By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Seahawks’ Pre-Draft Strategy: Emphasizing Talent and Depth

Seahawks General Manager John Schneider and head coach Mike Macdonald held their annual pre-draft press conference Monday at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. The annual event is a chess game between the teams, the brass, and the media. The media is trying to read the tea leaves with Schneider and Macdonald speaking to the team’s upcoming draft intentions without revealing who and when.

IT’S A BLESSING TO BE PICKING LAST

With just four picks in the upcoming draft, First round (No. 32), Round 2 (No. 64),  Round 3  (No. 96), and  Round six round (188th overall), it is no secret the Seahawks are looking to move back in the first round to acquire more picks.  Picking last in the first round is not optimal draft pick-wise, but it means a team has accomplished the ultimate goal.


“Definitely. It’s the pick that everybody wants. A, you’re blessed enough to win the Super Bowl, right? The fifth-year option right there. It’s no secret with us, guys,’ said Schneider. “ We have four picks, so we’ll be looking to move back. People are usually understanding that I think we tend to trend backward, trade back. We traded up to get Tyler (Lockett) and our punter, Nick Emmanwori.

YOUNG AND COMPETITIVE TEAM

When the Seahawks lost starters Ken Walker III, Coby Bryant, Boey Mafe,  and Riq Woolen to free agency, many outside the organization wondered whether the team had regressed. Schneider and MacDonald went with a three-step game plan. First step: the team re-signed CB Josh Jobe, Shemar Jean Charles, WR Jake Bobo, Cody White, Rashid Shaheed, LS Chris Still, LB Drake Thomas, DL Brandon Pili, AJ Finley, and RB George Holani.

The second step was signing free agents to provide depth and competition at the vacated positions.  The three free agents signed were RB Emanuel Wilso, CB Noah Igbinoghene, and S Rodney Thomas II. The third step in the strengthening of the Seahawks will be the draft. There is intentionality in the Seahawks’ decision to build a young, competitive roster.

“The great part about our team right now is you can go position by position, and you can rattle off the great competitions that we’re going to have really throughout the process. It’s not always that case, so I think that speaks to, like, really the depth of our team right now, which is really exciting,’ said Macdonald.

PROCESS OF ALIGNING PLAYER TALENT AND TEAM NEEDS

As for the science of picking the player once the analytics have been compiled, Macdonald was asked whether the player or the team dictates the selection at any given point in the draft.

“We try to be constantly evaluating where you are as a team, each position group, the things that you’re anticipating you’re going to be able to have to do from going into next year, where do we need to take our scheme, how do we kind of level up to the next stage,” said Macdonald. That’s communicated through our process.

I think our personnel folks do a great job. I think communication right now is at a great place for what we’re looking for from each position. Then there’s guys that it happens all the time that you’re going to get a really talented player that maybe you didn’t have initially a great vision for him, and he just can’t be denied. That’s our job as coaches: to move and shake and bring that person’s talents to life. There’s only so many exceptions you can make, that sort of thing, so it’s always moving.”

PLAYERS SHOWED UP EARLY

One bright predraft moment for Schneider and Macdonald was the number of players who showed up for the first day of the team’s Phase One offseason program.

Yeah, it’s great. It’s great. Today is day one for us and the start of phase one. We talked about this earlier. We tiered our offseason program to have a later finish this season. But I was blown away by some of the guys who showed up today, and by the fact that we weren’t asking to be here at this point in time. The energy is really great. There’s still a sense of urgency and spirit to the guys, which is exciting. It’s mostly just strength and conditioning at this point, along with some individual meetings. This is one of the best times of year to see the guys again after the break.

I won’t say surprised. We said, ‘Hey, look, if you finished playing the whole season, phase one, we would love for you to be here, obviously, but to get more time out of the building so you can come back as fresh as possible.’ So guys like ‘Spoon (Devon Witherspoon), J-Reed (Jarran Reed) were here. Guys who just wanted to be around the guys again. I thought that was really cool. Derick Hall.

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