Kiper grades the Hawks a C+

http://espn.go.com/blog/seattle-seahawk ... e-seahawks

No insider required - apparently, the value we got over our 9 picks was a D-plus. KIper excuses his previous inaccuracies about the Hawks drafting by saying that we have "really good player development." By his logic, he wasn't wrong - we drafted terrible players and we just are really good at turning bad players into good players.

Kiper's about half as accurate as a weatherman anyways, but thought it was a fun read.

Personally, I don't believe our coaching staff gets enough recognition for the great job they do in channeling our players 'with unique talents' into a SB winner.

Give the GM gets credit for finding these hidden gems, but it is our great coaching staff which brings our the best in each of them.

Say it with me, Mel, "Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd.... I was wrong about the Superbowl champs Seattle Seahawks." Was that so hard? :lol:

He really wants to give us an F but can't because that blew up in his face too many times in the past.

Feeling Relieved...Mel Kiper gave the Seahawks the second LOWEST grade in the draft. Whew, relieved, so now we are good to go. So glad the Seahawks followed Kiper's advice and picked his "can't miss" "safest pick" in the draft several years ago - Aaron Curry, AND he so correctly ripped Seattle for picking Russell Wilson 3 years ago. That Kiper, he's a real genius!

I agree with Kiper 100%. I don't think he said anything in error, though it is funny coming from him.

At Boise State, Chris Petersen dominated by bringing in 2 star recruits and turning them into NFL players. That's a amazing, but it doesn't change the fact that those guys he recruited were weak prospects. Had they gone to almost any other program, they probably are an afterthought. It's not the players that he picked, it's what he did to coach up and support those players.

Pete Carroll has pretty much done the same thing in the NFL, which is ironic since he regularly had the best recruiting classes in the nation at USC. This year Seattle drafted maybe their weakest group yet, the highest NFL.com prospect grade for any pick Seattle ended up making was a 5.4 (Norwood). Those grades were assigned before Seattle drafted those players. Keep in mind that a 5.0 is a UDFA score, with 8 being the highest. Three guys didn't have any grade because they weren't expected to be drafted or signed.

If we didn't have an amazing player development system and coaching staff, we'd likely be screwed with a draft class like this more often than not. But that's totally okay for us, because we do.

And like Kiper says, Okung and Thomas aside, PC/JS have never drafted super-high rated prospects, but they grow them into pro-bowlers with perhaps the best player development system the NFL has ever seen.

And of course you can't grade today for how players will develop tomorrow, which is the main reason instant draft grades are silly. But everyone should know they are silly and just take them for what they are, a snapshot of what people thought at the time.

I just think this draft is interesting because Seattle still "reached" like crazy as usual but they didn't reach for the Tharold Simons, Bruce Irvins, JR Sweezys, or Korey Toomers. They reached for guys Tim Ruskell would have loved, polished players, mostly from big schools with high marks for character. Most of them seniors. It seems Seattle's player acquisition process is ever evolving.

MO Hawk":1vqrfky0 said:

Feeling Relieved...Mel Kiper gave the Seahawks the second LOWEST grade in the draft. Whew, relieved, so now we are good to go. So glad the Seahawks followed Kiper's advice and picked his "can't miss" "safest pick" in the draft several years ago - Aaron Curry, AND he so correctly ripped Seattle for picking Russell Wilson 3 years ago. That Kiper, he's a real genius!

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Translation of Kiper's grades: C+ = A, he gave the whiners an A, so according to the Kiper translation grading scale it's a C in reality. thanks Mel! 8)

Anyone have the grades for our division rivals?

What Kiper is missing is that in order to develop players as well as we do, we have to start with players who can be developed. Guys with strong work ethics who are students of the game and have some un-coachable quality about them that makes them special.

You can teach someone how to play cornerback, but you can't teach a guy to be the best corner in the league - that has to come from within the player himself.

Take a WR who runs a 4.4 40 and is NFL-ready. Great - you have your average NFL receiver. Now take a guy who has some flaws but runs a 4.28 40. Train off those flaws and you have someone really special.

PC & JS excel in gathering the raw materials they need to craft NFL players. They identify potential and assist the player to realize that potential, and where it works they end up with truly special players.

Carroll was quoted before the draft saying we don't need any players from the draft to compete this year. We had everyone we needed already on the roster. Our draft isn't about filling needs; it's about the search for players who can become special.

Kiper doesn't grade on that.

We got 3 more picks than we had, as well as at least 2 steals (Richardson and Pierre). Not sure how that's not at least a B. The 49ers and Jaguars did kill it in the draft though.

KiwiHawk":1mtq9gjt said:

What Kiper is missing is that in order to develop players as well as we do, we have to start with players who can be developed. Guys with strong work ethics who are students of the game and have some un-coachable quality about them that makes them special.

