A thoroughly offensive Seahawks draft

The Seattle Seahawks used the three days of this year’s NFL draft to continue the offseason transformation of its offense.

I spent some time sifting through the franchise’s history to put some numbers to Seattle’s performance at the NFL’s annual hiring derby.

#️⃣ 9 offensive players Seattle selected

That is the most offensive players the Seahawks have chosen in any draft since 1994 when the current seven-round format was implemented.

#️⃣ 3 servings of beef 

Of those nine offensive players Seattle chose, three play up front on the line, including Grey Zabel, the guard out of North Dakota State whom the Seahawks selected in the first round, No. 18 overall. That matches the most offensive linemen the Seahawks have selected in any draft in the past 30 years.

Over the past three years, Seattle has picked 29 players in the draft. Eight have played offensive line (27.6 percent).

#️⃣ 1 QB

When Seattle chose Jalen Milroe (3rd round, No. 92 overall, Alabama) he became only the third quarterback Seattle has drafted in John Schneider’s 15 years as general manager. Milroe is the first quarterback Seattle has picked since selecting Alex McGough in the seventh round of the 2018 draft.

1. Seattle wants to give Klint Kubiak lots of material to work with.

   While this is the second straight offseason in which the Seahawks are changing offenses, this time it’s more than just the playbook is changing. The Seahawks went shopping to give Kubiak plenty of new players to work with at each level of the offense.

2. The Seahawks believe they’ve already fixed their run defense.

   Of the 11 players Seattle chose in this draft, only one plays in the front seven of the defense: defensive tackle Rylie Mills (5^th round, No. 142, Notre Dame). That’s remarkable when you consider the problems Seattle had stopping the run for the first half of last season. The Seahawks clearly believe they turned the corner last season by trading for — and then re-signing — linebacker Ernest Jones and also adding Demarcus Lawrence. Seattle’s willingness to focus elsewhere in the draft amounts to a huge vote of confidence in this defense.

3. The array of Seattle passing targets is … unorthodox.

   The biggest surprise of the draft for me was that the Seahawks drafted a tight end before they picked a wide receiver. I’m not criticizing the selection of Elijah Arroyo (2nd round, No. 50, Miami). I’m just saying after trading D.K. Metcalf and releasing Tyler Lockett—who just signed with Tennessee—I was caught off guard by the selection of a tight end given that Noah Fant and A.J. Barner are already on the roster. Seattle did add a couple of receivers later, choosing Tyler Horton (5^th round, No. 166, Colorado St.) and Ricky White III (7^th round, No. 238, UNLV). As it currently stands, there are two receivers on Seattle’s roster who caught more than 20 passes in the NFL last season: Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp.

1. Is Seattle’s offensive line really “fixed”?

   Yes, Zabel was a top-rated prospect at guard.

   Yes, guard was not just an obvious need for Seattle, but the most obvious need.

   However, I’ve covered this team too long to assume that drafting someone in the first round solves a problem. In the 16 drafts John Schneider has run in Seattle, the Seahawks have chosen a player in the first round 15 times: Five of those were offensive linemen, most of any position. Of those five players, exactly one was chosen for a Pro Bowl: Russell Okung—the 6^th overall pick in 2010—was a Pro Bowler in 2012. He also made the Pro Bowl in 2017, but that was two years after leaving Seattle as an unrestricted free agent.

2. How unrealistic are my expectations for Jalen Milroe?

   This is not because I assume he will eventually be a starting quarterback in the NFL. I won’t dismiss that possibility, but I certainly don’t expect it either. But at worst, I believe he can play a role similar to what Taysom Hill did for Sean Payton in New Orleans. Hill was not capable of leading a team to the playoffs as a starting quarterback. He was, however, a dynamic player who made the difference in several games, including a 39-32 victory over Seattle in 2022 when he scored four (!!!) touchdowns. I also tend to believe that QBs capable of power running are extremely effective backups, but like I said, I’m not sure how much of this is empirically sound analysis and how much is my own personal enthusiasm for the idea.

3. Did Seattle need to do something at center?

   The Seahawks seem confident in Olu Oluwatimi’s development at the position. That gives me pause because a year ago, Seattle decided to sign Conor Williams after training camp started, planting him ahead of Oluwatimi on the depth chart. After Williams retired midway through the season, Oluwatimi started the final eight regular-season games and the only other two centers on the roster are Mike Novitsky and Jalen Sundell, neither of whom have started an NFL game.

I understand that people have been complaining about Mel Kiper Jr., and his TV persona for 40 years at this point.

I have been generally agnostic about the guy, however. I accept him for what he is: A real-life avatar of an approach to covering NFL football, which is extraordinarily popular but bears very little resemblance to how I was trained to do the job.

That’s not a criticism, but a declaration: What he and other draft analysts do is fundamentally different in everything from the language used, the statistics cited right on up to the grades that are handed out before these players have played a single down for the teams that picked them.

As such, I don’t tend to get worked up or indignant about his opinions or analysis of a given player or a particular team’s draft. That’s just the window through which he chooses to see the world.

However, his reaction to the selection of Shedeur Sanders in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns was one of the most illogical and unhinged series of observations that I can remember seeing on ESPN.

If the goal was to earn my full attention, I suppose the segment was a success, but I also came away from it thinking that one of three things happened:

1. Kiper was so bothered by the draft slide of Sanders that he became irrational;

2. Kiper has become so addled that he’s incapable of thinking critically on live television;

3. Kiper decided he was going to act out on live television to get attention.

I realize that it is likely a combination of all three, but the end result was a grown man behaving like a tantrum-throwing toddler, leaving his two co-workers to try and maintain their professionalism while he threw a fit. If you want to read an unnecessarily long analysis of the actual mechanics of this, click the link below.

• Kiper goes off the rails

  By Danny O’Neil

The funniest moment of the draft for me?

That’s easy. When Hugh Millen asked about the selection of safety Nick Emmonwori, it was the volume of his question that caught John Schneider’s attention.

IMPORTANT: Everyone needs to understand that this was done in good humor between two guys who’ve known each other for an awful long time.

@bydannyoneil

Seattle GM John Schneider hears a loud question.