Seahawks draft grades but with a reasonable amount of time to judge

It's time to give the Seahawks draft grades (for 2022 obviously): Seaside Joe 1889

I’ve known that immediate draft grades were a dumb idea since before I had to start writing them myself. I remember my first editor Danny Kelly asking if I wanted to do a sponsored post on the Seahawks draft grades back over 10 years ago and I said “Yes” because it was paid but added, “Do I have to be sincere about it?” and he said that I didn’t have to be sincere. So I gave them the headline and subject they wanted, but have since then always given Seattle’s draft picks “A++” every single time.

Because who cares about an immediate judgment of a draft pick? The first round of the NFL Draft is my absolute favorite day of the year—it trumps holidays, birthdays, births, etc.—and grading the picks goes against everything I love about the uncertainty of draft day outcomes.

I will say that the Atlanta Falcons gave all draft graders and grader-haters an opportunity to consider the value of grading a team’s DRAFT PROCESS. Since last Thursday, former NFL GM Michael Lombardi (and most people) have been obliterating Falcons GM Terry Fontenot, head coach Raheem Morris, and owner Arthur Blank for the combined move of paying Kirk Cousins $100 million guaranteed weeks before they drafted Michael Penix with the eighth overall pick. At first, I excused the move as simply doubling down at the sport’s most important position and there is an element of truth to that argument.

But Lombardi has worn me down and convinced me through his GM Shuffle podcast that there’s almost no way to “win” here if you’re Atlanta. If you win the Super Bowl with Cousins in the next two years and he wants to keep playing until he’s 40, what are they going to do? Trade him? That’s not going to sit well with the locker room or the fans. If Cousins gets injured or needs to be benched for Penix, it proves their free agent pursuit (which could soon be punished in the form of a high draft pick because of tampering) was a waste. If Penix isn’t a good quarterback, then it was a waste of a top-10 draft pick and many still feel he had a second round grade.

To work out perfectly, it’s almost like the Falcons need to win a Super Bowl in the next two years (which I find highly improbable in part because they didn’t address a defense manned by unknown starters or a need they might have been able to fill on offense by drafting Rome Odunze or moving up to get Malik Nabers) and then have Cousins retire and then have Penix step in and be as good or better than Cousins. At which point, Penix will already be 26 and only have two years left of being cheap before his fifth-year option.

If Cousins plays three more years, then Penix will be 27, three years removed from being a full-time starter, and entering the last season of his rookie contract with Atlanta needing to exercise his fifth-year option before he’s ever taken over the team.

So can we grade the Falcons DRAFT PROCESS as an F? Just picking Michael Penix alone doesn’t warrant an immediate draft grade because we should all know by now that we don’t know which of these quarterbacks will become great and which will be busts. It can also be said that signing Kirk Cousins could be genius or idiotic, but judging that move also requires that we wait and see how he fits with the Falcons in a division that you or I could win if we just rallied 52 of our closest friends with some former Pro Bowlers mixed in.

It’s the combination of those two moves that is puzzling because the Falcons should have known before and certainly after the Senior Bowl whether or not they wanted to draft Penix, a quarterback who everyone knew would be available at pick 8. They should have known between the combine and free agency that Penix was their target. Or they should have signed Cousins and then scrapped their Penix plan, maybe even trading the pick to the Raiders if they didn’t feel that any of the defensive prospects warranted a top-10 pick. The mere fact that Atlanta didn’t warn Cousins implies that they were afraid of what he’d do if he found out, like telling the truth but not the whole truth on a first date because you’re afraid they won’t want a second date.

Because the Falcons picked Penix though, the Seahawks were able to draft Byron Murphy II with the 16th pick even though he was probably their highest-graded defensive player in the entire 2024 class. That feels like the type of opportunity that would always result in an immediate A grade, but I still feel there is never a time to give an immediate grade, A or otherewise, unless you’re just trying to make that money.

A better time to give out draft grades would be 2-4 years after it happens. Sometimes we even know a few months later if the pick was a mistake or a win, but a few years should always do the trick.

So for Seaside Joe 1889, let’s work together to grade the Seattle Seahawks 2022 draft class.

I actually still think that two years is not quite enough time to judge a draft class, which will become more obvious as you read and remember the names from the 2022 draft, but Seattle’s 2021 class is too small and sad for me to feel like that would be a worthy exercise. Here, I’ll do it for you: Dee Eskridge (F), Tre Brown (incomplete), Stone Forsythe (C).

Answer with your draft grades in the polls below and I’ll share the results next week. I think you’ll find that this is a rather easy class to grade with high marks after two years even if many of these names still have plenty to prove with the Seahawks and in the NFL. Then we can come back in 2025 and 2026 and grade again with more information, finding out how common it is for these judgments to get better or worse as players go from year two to year four.

To not miss the results, make sure you are at least a free subscriber to Seaside Joe.

