Finding Multiple Gems in 2022, Seahawks Continue to Prioritize Senior Bowl Prospects

With Pete Carroll and John Schneider at the helm, Seattle has always placed an emphasis on the Senior Bowl as an evaluative tool, drafting a whopping 36 players who participated in Mobile, including six in their heralded 2022 class.

As the calendar turns to February, the vast majority of the NFL's 32 teams have turned their attention to preparing for the 2023 NFL Draft.

Ushering in draft season on an annual basis, the Senior Bowl kicked off in Mobile, Alabama on Tuesday with over 100 prospects looking to impress coaches and scouts with the actual draft still three months away.

Since arriving as a tandem in 2010, Seahawks general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll have placed a clear emphasis on the Senior Bowl as an assessment tool for prospects. During their 13 seasons running the show, Seattle has drafted 36 players who participated in the event and signed several other participants as undrafted free agents.

As scouts for the Seahawks and other teams evaluate this year's crop of prospects, here's a look at every Senior Bowl player who has been drafted by Seattle in the past 13 seasons.

2010: Anthony McCoy

In Carroll's first season at the helm, he brought one of his former recruits at USC into the fold by selecting McCoy in the sixth round. The young tight end only played in two games as a rookie, but he flashed promise during the next two seasons for the Seahawks, catching 31 passes for 437 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately, multiple Achilles tendon injuries ruined his career and he played in just three games from 2013 to 2015 before retiring from football.

2011: James Carpenter, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, John Moffitt

Beginning to build an eventual Super Bowl champion, Schneider and his scouting staff got a close look at Sherman and Wright as defensive standouts at the 2011 Senior Bowl.

Carroll already knew Sherman well from coaching against him in the Pac-12, as USC and Stanford established a nasty rivalry in the late 2000s. Despite lacking the elite speed of other cornerbacks in the draft class, the lengthy, ball-hawking Sherman fit exactly what Carroll was looking for on the outside and the unheralded fifth-round pick became a perennial All-Pro in the Pacific Northwest. Before being released in March 2018, he picked off 32 passes and registered 99 pass deflections in seven seasons with Seattle.

Wright also blossomed as a mid-round diamond in the rough, starting 12 games at weakside linebacker as a rookie and becoming a key factor on the league's top scoring defense each season from 2012 to 2015. He posted 100 or more tackles five times with the Seahawks, including a career-high 132 tackles in 2019, and currently sits third all-time on the franchise's tackles list.

As for Carpenter and Moffitt, neither guard lasted with the Seahawks beyond the 2014 season. Carpenter battled injury and weight issues in four seasons with the team, though he did start in both of Seattle's Super Bowl appearances and earned a lucrative free agent contract from the New York Jets. Moffitt dealt with off-field issues and after being dealt to Denver before the 2013 season, he played in just two games before announcing his retirement.

While his time in Seattle ended on ugly terms, Russell Wilson owns every major passing record in Seahawks history

2012: Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, Jaye Howard

The 2012 Senior Bowl featured star power that rivals any other group of players in the all-star game's history, but organizers didn't necessarily know it at the time. As a result, the Seahawks snagged two future Hall of Famers with day two selections.

Undersized at 5-foot-10, Wilson arrived in Mobile simply looking to prove he could play quarterback at the NFL level. The Seahawks wound up selecting him in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft and the rest is history. He became an immediate starter after beating out Matt Flynn and he shattered the franchise record books with 292 touchdown passes and 37,059 passing yards while leading Seattle to the playoffs eight times. During a decade in Seattle before being dealt to Denver last March, he made eight Pro Bowls and finally broke through with his first All-Pro selection in 2019.

Wilson wasn't the only Canton-bound talent that the Seahawks observed in Mobile, however. Showcasing his skills against elite competition, Wagner used a strong week of practice as well as a standout performance in the Senior Bowl to bolster his draft stock. Schneider nabbed the Utah State star as a second round steal and he became an immediate starter, generating 140 combined tackles as a rookie. In his decade with the organization, Wagner earned six First-Team All-Pro selections and eight Pro Bowl nods while racking up a team-record 1,383 combined tackles in eight seasons.

