Grading John's Drafts

I feel like I'm in Crazytown seeing people give grades in the C range for the 2017 draft. I don't see a rationale for giving it better than an F minus minus.

For those who have repressed it, that was the draft where we traded down three times with our first pick, dropping just ten spots but passing on Tre'Davious White, TJ Watt, Ryan Ramczyk, and Cam Robinson, who all would have filled considerable needs, just to select Malik McDowell one spot before gifting a division rival Budda Baker.

Not only did McDowell not play a down for us, it led to us trading our second rounder the following draft, along with franchise legend Jermaine Kearse, to the Jets for less than a season of a very meh Sheldon Richardson.

We ended up with five picks in the late 3rd to very early 4th range (although only two were from the earlier trades). Pick #90 was used on Shaquill Griffin, who was good, but the other four:

3(95) Lano Hill
3(102) Nazair Jones
3(106) Amara Darboh
4(111) Tedric Thompson

This is exhibit A of why indiscriminately making trade downs for more picks isn't always great.

Just a complete disaster. One of the final nails in the LOB era.

Trading down has to be done with purpose and with a plan in mind. Seahawks currently own 10 picks so trading down would not really make sense in the grand scheme of things given this talent is light with blue chip/first round graded players. But plenty of meat in the middle.

JS could go BAP with all 10 picks and at minimum end up with a B+ grade.

But if he starts trading down stock piling draft choices or trading them away for future draft picks and/or players then things can go sideways. JS tries to be too cute sometimes when the best way forward is sometimes to cross your T's and dot your I's.

Azvacar said:

Year	Notable Picks	Starter Rate	Pro Bowlers	Grade
2010	Earl Thomas, Russell Okung, Golden Tate, Kam Chancellor	High	3	A
2011	Richard Sherman, K.J. Wright, Byron Maxwell, Malcolm Smith	High	2	A
2012	Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Bruce Irvin	High	2	A+
2013	Luke Willson	Low	0	F
2014	Justin Britt	Moderate	0	D+
2015	Tyler Lockett, Frank Clark	Moderate	2	B
2016	Jarran Reed, Germain Ifedi	Moderate	0	C
2017	Shaquill Griffin, Chris Carson	Moderate	1	C+
2018	Michael Dickson, Will Dissly	Moderate	1	C
2019	DK Metcalf	Moderate	1	B
2020	Damien Lewis, Jordyn Brooks	Moderate	0	C
2021	Tre Brown	Low	0	C-
2022	Tariq Woolen, Kenneth Walker III	High	1	B+
2023	Jaxon Smith-Njigba	High	1	B+
2024	TBD	TBD	TBD	Incomplete

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I remember kicking the TV in '21 when the Hawks were finally up with Creed Humphrey still on the board...and then like everyone NOT from western Michigan, booked it to YouTube to find out who the hell Dee Eskridge was...

For John, it's Put up or Shut Up time for sure. He's had over a full year with Mike now. And there are more competent assistant coaches who should let him know exactly the type of player they are looking for. No more excuses. "Decent" isn't good enough. We need some legit difference makers. Too much "good but not great" talent on this roster. Would love to see a trade UP in round 1 for a change. Go grab a blue chipper, like a Tyler Warren.

I think John's drinking is getting worse, I hope he doesn't
sabotage this draft with reckless trades and dumb picks.

I'm already on record as saying he needs to move on, I hope
he proves me wrong.

IndyHawk said:

I think John's drinking is getting worse

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Did you mean to say "drafting"?

Rat said:

Did you mean to say "drafting"?

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They go together if you look at some of his horrible picks.

In a league that is often defined as what have you done for me lately, I would say John Schneider has been making good moves. Need evidence? Look at the '22, '23, and '24 draft classes.

That is three years in a row where he has drafted:
('22) Cross, Mafe, K9, Lucas, Bryant, Woolen
('23) Whitherspoon, JSN, Hall, Charbonnet, Bradford, Olu, McIntosh
('24) Murphy, Knight, Barner. Maybe Haynes or Laumea or Jerrell might work out.
That is 16 players drafted in 3 years that are contributing at a high to moderate level. There are possibly a few other guys drafted that could still contribute down the road. 8-10 of those guys could be considered studs or future studs. If a team can get 2-3 starters out of any draft that is considered a success. We are looking at a three year run that clearly exceeds that.

I believe that the years from 2013-2021 had more of a Pete affect than most of us realize. Once John was given more control, somewhere around '21 or '22, the drafting got better.

I liked the '22 and '23 drafts. I'm still in TBD mode on '24, which was John's first year running the show. That's why I'm still a little nervous. This really feels like a make or break year for him. If the o line is still amongst the worst in the league, time's up.

At the end of the day, if you are bad at drafting, it doesn’t matter if you move up or down

You still pick the wrong player

The '24 draft looks like an enormous disappointment so far. Barner and Knight were fine mid-round picks, and Laumea and Jarrell could end up being ok backups, although you'd never want either starting. Unfortunately, getting out of the first three rounds with just Bustron Murphy and one of the league's worst offensive guards is an absolute killer. That's where you find your stars.

Id bet any amount of money that last year's class will have zero All-Pros, and if any of them make a Pro Bowl, it'll be one of those cases where like six guys ahead of them opted out. We need to do better.

Rat said:

The '24 draft looks like an enormous disappointment so far. Barner and Knight were fine mid-round picks, and Laumea and Jarrell could end up being ok backups, although you'd never want either starting. Unfortunately, getting out of the first three rounds with just Bustron Murphy and one of the league's worst offensive guards is an absolute killer. That's where you find your stars.

Id bet any amount of money that last year's class will have zero All-Pros, and if any of them make a Pro Bowl, it'll be one of those cases where like six guys ahead of them opted out. We need to do better.

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I'm sorry but this take is hilariously ridiculous. Finding a starting TE and LB in those rounds is fantastic. Getting back up tackles and guards in the 6th and 7th is also very good.
Murphy is nowhere near a bust either. In fact I would say he has been quite good you won't find anyone calling what he did as a rookie as bust material besides yourself.
That take is just plain silly.

When you look at our drafts from the last decade it's easy to see why we spent 10 years spinning our wheels. We coasted off previously-acquired talent and got just enough in the draft to not become bad.

Dallashawksfan said:

At the end of the day, if you are bad at drafting, it doesn’t matter if you move up or down

You still pick the wrong player

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True because you have to be able to identify talent that you can develop and coach up beyond higher picks.

With regard to Murphy, I'm not ready to call him a great pick nor a bust at this point. He played out of position a lot. TBD.