Seahawks' 4 picks in Todd McShay 2-round NFL Mock Draft
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Seahawks' 4 picks in Todd McShay 2-round NFL Mock Draft
In-depth look at Seattle's four picks in this mock, including two DL, a WR, and a G: Seaside Joe 1494
ESPN’s Todd McShay posted his fourth mock draft on Tuesday morning, a two-round edition meaning four picks for the Seattle Seahawks; and though we like to criticize mock drafts around here at Seaside Joe, I appreciate you kind 1,953 subscribers for allowing me to attract a few new Seasiders via Google search results by going over his Seahawks picks this morning.
Thankfully, for better or worse, McShay’s picks are kind of exactly along the lines of what Seaside Joe has been projecting for Seattle during the entire draft process. I’ll share his first and second round picks for the Seahawks and then some relevant videos and links for each prospect.
If you could share this with other Seahawks fans—forward the e-mail, post on Facebook, make a ‘Seaside Joe’ sign and take it to the Mariners game in an effort to get on TV—it is greatly appreciated.
Now the picks.
5. DT Jalen Carter, Georgia
20. WR Zay Flowers, Boston College
37. EDGE Keion White, Georgia Tech
53. G Steve Avila, TCU
I’ve had Carter and Flowers as my picks for the Seahawks throughout most of the process and I feel like that’s the way it will go on April 27th—at least as far as choosing the top-ranked defensive player left on the board followed by a receiver—but I’m going to write a bonus article later on Tuesday that reveals what I actually WANT to happen in the first round.
So become a Regular Joes subscriber to read that and many more bonus articles!
Jalen Carter
I shared my thoughts on Carter’s “character concerns” issue here on March 25. One thing that I will add to that—a criticism—is that I do get concerned about how Carter comes across in interviews. A lot of the players he gets compared to, such as Quinnen Williams, Warren Sapp, Ndamukong Suh, and yes even Reggie White, all of those whom make him so tantalizing as a football prospect, they all had/have HUGE personalities. They are “put-em-on TV” types of characters.
I don’t want to overthink this process or judge a book by its cover, but it’s not only in interviews. Teammates also describe Carter as a quiet person, even if they defend him against “character concerns” labels.
Carter is young, sure, but so are 2023 NFL Draft prospects like Will Anderson and Nolan Smith, two more examples of “put-em-on TV”. So I want to be fair and balanced with every prospect and since I’ve come to Carter’s defense in the past, while criticizing someone like Will Levis for being “too ripped”, this is a trait that I would say at least doesn’t fit with some of his all-world comparisons. At least, not yet.
Maybe at the next level, he will come out of his shell. Based on what I’ve heard and seen so far, it seems that Jalen Carter didn’t understand until a couple of years ago just how good of a football player he is capable of becoming and perhaps this could explain his quiet demeanor, relatively poor conditioning habits, and lack of playing time. If he goes to the right team and sees that he can beat some of the best players in the NFL one-on-one, confidence is a hell of a drug.
Zay Flowers
And this is where we get into polar opposites. Zay Flowers could star in a reboot of City Guys.
Flowers is 5’9, 182 lbs and his 4.42 is fast but not the fastest. I think what we’re really coming to understand with modern receivers, ranging from Tyreek Hill to DeVonta Smith in different frames for different “short guys” at the position, is that the best of them know how to use what they’ve got. Flowers seems to know how to do that and he had 178 catches for 2,715 yards and 26 touchdowns over the last three seasons at B.C..
I think what gets overlooked though is that he played with some terrible quarterbacks in the ACC. Phil Jurkovec has an NFL arm but not much else and missed half of that time with injury. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jordan Addison, and Quentin Johnston all played with NFL quarterbacks at various levels. Flowers had 1,077 yards and 12 TDs last season playing with Jurkovec and Emmett Morehead for a 3-9 team.
I won’t be shocked if John Schneider dials 1-800-FLOWERS on draft night.
Keion White
White showed out at the Senior Bowl, usually an indicator that Pete Carroll has his eye on you. Daniel Jeremiah called him a “round 1 player” at the time, but mock drafts haven’t followed that line of thinking yet—it’s trending that way.
Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times had Seattle picking him at 20 in a mock draft on Monday. (Farmer has Anthony Richardson going first overall and the Seahawks picking Will Levis at #5, so no, I wouldn’t say I “agree” with this one.)
Every year, at least three or four guys go at the end of the first round who were not typically projected there going into the draft. White has good odds to get there, relative to some other day two projections. Let’s continue with sharing interviews, here’s White at his pro day. Do I give him an “A” for his interviews? No. He’s a bit short, but it’s an unusual situation, so we can’t over-think these opportunities.
White measures 6’5, 285 but didn’t run the 40 at the combine. He pulled up with a “tweaked hamstring’ at his pro day and didn’t finish the drills and was projected in the 4.65-4.75 range. If we’re being critical and say it’s 4.75 that’s alright, it’s just a question of finding out where he fits.
An outside linebacker like Will Anderson weighs 253 lbs and runs a 4.6. Clearly that’s not Keion White, who could be more of a hand-in-the-ground 5-tech and teams will have to assertain if that’s worthy of the 37th overall pick. As Matty F. Brown wrote in 2021:
The 5-tech role is bigger and closer to a defensive tackle build: ideally 280-295 pounds. On the early downs, they have to be comfortable two-gapping or playing one-and-a-half gaps. In a perfect world, this dude is lining up on the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle.
