With the NFL Scouting Combine underway in Indianapolis, it’s time to take a look at the Seahawks’ roster and see where they might be looking to add talent. Like any good team, the Seahawks will tell you they don’t draft strictly by need, but the current roster does influence how general manager John Schneider and his scouting department put together a draft board. Not every need will be filled in the draft—free agency is coming up in March—but the draft remains the single most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to building a roster, which is why last month’s Senior Bowl, this week’s combine and all the other elements of draft preparation are so important for the Seahawks and every team in the league.
Throughout this week, we’ll look at where the Seahawks stand at each position prior to the draft and free agency.
Cornerback
Level of need: High
Why: After losing Walter Thurmond and Brandon Browner in free agency, the Seahawks lacked depth at corner, which caught up to them midseason when injuries took their toll. At full strength, the Seahawks were still very strong in the secondary, but now they could be headed into 2015 even thinner at corner. Starter Byron Maxwell is a free agent, and while the Seahawks would love to keep them, GM John Schneider sounds resigned to the fact that they might not be able to afford Maxwell. Schneider also revealed at the combine that nickel corner Jeremy Lane suffered a knee injury in addition to a broken arm in the Super Bowl, and will need surgery. If Lane isn’t able to make it back for the start of the season, that would leave the Seahawks with just four healthy corners on their current roster: Richard Sherman, Tharold Simon, Marcus Burley and DeShawn Shead, who is more of a hybrid safety/corner than a pure cornerback. Obviously that isn’t enough depth heading into the season, so expect the Seahawks to add to this position, both in the draft and possibly free agency as well.
The good news for the Seahawks is that they’ve drafted and developed cornerbacks very well under Pete Carroll and Schneider without investing a lot of draft capital to do so. Thurmond (who, by the way, might be a fairly inexpensive option in free agency) was taken in the fourth round in 2010, but since then every corner Seattle has picked under Carroll/Schneider has been in the fifth round or later, including key contributors like Sherman (fifth-round), Maxwell (sixth) and Lane (sixth).
Top players available*:
1. Trae Waynes, Michigan State
2. Marcus Peters, Washington
3. Jalen Collins, LSU
4. P.J. Williams, Florida State
5. Kevin Johnson, Wake Forest
*—According to the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock, who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do.
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