Seahawks 8th round draft pick

[Hawkstorian]

I just noticed on Spotrac http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/john-lotulelei/ that undrafted LB John Lotulelei was paid a $25,000 signing bonus. I'm pretty sure this is the highest bonus ever paid to an undrafted player by the Seahawks.

He definitely bears watching. Clearly the Seahawks have high hopes for him going in to camp. By comparison, Doug Baldwin was the highest paid UDFA 2 years ago and he was paid $17,500.

 

[FlyingGreg]

Interesting. I will be monitoring this situation closely. If I remember correctly, there's no relation to Star Lotulelei correct?

Paging kearly and English...what can we expect with this guy?

 

[twisted_steel2]

We talked about him in another thread after the draft(need to go look).... there was a HL video as well, he's a baller! After the video and reading up on him, I decided he's my adopt a rookie.

Interesting about the bonus, that's a good sign.

 

[hedgehawk]

Interesting. I will be monitoring this situation closely. If I remember correctly, there's no relation to Star Lotulelei correct?

Paging kearly and English...what can we expect with this guy?

Think they're cousins. Could be wrong though.

 

[twisted_steel2]

Couldn't find the thread on this board, but found this:

http://www.fieldgulls.com/2013-nfl-offs ... ority-udfa

I think he got the biggest signing bonus of all undrafted players. And PCJS had a 5th round grade on him.

 

[Basis4day]

Interesting. I will be monitoring this situation closely. If I remember correctly, there's no relation to Star Lotulelei correct?

Paging kearly and English...what can we expect with this guy?

Think they're cousins. Could be wrong though.

No relation according to his NFL draft profile.

 

[drdiags]

I read where the projection is for him to weigh heavily on special teams. I am thinking Farwell is the target to eventually be replaced. Maybe Lotulelei has a higher ceiling than just special teams so it will be interesting to see how he does.

 

[Jville]

Couldn't find the thread on this board, but found this:

http://www.fieldgulls.com/2013-nfl-offs ... ority-udfa

I think he got the biggest signing bonus of all undrafted players. And PCJS had a 5th round grade on him.

Quote from above source:

As Brian McIntyre pointed out last night, the Seahawks spent $50,000 of their $78,000 UDFA allotment on three main guys: LB John Lotulelei ($25k), LB Craig Wilkins ($12.5k) & DE Kenneth Boatright ($12.5k). Unsurprisingly, those three guys have been making some noise in mini-camps and OTAs.

Curious article about linebackers and leo position >>>> [urltargetblank]http://www.fieldgulls.com/2013/5/24/4361410/sparq-metrics-for-seahawks-linebackers[/urltargetblank]

 

[Attyla the Hawk]

Paging kearly and English...what can we expect with this guy?

I'll add what I know.

He's a pretty instinctive player. And when you watch him on tape, he is quick to analyze plays and has very good 'between the tackles' speed. I'd liken it to guys who run like the wind in spandex. But put them in pads and bump them a little and they don't maintain that speed relative to other players. Lotulelei is quick in amidst the slop of the LOS. He has the ability to play fast in traffic.

His straight line speed is pretty awful. And when he runs his 40, you can visibly see that he doesn't have a 4th gear, much less a 5th. But he does have good short area burst. In terms of measurables, he was one of 3 inside backers to run under 1.6 in the 10 yard split and was .01 off the top score (Jon Bostic). His explosion measurables (Vertical, 3 cone and shuttle) were all almost identical to prospects who were drafted in day 2.

He is a late bloomer. He didn't come into 2012 with a lot of fanfare. But played his way into conference honors.

Ultimately, I see him as a depth/special teams guy. Probably not on long run type coverage teams. He just doesn't have long speed. But his tape is pretty easy on the eyes. He seems to find the ball with noticeable frequency.

He doesn't have Wright's length. His speed is similar. I can't see him other than a MLB depth guy as a result. I'd say he's a practice squad guy and precisely, he's competition to light a fire under Toomer. One of those guys may stay.