Due to a deep and talented defensive line, Howard only played in two games with Seattle after being drafted in the fourth round out of Florida and was released prior to the 2013 season. Finding his niche in Kansas City, he enjoyed a breakout 2015 season with 57 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Injuries limited him the next season and he was out of the league by 2017.

2013: Chris Harper, Jordan Hill, Ty Powell

While Seattle uncovered two generational talents in the 2012 Senior Bowl, the following year wasn't near as fruitful for the organization. As part of his worst draft class with the Seahawks, Schneider used three draft picks on Senior Bowl participants and two of them never played a down with the team.

Selected in the fourth round out of Kansas State, Harper was released before the start of his rookie season and after brief stints with the Giants, 49ers, and Packers, he washed out of the league in 2015 with zero receptions to his name. Powell was also cut by Seattle at the end of the preseason, but at least the seventh-round pick contributed for another team. The linebacker out of Division II Harding appeared in 19 games for Buffalo in 2013 and 2014, registering 23 tackles, a sack, and two tackles for loss.

Injuries shortened Hill's career, but the third-round pick out of Penn State was one of the few players in Seattle's 2013 class who actually produced on the field for a brief moment. He finished with 5.5 sacks and three fumble recoveries during the 2014 season, providing a capable interior rotational rusher behind Brandon Mebane and Tony McDaniel. He played three years for the Seahawks before spending his final NFL season with the Jaguars.

2014: Kevin Norwood

While the 2014 NFL Draft wasn't near as poor as the previous class, Seattle didn't hit on any Senior Bowl selections for a second straight season.

Unlike Harper, Norwood maintained a spot on Seattle's 53-man roster as a rookie and appeared in nine games, catching nine passes for 102 yards. However, a few additions to the depth chart the next season made him expendable and the Seahawks traded him to the Panthers for a conditional seventh-round pick in September 2015. He played in one game for Carolina before being released and has been out of the league since 2017.

Tyler Lockett joined Steve Largent as only the second player in Seahawks history with four straight 1,000-yard receiving seasons in 2022 / © Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

2015: Tyler Lockett

Finally ending a two-year run of bad luck with Senior Bowl prospects, the Seahawks uncovered a game-changer in Lockett, who has been quietly climbing up the franchise record books.

Despite putting up gaudy numbers at Kansas State, Lockett wasn't viewed in many scouting circles as a legitimate NFL prospect due to his lack of size. But the speedy receiver dominated against some of the country's best cornerbacks in Mobile and thanks to his special teams prowess, he became a coveted asset on day two. Seattle traded four picks to Washington to move up to the No. 69 pick in the third round to select him and he's amassed over 7,100 receiving yards and 54 touchdowns in eight NFL seasons.

2016: Jarran Reed, Nick Vannett, Quinton Jefferson

Though they didn't uncover any superstars like they did in 2011 and 2012, the Seahawks fared fairly well with Senior Bowl prospects in 2016.

Viewed by some as a fringe first-round prospect, the Seahawks traded up in the second round to snag Reed, who was known primarily as an early down run stuffer at Alabama. After being limited as a pass rusher during his first two years with the Seahawks, he broke out with 10.5 sacks and 24 quarterback hits in 2018, finishing second on the team behind Frank Clark in both categories. A six-game suspension hindered his production in 2019, but he ended his tenure in Seattle on a better note with 6.5 sacks before departing after the 2020 season.

Jefferson looked like a fourth-round miss during the early stages of his NFL career, but being released by Seattle prior to the 2017 season seemed to be the wake-up call he needed. He briefly spent time on the Rams practice squad before the Seahawks re-signed him to their active roster following a career-ending injury to defensive end Cliff Avril. With one-year runs in Las Vegas and Buffalo sandwiched between two stints in the Pacific Northwest, he's registered 88 tackles, 13.0 sacks, and 42 quarterback hits in 56 games over five seasons with the franchise.

Drafted out of Ohio State in the third round, Vannett lasted three-plus seasons in Seattle. Overcoming back issues that plagued him during his first two seasons, he caught 29 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns in 2018. After three games this year, the Seahawks dealt him to the Steelers for a 2020 fifth-round draft choice.

