Personal Draft grades

[Lennie]

Hate the charbonnet pick, so It's a B

Love the Charbonnet pick. The kids a baller!

 

[Kamcussionator]

Are the same people grousing that we didn't pick positions of need earlier the same people that complained when we've overdrafted to fill a need?

 

[Rainger]

Are the same people grousing that we didn't pick positions of need earlier the same people that complained when we've overdrafted to fill a need?

LOL YUP, and the picks weren't what they in their wisdom had mocked or pre determined were the best at a particular position!!!

 

[Fade]

JS mentioned there were upsets in the 2nd round with guys they were targeting in the trenches so they shifted away from that area choosing to stick with BPA with their targets off of the board.

Those upsets disrupted day 2, but the damage would've been much worse had they reached for guys like L.J. Collier to fill those needs like they have done in the past.

I am a process guy, not a results guy. The Seahawks currently have an amazing draft evaluation process they have refined over the years, and the hard lessons learned from massive blunders. (Like Malik & L.J. Collier.)

Day 1: A
Day 2: B
Day 3: A+

Overall: A-

 

[chrispy]

As Fade said above, high picks of years past have had mediocre results. JS has made his name by finding diamonds in the late rounds and there's no way to evaluate that yet. It seems like "taking what they give you" in round 1 and 2 but flopping to historical evaluation methods in middle/late rounds resulted in a good haul last year. That so, refining that process has led to this class and it looks like there are potentially as many contributors. I think '22 provided 5 starters and 7 that contributed somehow. If 23 gets 7 players on the field, that's 25-30% of the team that's upgraded in 2 years through the draft. All we can do is hope and trust at this point, but I see writing on the wall and like what I see. I'll grade after ROY/probowl arguments begin late in the season....

 

[Mick063]

Folks are going to love our new cornerback. Pete wasn't kidding when he said the kid invoked visions of Polamalu.

Folks are going to love Hall because the replays are going to show him shedding blockers like a man.

And they are going to be completely wowed by the kick returns from McIntosh. He will be such a weapon that opposing teams are going to adjust their kicking games to avoid him as much as possible. In other words, he will create field position without even touching the ball. But those first few weeks that they kick the ball to him? Highlight reel stuff baby. So smooth and a long strider.

You read it here first. I forgot to mention that they killed the draft.

 

[FrodosFinger]

I’m hearing “Seattle and Philly won the draft” all over twitter so I guess they nailed it again 2 years in a row now.

 

[FrodosFinger]

 

[Scout]

I’m hearing “Seattle and Philly won the draft” all over twitter so I guess they nailed it again 2 years in a row now.

Yeah between the Hawks, Philly and the Ravens those are some of the best drafts on paper this year.

 

[akscoundrel]

Why are we moaning about ILB? Are we pretending we didnt sign thee best MLB in the game already?

Bobby is a dude who meets ball carriers behind the LoS, at the LoS, or worst case 2-3 yards beyond.

Weve added some great talent and leaders, super stoked for next season!

 

[WarHawks]

I gave it an A. On paper, this draft looks similar to last year. Let's hope we have a couple that pop like Tariq and Ken. Taking a macro view, the team now looks to be in much better shape than last year. Fingers crossed.

 

[pittpnthrs]

That is why you are not a scout. Go look at mock drafts. Many had Spoon being taken with the 6th pick. Dont think we should quibble over 1 position. He never would have made it to 20. He is top talent at his position.

They had a perfect draft. Skill positions in the first rounds and beef positional needs in the middle where those were rated. NO reaches in this draft whatsoever.

You bag on people for not being scouts and then go on to say it was a perfect draft. Lol. This is why I cant take you seriously. Do you realize what it would take for it to be an actual perfect draft? Every single guy that was drafted would have to hit and the possibility of that happening is right around 0%. What if only one or two of the draftees make an impact. Is that still a perfect draft in your mind?

 

[pittpnthrs]

I actually voted 'A' while its more likely around a 'B'. I think they did as good as they could with the way the draft fell to them. They filled a ton of needs and stayed away from the 'cute luxury' picks that they gravitated towards for so many years.

 

[Full Metal]

99% of the people panning the draft and giving lower grades all say the same thing, they didn't pick who I wanted at the position I wanted. Because I knew what the Hawks needed better than the coaches and scouts!

The Hawks didn't follow my mock draft waaaaa they get a C.

No they get an A+ specifically because they didn't follow yours or the pundits mock drafts.

Then why are we doing this?

 

[Shanegotyou11]

I Voted A. I am really impressed and can not wait for the season to start!

 

[Jerhawk]

Hate the charbonnet pick, so It's a B

You and @JerHawk81 both disagree with the Charbonnet pick.

I'm not too good at evaluating game film so please don't take my question as being rude or snarky. It's a genuine question:

What don't you guys like about Charbonnet?

