The 2020 NFL draft is still expected to occur in about three weeks, and the Seattle Seahawks are gathering as much information as they can about prospective prospects in the challenging COVID-19 times.
The Seahawks are known for finding late round gems, particularly in the Pete Carroll/John Schneider era, and one or two diamonds in the rough would go a long way toward making the 2020 roster even more competitive as they strive for another deep playoff run.
The Seahawks have had their fare share of success all the way through the draft, along with plenty of duds, but there’s no doubt their best run of success – at least in the past 20 years – came just before the team’s back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, when they were able to build the infamous Legion of Boom almost exclusively via the draft.
Here’s a look at the team’s best picks by round in the past two decades, along with a handful of honorable mentions.
First Round: Earl Thomas
The Seahawks are known primarily for not using their first round picks, as John Schneider frequently trades down and out of the first round in order to acquire more picks in the middle and later rounds.
However, that doesn’t mean they haven’t had a ton of success when they do make first round picks, particularly early in the century.
While Steve Hutchinson is a Hall of Famer and Shaun Alexander may be in the near future, Seattle’s best first round pick in the last 20 years is no doubt free safety Earl Thomas.
Richard Sherman may have been the voice of the Legion of Boom, and Kam Chancellor may have provided the boom, but Thomas was truly the heart and soul of the group, manning Seattle’s high safety role from 2010 until 2018, when a broken leg cost him the final 12 games of the regular season and ultimately landed him in Baltimore the following year.
Thomas is a no doubt future Hall of Famer and arguably one of the best safeties to ever play the game, and without him the LOB would not have been the monster unit it was in the early part of the decade.
Second Round: Bobby Wagner
The Seahawks have made a lot of second round picks in the past 20 years, as their tendency to trade back and out of the first round frequently gives them multiple second round picks in any given year.
The results over the last 20 years have varied, but this round has probably had the most success of any other, and last year’s selection of DK Metcalf is another in a long line of successful second round picks for Seattle.
The creme of the crop, however, is star middle linebacker Bobby Wagner. Wagner came to Seattle in the excellent 2012 NFL draft, which also netted the team Bruce Irvin in the first round, Russell Wilson in the third and Jeremy Lane in the sixth – more on those two later on.
While Wilson is the face of the franchise, and perhaps Seattle’s most iconic athlete, Wagner is no slouch in his own right. A potential future Hall of Famer, Wagner earned his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl nod in 2019, along with his fourth straight All-Pro award. He is the league’s best middle linebacker, and was an absolute steal at No. 47 overall.
Center Max Unger, linebacker Lofa Tatupu, wide receiver Golden Tate and of course Metcalf round out an exceptional string of second round picks in the past two decades for the Seahawks.
Third Round: Russell Wilson
The Seahawks haven’t actually had a ton of success in the third round over the last 20 years, with two glaring exceptions.
The first, obviously, is star quarterback Russell Wilson – who could easily go down as the greatest third round pick in NFL history.
Despite concerns about his height coming out of the draft, the Seahawks trusted him to start for the team right away, and they were rewarded with the best quarterback in franchise history.
Wilson has started 128 consecutive games in his NFL career, and has made six Pro Bowls with elite production across the board – rivaling Lamar Jackson from Baltimore as the best QB in the NFL in 2019.
The Seahawks also snagged star receiver Tyler Lockett in the third round back in 2015, and Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin is shaping up to be a bargain as a 2017 third rounder as well.
It’s too early to tell on 2019’s third round pick, linebacker Cody Barton, but it looks like the team’s run of third round busts in the first half of the millenium is long over.
Fourth Round: K.J. Wright
Fourth round, fourth consecutive player from Seattle’s Legion of Boom. The 2011 draft won’t go down in history quite like the 2012 draft for the Seahawks, but snagging James Carpenter, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Byron Maxwell and Malcolm Smith is perhaps one of the greatest, and most underrated, single-team drafts in NFL history.
Wright takes the cake among fourth rounders in the past 20 years, primarily because he’s an elite Will linebacker who is among the team’s franchise leaders in tackles, but also because the fourth round has been a sore spot for Seattle.
Wright had a renaissance year in 2019, starting all 16 games and recording career highs in combined tackles (132), passes defended (11) and interceptions (3). He has quietly been an absolute rock alongside Wagner in Seattle’s linebacker corps, and is a huge part of his team’s success on the defensive side of the ball this past decade.
Other fourth round picks include defensive tackle Red Bryant, who had six quality seasons in the Emerald City – first as a backup and eventually as a starter for Seattle’s Super Bowl teams, and Will Dissly, a 2018 selection who has looked like one of the best tight ends in the league, but who suffered a season-ending injury in each of his first two NFL campaigns.
