RENTON — In the spirit of being unpredictable on draft weekend, the Seattle Seahawks even strayed from the lone thing you usually can count on from a John Schneider-run draft Friday when they gave up multiple picks to move up.
For Schneider, draft picks are like gold, and he has spent his tenure as Seattle’s general manager trading back over and over again to acquire more of them. But armed with 11 picks this year, and with wide receiver/returner Tyler Lockett still available early in the third round, the Seahawks actually sacrificed quantity to make a big move up.
A day later, however, the Seahawks had about as Seahawks-y of a day as possible in the six picks they made to close out the 2015 draft. It was completely predictable in its unpredictability.
Draft players you’ve never heard of well ahead of where most figured they’d go? Check. Take a cornerback with good size in the fifth round? Check. Pick a pass rusher who is raw but extremely athletic? Check. Address a need at guard by drafting a tackle? Check.
Heck, the Seahawks even picked a defensive lineman in order to move him to the offensive line, a move known around these parts as “pulling a Sweezy.” Or at least that’s what I’m calling it.
And of course all of that adds up completely normal day in the eyes of Schneider.
“It went a little bit too much like we thought it would,” he said. “This year was an interesting year in that regard. I don’t know if it’s the longer time that everyone has now to prepare for the draft, but it just seemed like this year everything was coming off better than we wanted it to, as far as people taking really good players all the way through it.”
The Seahawks started their third day of the draft by picking San Diego State left tackle Terry Poole, whom they plan to move to guard. That fits a need with James Carpenter leaving in free agency, but was an unconventional pick both because few had Poole going that early in the draft, and also because the Seahawks waited until 25 linemen had been picked to begin addressing their most obvious need. Next up, Seattle picked West Virginia guard Mark Glowinski, and while neither Poole nor Glowinski are anything close to household names for even pretty big fans, offensive line coach Tom Cable said both were on his list of seven to eight linemen he liked coming into the draft.
In the fifth round, the Seahawks took Tye Smith, a 6-foot, 195 pound cornerback from Towson, an FCS school. You may not have heard of Smith, or Towson for that matter, but know that Schneider was awfully excited when talking about Smith, saying, “I want to throw a name out there to compare him to, but I can’t because you guys will think I’m crazy,” while head coach Pete Carroll tried to cut Schneider off, clearly not wanting to pin too high of expectations on the rookie. And yeah, the Seahawks have done OK taking cornerbacks in the later rounds before, landing the likes of Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane in rounds five and six.
By that point you’d have been confused by Seattle’s picks if you hadn’t learned to just accept them, knowing that there’s a method to Schneider and Carroll’s draft madness that produces incredible results. But in case these picks weren’t yet unconventional enough, the Seahawks went with Obum Gwacham in the sixth round, an Oregon State defensive end who only started playing the position a year earlier having converted from receiver. Yes, you read that right, Gwacham is a receiver turned defensive end. With their second sixth-round pick, the Seahawks took an athletic defensive tackle from Buffalo, Kristjan Sokoli, then immediately announced their intention to move him to the offensive line. The Albanian-born Sokoli has off-the-charts athleticism for a lineman, so the Seahawks hope he can be the next J.R. Sweezy, but as a center. Oh, and just for fun, Sokoli was a kicker and punter in high school, so hopefully at some point we get to see a 300-pounder line up for a field goal or extra point. The Seahawks wrapped up their day taking safety Ryan Murphy, Marshawn Lynch’s cousin and player they hope can be a Jeron Johnson replacement as a backup safety and special teams stalwart.
So no, not many of these picks were conventional or predictable, and Schneider has made it clear for a while that he isn’t too worried about what others think about his methods. But the Seahawks don’t do the unconventional just for the sake of being different. In these different players from different backgrounds who play different positions, the Seahawks see common traits that will help them thrive in Seattle.
The Seahawks want tough players, they want to see effort when they study college tape, they want grit, and as Carroll put it, “We feel very consistent throughout this class with that makeup, we want these guys coming in with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.”
And in picking three linemen, a raw defensive end and a pair of defensive backs, the Seahawks think they found those traits on a day that played out exactly like you might predict, or more accurately not predict, from a team known for bucking conventional wisdom in the draft.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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