Seahawks Depth Chart: Draft Scenarios

Jalen Carter or Tyree Wilson? Will Anderson or Devon Witherspoon? Let's see how Seattle's defense looks given four scenarios: Seaside Joe 1502

The Seattle Seahawks hold picks #5, #20, #37, and #53 in the first two rounds. It’s quite a change from just two years ago, when the Seahawks only held picks #56, #137, and #208 and stayed right where they were for Dee Eskridge, Tre Brown, and Stone Forsythe.

Then last year, Seattle saw early returns on having four picks in the top-75 by selecting rookie starters Charles Cross, Ken Walker III, and Abe Lucas. The Seahawks then also grabbed Tariq Woolen in the fifth and four players who could see their contributions increase significantly in 2023: Boye Mafe, Coby Bryant, Tyreke Smith, and Dareke Young.

Pete Carroll knows that his offense could be tweaked and improved—get Geno Smith more protection and a third receiver and potentially a Texas-sized running back—but his defense needs help. Given that the top of the draft is again heavily leaning towards defensive talent over offensive linemen and weapons, projecting Seattle to choose at least one first round pick on defense sounds more than reasonable. Today, I’ll go through four potential scenarios with the Seahawks’ first four picks that are defense-heavy so we can start to imagine what the depth chart could look like by May.

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Seahawks go D-Heavy

DL - Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, Jalen Carter (Bryan Mone PUP)

LB - Bobby Wagner, Devin Bush (Jordyn Brooks PUP)

EDGE - Uchenna Nwosu, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe, Lukas Van Ness

CB - Tariq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Julian Love, Coby Bryant, Tre Brown

S - Quandre Diggs, Jammie Robinson (Jamal Adams PUP)

Here we are trying out a scenario in which the Seahawks use their first two picks on front-sevens, their third pick on an offensive player, and their fourth pick on Jammie Robinson, a safety out of Florida State who they’ve met with recently.

Robinson is 5’11, 191, but was given an extremely low “Athletic Score” from his combine testing. Sometimes that can work in a team’s favor, pushing a really good football player lower in the draft than he should go and Robinson is considered “a really good football player”. Maybe late second round is too high for him, maybe not. For the record, I’m putting Adams on PUP just to be cautious and his status is not clear yet.

Carter is an obvious choice because the defensive line only has two legit veterans signed for next season. It doesn’t mean that Carter has to be the pick by any means and Seattle could address defensive line with other picks, we can’t say for sure that he will even be available when they’re on the clock. But I do think when I look at other position groups, this is the one where you get a sense that the Seahawks could get immediately better because Carter is going to be great against the run and he should at least be disruptive as a pass rusher.

Van Ness is a size-traits based project (6’5, 272 lbs, 34” arms, huge hands, 21 years old) who is a bit polarizing because some say his “inconsistency” will never improve and others believe he could be a J.J. Watt-in-waiting. That’s the risk you take by drafting an edge/DE at #20 instead of #5—although it doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of confidence in the edge prospects projected in the top-10 either. Van Ness might not even get close to #20.

Seahawks go D-Heavy v2.0

DL - Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, Calijah Kancey (Bryan Mone PUP)

LB - Bobby Wagner, Devin Bush, Noah Sewell (Jordyn Brooks PUP)

EDGE - Uchenna Nwosu, Will Anderson, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe

CB - Tariq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Coby Bryant, Tre Brown

S - Quandre Diggs, Julian Love (Jamal Adams PUP)

I could see people preferring this route because Anderson has been rated highly throughout the draft process and some see Kancey as being worth a top-10 pick. It feels “flashier” than Carter and Van Ness because maybe there’s a perception that this would result in more sacks. That may turn out to be true. However, I could see this also doing more harm than good for Seattle’s already terrible run defense.

The Seahawks weren’t going to beat the 49ers last season if they “had just sacked Brock Purdy two more times”.

In Tuesday’s Mock Draft Redux, I wrote about the potentially falling stock of Anderson. I hope people feel empowered to disagree with Chris Simms (he ranked Anderson fifth at his position and calls Tyree Wilson a “no brainer”) without resorting to calling it “clickbait”. That’s not what clickbait is and I strongly believe that it is important to let people share dissenting and unpopular opinions without shutting them down.

