Former College Coach Believes Jordyn Brooks Can Excel in Coverage for Seahawks
When the Seahawks elected to take Jordyn Brooks with the 27th pick in last month's NFL draft, it left numerous draft experts scratching their heads. As just one example, Yahoo Sports' Eric Edholm gave Brooks a D+ grade and labeled him a "throwback" linebacker.
"Brooks is a litmus test for your evaluation methods. He's a throwback linebacker with great run-stopping ability, but I don't like Brooks in coverage, and that's where NFC West linebackers will get left in the dust if they're not careful."
USA Today's Steven Ruiz of For The Win gave the Brooks selection an F on the grading scale and questioned if the Seahawks understood the NFL is now a passing league.
"I'm at a loss," Ruiz opined. "Do the Seahawks not realize what year it is? Did Dave Gettleman hack into their war room? Seattle took a run-stuffing linebacker who struggled in coverage... in 2020. Just what you need in a pass-happy NFL. This is an inexplicable pick with Patrick Queen still on the board."
Since then, a lot of the critics have realized why the Seahawks decided to spend their first-round pick on Brooks rather than LSU's Patrick Queen, who was drafted by the Ravens with the 28th pick. Some experts, however, still think that his weakness remains in coverage. Texas Tech coach Matt Wells and the rest of Red Raiders staff didn't ask him to do that much last year as he transitioned to middle linebacker.
But as my colleague Matty F. Brown tweeted last month, Brooks had more opportunities to defend in pass coverage in 2018 when he was still playing outside linebacker in a different defensive scheme for Texas Tech.
Wells, who recently was a guest on the Talkin Seahawks Podcast, pointed out that Brooks is a good 'blitzer" and when it comes to developing linebackers, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and his staff are among the NFL's best.
“I certainly think that John Schneider and Pete Carroll know what the heck they’re doing,” Wells said. “I’ll just say it that way. They have drafted and they have trained and developed really good linebackers. I believe Jordyn Brooks can cover. I believe they’ll teach him to cover. Ken Norton is one of the best [coaches] in the game. He’ll develop [Brooks].”
Diving into the player's strengths, Wells broke down Brooks' ability to make plays in the open field, which will come in handy playing in the rugged NFC West.
“I think he’s fast,” Wells said. “He’s extremely fast. He’s got closing speed. He’s got a lot of grit and toughness. He has the ability to make tackles in open space - certainly is of a premium in the Big-12 conference in terms of offenses that we face.”
Though Brooks underwent offseason shoulder surgery, which prevented him from partaking in the Senior Bowl, Wells called him a “durable guy” and the coach referenced him playing through the ailment as evidence of his football character.
“I think there’s so much grit and toughness there,” said Wells, hitting on two buzzwords often used by Carroll and Schneider. “I think people in Seattle are going to really love him.”
During each of his four seasons at Texas Tech, Brooks was honored as an All-Big 12 selection and led the team with 108 tackles during his senior season in 2019. He's expected to compete right away for playing time at WILL linebacker when the Seahawks resume on-field activities.
