The Seahawks clearly had high hopes for L.J. Collier when they selected the defensive end in the first round of the 2019 draft. However, through the first three games of Collier’s third professional season, the player has seen only 20 defensive snaps and has been inactive in two of three games. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton was asked about Collier’s lack of playing time, and the coach simply pointed to the depth chart.
“It came down to competition,” Norton said (via ESPN’s Brady Henderson on Twitter). “It came down to being able to play, being able to make quick decisions…and right now we felt like [Robert] Nkemdiche was a little ahead of him.”
Collier barely played during his rookie campaign, but he took on a more significant role in 2020. The defensive lineman started each of the Seahawks 16 games last year, collecting 22 tackles and three sacks. He also started Seattle’s playoff game.
However, he’s found himself buried on the depth chart once again in 2021. Nkemdiche, a recent practice squad promotion, had even jumped ahead of Collier on the depth chart. Fortunately for the 26-year-old, he could have a role this weekend while Kerry Hyder recovers from a concussion.
Seahawks are the worst 1st round drafting team in the league
It’s bizarre how the Seahawks haven’t had the same success in that round compared to others but there are no guaranteed stars when you pick in the bottom 3rd of the 1st round.
The Seahawks and Raiders have the most bizarre draft boards. Seattle is usually pretty good at finding decent players later in the draft (so I guess that kind of cancels it out), but pretty much every year their first rounder is completely out of the blue. Jordyn Brooks is pretty solid though.
Agreed. Collier and Brooks were both head scratchers for the slot they were picked in. Brooks is turning out okay, but every year it seems Seattle has a much different first round valuation than the rest of the league. Seattle’s picks in the first and second always are confusing-I wouldn’t say bad outright, but confusing. Collier and Brooks both felt like reaches to me, but like I said, Brooks is turning out okay. If he continues to play well and improve that will be good validation for Schneider and Carroll.
I think Seattle just has its own specific type of player that they go after. A lot of teams look at prospects and figure out how they want them to fit or what they can do to adjust to them, but Seattle looks for very specific physical traits that they like to fit their scheme. It seems that cheapens early picks but ups the value of later picks by evening out the players. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I would say that with that approach, I’d personally trade down more to grab more picks, but that’s me.
Come on now. In the Pete Carroll era they’ve had three picks in total higher than 25. And those were Russel Okung (6), Earl Thomas (14) and Bruce Irvin (15). Pretty good actually. By just saying ”first rounders” you equate picks 25-32 with the top ten picks wich isn’t fair. Add to that that they’ve gotten Jarran Reed, Frank Clark, Bobby Wagner and DJ Metcalf in the second round.
Not fair? They’re first round picks. First round picks don’t stop after the first fifteen. We’re calling them first round picks because that’s what they are.
Hawks should always, always trade their first rounder for multiple picks, simply because they don’t pick well in the first, but do in later rounds.