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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Seahawks focus on defense in final round

Tim Booth Associated Press

RENTON, Wash. – Jaye Howard was inside a mall store charging his battery-drained cellphone when the defensive tackle got the call from the Seattle Seahawks, who told him he had been taken in the fourth round of the NFL draft.

Considering how defensive focused Pete Carroll and the Seahawks were during the 2012 draft, all defensive players needed to be ready to take a call from the Northwest.

Seattle closed out the draft on Saturday with seven picks in the final four rounds. Six of those seven were used on defensive players – although seventh-round selection J.R. Sweezy will be switched from defensive tackle to offensive guard.

The Seahawks started the day by drafting Utah State running back Robert Turbin, a burly carbon of Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch. Turbin rushed for 1,517 yards and 19 touchdowns this season.

Then all the focus went to the defense, even though that wasn’t the plan.

“The way the draft has fallen, every time we’ve been getting ready to pick we’ve had better defensive players, not all the time, but it seems like the majority of it,” Seattle general manager John Schneider said. “That’s the way it seems like it has fallen so far.”

Seattle followed the selection of Turbin by getting Howard, from Florida, later in the fourth-round. Then came Idaho linebacker Korey Toomer in the fifth-round; defensive backs Jeremy Lane of Northwestern State and Winston Guy of Kentucky in the sixth round; and final-round selections of Sweezy, from North Carolina State, and Louisville defensive end Greg Scruggs to close out the draft.

It was a bounty of players, considering Seattle went into the draft with six selections, but used a pair of trades to get additional picks and leave the weekend with 10 players.