For the Seahawks, the first day of the NFL draft Thursday was sound and fury signifying almost nothing. The Seahawks broke their pattern: They did what was expected.
The Super Bowl champs traded down into the second round, giving up the last pick in the first round, No. 32, to Minnesota for the Vikings’ second-round pick (N0. 40) and a fourth rounder (108th).
The Seahawks’ initial pick in the draft won’t happen until after the 4 p.m. Friday start to the second round, when they also have the 64th pick. After the third round Friday, the final four rounds will be Saturday.
“That’s exactly what we were hoping for,” GM John Schneider said. “We were talking to a number of teams down there at the end. Minnesota stayed with it.”
Basically, they gave away eight spots in the draft in order to gain a fourth-round pick, signaling again that the draft is deep and the Seahawks are patient. Nothing that happened the first round apparently changed the Seahawks’ big board.
“The board won’t change,” he said, smiling. “If the board changes, one of the (office) cleaners did it.”
If a temptation was strong to take a player at 32, Schneider didn’t give it away.
“We have a number of players that were suitable for this pick,” he said, “that we feel would be suitable at 40 as well. There are several guys we hope will be there tomorrow. But if somebody comes tomorrow with something that we can’t turn down, we’ll look at that as well.”
The deal was helped by a good relationship with the Vikings’ front office.
“We have a great relationship with those guys,” he said. “They’re challenging Detroit, I guess.”
The Vikings, who took UCLA LB Anthony Barr with the ninth pick in the first round, used the Seahawks’ pick on Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
The draft-day trade is something of a tradition under Schneider and Carroll. In their first year of 2010, they made 12 draft-day trades, and wound up with nine picks. In 2011, they made two deals (had nine picks), three in 2012 (10 picks), and three in 2013 (11 picks), including the deal with Minnesota that brought WR Percy Harvin in exchange for a first and seventh round picks in 2013 and a third in 2014.
The Seahawks have seven picks over the final six rounds.
The lone player from a state of Washington school was the Cougars’ Deone Bucannon, a first-team All-America strong safety taken with the 27th pick by Seattle’s division rival, the Arizona Cardinals. Most mock drafts had Bucannon as a second-round pick.
“He’s a great kid — really, really tough,” Schneider said, smiling. “Very aggressive. Great range. I wish they would taken a punter.”
Bucannon (6-1, 211 pounds) was the first Cougar taken in the first round since cornerback Marcus Trufant was the No. 11 overall selection in the 2003 draft by the Seahawks. Bucannon is the first WSU defensive back drafted since safety Eric Frampton was taken in the fifth round by the Oakland Raiders in 2007.
Said Cardinals coach Bruce Arians of Bucannon: “We’ll give him opportunities to knock the crap out of people.”
NFL DRAFT FIRST ROUND
By CBSsports.com senior writer Pete Prisco
| Rd | Pick | Team | Grades | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  |
Jadeveon Clowney | DE, South Carolina I love this pick. He is the draft’s best player. I would have traded down, but he will be a star. |
A |
| 1 | 2 |  |
Greg Robinson | OT, Auburn An easy pick. They had to take Robinson. He will play guard and then move to left tackle. |
B+ |
| 1 | 3 |  |
Blake Bortles | QB, UCF Love this pick. I knew they loved Bortles and they had to get a quarterback. He’s the right guy. |
A+ |
| 1 | 4 |  |
Sammy Watkins | WR, Clemson They need an explosive playmaker, and I like Watkins. But moving up can be risky. Does he put them over the top? They gave up too much. |
C- |
| 1 | 5 |  |
Khalil Mack | OLB, Buffalo This is a no-brainer for the Raiders. He is an elite pass rusher and they need one in the worst way. |
B+ |
| 1 | 6 |  |
Jake Matthews | OT, Texas A&M They have their left tackle and got what some think is the safest player in the draft. Good pick. |
A- |
| 1 | 7 |  |
Mike Evans | WR, Texas A&M This is who they wanted. They were scared he wouldn’t be there. They had to get a playmaker opposite Vincent Jackson. |
B+ |
| 1 | 8 |  |
Justin Gilbert | CB, Oklahoma State I liked two other corners better, but they need corner help. Why not a QB? |
C |
| 1 | 9 |  |
Anthony Barr | OLB, UCLA I like this pick for a team that needed to get faster at linebacker. He will amp up the blitz package. |
B |
| 1 | 10 |  |
Eric Ebron | TE, North Carolina This kid has a ton of talent, but is he really a need? They had other more pressing needs. |
C- |
| 1 | 11 |  |
Taylor Lewan | OT, Michigan I don’t get this pick after signing Michael Oher. Is this the end for Michael Roos? They had other needs. |
C |
| 1 | 12 |  |
Odell Beckham Jr. | WR, LSU I might be in the minority on this pick, but I like it. He will be better than Mike Evans. They need a receiver to go with Victor Cruz. |
B+ |
| 1 | 13 | |
