By trading for Jimmy Graham, Seahawks drafted long ago
Midway through a first round that had to just about bore him, Pete Carroll stuck his head into the defensive meeting room upstairs at Seahawks headquarters.
“Don’t tell anybody,” Seattle coach said, “but we’re taking a tight end.”
While the rest of the Seattle area rejoiced over a school-record three Washington Huskies getting selected in the first round – Danny Shelton 12th to Cleveland, Marcus Peters 18th to Kansas City and Shaq Thompson 25th to Carolina – the Seahawks reveled in their move made seven weeks earlier.
At the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Washington, the Seahawks believed the best player acquired thus far in the draft is Jimmy Graham, the star tight end for whom Seattle gave up its 31st overall pick to New Orleans in March.
What didn’t happen Thursday may or may not change what the Seahawks will do today, when they hold their first pick at No. 63 overall. That would be the latest initial pick in franchise history, one spot lower than Christine Michael got picked to begin Seattle’s 2013 draft. Seattle also has a third-round choice at No. 95 on Friday.
Dorial Green-Beckham, the huge wide receiver sent away from Missouri’s program after a charge of pulling a woman out of an apartment by her neck, didn’t get selected. There is some thought that if the 6-foot-5, 255-pound Green-Beckham stays undrafted deep into the second round the Seahawks might trade up using one of its league-high stash of 11 picks.
But Seattle has hosted even-bigger wide out Devin Funchess from Michigan, plus Ty Montgomery of Stanford and Chris Conley from Georgia, among others. And the Seahawks have more priorities than just a big wide receiver. They need a new starting left guard, a new starting center, defensive tackles, cornerbacks and pass rusher. Never enough pass rushers.
Attractive, near-top players are still available at all those spots: offensive tackles T.J. Clemmings of Pittsburgh, versatile Donovan Smith of Penn State and nasty Ty Sambrailo from Colorado State; center Hroniss Grasu from Oregon; pass rushers Eli Harold from Virginia, Nate Orchard from Utah and Hau’oli Kikaha from Washington; defensive tackles Jordan Phillips of Oklahoma, Michael Bennett from Ohio State and Joey Mbu from Houston; and cornerback Quinten Rollins from Miami (Ohio).
The Seahawks have the picks to make moves. But the two-time defending NFC champions have the needs to stay with all the picks they have as-is to make those choices, too.
“The challenges are – when you’re winning like this, it’s awesome, you’re picking late. You want to do that all the time,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said before the draft. “So it’s trying to figure out if you’re moving up, if you’re moving back, where do you see the meat of the draft – and trying to get yourself in a position to acquire as many of those players as you possibly can regardless of position.”
The night began with the top two quarterbacks as the league’s focus – but not Seattle’s. The Seahawks are more than content with 2012 third-round pick Russell Wilson as its two-time Super Bowl passer.
Jameis Winston went as expected first overall to Tampa Bay, a four-hour drive from his college home at Florida State.
Chip Kelly then reportedly tried to trade everyone and everything in Philadelphia except the Liberty Bell to move the Eagles up from No. 20 to No. 2. It didn’t work; Tennessee kept its second pick and selected the quarterback Kelly recruited to Oregon, Marcus Mariota.
“We didn’t even get out of the car and go inside to look at the house,” Kelly said of the Titans’ asking price to move up.
Top 2 picks prove importance of QBs
Even with significant off-field baggage, Jameis Winston was the first pick.
With no such issues, Marcus Mariota went second.
You don’t pass up a potential franchise quarterback in today’s pass-happy NFL.
So Florida State’s Winston is headed to Tampa Bay and Oregon’s Mariota goes to Tennessee at No. 2. They’ll take their Heisman Trophies (Winston in 2013, Mariota last year) and try to turn two downtrodden franchises into contenders, maybe even champions.
“The challenge is just being an NFL player, period. I’m not worried about any off-the-field situations or even on-the-field situations,” Winston said.
Winston celebrated by dining on crab legs, perhaps winking at detractors who point to his character issues such as being cited for stealing crab legs from a grocery store.
Winston was suspended from FSU’s baseball team for five days after the incident, which included a civil citation for shoplifting but no arrest.
Before the draft, Winston explained that an employee had agreed to give him the crab legs for free, but the store said they found no evidence that employees gave him the food.
While Mariota has been a model citizen, some questioned his having barely taken any snaps behind center in Oregon’s quick-tempo attack. But Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt, who has done big things with such veteran quarterbacks as Ben Roethlisberger, Kurt Warner and Philip Rivers, clearly isn’t concerned.
“He’s a talented young man who has a very good feel for the position and how to process those things,” Whisenhunt said, “and we’re excited to get a chance to work with him.”
“I believe in my abilities and the hard work that I’ve put in,” Mariota said.
Tampa Bay has the receivers to help Winston in Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans, both of whom eclipsed 1,000 yards last year despite shoddy quarterbacking. Tennessee can’t make the same claim.
Each of those teams went 2-14 in 2014, but coaches Lovie Smith and Whisenhunt, in their first seasons in charge, survived the awful record. Now, they presumably have the main building tool.
Lions select pre-med student from Duke
The Lions used the 28th pick to select Laken Tomlinson, a guard who someday wants to be a neurosurgeon.
He grew up in Jamaica and ended up as a pre-med student at Duke.
His desire to be a doctor came when he was a sophomore in high school, and on a visit back to Jamaica, he watched his grandfather die because of what he called inadequate health care in his home country.
“That angered me and I wanted to change that,” Tomlinson said. “My goal in life is to, one day, go back to Jamaica and change the health care system there.”
Associated Press