The Seahawks were able to obtain both the top cornerback and top wide receiver on their board last Thursday when they drafted Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon at No. 5 overall and Ohio State wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba at No. 20 overall. There had been rumors that Seattle had their eyes on Jalen Carter at No. 5, but with some troubling pre-draft issues, Carter wasn’t likely worth a top-five pick anymore.
A few teams had ideas of trading into Seattle’s pick and there’s a chance the Seahawks would’ve listened. General manager John Schneider, though, clarified that there were two players who would’ve prevented the Seahawks from trading down, according to Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times. Witherspoon happened to be one of them.
It’s unclear who the other player might have been or if they were even still available, but the Seahawks didn’t trade out of their top draft spot, so it’s clear that they were able to get their guy in Witherspoon.
Here are a few other rumors following the 2023 NFL Draft:
- New Steelers tight end Darnell Washington experienced a bit of a slide in the draft this weekend. The former-Georgia Bulldog had a first- to second-round grade going into the Thursday with many expecting him to be the fourth or fifth tight end off the board. Especially after a run of tight ends started in the second round, it was surprising not to hear Washington’s name called. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, injuries were the reason for the slide. Washington’s knee was a concern, but reportedly, there were other things on his medical that contributed to teams’ hesitancy, as well. The scout giving this information also called the slide “laughable,” asserting that he expects Washington to play for a long time in the NFL.
- The Jaguars had a number of Day 3 picks that they used on Saturday. 10 to be exact. It sounds like they tried to sell some of them off and failed. According to ESPN’s Michael DiRocco, Jacksonville’s general manager, Trent Baalke, attempted to trade up in the draft’s later round and got denied. Multiple times. “We went through 15 or 16 teams when we were trying to trade up,” Baalke told the media. “Every team behind us and not one would make a move.”
Imagine how great it would be to have that as many picks as the Jaguars did with a good GM.
Baalke’s run with the 49ers was semi successful, but it got really old with him picking at least one or two guys coming off of major injuries each year..
Hardly any of those picks ever worked out, and none became even consistent contributors that I can recall. Yet year after year he continued to draft another injured player, to no avail…
Not to mention the Jim Tomsula affair, and the power struggle with the admittedly hard headed Jim Harbaugh.
I don’t think his picks really were that great, even minus the injuries. We’ve got the giants, Arik Armstead and DeForrest Buckner, who were great and had good runs with the 9ers. I think that those were the best. Aldon Smith was obviously an absolute terror when paired with Justin Smith up front, but faded shortly afterward. Still, we’ve got to consider him a good pick. Eric Reid was a quality box safety for a while. Carlos Hyde had a good run, but a lot of his career came with other teams. I couldn’t really find any others. Jaquiski Tartt was around for a while, though he was never a top safety.
I checked an article on NinersNation posted in August 2018 before the start of that season, only a year after Baalke’s firing (His final season was the 2016 season). Out of 61 total picks he made, 57 percent were either released or retired within a year of his departure. Another ten players were traded away, mostly for lower value picks or players picked in a lower slot. If my math works out, that makes 45 out of 61 players that were drafted by Baalke who weren’t on the team within a year of his firing. That’s 73.77%. I really don’t think that that is an acceptable percentage, and that’s not even considering whatever allegations of being hard to work with.