NFC West: Carroll, Schneider score big with first draft in Seattle

Published on April 27, 2010 by Seahawk Fanatic

Seattle Seahawks: A+

Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider knocked it out of the park in their first draft. The Seahawks meticulously addressed their biggest needs with the selections of OT Russell Okung, S Earl Thomas and WR Golden Tate in the draft’s first two rounds. And Seattle took care of its woeful running back situation by trading for LenDale White and Leon Washington. Although they were unable to land an explosive pass rusher, the Seahawks grabbed an underrated player in E.J. Wilson. With the team able to fill several holes without mortgaging the future, the Seahawks deserve a lot of credit for their efforts.

Key picks:

Round 1 (6th overall): Russell Okung, OT, Oklahoma State
As a sound technician with outstanding feet and hands, Okung gives Matt Hasselbeck an exceptional blocker on the blind side. Although the Seahawks still have several voids to fill, they may have solved their biggest issue with the selection of Okung as their new left tackle.

Rd	Sel. #	Player	Pos.	School
Seahawks’ draft picks
1	6	Russell Okung	OT	Oklahoma State
1	14	Earl Thomas	SS	Texas
2	60	Golden Tate	WR	Notre Dame
4	111	Walter Thurmond	CB	Oregon
4	127	E.J. Wilson	DE	North Carolina
5	133	Kam Chancellor	FS	Virginia Tech
6	185	Anthony McCoy	TE	Southern California
7	236	Dexter Davis	DE	Arizona State
7	245	Jameson Konz	WR	Kent State

Round 1 (14th overall): Earl Thomas, SS, Texas
As an instinctive safety with exceptional range and awareness, Thomas will eliminate some of the big plays that plagued the defense a season ago. Additionally, his exceptional cover skills will allow the Seahawks to creatively use him in their nickel packages as a sub-defender in the slot. Given his multi-faceted skills, Thomas was a sensible pick for a Seahawks team in desperate need of playmakers on both sides of the ball.

Round 2 (60th overall): Golden Tate, WR, Notre Dame
Although Tate has been deemed too short to be a prototypical No.1 receiver, his outstanding running skills make him a special talent worthy of a key role in Seattle’s offense. In addition, he gives the Seahawks another player capable of producing points in the return game.

Seahawks 12th Man Army has now gone mobile! Go to http://www.noticeorange.com/r/Seahawks12thManArmy to get an app for your phone. It's free and it has alerts so that you'll know whenever Seahawks 12th Man Army has anything new. What could be better?

Tags: Blind Side, coach pete carroll, Desperate Need, Earl Thomas, First Draft, J Wilson, John Schneider, Kent State, Konz, Lendale White, Leon Washington, Matt Hasselbeck, Nfc West, Oklahoma State, Pass Rusher, Playmakers, Return Game, running back, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, Seattle Seattle, Sound Technician, Thurmond

Fair Use Notice This website may at times present copyrighted material, the use of which might not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understandings of democratic, economic, environmental, human rights, political, scientific, and social justice issues, among others. The author believes that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U. S. Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the articles published on this website are distributed without profit for research and informational purposes. In most instances a link is placed to originator of Article and it is never expressly mentioned as written by, we use published by certain entities who write or publish for this said Blog..