2017: Ethan Pocic, Amara Darboh, Justin Senior

Rivaling the trio of Senior Bowl participants drafted in 2013, the 2017 class also featured several players who failed to contribute for the Seahawks.

Enamored by his size, athletic traits, and experience running routes out of the slot, Schneider used a third-round pick on Darboh with hopes he would emerge as a complement to Lockett and Doug Baldwin. Following a disappointing rookie season in which he caught just eight passes, the former Michigan star was released by Seattle during the middle of the preseason in August 2019 and never played in another regular season game.

Earning 11 starts at guard as a rookie, Pocic appeared poised to be an integral part of Seattle's offensive line for the foreseeable future. But the inability to stay healthy has prevented him from building off a promising first season, as he missed 23 regular season games due to injuries in his final four seasons with the organization. He departed for Cleveland last spring and turned in a solid season for the Browns.

Senior, a sixth-round draft choice out of Mississippi State, was also a fifth-round draft pick in the 2017 CFL Draft. He signed his four-year rookie deal with Seattle, but never played a game with the team, landing on injured reserve and eventually reaching an injury settlement with the team in December 2017. He signed with Kansas City briefly before washing out of the league.

When healthy, Rashaad Penny has been one of the NFL's most dynamic runners, but that has rarely happened in five NFL seasons

2018: Rashaad Penny, Shaquem Griffin, Poona Ford

While the three players Seattle drafted or signed from the Senior Bowl in 2018 all showed flashes of promise, ironically, the undrafted addition has proven to have the best career to this point.

Despite struggling through a rough week of practices, Penny exploded in the Senior Bowl game, rushing nine times for 64 yards and catching a 73-yard touchdown reception. Impressed with his burst and size, the Seahawks surprisingly used a first-round pick on Penny and unfortunately, constant injuries prevented him from fulfilling on his immense potential. When healthy, he has been one of the best runners in the NFL, averaging 5.7 yards per carry for his career. But he has missed a combined 40 regular season games in five seasons, limiting him to 1,918 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Playing multiple positions and impressing coaches, Griffin earned "Practice Player of the Week" honors in Mobile for his efforts at the Senior Bowl. Still, concerns about finding a position for him in the NFL persisted and he wasn't drafted until the fifth round when Seattle reunited him with his twin brother Shaquill Griffin. Primarily playing special teams in his first two seasons, he came on strong as a situational edge rusher in the second half of the 2019 season. Nonetheless, he was waived the following season and didn't play in another regular season game.

Going undrafted out of Texas, Ford has easily been the best player Seattle added from the 2018 Senior Bowl. Much like Wilson and Lockett before him, he was battling a stigma that he couldn't play in the league due to his lack of height. But being just 5-foot-10 has actually benefited him, as he consistently wins the leverage battle in the trenches and exhibits elite quickness splitting gaps as a run defender. In five seasons with the Seahawks, he's started 64 games, producing 181 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, and 7.5 sacks.

2019: L.J. Collier, Marquise Blair, Gary Jennings

If there's a year that demonstrates how much Schneider and his staff value the Senior Bowl when it comes to assessing prospects, the 2019 class may do the trick. Both of Seattle's first two selections participated in Mobile, as Collier and Blair starred during the practice week at their respective positions.

Exhibiting heavy hands and positional versatility, the Seahawks were thrilled with Collier's performance in the Senior Bowl against some of the nation's best offensive linemen and opted to use their first-round pick on him. An ankle sprain cost him his entire first preseason, however, and he couldn't find a way to get on the field consistently in his four seasons with the team, producing a disappointing stat line with 40 tackles, 3.0 sacks, and 13 quarterback hits. Set to be a free agent, he earned the dreaded bust label.

Known for his hard-hitting ways and physical play style, Blair looked every bit like a Seahawks defensive back on film. But like Collier, he battled durability issues early in his tenure and after two severe knee injuries shortened his 2020 and 2021 seasons, the team moved on from him last August in favor of veterans Josh Jones and Ryan Neal. He latched on with the Panthers and dressed for three games last season.

Nearly falling into the same infamous category as Harper six years earlier, Jennings barely made Seattle's opening week roster after a dismal preseason performance and after failing to dress for a single game, he was released in November that season. He was claimed off waivers by Miami and dressed for one game before landing on injured reserve.

