Seahawks Continue Drafting Best Player Available Over Need
Day 1 of the draft has shown us that the Seahawks are continuing their new approach: it’s best player available over need. In building this team, John Schneider is applying lessons from past mistakes
Day 1 of the draft showed us that the Seattle Seahawks are continuing their new approach: best player available over need.
Will Anderson Jr. and Anthony Richardson were gone. With the jingle-jangle of the Seahawks on the clock at No. 5, the fit seemed obvious.
Georgia’s Jalen Carter —the man with the best tape of any interior defensive lineman in the class and a skillset that fit anything Seattle could desire on defense — was still available. There was the need, too, with the Seahawks roster featuring just one defensive lineman over 300 pounds, in low-cost free agent signing Jarran Reed.
Instead, John Schneider passed on Carter, selecting Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon. At pick 20, Seattle again ignored their most pressing of needs and opted for a wide receiver, Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
With Day 1 over, the Seahawks still have just one defensive lineman over 300 pounds on their roster. Was it hard for Seattle to pass on a defensive lineman with its first pick?
“No, because we had an order and we were ready to rip,” Schneider reflected in his post Day 1 press conference. “I mean there's things that were pretty tempting, right? But you gotta just stay true to what you're doing and that's what we did.”
Instead of the temptation of Carter, the Seahawks stuck with their process.
Best Player Over Need
“We just do a much better job when we just pick the best player”
This is the Seahawks continuing their new approach to drafting. Rather than forcing picks to fill a need, they are picking the best players at each spot. When the idea of talent beating need was suggested to Schneider in his post Day 1 press conference, the general manager responded “Absolutely.”
On draft day, outside of the fiery team kitchens and sat on our couches consuming the media feast, it may seem obvious that teams should pick the best players on their board rather than pushing guys up into spots in which they don’t belong. Yet, Seattle has succumbed to the stresses of drafting in past years — the stoves have grown too hot, by their own admission.
During Schneider’s April 21st radio appearance with Wyman & Bob on Seattle Sports, the GM acknowledged that there is pressure from coaches saying, “Hey, we don’t have anybody at this position.”
“I feel like we’ve made some mistakes where we’ve pushed players based on need,” Schneider elaborated. “And what the draft looks like.”
Schneider illustrated this with a hypothetical: “If you have one receiver on the board in one round and then there’s a gap of two rounds, and you have five corners, cornerbacks, on the board, in those same two rounds, you know well ‘We should just go ahead and take the receiver.’ Well, is the receiver really the best player or is the corner the best player with more options below him?”
Schneider’s scenario draws parallels with Seattle’s pick of Smith-Njigba, where the Seahawks started a mini-run on wide receivers instead of picking, say, the lone-on-a-ledge, interior defensive lineman option of Michigan’s Mazi Smith, drafted 26th by the Dallas Cowboys.
“In retrospect, over the years, you know, when we look back at, you know, pushing players up, you can do that based on need because you can say that guy’s gonna step right in, he’s gonna play,” Schneider continued to Wyman & Bob.
“But is that truly accurate when you’re comparing the players? In general, we just do a much better job when we just pick the best player. And the best player and the best pick and all the other stuff.”
The Smith-Njigba versus Mazi Smith comparison, which may well have played out in Seattle’s war room, grows stronger when you consider Schneider’s radio comments on “ledges.”
“There’s ledges, all throughout the draft there’s gaps in each round,” Schneider described. “And you just have to be really careful not to push a player based on specific need, excuse me, based on what the numbers look like in the draft. That specific draft. That’s why you have to be really, really honest and in-depth on your study of what each class looks like. Because a third rounder doesn’t mean— maybe he really is a fourth rounder and you made him a third rounder.”
Immediately you get visions of L.J. Collier and that kind of first-round pick from Seattle —we know the TCU DL was more of a late-second-to-third-rounder and the Seahawks were peeved they missed out on a ledge, with quite a few of their other targets drafted before.
Additionally, it is also possible that the 2023 Seahawks had Mazi Smith — lacking pass rush production and with an off-field incident — graded as more of a second-round type of player. Regardless of their pressing need at defensive line, they instead picked the best-graded player on their board: Smith-Njigba.
Would earlier Schneider iterations have gone with Mazi? Would they have executed a small trade down and missed out on the receiver ledge? Would they have overly forced a pick after missing out on a ledge? These are fair questions when you consider their past errors.
Needs Still Matter/Good Players Contribute
Don’t get it twisted. The Seahawks had sneaky “needs” at cornerback and wide receiver.
