Schneider's thought on draft and picks.
http://www.fieldgulls.com/2016/5/2/11568948/john-schneider-breaks-down-seahawks-draft-class (Audio)
Some recap (from reddit):
Had a plan in place with the staff after we lost in the playoffs. Basically we had a philosophy that we were going to go by (went by it throughout the fall anyway). We got through the draft and it was fantastic, and we are even more excited about, we signed 13 rookie free agents and we had draft grades on all of them. So you got a room of personnel guys and coaches that are so excited because we have our drafted class over here and our rookie drafted class over there that they are excited about.
Matt Berry early in the spring really liked Ifedi. He had thought about coming out so we had a pretty good idea what he was all about. They tried moving him to the left side but he been a right side player for a long time so they moved him back. When he went to Kansas to scout, some of those guys had come from A&M, the player development guy Troy said you can look at everyone but if you don’t draft Ifedi you don’t know what you are doing.
Jaren Reed was a consideration when picking Ifedi. Part of their grading is based on where we are as a football team so they went with Ifedi first. When Jaren kept coming to us it was a big blessing because we weren’t out hunting but we fielded some phone calls and we made the trade and got him. Felt he was the best run stuffer in league. He is very active, so, a lot of people say he isn’t a great pass rusher but that isn’t necessarily something they asked him to do. The guy can get up and down the line of scrimmage really quick for as big as he is.
C.J. to us is very much what Fred did last year, 3rd down guy, highly explosive, he’s 220lbs, he ran very fast, ST player of the year the year before on their team. He has played safety, WR, he is a competitor. His body of work as a runner the upside is tremendous. And you can watch him play receiver, watch him run a slant, a comeback, post, go-route, all that kind of stuff. You can watch him adjust to the ball down the field, you can watch him as a runner and receiver. Those people would tell you there too when they moved him to half-back they were wondering if he would hit it up in there and obviously he did it. Probably the one game was the USC game, he just went off, he was ridiculous in that game.
Vannett, we’ve been looking for a true Y-blocking TE. He started out more as a receiving TE then when Urban and his group came in, that weight staff really helped him build his body up. Obviously he didn’t run as fast as he would have wanted to but this is a guy that can play on the line of scrimmage and is a very good route runner. He gets his shoulders around quickly and presents a great target. That type of TE is hard to find, Zach Miller is the closest thing we have had to it, a guy with strong hands on the line of scrimmage. Nick is a bigger framed guy than Zach, Zach was more polished down the field than Nick, towards the end of his career Zach did a nice job developing himself as a short area receiver and working back to the QB and everything. Nick can do that as well, but he won’t threaten you down the field a ton but he is a pretty sneaky route runner.
Rees had the two injuries so that is why he was there (in the draft). Tom will tell you that Rees and Ifedi are the two strongest guys that he put his hands on, you know, trying to move them and mess with them. Rees really truly didn’t have to work out as much as he did, he worked his tail off during the workout coming off the injury. He did a lot more than the staff at Boise thought he was going to do. Great workout, great upside, really strong, gonna have him compete at LG. Last year you would have thought he would have been a top 45 player going into the season but then with the injury and the string of bad luck with that. We have really good durability grades on him by our sports science group. We don’t go purely off the medical history, he’s had two years in a row, so. But he had other compensating factors, his functional movement and his flexibility, he is an unbelievable bender for as big and strong as he is. He fits that grit they are looking for and extremely mature, with his sister who is ready to go to med-school.
Quinton married with 3 kids isn’t something you see on a ton of draft profiles. Here is a guy that was really coming on throughout the season and then his spring was, if you are grading as we do all the way the whole thing, and if you watch him all the way through his spring and his workout it was really really important to him. His combine workout was very good but his school work out was really impressive. You could feel the intensity from this guy and how important it is to him. We had him there in the middle of the 3rd round and he was still sitting there, he was basically by himself for a long time, and we felt with our comp picks we should have next year that you can trade, we were like you know what let’s just, we never do that, but we were just like we have to go get this guy and put him in the rotation. We will find out where to play him whether he is a 3T or 5T. But he is a strong dude, he is a man, he’s got twins and a infant. So it is very important to him.
