Seattle thrives on unorthodox selections at draft
SEATTLE — Six drafts into the John Schneider/Pete Carroll regime, and one constant continues to shine through: The Seattle Seahawks still don’t care what anyone else thinks about their draft picks.
Pan them if you will. The Seahawks can point to their record of not just developing talent, but unearthing it and saying, in essence, “Scoreboard.”
They continue to operate their draft board based on incredible trust in their vision, with a dash of defiance thrown in. They don’t much care who turns up their nose at their picks, pointing at projections that had this player and that player going much lower. In fact, they seem to savour it.
Scoff if you will at their fifthround selection Saturday of a cornerback, Tye Smith, who had just one offer out of high school. If Towson State in Baltimore hadn’t reached out, Smith figures, he’d be at home now, working at McDonald’s. Instead, he’ll soon be in secondary meetings with Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor, two All-Pros who also were taken in the fifth round by Seattle.
The Seahawks believed in their sixth-round pick, Nigerian native Obum Gwacham of Oregon State, who made the switch from wide receiver to defensive end last year. That’s unorthodox, but the Seahawks thrive on unorthodox. They live for it. Never mind that a scout is quoted in Nolan Nawrocki’s draft book that Gwacham has “zero instincts.”
Bring on the fourth-round offensive linemen, Terry Poole of San Diego State and Mark Glowinski of West Virginia, a tackle and guard, respectively, in college. The Seahawks look at them and see versatile players who can be moulded into a centre, guard or tackle, depending on their needs.
Moreover, on Saturday they gave themselves a new project: Kristjan Sokoli, an Albanian-born defensive tackle from the University of Buffalo whom they immediately listed as a guard and then said they planned to start out at centre.
You can call it outsmarting yourself. Or simply call it the Seahawks way.
The Seahawks see their top, controversial second-round (63rd overall) pick, defensive end Frank Clark, as just another example of finding undervalued talent. Other teams walked away from Clark because of his involvement in a domestic-violence incident, but the Seahawks dug deeper into the case and convinced themselves — unwisely, in this writer’s opinion — that Clark was a risk worth taking.
“We found a guy we thought could really be something special and deserved that opportunity,’’ Carroll said. “I think you’ll see that in time.”
Bringing in players others eschew is a Seahawks mainstay. So is finding a player with a singular skill and embracing it, rather than obsessing over what they can’t do. They look at third-round pick Tyler Lockett, and rather than another undersized receiver, they saw the makings of a premier returner. One worth giving up three picks for to move up 26 spots.
This is a league where it’s easy to point out a players’ deficiencies, and that trend is accentuated at draft time. The Seahawks like to turn that equation on its ear.