Seahawks Draft Robust Offensive Foundations Over Forcing Quarterback
Typically, leaving a draft without addressing the most obvious area of necessity looks like bad front office work. The Seahawks picked this route in 2022, avoiding the quarterback position despite trading Russell Wilson. And yet, Seattle, now left with under-center options of Geno Smith and Drew Lock, has still been praised for its draft.
Evidently, the Seahawks disliked the quarterbacks in this draft. The class—well, other than Kenny Pickett—fell to the rounds they had been graded at prior to the pre-draft media hype. Seattle could have forced a pick, but instead opted for a no-quarterback approach—UDFA signing Levi Lewis and rookie minicamp invitee Kaleb Eleby notwithstanding.
"I've said this before: the head coach and the quarterback are the two most important people in the building," explained general manager John Schneider. "It's just you have to be right and everybody has to have a comfort level, everybody has different strengths and different weaknesses, deficiencies. You know, staffs have to be confident that we can help those players out with their deficiencies. And there's a ton, you know, thrown at these guys."
Staying away from the quarterbacks has seen Seattle set strong foundations for its entire offense.
It was the first time in franchise history that Seattle picked four times in the top-75 of the draft, and Seattle invested heavily on the offensive side of the ball. Three of the four top-75 picks were spent on the offense, with Mississippi State tackle Charles Cross going first at pick No. 9, followed by Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III at No. 40 and Washington State tackle Abraham Lucas at No. 72.
“It’s a pretty good statement and it’s cool, I’m excited by it,” head coach Pete Carroll described.
The immediate impact of the picks will be felt in the run game, where Seattle has constructed as dominant a rushing attack as what looked possible.
“We took two offensive linemen and a runner," Carroll continued. “I think it’s pretty clear, we’re wanting to make sure that we have all of the elements together so that we can be effective running the football to compliment the rest of our game. That’s always a part of it. That’s not a change in our philosophy or approach, it’s just an emphasis that we were able to hit on today, that I think it’s pretty obvious to me.”
The selection of Walker accounts for Chris Carson’s uncertain future. As much as Carroll loves Carson, the 2017 seventh-round pick’s ability to recover from neck surgery sounded highly doubtful from the Seahawks' decision makers. Cutting him after June 1 would net the team $4.6 million in savings against the salary cap in 2022. Additionally, Walker is insurance for Rashaad Penny’s patchy consistency and availability.
“Kenneth’s an explosive, exciting running back to add to what we’ve got,“ Carroll assessed.
Walker proved that with his testing and tape. At 5-foot-9, 211 pounds, the Michigan State man posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.38 seconds while jumping 34 inches vertically and 122 inches in the broad. Sports Info Solutions’ charting saw Walker stand out in important explosive categories: 4.4 rushing total points per game (first in RB prospects), 18 percent boom percentage (first) and 3.8 yards after contact per attempt (second).
As for the surprising element of drafting a running back in the second round?
“We picked him because on the board he was up there for us,” Carroll said of Walker on day two. “In a spot where we just couldn’t pass him up.”
The run game upgrades were Seattle building upon its dominant second half of the 2021 season, where its blocking gelled and Penny showed the explosive talent that saw him drafted in the first round of 2018. Rather than growing complacent, the Seahawks have strengthened in efforts to prevent regression.
Though Carroll and John Schneider would not put it in such brutal terms, the run game must be talented enough to alleviate the pressures on whoever Seattle’s quarterback is. This carrying of a quarterback is especially important for 2022, with one of Smith or Lock likely to start.
“We want to run the football and we want to be good at it and we want to complement our whole football team with the way we approach it,” Carroll explained more subtly.
If the Seahawks receive better quarterback play than expected in 2022—or when they look to upgrade their quarterback spot—the offense will be ready to shift through the gears. The talent across the board means that it can adapt to the level of ability at quarterback. Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf remain one of the best receiving pairs in the NFL. Noah Fant and Will Dissly at tight end isn’t a bad duo either. Behind depth piece Freddie Swain is young talent waiting to break out, like 2021 second-round pick Dee Eskridge and 2020 fourth-rounder Colby Parkinson.
Cross and Lucas will help the run game. However, both of the newcoming tackles are known more for their pass protection skill on top of their superb athleticism. In fact, it can be said that the Seahawks took the best-possible pass-protecting left-right pairing in the 2022 draft. It would be shocking for Seattle’s offensive line to be worse than top-10 in ESPN’s Pass Block Win Rate metric; a top-five finish is within its potential.
“The tackle spots, you know, that was a big deal,” Carroll reflected after day three. “And we’re really fortunate that that worked out like that. Really fortunate, and we got two good guys to go for it, you know, to upgrade the challenge and the competition at those spots. I don’t know who’s gonna start but I know those guys they’re gonna be challenged by the new guys coming in, which is great.”
Cross not starting would be a total shock. Indeed, Schneider opened his day one press conference saying: “We’re just really excited that we have a pillar at left tackle.”
It is Lucas who will make the right tackle competition vicious, with Jake Curhan ready to battle for a spot and Stone Forsythe having college experience on the right side too.
The 2022 offensive style will likely appear similar to the Sean McVay-Jared Goff Rams. However, Seattle’s latest draft means it will have all the pieces necessary to transform it's ready to at quarterback. Rather than forcing a 2022 pick on a young passer marred by uncertainty, Seattle set robust offensive foundations for the franchise’s future.