Mike Jackson filled in admirably as Seattle’s left cornerback in 2022. The 2019 fifth-round pick won the competition against veteran Sidney Jones and quietly went about his business to earn a restricted free-agent tender. However, as Carroll commented on the cornerbacks in the Seahawks’ pre-draft press conference: “We’re always looking to add.”
Meanwhile, Seattle’s third wide receiver has been an inconsistent spot and a growing area to address, particularly with Tyler Lockett turning 31 years old this September. A clear, genuine tertiary target for Geno Smith to hit and Shane Waldron to scheme for will raise the offense to another level.
“That's what we were in pursuit of in the draft,” Carroll revealed of the third receiving option add. “And that's why we were so excited to have gotten him [Smith-Njigba]. We thought he was the best guy in this draft to fill that role. It's why, you know, we're so pleased about where we are right now going into tomorrow. You know, we nailed it.”
The People Over Needs
It was clear from John Schneider and Pete Carroll’s pre-draft media appearances that the team has learned valuable lessons and experiences that were on their consciousness approaching one of the most important and rich drafts in franchise history. Those moments will have influenced their decision not to select Jalen Carter.
Schneider, when asked in that April 19th press conference what the common denominators were for successful draft classes, went to the character of prospects over tape or testing while again referencing needs.
“Yeah, the competitors and the people,” Schneider identified as the theme of success. “We can all sit and evaluate the strengths and deficiencies of prospects and debate that, and the film kind of is what it is, and then knowing who the person is and not trying to push players based on specific needs.”
Seattle’s decision-makers described how their draft boards over the years have grown smaller and smaller due to this people-focused approach.
“We went through a period where we had a lot of guys on the board,” Schneider outlined. “We had more guys, we thought that was more opportunity, which became more cluttered, and then really the last several years we've really, all right: who are the guys who are true Seahawks?”
“I think that's maybe the biggest clear difference is zeroing in on the personnel, the people really,” Carroll expanded. “That's why we have a fewer number to pick from. We've really kind of circled the wagons in a way that it's about the guys and who they are and as much as we can possibly figure that out. It seems like it gives us the best insights to what we're doing.”
Seattle got multiple looks at Carter, including a top-30 visit. Its due diligence saw it opt instead for a different in-house visitor: Devon Witherspoon. Carroll described the corner as a “rare player.” And, after talking a bit about his physical skills, Carroll’s highest praise arrived for Witherspoon’s intangibles.
“It's his mentality,” the head coach said. “I haven't come across a guy like this in a long time. Last time I recognized this kind of makeup, was back at SC. We had a guy that you guys may know, Troy Polamalu, was a guy that had an extraordinary way about the way he played the game. And I saw this connection between what Devon does and how he looks at the game and how he approaches it, that just knocked me out.”
Witherspoon was a zero-star recruit coming out of high school. After four years at Illinois, he became an All-American, and now he is a top-5 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Immediately on tape, you see the impact of his mentality, his willingness to go hit someone and make a play, his physicality and competitiveness, his inner, and outer, D A W G.
“Only guys that have played with Troy would know what I’m talking about,” Carroll later added on his Witherspoon-Polamalu comp.
“It’s not what he says, it’s just how he approaches the game and the way he sees his opportunities. I’ve always really held Troy in high regard in that sense. This is the closest that I’ve come to somebody talking and the acumen and forming it like that. I know I’ve said something that challenges a lot of stuff, but I’m just telling you what it feels like. It’s going to be exciting first to incorporate it and find it and he’ll have to come in here and play better than our guys are playing. He’s still going to have to compete like everybody else, but if we can corral that and get that all focused in the right direction, he’s going to be a real factor for us.”
The praise for Smith-Njigba’s character was not as lofty, but it’s clear that the Seahawks liked the receiver’s makeup too. “He seems like a pro,” Carroll summarized. “He seems like an experienced guy. He’s calm, he’s confident. He believes in himself. That’s conveyed when you hear him talk and how he reacts and how he plays. You feel like he’s ready to go. He’s going to be ready to fit in.”
Seattle, going with this approach, has ended up with arguably the best cornerback and best wide receiver from the 2023 NFL draft: CB #1 and WR #1.
As for the Seahawks’ biggest need, the defensive line, that will come. “We recognize we need defensive linemen,” Schneider assured, following Day 1.
Expect the defensive line picks, rather than being need-guided, to be made because they are the best-graded players on Seattle’s board—people, tape, and testing-wise.
Thanks to Alistair Corp for editing this piece.
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