackers with Wagner, Brooks, and Bush all heading to free agency. Watson has good size at 6’2″/245lbs, and was a very productive player last year with 137 tackles, 13.0 TFL, 10.0 sacks, 7 hurries, 2 PBU, 1 INT, and 2 FF. He kind of reminds me of Leroy Hill.
It’s crazy…for a draft that I moved around a ton, and made 11 picks, I still could have used some more. I really wanted to find space for Alabama DL Justin Eboigbe. The team really needs some reinforcements at TE. And we easily could have looked to draft an edge replacement for the free agent departing Darrell Taylor. But we make some tough decisions.
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