 

[Dallashawksfan]

Totally debatable. Also they picked much lower for their RB lets see if your BEST RB ends up being that. Best in some peoples eyes but not others.

If you put it like that, everything is debatable. IMO, the difference between Robinson and Charbonnet is bigger than Witherspoon and the next CB or JSN and the next WR.

I am not saying Charbonnet is not a good RB. He is. He is just not the best in this class.

 

[GLio14]

I have mixed feelings about this draft. I had a number of guys I wanted that the Hawks passed up on (Ade Ade, Schmitz, To'oTo'o), but I'm not mad at who we got.

From the looks of it, all these guys LOVE football. I think it's a way that we strayed away from after our SB runs. They're really trying to get back true football people, and that's always what separated us from the pack.

- Surprised about Witherspoon, but once I saw his highlights, I knew he was a DOG.
- Smith-Njigba was my guy for #20 from the start. Love this kid and he's gonna be making a ton of plays for us.
- Hall looks like a really good player. A little undersized, but I have a feeling he'll be good.
- Was VERY surprised at Charbonnet. I had us taking an RB, but only if we took a DL with our #5. Thought there were a ton of solid RBs after Charbonnet, but I have a feeling I'll like him.
- Was happy that we stacked up on the interior in the later rounds. I just wish we addressed that need with a one or two of our early picks.

Either way, I'm happy. I give this a B+, and I'm excited to get going.

 

[RiverDog]

I'm not nearly as enamored with this draft as I was with our 2022 draft. Here's why:

We did not get our QBOTF. If this is because we were of the belief that he didn't exist in this draft or couldn't be had for a somewhat reasonable trade up, then I'm good with it. But anytime you go into a draft with a long-term need at the most impactful position on the field with a class that is relatively decent, a ton of draft capital, and come away empty handed, it has to be considered a failure. My Plan B if that QBOTF wasn't within our grasp would have been to trade down...and with all the wheeling and dealing in the first round, it's hard to believe that wasn't an option...and reap a future #1 pick that might be parlayed into that goal in next year's draft.

However, I was very pleased with what turned out to be Plan C, Devon Witherspoon. He was at the very least one of the two top cornerbacks at a critical position on a defense that desperately needs improvement, and for what we didn't do, which would have been to select Jalen Carter, of whom I regard the riskiest top 10 ten pick in recent memory.

I did not like two out of our next three picks, ie WR Jaxon Smith-Njiba and RB Zach Charbonnet, not because of the player but because of the position. Great teams are not built around great wide receivers, they're built around great quarterbacks, offensive lines, and defenses. Good but not great wide receivers, like our SB WR's Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, are a dime a dozen and teams do just fine with those types of receivers. And what the hell happened to Dee Eskridge? Wasn't he supposed to be our 3rd receiver? We're spending one helluva lot of capital, both in terms of salary and draft picks, on a non essential position.

A similar situation exists with running backs, but it's even worse as it's compounded by the fact that it is the most injury prone position on the field and they typically don't play on all three downs. Additionally, as good as these two players are, neither of them is projected to be starters, so they were luxury picks, and in the case of Charbonnet, an expensive insurance policy.

We continued to ignore our center position, a spot that has been a revolving door ever since we traded Max Unger without a plan in place to replace him. This was somewhat mitigated by drafting Olusegun Oluwatimi (try saying that name three times as fast as you can) in the 5th round, who has 45 starts at a FBS level and a nice trophy case of Outland and Rimmington awards. We had a chance to select a very good center in John Michael Schmitz with our #52 overall, but opted for a running back that won't be a 3 down player. It reminded me of our 2021 draft where we bypassed Creed Humphrey for a wide receiver that has already been given up on.

Last year, we didn't come out with our QBOTF, either. But it was an unusually barren draft class for QB's and we had the knowledge that we'd be armed with 2-#1 picks for the next season. This draft had much better prospects, as evidenced by QB's being the first 3 picks off the board vs. none in the top 19 last season, and we don't have the 'wait until next year' hope following the 2022 draft.

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but at least until I see how these draftees perform in the preseason, I can't join you in your summersaults and handsprings that many of you are turning in response to our draft.

​

 

[bileever]

They could have taken JMS or Torrence at #52. If the would have done that and taken a RB at #83 or #108, I would have loved that. I’m a fan of drafting in the trenches early, but unfortunately, we haven’t been good at evaluating linemen late in the first round for a long time

I had the same thoughts as you, wanting desperately to build up the trenches in rounds 1 and 2, and was bitterly disappointed that we didn't get one of the four interior defensive linemen that went in the first round. And also didn't help ourselves on the offensive line. But PFF had Anthony Bradford ranked right behind Torrence, and we got him in round 4! And then we got Olawatimi later. As you say, you can whiff on an offensive lineman even in the first round, so this wasn't a bad result.