NFL College Draft Begins Thursday

 The college draft for the NFL starts Thursday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The way draft works now the first night will be only the first round. Friday night will be the second and the third round while the rest of the draft fourth through the seventh will take place on Saturday.

I am not a big fan of watching the draft except possibly early with big time quarterbacks being taken like last year. This year there will be no quarterbacks taken early.

I usually will listen to some of the draft on the radio depending what I have planned for the weekend. This year I have something happening all day Saturday so I will read to see who the Seattle Seahawks will draft.

The Seahawks have the number 26 overall pick however they may drop down. There is talk that they may trade with Atlanta and swap the 26^th for the Falcons 31^st. If so they may get the Falcons fourth round pick with it. It was reported on Wednesday however nothing has taken place as of yet.

The Seahawks made the trade of Marshawn Lynch on Wednesday to the Oakland Raiders. The Seahawks will swap draft picks with the Raiders however the pick will be in next year’s draft. I am sure what pick it will be may depend on how Marshawn does in the upcoming season.

Besides the Seahawks get in this draft I am always interested in where the Washington Huskies players will land along with other local players. The Huskies could have four players going in the first round. The very least would be three. Wide receiver John Ross who is the fastest runner on the planet may go somewhere in the middle of the first round. The team that Ross goes to will depend on whether they need receiver or a punt/kick-off returner; I believe he will start his career out on the special teams. Depending on the team he could be one of the starting wide receivers. They can use him as a deep threat as well.

The Huskies have three defensive backs that will go in the early rounds of the draft. Safety Budda Baker and cornerback Kevin King are likely first round picks. The Seahawks could take either one in the draft if they are available. I know the Seahawks are looking for a long term replacements for Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas so Baker could be the answer. Starting out most likely he would be in the nickel defense for the Seahawks. King on the other hand could be another shut down corner the Seahawks could use across from Richard Sherman. Although there were talks about trading Sherman it most likely not to happen. I am sure glad of that and to be honest tired of all the about trading Sherman. Like usual the sport writers and those on sports radio have nothing better to do during the off-season than to rub stories down our throats. Repeating the same thing over and over again like it is the first time we have heard it is tiresome as far as I am concerned. In fact so much that I turned the radio off when hearing about Sherman and not reading anything on him in the paper or on line. Also the reason I haven’t said much about him either.

The third defensive back who will be drafted is Sidney Jones. He was expected to be a first round pick as well before being injured after the Huskies season was over. I expect though he still go in the second or third round unless someone decides to gamble on him and pick him early any way. He would be another good pick up for the Seahawks as well.

Besides the secondary the Seahawks could look at drafting an offensive lineman in the first round. There has been speculation on different guys which I won’t get into because I am sure most of you have already heard about them if you follow the Seahawks closely.

In the mid to later rounds the Seahawks will probably go for more defensive players.  I would not be surprised if they go for a defensive line or linebacker. Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett are both over thirty so a good lineman would be nice. Also Coach Carroll said when the season was over they would like to get a linebacker that could replace or compete with K.J. Wright and Bobby Wagner. Although it may sound to think about replacing them a team has to look at it even if it is a few years down the road. Wright is 27 years old while Wagner is 26 so they do have a few years remaining but a plan has to be in action.

Outside of offensive line most likely no other offensive players will be taken unless the Seahawks see a good player available especially a quarterback that could backup Russell Wilson and play some if Wilson gets hurt again like last year. The Seahawks most likely bring in a veteran quarterback to compete for the backup spot. Trevone Boykin who was last year’s backup got into some trouble during the off-season so depending on how things go his future is in doubt.

The Seahawks signed running back Eddy Lacy to compete for playing time with Thomas Rawls. Both players were out with injuries last season though Rawls did get in some action near the end of the season. C.J. Prosise who the drafted last year was expected to be the third down back didn’t play a lot last season either because of injuries did look good in flashes. He could be the third down back projected again if he can stay healthy or get into some further action as well. Alex Collins another running back the Seahawks drafted last year showed some good signs playing at the end of the season so he could be competing for playing time too. The Seahawks most likely won’t draft a running back unless the best player available however may sign one or two in college free agency.

The wide receiver position the Seahawks probably won’t draft unless the best play available at the time. They will likely sign one or two of them in college free agency as well.

Anyway it will be interesting to see once again what the Seahawks will do once again. Go Hawks.