This draft season has prospects that you’re allowed to criticize (Jalen Carter, Bryce Young, Will Levis) and ones that you’re not (C.J. Stroud, Will Anderson) but nobody is without their faults. Maybe Anderson is the Micah Parsons of the 2023 draft and Seattle will pick him and get very lucky that he was available. I think it’s good that we at least have something more to talk about with regards to Anderson because he was getting kind of so safe to the point of being boring. Maybe not so fast.

On Sewell, this exercise actually kind of opens up my eyes to not feeling rushed to have the Seahawks draft a linebacker until day three. Wagner and Bush may not be more than a one-year plan, but I’m okay with it if Seattle doesn’t address linebacker again until 2024.

Seahawks go D-Heavy v3.0

DL - Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, Mazi Smith (Bryan Mone PUP)

LB - Bobby Wagner, Devin Bush (Jordyn Brooks PUP)

EDGE - Uchenna Nwosu, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe, Nolan Smith

CB - Tariq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Devon Witherspoon, Coby Bryant, Tre Brown

S - Quandre Diggs, Julian Love (Jamal Adams PUP)

Give me at least one chance to see how the defense looks different if Seattle picks a cornerback with their top pick. Devon Witherspoon brings all the attitude and tenacity that the Seahawks were lacking in run defense last season and he might also be a top-8 cover corner from the slot as early as 2023 despite only scratching the surface of his potential. Receivers are getting smaller by the year and we’re seeing more top-end players in the slot, so “size minimums” and position preferences for cornerbacks should change just the same.

Something that I forgot to mention with Witherspoon is that his biggest negative is that he’s handsy and “too grabby” and he may have an even harder time getting away with that at the NFL level than in college. I’m not saying that’s a positive for Pete Carroll, but we did see that the 2013 Seahawks secondary with Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner was always criticized for being “too grabby” and they did more than okay. Pete knows how to coach “grabby” cornerbacks and receivers HATE being messed with at the top of their routes. A first quarter flag could be worth getting into a receiver’s mind.

When you draft a player with the fifth overall pick, you’re giving that person a job and $34 million guaranteed. Pete and John strike me as the regime that wants to give that opportunity to a football player who they have a lot of confidence in, not someone who they may regret and that might rule out Jalen Carter. It might rule out Anthony Richardson and Will Levis. It might rule out Christian Gonzalez, who has been criticized for not finishing plays and making “business decisions”.

Will Anderson, Bijan Robinson, Devon Witherspoon, Bryce Young. These strike me as the “no regrets” type of prospects where even if they did have a limited value, Pete’s going to love talking to them about football.

Put Nolan Smith on that list too and in this scenario, the Seahawks backup their Witherspoon pick by selecting two front-seven players with their next two choices. Nolan Smith is one of those guys who is going to be a team captain by year three, Mazi Smith is a former winner of “top-ranked player on Bruce Feldman’s freaks” list.

Obviously, this group might end up looking better than the first two but keep in mind that here I used #5, #20, and #37 on defensive prospects, while in the others I used #37 on an offensive player. Naturally, that will make the optics of this group look a little better without showing you that yeah, this means that Seattle passed on offensive linemen and receivers until late second round.

Seahawks go D-Heavy v4.0

DL - Dre’Mont Jones, Jarran Reed, Tyree Wilson (Bryan Mone PUP)

LB - Bobby Wagner, Devin Bush (Jordyn Brooks PUP)

EDGE - Uchenna Nwosu, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe, Derick Hall

CB - Tariq Woolen, Mike Jackson, Julian Love, Coby Bryant, Tre Brown

S - Quandre Diggs, Brian Branch (Jamal Adams PUP)

There could be a situation where Tyree Wilson just gives Pete Carroll a huge, disruptive defensive line next season and don’t even worry about getting sacks yet. Hall is leaner (6’3, 254) and also has long arms (34.5”) with the speed and athleticism to get to the QB off of the edge; here I am projecting him as available at #53.

Branch is a really good football player who has the versatility that Pete loves and I’m sure he’d be happy to have him. I just don’t think that Seattle will feel any pressure to take the top safety in the class when they’re going to probably see a lot of great value picks at the position on day three. I do think that the Seahawks will pick a safety somewhere between #53 and the fifth round. This just gives us another look.

Everyone keeps asking about receiver Charlie Jones: Who is he and should the Seahawks draft him?