Bobby Wagner and Robert Turbin. There was a lot of excitement in northern Utah when both guys went to the Seahawks—and my neighbor said looks like he was going to have a new favorite pro football team.
Russell Wilson, believe it or not. I was spending Thanksgiving of 2011 with my brother in Richmond. At halftime of a game we were watching, the network gave a quick overview of QBs eligible for the 2012 drafts. The focus was on Luck and RG3, with a flash card summary of the rest of the class. When Russell, whom I had never heard of, flashed, my brother told me that “whoever drafts him is getting a great player.” I filed this away!
Russ...but I thought he would never be a Seahawk because of his height. So much was being made about our corners and their arm length dimensions, our o line and their knee and calf dimensions..
It seemed like they were all about meeting certain metrics that Russ just wasn't gong to hit, so I wrote him off. I was reading through Wisconsin football fan page and there were literally thousands of people all saying the same thing...yes he's short but it doesn't stop him from being awesome and whoever drafts him will get a great player.
Definitely Russell Wilson. I watched several of his college games and loved his story. I was actually hoping for RW and if not then Kirk Cousins. Actually got jubilant when Russ was picked! I remember after the pick, John Gruden exclaiming with regards the Seahawks QB competition that Russ was gonna come in and 'kick the door down' and become the starter.
Russell Wilson. As an NC guy, and living in Asheville where he played minor league baseball, he was a hero to me. But it was mostly because he was nice to my Mom. She was the president of the NC State Beekeepers and gave presentations at NC State. She gushed about one of her students who was "the most lovely young man who plays quarterback for them!" and I became an NC State fan for the next year and a half. Mom (RIP) and I called each other at the same time on day 2 of that draft! My eyes are tearing up thinking about it.
I have a photo of her decked out in Seahawks gear on one of her last birthdays. It fell on the NFC Championship game when we came back to beat Green Bay. https://i.imgur.com/AcCzV0O.jpg
Full disclosure, I soured on Wilson towards the end of his time here and was thrilled that we traded him. But dang, there were some sweet Russell Wilson memories both off and on the field.
I was high on drafting Irvin in the second round, which seems in retrospect, the second round is where he belonged. However, I was a draft rookie that year. The first year I used the internet to inform my opinions on the draft. Now, I am a seasoned draftnik fan, but without enough background in football to deserve any recognition or respect. LOL.
The more seasoned I get, the less I think I know. Or *realize* I know might be more apt. I am right a lot, and it's easy to feel like "that dummy Schneider and his whole scouting department didn't even see that DeWayne Eskridge is a bum and Creed is a star at a position of need." But then my freezing cold takes like "I have never seen anyone more overrated than Jalen Carter" come back to haunt me. There are too many guys playing college ball to watch them all closely, and even the ones you can watch every down of are tough to predict at the next level. My blind spot is seeing something they are really good or bad at and projecting that to an extreme.
A lot of draft analysts liked Etheridge at the time. When you get right down to it, drafting is akin to projecting the major league success of a AA baseball player. That’s really hard to do.
Eskridge was a talented player whose career was altered on one of his first plays. He got hit hard, was concussed, and never fully recovered (at least to my untrained eyes.) A freak play, but those happen in football and are part of why they make so much money. Any player, no matter how great, is one injury away from retirement.
Can you retrain a player, teach him to be effective in another position? How long would that take?
This is an idea that just struck me as a potential next Kam Chancellor. Here are the measurables, you'll prob guess the name but just for fun will post the name later. The player in question is a defense player today btw, so at least he wouldn't need to be learning the other side of the ball.
Kam:
6'3"
231
Arm 33"
Hand 9 1/2"
40 yd 4.62
Vertical 32"
Broad 116"
20 shuttle 4.41
Bench 22 reps
Candidate:
6'4"
238
Arm 33 5/8"
Hand 9 5/8
40 yd 4.39
Vertical 39"
Broad 132"
20 shuttle 2.49
Bench 20 reps
Obviously a similar-sized player but substantially more athletic in every way. Could a guy this physically gifted be able to be retrained to play strong safety like Kam?
It remains difficult to comprehend how good the 2010-2012 drafts were. In retrospect, Thomas arguably should have been the #1 overall in 2010, Sherman should have been in the top 5 in 2011, and Wilson and Wagner were arguably 1 and 2 in 2012.
"The Seahawks don't want to replace a young player too soon."
Which landed just after I heard three draft experts [sic] laughing that the Seahawks didn't even have roster spots for the 10 picks they have, so why bother trading down to get more picks?
(This was after they picked Zabel...at 13.)
However this goes, I think we should anticipate significant roster churn, particularly if the received wisdom suggests second- and third-year players who aren't viewed as significant role players aren't going to get better and should be replaced. Hard workplace with tough rules.
And it landed a couple days after one of the OLine gurus (ex-players, both) SSJ linked to said it's unrealistic to expect players to get stronger after they enter the league, even with an NFL conditioning program, because there simply isn't time in a 17-game season, plus camps, with a month off to recover and another month getting ready for the next season, trying to get back to where you were. Gains, I gather, aren't going to happen.