Aaron Donald | DT, Pittsburgh What a great pick from the Rams. They get one of the best defensive players in the draft at this spot. |
A |
| 1 | 14 |  |
Kyle Fuller | CB, Virginia Tech I love this pick. Fuller is the top corner in my mind and they need corners in a division with two good passers. |
A |
| 1 | 15 |  |
Ryan Shazier | OLB, Ohio State This is a speed pick for a team that needs it on defense. I like the player, but can he hold up inside? |
B+ |
| 1 | 16 |  |
Zack Martin | OG, Notre Dame This is a good pick for a team that needed line help. They didn’t get caught up in the hype. The line will be damn good. |
B+ |
| 1 | 17 |  |
C.J. Mosley | ILB, Alabama They need help next to Daryl Smith, and he isn’t a kid anymore. It’s a good, solid pick. |
B |
| 1 | 18 |  |
Calvin Pryor | FS, Louisville They had to get safety help, so this makes sense. He is a thumper in the run game, which will help. |
B- |
| 1 | 19 |  |
Jawuan James | OT, Tennessee They had to get a tackle, and he’s played at a high level in a good league. Good pick. |
B |
| 1 | 20 |  |
Brandin Cooks | WR, Oregon State They had to get faster on offense, and he does that for them. I like the move to get him. |
B+ |
| 1 | 21 |  |
Hasean Clinton-Dix | FS, Alabama This is a great pick. They needed range in the secondary and they now have it. Love it. |
A |
| 1 | 22 | |
Johnny Manziel | QB, Texas A&M This is a smart move by the Browns. They had to get a quarterback. Great move. |
A |
| 1 | 23 |  |
C- | |
| 1 | 24 |  |
Darqueze Dennard | CB, Michigan State The Bengals had to get a corner with age creeping in, so it makes sense. I might have gone Bradley Roby, but it’s close. |
B+ |
| 1 | 25 |  |
Jason Verrett | CB, TCU If he was an inch or two taller, he would have gone higher. He fills a big need. Good pick. |
B+ |
| 1 | 26 |  |
Marcus Smith | DE, Louisville The Eagles need a young pass rusher, and he can provide that. He’s athletic and fits their scheme. I get it. |
B |
| 1 | 27 |  |
Deone Bucannon | SS, Washington State They had to get a safety to upgrade the back end. He’s a good football player who will hit you. I like Jimmie Ward more, but that’s nitpicking. |
B |
| 1 | 28 |  |
Kelvin Benjamin | WR, Florida State They had to get a receiver, but I don’t like this pick. He is second-round talent in my book. Why not Marqise Lee? |
C |
| 1 | 29 |  |
Dominique Easley | DT, FloridaThis is a terrific pick. He would have been a top-10 pick if not for injuries to both knees. He will be a star — if healthy. |
A |
| 1 | 30 |  |
Jimmie Ward | SS, Northern IllinoisHe is a heck of a football player, but with Antoine Bethea and Eric Reid was that really a need? |
B |
| 1 | 31 |  |
Bradley Roby | CB, Ohio State Great pick. I thought he was one of the top two cornerbacks in the draft. And he fills an immediate need. |
B+ |
| 1 | 32 | |
Teddy Bridgewater | QB, Louisville I like the Vikings going up to get Bridgewater. It makes sense when you don’t have a quarterback. |
B- |
4 Comments
I like this move and it very much fits the Hawks usual MO. The best athelete at their pick was Bridgewater (amazing he was still there) and acquiring Pryor made the need for him moot. It’s possible the Hawks were keeping an eye on Benjamin, Cooks, James and Roby to see if they would slip to them and since they didn’t they pulled the trigger. Seems like they have a pipeline with the Vikings. No hard feelings on the poison pill contract for Hutch anymore I guess.
Any rookies they get won’t play this season. It’ll be the players from the 2013 draft who will get that chance. Wouldn’t surprise me if the club tries to get more draft picks in the lower rounds as well. Green Bay has a couple in the 3rd and the Hawks like dealing with them.
I can see a rookie OL getting some PT. And the Vikes and Seahawks have long since changed regimes since Hutch.
Vikings should have given us that Harvin 3rd rounder back…None of the mock drafts available pre draft were spot on in their predictions team by team though so its looking pretty sunny for that Hawk pick#40 (via Viks)as it looks like there will be half dozen good players the Hawks could use or was speculated they had their eye on(and chalked on to their draftboard).
Once pick #40 rolls around Analyst talk almost assuredly will be that they could have gotten said player at 32 or 40….so it was a shifty and cunning move in getting some help from the Vikings who have reaped the benefits of dealing with this org (Hutchinson poison pill clause, Harvin hill of gold trade, etc etc) ….remains to be seen but we might of just saved Minn. a ton of dough if Teddy B is on the Vik roster when his 5th year is exercised~ that was too appealing for them to pass up @ QB position ..to get that 5th year set up.
On our side of the coin our wheeling and dealing hawks stop at nothing to better this team. Its a thing of beauty.
40 this year is worth more than previous years, because of the depth of the draft. Yet I won’t be surprised to see JS move down again if he can get a third rounder.