Devon Witherspoon: Why Draft?
Seahawks shock world with #5 pick? The reasons for it are hitting us in the face: Seaside Joe 1501
If you’re like me, you will start this article thinking, “Do I really want the Seahawks to use their first pick on a cornerback?” but by the end you’ll know that Devon Witherspoon is not a cornerback. He’s an attitude change that Seattle desperately needs and that Pete Carroll tends to gravitate towards.
And if Carroll is willing to adjust his position on signing first wave outside free agents like Dre’Mont Jones and he’s open to keeping Geno Smith on a deal worth up to $105 million, then maybe 2023 is the year that the Seattle Seahawks actually pick a corner in the top-90. Or the top-5.
Because if there’s a single player in the draft who exemplifies the character, competitiveness, and toughness that’s been missing from the Seahawks defense since Kam Chancellor retired, he is Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Though Witherspoon doesn’t have the magical 32” arm length and despite Seattle’s earliest cornerback pick under Carroll in 13 years being Shaquill Griffin at 90th overall, Witherspoon is also the top-ranked corner in a draft class that has enough questions about the top-20 prospects to think that this might be a time to make exceptions for someone who will alter the attitude of a defense that too many opponents see as “soft”.
Using this picture of Witherspoon’s workout day to point out the guy in the Seahawks hat, not the guy in the circle:
Something I always want to be cautious of relative to my opponents—ahem, sorry, I mean “relative to other Seahawks draft writers”—is that I don’t get tunnel vision every time I come across a prospect I like simply trying to connect dots for why he “makes perfect sense for Seattle”. I’m as capable of confirmation bias as anyone else and when you’re talking about really good prospects, well shoot—just about anybody could “make perfect sense” for the team you’re covering.
But apart from the fact that Pete Carroll has shown zero inclination or urgency with adding cornerbacks in the draft—which is about the same thing you can say about quarterbacks in the draft and yet there’s been almost no objection to asking for that this year—Devon Witherspoon is by almost any other measure the “that dude” who changes the Seahawks toughness and tackling against the San Francisco 49ers next season.
In a draft class that has question marks on any prospect who will be available when Seattle is on the clock, should the Seahawks spend their house money on an immediate upgrade in the slot and the locker room?
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