Seahawks sketch out Russell Wilson’s O-line, address cornerback to end limited NFL draft
They traded down, traded up—and ended up with the same, paltry number of picks. Still the fewest in team history.
But the three players they got meet three Seahawks needs for this year, and next: third wide receiver, cornerback and offensive tackle.
The 2021 NFL draft won’t go down as one of the most eventful nor bountiful in Seattle’s 46-year history. The team decided last summer during the coronavirus pandemic to minimize this one. They traded for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, Pro Bowl defensive end Carlos Dunlap and veteran guard Gabe Jackson and gave away five of their eight original picks in this draft because of a relative lack of scouting opportunities this year with canceled seasons and opting-out college players.
The next few years will determine whether this Seahawks draft proves less is better.
“We’re not going to come out—after surgery, you don’t get many doctors (who) say... ‘Well, the surgery was just OK,’” Seahawks general manager John Schneider joked Saturday.
That was after he and coach Pete Carroll made huge Florida offensive tackle Stone Forsythe Seattle’s third and final pick of the draft.
“We feel really excited about what we did,” Schneider said, “in a unique year.”
What they did was draft supersonic wide receiver D’Wayne Eskridge with the 56th-overall pick in round two on Friday. Eskridge immediately becomes a candidate to replace departed David Moore as the team’s third wide receiver behind Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.
Eskridge is 5 feet 9, 190 pounds. He’s run the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds. Last season he led the top, Football Bowl Subdivision with 213 all-purpose yards—led it by plenty.
“Just extremely explosive,” Schneider said. “Five-nine, 190 (pounds), 4.3 (seconds in the 40-yard dash). Ran a 10.5(-second) 100 meters in high school, 21.5 200 meter. Just a really explosive guy. Can really throttle his speed. Tough.
“We’re getting a guy that can play a number of different positions. He’s a kickoff returner, could be a gunner. There’s a really cool shot of him as a gunner against Central Michigan where he just throttles somebody.
“We’re getting a guy that’s competitive, hungry, intense. He’s got some dog to him.”
That’s the same term Eskridge used to describe Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, Lockett and Metcalf.
Wilson welcomed that new “dog” to Seattle with a post on Twitter Friday night.
“He looks physical, plays strong,” Carroll said.
“He’s got a uniqueness to him in that regard that hopefully we can use in many ways.”
Corner, and line help
Saturday, Schneider and Carroll addressed cold facts: Seattle lost both starting cornerbacks from 2020 in free agency this offseason—Shaquill Griffin to Jacksonville and Quinton Dunbar to Detroit—and have 35-year-old Pro Bowl veteran Duane Brown entering the final year of his contract.
The Seahawks traded down in round four, gained a sixth-round pick later Saturday, and selected Tre Brown, a cornerback from Oklahoma.
“Man, it was like a dream come true,” Tre Brown said Saturday from his hometown of Tulsa, describing Schneider’s and Carroll’s phone call to him to tell him they’d drafted him.
Five feet 10 and 185 pounds doesn’t fit the Carroll mold at cornerback. You know, the Richard Sherman, 6-3, 32-inch-arms type.
But running 4.42 seconds in the 40-yard dash does. Brown runs that fast.
Plus, Carroll acknowledged Saturday D.J. Reed has awakened him to what smaller cornerbacks can do in his defensive schemes. Reed’s aggressiveness and relentlessness turned Seattle’s September waiver claim from San Francisco into a Seahawks nickel defensive back, then a starting cornerback opposite Griffin late last season.
“I would say that the fact that D.J. did such a nice job, it gave us a little bit more of a mold of guys,” Carroll said. “If a guy is a smaller guy, what is his style of play like? And what does it take to be a smaller guy that can be successful? One of the criteria that we’ve talked about in the offseason is they have to have this mentality about them that they go for it, they’re aggressive and they make plays almost because they can, because of the way they are athletically and to make sure we have an open appreciation for the kind of player.
“I think D.J.—just like Russell helped some other quarterbacks—D.J. will help some other cornerbacks. I don’t think that that’s a wrong statement. We’re still going to look at these guys individually and see what they’ve got. I can’t wait. We’ve got some real competition now coming up that’s going to be really important to us moving forward.”
It’s not so much immediate competition as development for the future ahead for Seattle’s sixth-round choice. The Seahawks traded their seventh-round pick with Chicago to move up eight places in round six to get 6-8 offensive tackle Stone Forsythe from the University of Florida.
He was known as an elite pass blocker in the mighty Southeastern Conference.
That’s what guard Gabe Jackson has been for the Las Vegas Raiders the last half-dozen years. Seattle traded for Jackson in March.
So Forsythe is the second add to the offensive line since Wilson said very publicly in February: “I’m frustrated with getting hit too much.”
Forsythe allowed just two sacks on 488 drop backs to pass with Florida and new NFL quarterback Kyle Trask last season.
His run-blocking? It’s known as not so elite. Forsythe called that assessment — strong in pass protection, weaker in the run game — accurate.
Schneider said the proliferation of spread-style passing offenses in college football and the SEC makes it hard to measure Forsythe as a run-blocker.
“Exactly,” the GM said. “It’s hard to tell.
“The first game I ever saw him play was against Georgia. That defense is pretty good, right? Here he is out there with these guys that are big-time draft picks, some older guys, younger guys. He didn’t flinch. Georgia was probably his most impressive game.”
Schneider sent Hall-of-Fame guard Steve Hutchinson, a Super Bowl starter from the 2005 Seahawks, to work out Forsythe. Hutchinson came back with glowing reports, resulting in Schneider spending much of Saturday trying to trade up to ensure they could draft Forsythe before someone else did.
At 6-8, Forsythe is going to have work diligently on getting and staying low out of his stance in the NFL, to gain leverage he naturally lacks at the snap of the ball.
Going against Seahawks squat, relentless defensive tackle Poona Ford is practices beginning perhaps in the lone mandatory offseason minicamp the league requires, in June, will begin preparing Forsythe for perhaps eventually replacing Brown at left tackle.
“The benefit that Stone has is he can learn from one of the best players in the league in Duane Brown,” Carroll said. “He’s going to be able to study with him and work with him. Duane will take him under his wing, I know it. He’ll teach him all the ins and outs of this position, as well as demonstrate what it is to be an effective perimeter run blocker. Duane’s been famous for that stuff for us.
“He has this great example right there in front of him to show him how to play the game. This should work out really well.”
O-line shaping up
Carroll set the offensive line for this year entering training camp.
He said the coaches are putting Jackson at right guard, the position he’s played for years with the Raiders. Seattle is moving Damien Lewis to left guard. Lewis was the starting right guard last season as a rookie third-round pick.
Brandon Shell and Cedric Ogbuehi will compete for the right-tackle job. Shell is entering the final year of his two-year deal. He was one of the more unheralded, consistent players on the Seahawks’ offense in 2020, though he played with injuries.
Ethan Pocic, re-signed for one year and $3 million, and re-signed exclusive-rights free agent Kyle Fuller will fight for the starting job at center. Pocic, a center at LSU five years ago, was an NFL starting center for the first time last season. The Seahawks had him as a backup tackle and guard his first three seasons.
Brown will tutor Forsythe at left tackle. Jamarco Jones is still under rookie contract and can back up both tackle spots.
“We are pleased with where we are,” Carroll said of his offensive line Wilson wants improved, “and in particular with the depth and the competition, too.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 7:25 PM.