 

[NorthDallas40oz]

Very poor man's Lofa Tatupu.

 

[kearly]

All I know is that he's a good athlete. He's one of the fastest LBs in a slow LB draft class.

8th round pick is a good analogy for the LBs Seattle brought in during UDFA. They would have spent draft picks on them, but felt that wooing LBs in UDFA would be easier than wooing OL.

 

[FlyingGreg]

Paging kearly and English...what can we expect with this guy?

I'll add what I know.

He's a pretty instinctive player. And when you watch him on tape, he is quick to analyze plays and has very good 'between the tackles' speed. I'd liken it to guys who run like the wind in spandex. But put them in pads and bump them a little and they don't maintain that speed relative to other players. Lotulelei is quick in amidst the slop of the LOS. He has the ability to play fast in traffic.

His straight line speed is pretty awful. And when he runs his 40, you can visibly see that he doesn't have a 4th gear, much less a 5th. But he does have good short area burst. In terms of measurables, he was one of 3 inside backers to run under 1.6 in the 10 yard split and was .01 off the top score (Jon Bostic). His explosion measurables (Vertical, 3 cone and shuttle) were all almost identical to prospects who were drafted in day 2.

He is a late bloomer. He didn't come into 2012 with a lot of fanfare. But played his way into conference honors.

Ultimately, I see him as a depth/special teams guy. Probably not on long run type coverage teams. He just doesn't have long speed. But his tape is pretty easy on the eyes. He seems to find the ball with noticeable frequency.

He doesn't have Wright's length. His speed is similar. I can't see him other than a MLB depth guy as a result. I'd say he's a practice squad guy and precisely, he's competition to light a fire under Toomer. One of those guys may stay.

Good stuff...thank you.

 

[ivotuk]

I love this guy and he is one of the rookie's I will be following. He's fast, instinctive (flows to the ball well and tackles), and looks like a very powerful young man when it comes to tackling. I think he might be a step up from Ray Maleluga (no idea on the spelling).

 

[Jville]

Looking forward to seeing John Lotulelei and Alen Bradford compete for that thumper / hammer role.

I miss the run play of David "The Heater" Hawthorne.

 

[ImTheScientist]

All I know is that he's a good athlete. He's one of the fastest LBs in a slow LB draft class.

8th round pick is a good analogy for the LBs Seattle brought in during UDFA. They would have spent draft picks on them, but felt that wooing LBs in UDFA would be easier than wooing OL.

I dont feel this is accurate, He is more quick than fast. Great burst... But poor 40 time.

 

[SharkHawk]

I've seen him play quite a bit. He's an NFL level talent for sure. No, he's not related to Star. However... if you want to get technical, pretty much anybody from one island is related to everybody else at some level, even if it is just a ceremonial thing.

I remember my friend talking about her "cousin" Junior Seau all the time in college. I thought it was one of those ceremonial type things, because they shared a common "auntie" (who wasn't a direct relative of either, but an elder that both families respected). Then Junior came walking into our rehearsal one day at BYU to see her. He had come into Utah to visit his other cousins, and made the 45 mile drive down just to visit her. She was a girl from Tacoma, and so he came by and visited for an hour or so, and then went and hung out with Norm Chow and watched BYU's football practice. It was interesting how inner-connected everybody was, and it was cool to see Junior Seau (this would have been about 1994 when he was the shiz).

Anyway, back to Lotu... he's a serious player and could be a huge score at LBer. He reminds me of Bobby Wagner who was overlooked until his final year, and really only got a lot of looks because Robert Turbin had so many scouts out watching him and they all are realizing that Bobby is the best player on the field on either team.

Interesting guy to watch out of the region this year is Chuckie Keeton. QB at Utah State. That dude is ridiculous.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Very poor man's Lofa Tatupu.

Reading his scouting report, that's the first thing that popped into my head too.