That impacts small college players...sorry, players from small colleges...who haven't had Big-10 weight rooms, and might explain the frustration an ex-UW line coach had with a Connecticut Huskie who wasn't as strong as he wanted. More to the point, I wonder if that argues against drafting trench players who have any kind of strength concerns.
I sure can’t go with whoever these guys are. After the IOL, there’s an acute need at WR, no depth at ILB, and a placeholder starting at CB. Many here would add TE to the list.
I do think when the draft sites assign "need" to teams they're looking only at a snapshot of the roster in the right now, and not at how contracts play out next year. I also feel like a lot of the draft experts are not on the west coast and don't have a depth of knowledge about west coast teams.
No on Green unless his character issues are false. No on a player in rounds 1 or 2 coming off knee or neck injuries. No on great physical specimens who test well but don't show much on game tape. No on duel threat, athletic QBs with bad throwing mechanics, slow eyes, who can't read defenses or go through thier progressions or you end up with Anthony Richardson.Trey Lance or Justin Fields v2.0!
Trade up if you need for a player you love ( see Walter Jones) or trade down for the BPA.
With all the money and draft capital JS has, he better not blow this off season.
Agreed. Unfortunately, you might have described the entire class. There might not be anyone left, especially this year. Hopefully, you just shortened the list and gave us the framework for SJ's 2025 prediction.
Is it a drafting win to draft a guy in the first round and then have to wait two years for him to become valuable if he is let go after his rookie contract? Does it matter if he goes on to have a good career? The Seahawks seemingly don't miss on picks quite as often as the average team, but we then fail to keep them. Counted together is seems like a failure of process.
A first round pick, to be deemed a success, needs to start in year one and hold his own if not excelling. Sort of like Cross. If we fail to retain Cross that will seem like more of the same.
That sounds good in theory, but also means the team will look exclusively for high-floor players who can contribute right away. People don’t remember this, but that was Tim Ruskell’s philosophy: he went almost exclusively with four year starters from big conference schools. The best ones started off strong and made immediate impact, but few got better over time and were mostly competent players that were band aids on an aging roster.
Looks like scouting the potential has been good. It could be more of a failure of coaching to develop them quickly enough, and I would say it seems like JS and Jody have addressed that by changing the entire staff. I'm hoping for improvement from the myriad of moving parts in our machine!
Is there a draft pick from the 2010-2012 era that you cheered the most when it actually happened? Like "that was my guy!" and the Seahawks got him?
Bobby Wagner and Robert Turbin. There was a lot of excitement in northern Utah when both guys went to the Seahawks—and my neighbor said looks like he was going to have a new favorite pro football team.
Russell Wilson, believe it or not. I was spending Thanksgiving of 2011 with my brother in Richmond. At halftime of a game we were watching, the network gave a quick overview of QBs eligible for the 2012 drafts. The focus was on Luck and RG3, with a flash card summary of the rest of the class. When Russell, whom I had never heard of, flashed, my brother told me that “whoever drafts him is getting a great player.” I filed this away!
Russ...but I thought he would never be a Seahawk because of his height. So much was being made about our corners and their arm length dimensions, our o line and their knee and calf dimensions..
It seemed like they were all about meeting certain metrics that Russ just wasn't gong to hit, so I wrote him off. I was reading through Wisconsin football fan page and there were literally thousands of people all saying the same thing...yes he's short but it doesn't stop him from being awesome and whoever drafts him will get a great player.
Definitely Russell Wilson. I watched several of his college games and loved his story. I was actually hoping for RW and if not then Kirk Cousins. Actually got jubilant when Russ was picked! I remember after the pick, John Gruden exclaiming with regards the Seahawks QB competition that Russ was gonna come in and 'kick the door down' and become the starter.
Russell Wilson. As an NC guy, and living in Asheville where he played minor league baseball, he was a hero to me. But it was mostly because he was nice to my Mom. She was the president of the NC State Beekeepers and gave presentations at NC State. She gushed about one of her students who was "the most lovely young man who plays quarterback for them!" and I became an NC State fan for the next year and a half. Mom (RIP) and I called each other at the same time on day 2 of that draft! My eyes are tearing up thinking about it.
I have a photo of her decked out in Seahawks gear on one of her last birthdays. It fell on the NFC Championship game when we came back to beat Green Bay. https://i.imgur.com/AcCzV0O.jpg
Full disclosure, I soured on Wilson towards the end of his time here and was thrilled that we traded him. But dang, there were some sweet Russell Wilson memories both off and on the field.
Lovely, beaming smile of Your Mom.
I was high on drafting Irvin in the second round, which seems in retrospect, the second round is where he belonged. However, I was a draft rookie that year. The first year I used the internet to inform my opinions on the draft. Now, I am a seasoned draftnik fan, but without enough background in football to deserve any recognition or respect. LOL.
