I don't like grades. I don't give grades. I think this has been a very successful draft though. I only think about what's the goal of this franchise right now? It's to sustain winning or extending the contention window. Moves have to make sense. Alignment.
Others can debate the positional values and I think it's a fair discussion. I just don't prioritize it.
Instead, I'll talk about what I've learned from this draft:
1) Loyalty still matters. The Seahawks since the 2022 draft have never drafted a transfer in the 1st round. Their other highly sought after dude reportedly was Chris Johnson -- another one school dude. In fact, the only transfers in that same time span for the first 3 rounds were Zach Charbonnet and Ken Walker. It may not be the only thing that determines a high pick but it sort of trends that way.
2) Production matters. The deeper analytics are there for Jadarian Price. The team dives into a lot of metrics for RBs. Clark, Neal, Stephens were all highly productive for their teams. The first 4 picks all played significant snaps. You have to play a lot and you have to be productive.
3) Follow the crumbs. It's been very chalk. The Seahawks have almost telegraphed what they want to do the last couple of seasons. They didn't sign a long-term guard last season and took Zabel. At least they tried and failed with Will Fries. They only signed a draft-hedge at RB and then took Price. If they feel like the draft is going to fall their way, they plan accordingly. They trust their process.
4) I've said this before but they clearly want to be ahead and pick their dude at the position they want. They ain't settling for a LJ Collier, Germain Ifedi, Ethan Pocic, and Justin Britt. These were either reaches or players that were on the tail-end of a positional run.
- Cross was the 3rd OT taken.
- Witherspoon & JSN were the top CB and WR respectively.
- Murphy was the top DT taken.
- Zabel was the 2nd G.
- Price was the 2nd RB.