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1.9 - OT Charles Cross

Charles Cross was the third offensive tackle off the board in 2022 and he’s had a better career so far than the two picked over him: Ikem Ekwonu to the Panthers at 6 and Evan Neal to the Giants at 7. Neal’s fighting for his job as a starting right tackle on the Giants, so he’s just lucky they picked Nabers instead of J.C. Latham. Neal might be a guard or a backup in 2024 as the team signed Jermaine Eluemunor as competition at tackle. Ekwonu’s been better, but inconsistent and Carolina also had one of the worst offensive lines last season. He now plays next to Damien Lewis.

The only other tackle picked in the first round was Trevor Penning and I believe that move has been labeled as a disaster. The Cowboys drafted Pro Bowler Tyler Smith at 24, but he’s been moved to guard.

The Seahawks might have drafted the best tackle in the entire 2022 class…and it’s NOT Charles Cross. But as far as Cross being a first round pick, he’s actually the best out of the group right now even if he’s also inconsistent and a little less dominant than you’d hope for the ninth overall pick. As I wrote Thursday, there’s a good chance Cross is good enough for the fifth-year option.

1.40 - OLB Boye Mafe

As it currently stands, Mafe’s 12 career sacks in 33 games ranks fifth in the class behind Aidan Hutchinson, George Karlaftis, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Travon Walker. Walker and Hutchinson were the top two picks, so comparable production between Mafe and Walker is encouraging. Walker’s probably still a little or a lot better at run defense, might have a higher ceiling because he’s also much younger than Mafe, but Boye’s holding his own. I might rather have him than Thibodeaux.

He also sort of disappeared there after his streak of games with a sack. Mafe turns 26 in November, so there might be some question there of how much better he can become in the future. Mike Macdonald’s influence could surely help there.

1.41 - RB Kenneth Walker III

Kenneth Walker was the second running back picked after Breece Hall went to the Jets, but leads the class in rushing yards so far with 1,955 and touchdowns with 17. The next-closest in touchdowns is 12 each by Isiah Pacheco and Kyren Williams, both late round picks. Hall tore his ACL in 2022, so he has some catching up to do, but he caught 76 passes last year in addition to 994 rushing yards.

You can judge this pick just based solely off of Walker’s contributions, but it’s up to you if you want to factor in Seattle’s decision to draft him at the top of the second round instead of addressing a different position. I’ll say that none of the names that went immediately after him are all that appealing, you can review the 2022 draft by clicking here.

3.72 - OT Abe Lucas

Great pick, but is he a healthy player? There is some thought out there that Lucas made it to the third round only because of medical red flags and now we’ve seen how that could be playing out negatively for Seattle. What’s Lucas’s future in the NFL, or next season? Hopefully last year was just one bump in an otherwise smooth road. At least the Seahawks didn’t use this pick on Desmond Ridder or Malik Willis.

4.109 - CB Coby Bryant

It’s not like the Seahawks, or most teams for that matter, draft a lot of starters and stars in the fourth round. It’s a tough place in the draft to find really good players because 100 of the prospects were already drafted, but it does happen. So Coby’s lack of impact plays through two seasons isn’t that surprising. He only played in nine games last year and saw his snaps go down from 756 to 146, while his special teams appearances went up. I’m not sure where Macdonald plans to play Bryant, but the Seahawks have added three veteran safeties and two rookie cornerbacks in the past 14 months.

5.153 - CB Riq Woolen

I assume, like most people, that Riq Woolen gets to enter offseason camps and training camp with an opportunity to be in the lead for a starting job at cornerback. There’s not much serious competition that we know of yet unless Nehemiah Pritchett or D.J. James make things interesting. Tre Brown and Mike Jackson would be the veteran threats for those two outside jobs.

Woolen had that amazing start to his rookie season, but I would say for the last 1.5 seasons has been more of a liability than a strength.

5.158 - DE Tyreke Smith

Tyreke Smith was on the Cardinals practice squad at the end of last season and is still on Arizona’s roster. A fifth round pick is a shot in the dark, but this was a misfire.

7.229 - WR Bo Melton

You don’t expect seventh round picks to make many game day rosters in their career, but Bo Melton caught 16 passes for 218 yards with the Packers last season and that came in only five games. Melton is in a very interesting receivers room with Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Jayden Reed, sa well as Dontayvion Wicks. He might have found a good place there in Green Bay as a WR4 or WR5 who only needs one injury to become one of Jordan Love’s targets.

7.233 - WR Dareke Young

After one season, we would have definitely said Young is having a better career than Melton. After two seasons, I’m not so sure anymore. I can’t even say that Young should be a wide receiver or if Ryan Grubb might find a place for him as more of an H-back/special teamer or something. The WR4 just isn’t going to get many targets in a 17-game season and Young isn’t even Seattle’s WR4. The Seahawks may choose to keep Laviska Shenault as WR5 or Eskridge because of a need at kicker returner. That’s why a fullback role replacing Nick Bellore might be more suitable.