The more seasoned I get, the less I think I know. Or *realize* I know might be more apt. I am right a lot, and it's easy to feel like "that dummy Schneider and his whole scouting department didn't even see that DeWayne Eskridge is a bum and Creed is a star at a position of need." But then my freezing cold takes like "I have never seen anyone more overrated than Jalen Carter" come back to haunt me. There are too many guys playing college ball to watch them all closely, and even the ones you can watch every down of are tough to predict at the next level. My blind spot is seeing something they are really good or bad at and projecting that to an extreme.
A lot of draft analysts liked Etheridge at the time. When you get right down to it, drafting is akin to projecting the major league success of a AA baseball player. That’s really hard to do.
Eskridge was a talented player whose career was altered on one of his first plays. He got hit hard, was concussed, and never fully recovered (at least to my untrained eyes.) A freak play, but those happen in football and are part of why they make so much money. Any player, no matter how great, is one injury away from retirement.
Cliff Avril and Kam Chancellor can attest to that.
Can you retrain a player, teach him to be effective in another position? How long would that take?
This is an idea that just struck me as a potential next Kam Chancellor. Here are the measurables, you'll prob guess the name but just for fun will post the name later. The player in question is a defense player today btw, so at least he wouldn't need to be learning the other side of the ball.
Kam:
6'3"
231
Arm 33"
Hand 9 1/2"
40 yd 4.62
Vertical 32"
Broad 116"
20 shuttle 4.41
Bench 22 reps
Candidate:
6'4"
238
Arm 33 5/8"
Hand 9 5/8
40 yd 4.39
Vertical 39"
Broad 132"
20 shuttle 2.49
Bench 20 reps
Obviously a similar-sized player but substantially more athletic in every way. Could a guy this physically gifted be able to be retrained to play strong safety like Kam?
Isaiah Simmons
It remains difficult to comprehend how good the 2010-2012 drafts were. In retrospect, Thomas arguably should have been the #1 overall in 2010, Sherman should have been in the top 5 in 2011, and Wilson and Wagner were arguably 1 and 2 in 2012.
If anyone agrees with this, which it's hard not to, then they must also not be expecting it again this year (or ever again).
I think that for a while, both fans and teams believed that there was a magic touch.
"The Seahawks don't want to replace a young player too soon."
Which landed just after I heard three draft experts [sic] laughing that the Seahawks didn't even have roster spots for the 10 picks they have, so why bother trading down to get more picks?
(This was after they picked Zabel...at 13.)
However this goes, I think we should anticipate significant roster churn, particularly if the received wisdom suggests second- and third-year players who aren't viewed as significant role players aren't going to get better and should be replaced. Hard workplace with tough rules.
And it landed a couple days after one of the OLine gurus (ex-players, both) SSJ linked to said it's unrealistic to expect players to get stronger after they enter the league, even with an NFL conditioning program, because there simply isn't time in a 17-game season, plus camps, with a month off to recover and another month getting ready for the next season, trying to get back to where you were. Gains, I gather, aren't going to happen.
That impacts small college players...sorry, players from small colleges...who haven't had Big-10 weight rooms, and might explain the frustration an ex-UW line coach had with a Connecticut Huskie who wasn't as strong as he wanted. More to the point, I wonder if that argues against drafting trench players who have any kind of strength concerns.
The so called experts laughing again :D
I sure can’t go with whoever these guys are. After the IOL, there’s an acute need at WR, no depth at ILB, and a placeholder starting at CB. Many here would add TE to the list.
I do think when the draft sites assign "need" to teams they're looking only at a snapshot of the roster in the right now, and not at how contracts play out next year. I also feel like a lot of the draft experts are not on the west coast and don't have a depth of knowledge about west coast teams.
No on Green unless his character issues are false. No on a player in rounds 1 or 2 coming off knee or neck injuries. No on great physical specimens who test well but don't show much on game tape. No on duel threat, athletic QBs with bad throwing mechanics, slow eyes, who can't read defenses or go through thier progressions or you end up with Anthony Richardson.Trey Lance or Justin Fields v2.0!
Trade up if you need for a player you love ( see Walter Jones) or trade down for the BPA.
With all the money and draft capital JS has, he better not blow this off season.
Agreed. Unfortunately, you might have described the entire class. There might not be anyone left, especially this year. Hopefully, you just shortened the list and gave us the framework for SJ's 2025 prediction.
Is it a drafting win to draft a guy in the first round and then have to wait two years for him to become valuable if he is let go after his rookie contract? Does it matter if he goes on to have a good career? The Seahawks seemingly don't miss on picks quite as often as the average team, but we then fail to keep them. Counted together is seems like a failure of process.
A first round pick, to be deemed a success, needs to start in year one and hold his own if not excelling. Sort of like Cross. If we fail to retain Cross that will seem like more of the same.
That sounds good in theory, but also means the team will look exclusively for high-floor players who can contribute right away. People don’t remember this, but that was Tim Ruskell’s philosophy: he went almost exclusively with four year starters from big conference schools. The best ones started off strong and made immediate impact, but few got better over time and were mostly competent players that were band aids on an aging roster.
Looks like scouting the potential has been good. It could be more of a failure of coaching to develop them quickly enough, and I would say it seems like JS and Jody have addressed that by changing the entire staff. I'm hoping for improvement from the myriad of moving parts in our machine!