After day 1 surprise, will Seahawks get to needs on day 2 of NFL draft? Pass rush, maybe?
They surprised everyone. Including the guy they drafted while finally using their first-round pick.
So will they finally address the pass rush?
That’s the biggest question for the second day of the NFL draft for the Seahawks. After picking speedy Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks Thursday night, Seattle enters Friday’s second round owning the 59th- and 64th-overall selections at the bottom of round two. The team also has a choice late in Friday’s third round, a compensatory pick at 101st overall.
Friday began with two of the top pass rushers in this year’s draft class still available: Penn State’s Yetur Gross-Matos and A.J. Epenesa from Iowa. The Seahawks are still waiting—and waiting—on Jadeveon Clowney’s decision whether to re-sign or take his three-time Pro Bowl edge-rusher skills to another team in free agency. Only Miami had fewer sacks last season than Seattle’s 28 in 16 games. And that was with Clowney.
Highly regarded offensive tackle Josh Jones from the University of Houston was also still on the board through round one. He would fill another need for the Seahawks: protecting franchise quarterback Russell Wilson trying to pass.
Seattle also has a need at defensive tackle. Marlon Davidson would be an ideal one at 303 pounds. He rushed outside and inside at Auburn, and at times spectacularly.
Carroll said in February at the league’s scouting combine he wanted to add to the team’s depth at running back. Only one was drafted in the first round; Kansas City selected Clyde Edward-Helaire from LSU.
That leaves Georgia’s dynamic runner and receiver D’Andre Swift, bullish J.K. Dobbins from Ohio State and Wisconsin’s Jonathan Taylor, who set the NCAA rushing record for 200-yard games, all available as round two begins.
Here’s a possible hint to what Seattle is looking for over the final two days of this draft: the coronavirus canceling most if not all the NFL’s offseason workouts and on-field practices means rookies have less time than ever to acclimate to the league and new teams. Players who are mature in their games and character to jump in with minimal preparation to play rather than need extended development and teaching time will have an unusually big advantage during the 2020 season—whenever that begins.
“That is a priority,” Carroll said. “And John’s (scouting) guys have really taken to that thought, again, under the new circumstances.”
Carroll and Schneider raved about Brooks’ character and resilience. The youngest of seven children and his family were briefly homeless in Texas growing up. Carroll said that experience appears to have made Brooks the impressive man the Seahawks discovered at the combine.
“Our philosophy was trying to get players that, in the environment that we’re in, that can come in and act like pros right away,” Schneider said. “And this one of them.”
Thursday’s first round wasn’t about need for Seattle. Picking a player without trading for the first time in nine years meant the Seahawks went for the best player they had rated when it was their turn to pick.
It was Brooks.
He was an All-Big 12 linebacker at Texas Tech. He had 367 tackles in his career playing outside for three seasons then in the middle during a scheme change for the Red Raiders last season. He had 19-tackle, three-sack game last fall to lead Tech over Oklahoma State.
He is the first player Schneider and Carroll has selected with their original first-round choice since offensive James Carpenter in 2011.
Brooks has a chance to play strongside linebacker right away in 2020.
Linebacker was not an obvious or primary need for Seattle. The team drafted two of them last year: Cody Barton and Ben Burr-Kirven. Barton had been poised to replace departed Mychal Kendricks at strongside linebacker next to All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner. K.J. Wright, the longest-tenured Seahawk, is returning to weakside linebacker for the final season of his contract. He is coming off one of his better seasons. He turns 31 this summer.
Perhaps most telling about what the Seahawks will do in the second and third rounds Friday, and the rest of the draft Saturday, came from Carroll late Thursday night. The Seahawks took Brooks to take what they (not you, nor me or “the analysts”) see as the best players, and not necessarily ones to fill gaping holes.
Even, it appears, a hole as gaping as the current abyss at pass rush.
“We’re in this draft to try and take guys that can impact us because they’re special players, not necessarily just to fill a need,” Carroll said.
“We’re wide open.
“We’re really excited about how this was coming down and really fell into place (Thursday),” Carroll said. “The whole board was wiped off just the way that John’s guys had figured it. It kind of just fit and followed just right. Hopefully we can do the same thing in the second round, and onward.”
SEAHAWKS’ SELECTIONS IN 2020 NFL DRAFT
Thursday
Round 1 (27th overall): Jordyn Brooks, LB, Texas Tech
Friday
Round 2 (59)
Round 2 (64, from Kansas City)
Round 3 (101, compensatory)
Saturday
Round 4 (133)
Round 4 (144, compensatory)
Round 6 (214, compensatory)
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 7:22 AM.
