Going into the draft, I figured that I had a pretty strong beat on what the Seattle Seahawks were going to do under Pete Carroll's guidance-Lots of Pac ten and USC guys and little else.
Instead, the Seahawks did a solid job and added two veteran backs through dealing with draft choices.
Surprised?
Yes and pleasantly so.
One could make an argument that the Seahawks might have had the best draft in the league when you consider the additions of Leon Washington and Lendale White as part of the draft.
Seattle's first-rounders were certainly hard to argue with when you see the top offensive tackle and the second-best safety soon to be wearing Seahawk blue.
Oklahoma State's Russell Okung was the best tackle in the draft, despite being the second one off the board as Washington did what they always do and take projection over proven talent in Trent Williams.
Okung will slide right into the huge shoes of Walter Jones and hopefully entrench himself at left tackle for the next ten years or so.
Texas safety Earl Thomas arrived with the first-round pick obtained last season from Denver and even though I like Joe Haden as the Browns top pick, I think Thomas would have been an even better pick.
Between a possible future Pro Bowl tackle and an impact safety, Seattle used their first two picks to attack their top two needs for the team.
Seattle moved down in round two and out of round three in the Charlie Whitehurst trade with the Chargers, so they had to make their pick count and they took Golden Tate, the wideout from Notre Dame.
Tate is more of a playmaker than a true wideout and should be effective in such a role as well as being active in the return game.
I do have concerns about Tate though as he has been a player totally involved with the offense and now needs to adjust to a supporting role.
Seattle made some trades on day three and added Leon Washington from the Jets and Lendale White from the Titans.
Washington should bring some help for the short passing game and White steps into the short-yardage role.
I would be surprised if this doesn't mean the end of Julius Jones in Seattle.
Cornerback Walter Townsend of Oregon and defensive end E.J.Wilson of North Carolina was selected as the Seattle fourth rounders.
Townsend is a solid cover corner type that fell in the draft after a severe knee injury in his senior season, while Wilson is more of a power rusher type off the end that plays the run better than most.
Virginia Tech safety Kam Chancellor was the fifth-round pick.
Chancellor was a productive college player and is a hard-hitting type that could be a tweener as not big enough to play linebacker and not fast enough to stay at safety full time.
Pete Carroll took just one of his USC players and it was the talented, but underachieving tight end, Anthony McCoy.
McCoy has all the physical tools to be a standout but never seemed to stay healthy and wasn't exactly Kellen Winslow when he was in the lineup.
Undersized hybrid DE/LB Dexter Davis of Arizona State was the seventh-round pick.
Davis was a college end that must move to linebacker in the NFL.
The final pick was the draftnik's sleeper in Jameson Konz of Kent State.
Konz wowed scouts with his workouts before the draft and could be a developmental type as a smaller pass-catching tight end and should at least help on special teams as he started his college career as a linebacker.
All and all-I like this draft and it has huge potential, especially if one of the tight ends develops from the late rounds.
Consider me both surprised and pleased for the Seahawks...
Photo Credit-Ted Warren-USA Today
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