However, the NFL is very problematic. As a result, the 5-tech role does not always align on the outside shoulder of the tackle. Multiple sources have described the position to me as a “ ig end.” This term is less misleading; therefore I’ll solely be using “big end” moving forward. Red Bryant is a success story of the big end role. Michael Bennett also played there. The skill-set is deployed from 9-technique all the way down to 3-technique.
If you knew that White was going to be like Bennett, you’d draft him at #20. If you thought he was going to be like Red Bryant—who is still very awesome—I don’t know if you pull that trigger in the second round. That’s maybe how a guy like White either gets drafted too high or becomes a steal if Seattle sees his still on the board with pick #83. People will say “Oh geez, Keion White couldn’t go that late!!!” but if teams don’t know where to put a player (and he’s a bit on the older side and he only had two good seasons in college, one of which was at Old Dominion in 2019) then yes, I think he could go that late.
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Steve Avila
I know how badly that Seahawks fans want the team to upgrade the interior of their offensive line and TCU’s Steve Avila could be the first “true guard” drafted this year. However, he also did play center and tackle in college, so Avila does have at least a history with different positions even if he’s not really going to be drafted for versatility. More to be a guard at the next level.
He does give more of a natural interview than maybe Carter and White.
What you probably want to see instead is some film breakdown though.
Avila didn’t allow any sacks over 15 games last season. If the Seahawks do draft Avila, he probably pushes Phil Haynes into a permanent reserve role but there’s a chance he could even be a consideration at center if Evan Brown doesn’t impress in training camp or gets hurt.
If the Seahawks can get Avila with their second second round pick, that’s when the value for an interior offensive line pick really skyrockets. I just don’t see it with a first round pick and even early in the second round is a little too rich.
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Seahawks' 4 picks in Todd McShay 2-round NFL Mock Draft
Ken, thanks for referencing the March 25th article. I went back and read it more closely. You asked, "please FIGHT ME back on that so that we can get to the TRUTH instead of playing his game of agendas that misleads Seahawks fans for no reason". Thanks for asking for my loyalty and not my devotion!
You wrote, "What I am setting out to do with this article is to make sure you’re aware of the real facts about Carter because it’s not me but others who are attempting to manipulate you and make sure that you only know half-truths about his character, his conditioning concerns, his football abilities, and the actual record of evidence weighing against him relative to all of his peers and many other 21-year-olds."
I don't think you achieved the above. By failing to address the primary concern about Carter - which is his FOOTBALL character, you did not provide the complete set of facts like you claimed you would.
As you rightfully pointed out, prospects such as Sapp, Moss, Clark and such came with questionable "MORAL" character - I'm using that term very loosely here - became very good players. "MORAL" character includes problems with smoking weed, trouble with the law, and domestic violence.
But they did not come with questionable FOOTBALL character, i.e practice habits, passion for playing football, and competitive spirit like Carter does. It is very important to separate that out. You mentioned Malik McDowell. He came with the exact same FOOTBALL character concerns as Carter does. But he did not come with "MORAL" character concerns like the other ones.
You wrote, “I’d just focus more on what his coaches and teammates and people coming to his defense are saying and make excuses for everything else.” I found it very perplexing that you did not detail the things that his coaches have said about him - so far that's really the few concrete information the public really have but it's the most relevant to our discussion.
In The Athletic article published in February, Bruce Feldman interviewed Carter's position coach Tray Turner and he spoke glowingly of Carter's worldly athletic traits. He also said how Carter is kind-hearted and helped out a poor teammate. But that's not helpful because we already know he's very talented and John Schneider himself a Catholic is not drafting him to replace POPE Francis.
More importantly, Coach Turner also has this to say, "But I know how he is within our organization, and at the end of the day, I like for my guys to have a little edge, so where people may determine as ‘character issues’ may just be a guy who has a little edge that may be laid-back." Laid back could possibly be intepreted in different ways but for Carter, it is more likely someone who is not motivated. Why? because his head coach Kirby Smart has gone on record saying as such.
“Jalen is definitely talented, and you have to push,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “You have to be willing to push yourself and give great effort in practice because that is what set Devonte Wyatt apart. He was not that player when he got here. He was not that talented of a player when he got here. He worked himself and lost weight. He got stronger and quicker. He wasn’t the player in year one or two that he was in year three, four, or five."
I am sure you are keenly aware of these articles. I find it really odd that you seem to skirt around Carter's FOOTBALL character. You correctly pointed out glaring signs such as huge hole at DL, defense performance, and PC's side of ball, to reject the null hypothesis, which is Carter is not a Seahawk. Yet I'm curious as to why you did not discuss how Carter's FOOTBALL character would reconcile with what JS AND PC had said about the lessons they learned from 2022 draft. My biggest objection is the process you're using to analyze whether or not Carter should be drafted by Seahawks at five seems flawed.
References:
1. https://theathletic.com/4227888/2023/02/20/jalen-carter-nfl-combine-draft/
2. https://www.dawgnation.com/football/georgia-football-jalen-carter-jordandavis/SF7Y476OUZHNXEYRJPR2NX5WPU/
They had won five straight and were 8-2. Finished the season at 9-8. Kitna started twelve games in 2000 (Brock Huard started the other four!). By then, Mike Holmgren has seen enough and traded for Matt Hasselbeck.