NFL draft

Wheeling & dealing sets up ‘a fun weekend’

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NFL draftAs usual, the Seahawks’ draft will start on Day 2. If it seems like we say that every year, it’s because it has been that way in four of the past five drafts.

It’s not a bad way to do business at the bottom of the draft. Like last year, John Schneider & Co. did very well Thursday. Dropping just eight spots, they added another third-rounder, a high fourth and a seventh.

The Hawks have a league-high six picks today — the most Day 2 selections they have had under Schneider — and they have seven of the next 78 picks overall (counting the fourth pick in the fourth round).

As Schneider said, “It’s going to be a fun weekend.”

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NFL draft, Trades

Hawks could auction pick 34, too

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NFL draftGreen Bay holds the power to start Day 2 of the draft. Having moved down to pick 33, the Packers are now fielding calls from teams interested in moving up. The target for most probably is Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer.

Seattle’s pick, the second in the round, should be popular, too — whether it’s for a QB or another player who dropped out of the first round.

The Seahawks have a league-high six picks today — two in the second round, four in the third — and they aren’t against adding more.

“We have some freedoms here that could come to us, and we’re in a great spot in a couple of these rounds right now,” Pete Carroll said Thursday, after the Hawks traded down twice to net an extra third, a fourth and a seventh. “I imagine we’re not going to turn down phone calls. John will be working it.”

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NFL draft

Draft day live: Hawks trade down twice, out of first round

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NFL draft8:30 p.m. — The Seahawks will make their first pick on Friday.

After moving down five spots with Atlanta, the Seahawks then moved down three more in a deal with the 49ers, which netted them the second pick in round 2 and a fourth-rounder.

The Seahawks have now vacated the first round in four of the past five drafts.

Seattle has six picks on Friday and 10 overall.

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NFL draft

Draft day: Hawk eyes on Lamp & Bolles?

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NFL draftThe NFL’s Christmas Day has arrived. And it looks like the Seahawks are hoping to find one of two offensive linemen under their tree.

Some well-informed mock drafts are giving the Seahawks an offensive lineman at No. 26, either Western Kentucky’s Forrest Lamp or Utah’s Garett Bolles.

The first round figures to include four O-linemen, with as many as seven teams eyeing them. Seattle’s competition includes Baltimore (pick 16) and almost all of the teams in the 20s directly ahead of Seattle — Denver (20), Miami (22), New York Giants (23), Oakland (24), Houston (25).

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Franchise history, NFL draft

Hawks’ drafts went from historic to subpar

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NFL draftJohn Schneider set such a high standard in his first three drafts, it would be nearly impossible to match. So it’s no surprise that he hasn’t.

According to an excellent study put together by The Washington Post using Pro Football Reference’s Approximate Value (AV) rating, Schneider’s 2012 draft was the best in 20 years — as measured against expected value (EV). And his 2011 draft was fourth on that list.

That clearly was an impossible level to sustain.

As Schneider joked Monday: “How come that doesn’t happen anymore? What’s your problem, dude?”

The problem was how far the Seahawks dipped for a couple of years. And the hope is the 2016 and 2017 draft classes will bring them out of the slump.

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NFL draft, Trades

Schneider already talking trade down

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NFL draftIt looks like John Schneider is indeed poised to make his usual move down in the first round — apparently for an offensive lineman — but don’t expect any deal to be made until the Seahawks are on the clock Thursday.

The Falcons want to jump over a few teams for a pass rusher, per draft insider Tony Pauline. But they likely will want to make sure their guy is there when the draft hits pick No. 26.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, surely want to dangle the pick for as long as possible to get the best deal. The current talks involve Atlanta’s fourth-round pick, per Pauline — but that would be a poor return for Seattle.

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NFL draft, Trades

Will Schneider trade first pick for sixth straight draft?

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NFL draft“You want to have picks all the way through. You kind of look at Cleveland’s board (11 picks) like, ‘Dang, it’s awesome.’” — John Schneider

John Schneider always wants more draft picks. In his seven Seattle drafts, he has never had fewer than eight. At this point, he has seven for this week’s draft — including an impressive five in the first three rounds — but he seems quite likely to add to his stockpile.

He still could add picks by trading Marshawn Lynch and/or Richard Sherman — although the Oakland Raiders and Lynch still have not worked out a contract and Schneider repeated he is not expecting a Sherman deal.

“We’ve kind of moved past that,” he said Monday, reminding everyone the price for Sherman remains high. “The guy’s one of the top cornerbacks in the league. You don’t just give him away.”

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NFL draft, Trades

‘Quarterbacks are going to drive this draft’

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NFL draftThe problem with drafting in the bottom 10 picks of the first round is you are basically adding a second-round player for first-round money.

That’s largely why John Schneider has traded his first pick in each of the past five drafts — and is very likely to do it again, if the chance arises.

Twice in the last three years, Schneider has leveraged other teams’ desires for quarterbacks to net Seattle extra picks.

In 2014, with the Hawks picking last on the heels of their Super Bowl win, he let Minnesota come up from No. 40 to draft Teddy Bridgewater. He moved down another five spots in the second round and ended up with Paul Richardson, Cassius Marsh, Kevin Norwood and Kiero Small.

In 2016, Schneider got an even better deal, dangling Paxton Lynch to Denver, which paid a third-round pick to move from 31 to 26. The Seahawks used the 31st pick on Germain Ifedi and the third on Nick Vannett.

It looks like that same strategy could be in play again this year.

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State of the team, The roster, Trades

The search for ‘spark’

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Draft -- Schneider and Carroll“I think he’d admit that he had a rough year. So he’s looking for maybe a new spark and he’s either going to find that here in Seattle or he would find it somewhere else, but odds are he’s going to find it here.” 
— John Schneider on Richard Sherman.

That’s the key quote from Schneider’s interview with 710 ESPN on Thursday night.

Schneider also talked about mutual respect, constant communication and “a great relationship” between the Seahawks’ chiefs and the All-Pro cornerback. But the bottom line is in those words: “He had a rough year” and is “looking for maybe a new spark.”

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Schedule

After Green Bay, schedule is not bad

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2017 skedAside from a rough opener in Green Bay, the Seahawks got as good a schedule as they could have asked for as the NFL slate was announced Thursday.

They have no cold-weather games, only one 10 a.m. game and no back-to-back road games. They also play three of their four prime-time games at home and have a decently placed Week 6 bye.

The Seahawks will start the season with a very familiar foe as they head to Green Bay to play the Packers for the sixth time in six years. This one will bring a new twist as Eddie Lacy faces his old Packers teammates to open the season.

The Seahawks have not fared well in Green Bay, losing seven straight there by an average of 18.9 points, including a 38-10 blowout last December in which Russell Wilson played perhaps the worst game of his career.

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