Today is the day. After months of speculation, and too many mock drafts to count, the Seattle Seahawks will finally decide who they are selecting at No. 18 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft – or at the very least, whether they are trading the pick to acquire more selections.
Either way, it’s a good time to reflect on the history of the draft and to remind ourselves that not every great NFL player was taken in the first or second round.
Heck, Seattle fans should know this better than anyone. Some of their most iconic players from the past (Dave Krieg, Richard Sherman) and the present (Doug Baldwin, Kam Chancellor) were very late round selections, or not selected at all.
Here’s a look at the best current Seahawks players, based on where they were selected in the NFL Draft.
Note, not all players were drafted by the Seahawks
Round 1: Earl Thomas
The Seahawks nabbed Thomas with the No. 14 overall pick out of Texas back in 2010. That’s gone splendidly, as perhaps the most impressive member of the Legion of Boom has made six Pro Bowls and been named an All-Pro three times.
Honorable Mention: Duane Brown
Round 2: Bobby Wagner
Wagner was taken No. 47 overall in 2012 out of unheralded Utah State. One of the team leaders, Wagner has been named an All-Pro two years in a row and three times overall.
Honorable Mention: Justin Britt
Round 3: Russell Wilson
Arguably the most well-known example of a player falling in the draft and proving the doubters wrong, Wilson has done literally everything for the Seahawks since being selected in the third round of the 2012 draft, just 28 picks after Wagner.
Honorable Mention: Cliff Avril
Round 4: KJ Wright
Wright was selected in the fourth round of the 2011 draft. He’s been a mainstay on Seattle’s defense since then, racking up 465 tackles and a Pro Bowl appearance in 2016.
Honorable Mention: Mike Davis
Round 5: Kam Chancellor
A neck injury has Chancellor’s career in jeopardy, but even if this is the end of the line what a career for the fifth round pick from 2010. Chancellor has made four Pro Bowls, and alongside Thomas and Sherman formed one of the most feared secondaries in NFL history.
Honorable Mention: Oday Aboushi
Round 6: Michael Tyson
The Seahawks have very few sixth-round selections on their current squad, but 2017 sixth-round pick Mike Tyson seems like he could pack a punch in Seattle’s secondary in the near future.
Round 7: Chris Carson
Carson exploded out of the gate last season, rushing 49 times for 208 yards in the first four games of the season before a knee injury ended his rookie season prematurely. The 2017 seventh-rounder is ahead on the depth chart and should get a chance to truly break out next year.
Honorable Mention: Shamar Stephen
Undrafted: Doug Baldwin
One of the NFL’s best slot receivers, Doug Baldwin was snapped up by the Seahawks after going undrafted out of Stanford in 2014. Proof that just because a player doesn’t hear their name called on draft day, doesn’t mean they won’t be an NFL contributor.
Honorable Mention(s): Tanner McEvoy, Tom Johnson, George Fant
John Schneider and Pete Carroll have been cleaning up their draft board over the last month or so to ensure that in the next few years, multiple players from this upcoming draft will appear on this list.