Alex was higher than a mid-5th no question. The guy hits it, he is tough and runs with an aggressiveness, he is very unique. Is a little bit of a short-stepper with really really good vision and can get up field real quick and finishes his runs. He can catch out of the backfield. The reason he fell was the number of fumbles he had. That is something the staff will work with him on. This guy is really talented.
There were a number of very talented runners this year. We were able to get Zac a little bit later and we signed Madden as a rookie free agent. Play him at FB a little bit. Those are guys we had strong draftable grades on. Knew going into it we’d probably come away with two (RB’s) then down at the end Zac was still there and there are a couple of guys in the draft room that he was their personal favorite so we were taking that guy.
The competition is going to be outstanding on OL. Key is going to be figuring out who the groups are and the moving parts so we can get continuity and get practicing together and spend that time together, that limited amount of time we have now.
Vannett does a lot for our running game. He is in-line Y that can lock down, get out in space, and he is huge. And like I said when Urban (College coach) got there those guys really helped him out so I definitely think he will help out a lot. Luke gives great effort in there and does a really nice job, Jimmy will give great effort but he will be spread out and moved around so we haven’t had that true in-line guy. We also got Fant from Western Kentucky but we aren’t sure if he will play OT or TE yet. But that is a 280lb who ran like 4.82 at his workout with really good hands.
There are a couple of guys that we are interest at as SAM linebackers throughout the draft. Saw two guys in rookie free agency that we had draftable grades on in Overton and French. Those guys will compete there. We re-signed Mike Morgan who was getting ready to sign with the Steelers, he will compete with Marsh to do that. Pinkins finished the season very strong on ST last year, he has been working his tail off and everyone is fired up about him too. We added a couple of guys in the mix there but it was one of those positions that didn’t fall exactly, like you can’t have everybody.
Lawler if he runs under 4.5 he is getting taken in the 4th round or higher, just didn’t. His catching range is stupid, he has what? Size 15 hands or something. Guys at Kansas said “wait till you get up close, Lawler has the best hands we’ve ever seen.” He is second all time at Cal in TD’s, he has 27 TD’s. Anytime they got close they’d throw it up there and he’d take it out of the air.
Rookie draft class have some rawness to them, the staff feels they can help them out with. They all have speed, toughness, that aggressive style, confidence. We were able to sign Powell from Ohio State, we have a very high grade on him, can’t wait to get our hands on him, surprised we were able to get our hands on him. He was one of the last players to convince; we were trying to save cash for him. We got DeAndre Elliot at corner, there is a chance we would have taken him in the draft. He fits the mold, very similar to Jeremy Lane.
Seems last year guys (undrafted free agents) were committing quicker, now we actually had several of our try out guys call us back when we were back from the draft reviewing everything. We didn’t have any spots so we had two-three guys that we were really excited about that we wanted to sign as rookie free agents so we had to get them as workouts.
OL and DL should see immediate impact from this draft, when he says OL he is including Vannett in there. 3rd down back as well.
No connection between TE drafted with Jimmy injured and multiple RB’s drafted with Rawls injured. Vannett is a Y-TE, a true on the LOS guy that can be a short area route runner and a reliable guy. The RB group was just a damn good group of runners this year. Rawls is doing great with his rehab and CMike is having a great off-season as well. Couple of years ago we drafted WR Chris Harper even though we had a nice group of WR’s, you have to come in and bring it, just because you got drafted doesn’t mean you are in the mix, doesn’t mean you won’t get beat out by a rookie free agent. We are fine with that if that is who the best players are.
Highest upside drafted is Reed. Thought he was one of the best players in the draft. Top 10 pure talent. Best defensive linemen run stuffing. The LOS doesn’t move, he controls it. Rees too because of the injuries, once that guy is healthy you will see him play, he is one of Chris Peterson's favorite players there, he is a dominant player.
Highest upside rookie free agent is Bryant. Former DT who is going to play FB for us. Real athletic guy, 289 lbs who ran a 4.86. QB Boykin as well , the only reason he didn’t get drafted was the situation he put himself in before his bowl game. Darrell said it best he doesn’t need his feet to throw.
One of my last conversations with Marshawn was no one would wear 24 this season.
Really excited to see these guys but also some of the younger guys you guys haven’t, that were on our team last year but haven’t stepped forward and had their opportunity yet.
Ryan Robinson (DE), tore his Achilles but before that he was running with the 1st sub group.
This post was edited by Slowtoanger on May 3 2016 03:33pm