A Grip on Sports: Seahawks pull the biggest surprise on a surprisingly glitch-free first night of the NFL Draft
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Sure, the NFL Draft doesn’t include any actual competition. You know, the one-on-one or team matchups that fuel sports. But it did include twists. Plot turns. The expected and the incredibly unexpected. All on live TV. In other words, exactly what we need these days.
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• The long pauses between questions and answers aside, the technical aspects of the first NFL virtual draft went well. There were way too many shots of Roger Goodell’s back, as he tried to hype of the wall of piped in fans behind him (and his occasional mutterings we heard when we weren’t supposed to), sure, but overall it was pretty smooth.
Until the 27th pick came up. The Seahawks pick. The one they use as trade bait for a future fourth-round selection. The Hawks actually kept it.
That’s odd.
Then John Schneider and Pete Carroll did something even stranger. They took a middle linebacker. OK, a guy who probably can play outside linebacker too. But all indications are, when the picked Jordyn Brooks, they selected Bobby Wagner’s down-the-road replacement.
That’s smart. No one last forever, not even Wagner. But with a first-round pick? And this year? How does Brooks help the Hawks get to the Super Bowl in 2021?
Isn’t that the goal?
And why are we asking so many questions? That one I can answer. Brooks’ selection is so out-of-the-Seahawk-blue as to be questionable. Heck, Seattle hasn’t used its original first-round slot since I was still a full-time sportswriter. I know, that long ago. Which, if you think about it, is pretty typical of Schneider and Carroll at the draft.
They always do the unexpected. Sometimes it is genius. Sometimes it is not.
• Speaking of making a decision, Corey Kispert is submitting his name for evaluation by the NBA, with an eye on being included in the draft pool.
The junior-to-be made the announcement yesterday – expect a similar announcement from Filip Petrusev and possibly Joel Ayayi today or tomorrow – and seemed to emphasis he won’t be hiring an agent.
That’s superfluous these days, as the NCAA has allowed NBA candidates to hire representation the past couple years. But it also may point casual observers in the direction Kispert is leaning toward coming back to Gonzaga. And why not? He’s probably not going to be guaranteed a draft spot in this strange year. Keep improving and next year that might be a given.
What the decision does allow, however, is an evaluation of his talents and what needs to be improved before the NBA will come calling. That’s the real value of submitting his name.
It’s what Petrusev did last spring – before returning to Gonzaga for a monster sophomore year. Expect Kispert to receive his evaluation and head back to Spokane, improvement game plan in hand. It’s one of the growing list of recent instances in which the NCAA has made a rule change with the athlete’s best interests in heart. And Kispert, a true student-athlete, is taking advantage.
• Finally, we have a couple items to point you toward that don’t fit neatly into any of the categories below. One is Adam Shanks’ story on our local events that had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Among those are Hoopfest and Bloomsday, two fun traditions that also inject millions of dollars into the Spokane economy.
Hoopfest hopes to be held in late August. Bloomsday is looking at a September Sunday. Whether either will be allowed to happen is still up in the air. That’s a big point of the story, how organizations are dealing with the unknown as they attempt to put on events impacting thousands.
The other link we want to pass along is to Charles Apple’s recent Further Review. The graphic artist puts together pages that take a single subject and dissects it visually. The one we are passing along today has to do with work stoppages in professional sports.
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Gonzaga: We linked above Jim Meehan’s story about Kispert’s decision, but we’ll link it here again as well. … Around the WCC, the nation’s tallest grad transfer, Matt Haarms, is headed to BYU, a school desperately in need of guard depth.
WSU: Dezmon Patmon has the build of an NFL receiver. He has the hands. He has improved his speed. But will he get his chance, starting today or tomorrow when the draft finishes up? Theo Lawson looks into the odds in this story. … The draft (and the chance of golfing in Washington in the near future) is part of Larry Weir’s conversation with Paul Sorensen. It’s the latest Press Box pod. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the biggest news, of course, has to do with the draft. The top conference pick? Quarterback Justin Herbert, the Oregon standout who went sixth to the Los Angeles Chargers. … The 49ers liked Arizona State’s Brandon Aiyuk so much, they moved up to grab the receiver. … USC tackle Austin Jackson went in the first round to Miami. … The other aspect of the draft is those players not taken yet, including Colorado’s Laviska Shenault. … Throw Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate in there as well, though that descent has been a long time coming and is complicated. … Oregon State promoted an assistant coach. … Colorado’s coaches are taking pay cuts. … Some sports might also feel the machete before all is said and done too. … How will football be affected? … In basketball news, Arizona will have a 6-foot-10 French center on its roster next season.
Preps: Dave Nichols has a notebook that covers news from a basketball coaching hire to letters of intent being signed.
Seahawks: The Hawks had their reasons for taking Brooks, but whether they had to use their first-round slot for him is debatable. … The draft itself was surprising in some ways, including the lack of huge glitches. … One thing is sure. The 49ers and the Cardinals made themselves better. The NFC West should be better.
Mariners: Dee Gordon doesn’t spread his good works all over the Internet. He just does them. And they earned him the Fred Hutchinson Award.
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• Yes, I watched a lot of the draft last night. But I must admit I switched over to Netflix after a while. And kept my Twitter machine working, expecting at any moment to read about the Hawks’ trade. It never happened. Which meant I missed the Brooks’ pick. Was it exciting? … By the way, there won’t be a print edition of tomorrow’s paper. But that doesn’t make a difference to us. We will be here and will have links to all the S-R stories. Until later …