You can teach someone how to play cornerback, but you can't teach a guy to be the best corner in the league - that has to come from within the player himself.

Take a WR who runs a 4.4 40 and is NFL-ready. Great - you have your average NFL receiver. Now take a guy who has some flaws but runs a 4.28 40. Train off those flaws and you have someone really special.

PC & JS excel in gathering the raw materials they need to craft NFL players. They identify potential and assist the player to realize that potential, and where it works they end up with truly special players.

Carroll was quoted before the draft saying we don't need any players from the draft to compete this year. We had everyone we needed already on the roster. Our draft isn't about filling needs; it's about the search for players who can become special.

Kiper doesn't grade on that.

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You summed it up right there Kiwi.

JZ#1":1g5m9xf9 said:

Anyone have the grades for our division rivals?

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SF - A - highest grade Kiper gave out, tied with only JAX

Stl - A- - behind only JAX and SF

Ari - B

I actually agreed - SF and STL both had good drafts. However, with the ammunition each team went in with, it would have been kind of ridiculous to believe that either would come away without much talent. To be honest, I just thought Kiper's reasoning was funny in our case. According to his logic, he really can never be wrong. I think Kearly is right, we do a great job of player development. However, I would argue that scouting and drafting are not entirely separated from that process. The degree to which our scouting and coaching correspond gives us a distinct advantage - we know what we want and what weaknesses we can address - this leads to a comprehensive approach that more often than not yields great players.

I also think that we have the luxury of "redshirting" rookies at this point. Like last year, I doubt any of this crop of rookies will do much this year. That makes our draft rationale even more murky - the needs our FO perceives for next year are probably very different than the needs we see right now.

NFLN gave us a B

But what did Walter football say about our draft? Did he give us another one of those "worst draft in the history of sports" grades? Because those usually turn out pretty phenomenally...

I'm with Mike Mayock. These instant draft grades are worthless. All they are is "How the team did compared to my own personal rankings." You pick a lot of guys said draftnik had highly rated, you get a good grade. You don't, bad grade. That's all these things are. Very dumb. And pretty stupid given the subjective nature of rankings. Along with the fact that every team has it's own personal rankings based on how players fit into their system. The idea of universal draft boards is extremely simple minded. Far too many have fallen for it in the midst of the ever-increasing proliferation of pre-draft hype.

Personally, I love seeing all of the drafniks terrified of ripping PC and JS, after all looking very foolish on more than one occasion. Just because the Hawks value different traits than the general group think consensus doesn't mean they have bad drafts. They are 100% challenging/mocking the institution that Mel Kiper has built and that a million bloggers have run with. One draft board does not exist. It would be very interesting to see just how different NFL teams' draft boards are. I'll tell you this. I'm positive they vary MUCH more than all of the mock drafts you see online. For the primary reason that the NFL teams all do their OWN thinking. Something 80% of internet/media mock drafts do not. Whether they realize it or not.

CANHawk":2agxs6zk said:

But what did Walter football say about our draft? Did he give us another one of those "worst draft in the history of sports" grades? Because those usually turn out pretty phenomenally...

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Walter gave us the highest grade of all. No shit.

So, we are totally boned.

Scottemojo":37ezgiux said:

CANHawk":37ezgiux said:

But what did Walter football say about our draft? Did he give us another one of those "worst draft in the history of sports" grades? Because those usually turn out pretty phenomenally...

Click to expand...

Walter gave us the highest grade of all. No shit.

So, we are totally boned.

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Just coming here to say the same thing....though he did give us the annual Millen grade (this time for Britt).

Link http://walterfootball.com/offseason2014sea.php

So Pete should be coach of the year due to his ability to turn "below average" prospects into Super Bowl Champion starters...

oh, wait.

I kind of agree with Walter's assessment. I loved the draft as a whole, but I'd agree that the Britt pick gives me the most pause. This is the one where I hope they didn't get too cute like Harper last year. However, I'm not going to write it off. Tremendous athlete with great intangibles.

I like that they went OT early though and am expecting good things. Love the thinking behind the other picks. Even if they don't land, I get the logic behind each of them.

I do "get" Kiper. He's assessing players based on NFL-readiness and his market is fans desperate for their team to fill the gaping holes they have so that they can hopefully not suck next year.

He's selling hope to the hopeless. Yes, Cleveland, you can be competitive now that you have Johnny Football. We'll just forget Gordon will be suspended for drugs and Burleson just broke his arm.

And fans buy it. "Woot! We got an A in the draft!" they cheer, knowing deep down inside that will be all they have to cheer about all year.

We were there not so long ago.