Otherwise, the fourth round has netted Seattle largely busts, including last year’s selection of Gary Jennings, a wide receiver who was released without ever even appearing on the active roster.
Fifth Round: Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman
How can you pick between the two most notable Legion of Boom members not named Earl Thomas? Both Kam Chancellor (2010) and Richard Sherman (2011) were fifth round picks – perhaps the most notable example of John Schneider and Pete Carroll’s ability to identify elite secondary talent in the later rounds of the NFL draft.
Chancellor joined Seattle out of Virginia Tech in 2010, while Sherman came from Stanford a year later.
Chancellor put the boom in Legion of Boom, as a thumping strong safety for eight dominant years in Seattle before injuries prematurely ended his career during the 2017 season. He was a four-time Pro Bowler and one of the most feared hitters in the entire league.
Sherman is one of the most recognizable faces in the entire NFL, and has been for the better part of the decade. The five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro is notorious for his trash talk, off and on the field, as well as his elite coverage skills. He made perhaps the most famous play in team history, The Tip, to help send the Seahawks to the Super Bowl in 2013.
Sherman and Chancellor are two of the best fifth round picks in NFL history, and the team has also had success with punter Michael Dickson and defensive end Quinton Jefferson – more than making up for their relatively pedestrian draft performances in the third and fourth rounds.
Sixth Round: Byron Maxwell and Jeremy Lane
The sixth round hasn’t been the kindest to the Seahawks in the last 20 years – although things appear to be on the up and up. Recent selections include Travis Homer (2019) and Joey Hunt (2016) who are both contributors to the current team, and Spencer Ware (2013) and Jacob Martin (2018) both found some success in the NFL as well.
The top two sixth rounders for Seattle in the past 20 years, however, are both fringe members of the Legion of Boom: defensive backs Byron Maxwell (2011) and Jeremy Lane (2012).
Maxwell was with the team from 2011-2014 and again in 2017, recording 82 combined tackles, 33 passes defended, seven interceptions and four forced fumbles while serving as a depth option in the secondary.
Lane had a similar role, playing with Seattle from 2012-2017 as a nickel corner and versatile backup, racking up 146 combined tackles, 15 passes defended and two picks while in a Seahawks uniform.
Neither Maxwell or Lane were elite, but their roles were integral to Seattle’s success in the early-2010’s, and both are considered members of the Legion of Boom. As sixth round picks, you could do much, much worse.
Seventh Round: Chris Carson
It takes until the seventh round for Seattle’s top selection in the past two decades to not be a member of the team’s Legion of Boom era – a testament to just how absurdly good the Seahawks drafted in that time frame.
While linebacker Malcolm Smith, who was the MVP of Super Bowl XLVII, was a seventh round pick in 2011, the best seventh rounder of the past 20 years for Seattle is no doubt running back Chris Carson.
Carson, 25, has already dealt with multiple injury issues in his young career. However, when he’s on the field he has proven he is among the league’s best running backs, having rushed for over 1,100 yards in each of the past two seasons.
While the Seahawks may be behind the times analytically, they proved that running back talent can be found in the later portions of the NFL draft – a trend they immediately didn’t follow when they selected Rashaad Penny in the first round the following year.
Smith is Seattle’s second most successful seventh round pick, but the team also nabbed guard J.R. Sweezy and running back Justin Forsett in the seventh round this millenium, as well as wide receiver David Moore.
UDFA: Doug Baldwin
Wilson in the third, Chancellor and Sherman in the fifth, and Carson in the seventh will go down as some of John Schneider’s best moves of all-time, but the signing of undrafted free agent receiver Doug Baldwin certainly belongs on this list as well.
Baldwin went undrafted out of Stanford, likely because of his relatively small size. However, he emerged as an immediate threat in the slot and became one of the most reliable receivers in the entire NFL, forging a near-instant connection with Russell Wilson.
Baldwin’s career came to an end after the 2018 season, as he retired thanks to a myriad of injuries that impacted him in his final campaign.
Baldwin is one of the league’s finest undrafted free agents, but he isn’t Seattle’s only success story in that area.
Jermaine Kearse was another one of Wilson’s favorite targets in the Legion of Boom era, and he also joined the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent, coming to the team from nearby University of Washington. All told, he racked up 2,109 receiving yards in the Emerald City, frequently displaying the ability to come down with clutch receptions when needed.
Lastly, 2018 UDFA Poona Ford followed up an excellent rookie season with a strong sophomore campaign. The former Texas DT is a stout run-stuffer who uses his leverage extremely well, and has already proven to be well-worth the price of an undrafted free agent – another in a long line of successful pickups by Schneider and company.
