Mel Kiper's mock Seahawks draft pick

The 7 stages of mock drafts and thoughts on Kiper's pick for the Seahawks: Seaside Joe 1824

I’ve been through the seven stages of mock draft already: First you love them, then you feel burned by them, second you hate them, third you go back to justifying your love for them despite all their faults by saying “they help me get to know the prospects better”, fourth you go back to hating them because you’re just overwhelmed by the sheer number of people on the Internet creating mock drafts and few of them are saying anything original/the one person who does do something original is buried alive for having a contrary opinion, fifth you ban them, sixth you can’t help but secretly read them anyway because it’s really the only draft content being created most of the time, and seventh you write today’s post about Mel Kiper’s pick for the Seattle Seahawks.

I’ve created and consumed so much NFL content in the last 13 years, it’s essentially the only thing I do with my time other than watch reality television and the occasional movie, that I know what’s already out there and the last thing I want to give Seaside Joe readers is Seahawks coverage that they can find somewhere else. A lot of writers could be replaced by A.I. in the near future…I can’t imagine that Seaside Joe is in any danger of that.

Show me just ONE computer out there that can Google Image search for Gifs…I’m waiting.

When Mel Kiper posts his mock drafts, it creates a stir because he essentially created the entire industry. I am not the type to give Kiper more credit than a very smart NFL draft fan, nor will I play the archetype who says “Kiper sucks”. He doesn’t suck anymore than the 27-year-old hotshot at The Ringer with 200k twitter followers who probably cites Kiper as a hero and inspiration but gets a pass because he debuted more recently.

It’s a credit to Kiper that this is his 41st year at ESPN and he’s still the name the moves the needle the furthest because how many sports media personalities from the 80s, 90s, 00s, and even 10s came and went over that period of time? Practically all of them except for Mel Kiper.

I don’t know why that is the case. It’s not for accuracy, that’s for sure.

A year ago, Kiper’s mock draft at this time had the Seahawks selecting QB Will Levis fifth overall, a move that I vehemently disagreed with at the time and up until the day that Levis ended up going in the second round. Others who had long pined for Seattle to draft Levis said this was a guarantee he was going in the top-5.

The Levis debate falls under “neither here nor there” sort of—maybe I just get a little giddy over the opportunity to remind Seahawks fans of it—but still serves as a perfect example of what we already know: Mock drafts don’t predict, they’re inaccurate, they’re like a Ghost Hunters show: For entertainment purposes only.

However, if you’re going to make one, then you’re now subject to criticism of your picks. You open yourself up to debate: “Well, I find this choice interesting because it would seem to fly in the face of history and the relevant information that we have about this prospect and/or team.”

Will Levis served as a perfect opportunity for me to do that. A year prior to that, Tony Pauline spreading rumors about the Seahawks—as he does—and saying that he “heard” that Seattle wanted to trade up for Desmond Ridder was another case; and I couldn’t figure out why so many people were mocking Malik Willis as a top-10 pick when he had “third round” written all over.

Once you get through the seven stages of mock drafts, you come out on the other end not really loving or hating them but instead I feel like I’m weaponizing them as reasons for debate. For example, there are strong historical and recent draft trends that could foretell what happens on April 25th and there are trends in mock drafts too: More quarterbacks=more page views.

Mel Kiper doesn’t have the Seahawks picking a quarterback (yet) this year, let’s talk about what he said and why it could be questionable:

16. Seahawks - G Troy Fautanu, Washington

OK, so guard might not be the most exciting position for a mock draft, but I can assure you that Seahawks fans should be happy with Fautanu, who could stay near where he went to college. That's because he's a fun offensive line prospect to watch on tape. He has excellent feet and plays hard on every snap. Fautanu started 28 games at left tackle for the Huskies, but I see his future on the interior because of his 6-foot-4 frame.

With Evan Brown, Damien Lewis and Phil Haynes all free agents, Seattle will have holes to fill along the interior of its line. And Seattle ranked 28th in rushing yards per game (92.9), surely new coordinator Ryan Grubb wants to see upgrades there. Fautanu would give this offense an instant boost.

Here are my thoughts:

The player

I can’t tell you much about Fautanu yet. But at this time a year ago I didn’t know anything about Devon Witherspoon until a few weeks before the draft and he became my number one suspect to be drafted by the Seahawks. Perhaps after more research I will find that Fautanu has the same sort of attributes that made Witherspoon the “must have” prospect for me.

Many of you are Huskies fans who already know a lot more about Fautanu than I do and this pick may butter your biscuit, I’m just starting off with honesty: I don’t know him very well yet.

But despite that, I can give you reasons why I’m skeptical of Kiper’s pick for now and more importantly, why I disagree with the methodology to try and make a pick “make sense” for a certain team. One thing that Kiper (and most) are very consistent about is that they show that they clearly never understood the franchise or the regime at all.

This is what they’re missing: