Seahawks John Schneider and Pete Carroll believe they already have their 2021 First-round draft pick.

Seahawks General Manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll met with the media  Wednesday morning for the first time in over 10 months. Wednesday’s pre-draft press conference center on well yes the draft and of course the Russell Wilson saga.  

During the press conference, Schneider and Carroll set the blame on the media regarding Wilson’s so-called demands for more input in the team’s personnel decisions and offensive game plan.  As for the draft and no pick in the first round, Carroll and Schneider made it clear that Jamal Adams was the team’s first-round draft pick.

THE JAMAL ADAMS FACTOR

Last July the Seahawks traded Safety  Bradley McDougald, 2021 first-round pick (#23), 2021 third-round pick (#86), and 2022 first-round pick to N.Y. Jets for S Jamal Adams and 2022 fourth-round pick.   Here is what Schneider and Carroll had to say regarding the 2021 draft.

PETE CARROLL: I would say, about the draft, our No. 1 pick is Jamal Adams, and that’s a heck of a pick. He had a really good year leading into getting drafted by us No. 1, and it would have cost us another No. 1 to get that done, that incredible of a football player we saw last year, and we’re really excited about the future too.

Right-back when the conversation came up and the possibilities of all of this happening, John was already making reference to this draft and understanding what it was going to be like, and we made a major decision to go ahead and do that with all of that information in our back pocket. Still, we’re excited about the whole thing and looking forward to the process of it. Just in the first round, you might see the two of us not in our seats.

RUSSELL WILSON COMMENTS

When asked about their franchise quarterbacks offseason comments  Schneider and Carroll said all is well in the Seahawks organization

What conversations have you had with Russell, and where do you feel like his head is at now compared to a couple of months ago when he said what he said?

PETE CARROLL: We have had as many conversations as we’ve ever had. We’ve talked extensively throughout the offseason. There was never a time that went by where we weren’t talking and in communication. We’ve been close for years around here, and nothing changed with that. We worked our way through whatever was at hand at the time. We realized it was really obvious how a comment, a frustration comment can turn into so much follow-up.

I think the speculation in the media was really an obvious factor in how his words were portrayed. Also, we don’t always say the right thing. We don’t always do the right thing. What I do, whenever things come out, whether it was Russell or anyone I’ve dealt with as a high profile player in high profile situations, we addressed all of it immediately, and he knows exactly where I was coming from.

I told him early on this could be really a long issue that we’re dealing with in the media, and I wasn’t going to say a word because I knew what the truth was.

We had communicated clearly. I knew right where Russ was coming from. Unfortunately, for the people who were following it, reading the articles and whatever people were saying, you didn’t have the benefit of what I knew and what Russ knew. So I never have played to those kinds of situations and tried to smooth them out or deal with them or whatever. As long as I know the truth, I have the power to know that. I felt fine about it. I just knew it was uncomfortable.

PETE CARROLL:

What I would say to you about that is Russ has been our quarterback for a good while, and we’ve got a long contract with him. When all of the conversation went about trades and all that, I knew the truth is we weren’t trading Russell. So that’s — so we plan on him being here for a good, good while. I don’t know how many years it is now, but we’re in great shape and a long future ahead of us is shared.

Russ knows that, and I know that, and we’re very clear. That’s why it’s very obvious that we just had to sit back and let kind of the media take its course with the topic. So we did, and so we’re in good shape and both very clear about that.

JOHN SCHNEIDER:

 Yeah, you definitely learn a lot from listening, just sitting back and listening to everybody, whether it’s from other teams or what’s happening in the media. I’m really proud of everybody in the organization for basically just staying the course, staying quiet. Another real great lesson I learned from Ted Thompson, right?