Though he hasn't carved out a consistent starting role, Darrell Taylor has been electric in spurts harassing quarterbacks for the Seahawks / © Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

2020: Jordyn Brooks, Darrell Taylor, Damien Lewis, Alton Robinson

Despite whiffing badly on several Senior Bowl selections in the previous draft, Schneider wasn't deterred from picking standouts from Mobile in 2020, though two of the players he picked didn't actually participate that week.

Recovering from injuries, Brooks and Taylor both were sidelined all week long. Still, the Seahawks snagged both players with their first two selections, hoping to bolster their defense with athletic young talent. Quickly finding his way into the starting lineup alongside Wagner, Brooks has racked up 402 tackles, 12 pass breakups, and 15 tackles for loss in 47 games over three seasons. After sitting out his entire rookie season, Taylor has been productive in spurts as a situational passer rusher with 16.0 sacks and 26 quarterback hits in two seasons.

Running their Senior Bowl picks to three in a row, the Seahawks snagged Lewis to upgrade their interior offensive line in the third round and he promptly won a starting job, earning PFWA All-Rookie Team honors. Injuries slowed him down in his sophomore campaign, but he bounced back with a strong 2022 season while starting 16 games at left guard and surrendering only three sacks. With one year left on his rookie deal, he will be playing for a second contract in 2023.

Picked in the fifth round, Robinson saw immediate action for Seattle as a rotational defensive end as a rookie, registering 4.0 sacks in limited playing time. He wasn't near as productive in 2021, recording only one sack while once again playing less than 35 percent of the team's defensive snaps. A knee injury cost him the entire 2022 season and he will be on the roster bubble when he returns to action this spring.

2021: Dee Eskridge, Tre Brown

Despite holding only three draft picks after trading for Jamal Adams and Gabe Jackson, the Seahawks stuck with their tendency of drafting Senior Bowl alumni in 2021.

Impressing scouts with his speed and big play ability in Mobile, Eskridge was one of the fast risers in the 2021 class and the Seahawks believed he would provide a spark from the slot to complement DK Metcalf and Lockett. Injuries have slowed him down in his first two seasons, however, as he missed a total of 17 games and only has caught 17 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown thus far. Next season will be a critical one for him to stay healthy and emerge as a contributor or he could be out of a job.

As for Brown, the fourth round pick out of Oklahoma thrived in a brief stint as a starter in Seattle's secondary as a rookie before injuring the patellar tendon in his knee. Sidelined for most of the 2022 season as a result, he lost his starting job to Mike Jackson and only appeared in six games, registering four tackles. He will look to earn his job back after an offseason without rehabbing and could still be part of the team's future defensively.

Named a Pro Bowler as a rookie, Tariq Woolen led all cornerbacks with six interceptions in 17 starts

2022: Boye Mafe, Abraham Lucas, Coby Bryant, Tariq Woolen, Tyreke Smith, Bo Melton

While a true assessment of Seattle's 2022 draft class won't come until a few years down the road, the heralded crop of talents played a starring role in pushing the organization back to the playoffs and looks like the best class since 2012.

On day two, Schneider used a pair of selections on Mafe and Lucas, who each enjoyed success to varying degrees as rookies. While he surrendered nine sacks in pass protection, Lucas started 16 out of 17 regular season games and exceeded expectations as a run blocker, earning PFF's All-Rookie Team accolades. As for Mafe, while he only started a handful of games, he amassed 3.0 sacks and played stout run defense off the edge, suggesting he could be a starter next season.

But where Schneider truly hit a home run came on day three when he stole Woolen, who turned heads with a historic combine performance, in the fifth round. Winning a starting job in Week 1, he became the first rookie in 23 years to intercept six passes and recover three fumbles in the same season, garnering Pro Bowl honors and being named a finalist for Defensive Rookie of the Year. Already a star, the sky looks to be the limit for the uber-athletic "Riq the Freak."

Before picking Woolen, the Seahawks actually drafted another cornerback in Bryant, the reigning Jim Thorpe Award winner. Taking Justin Coleman's job in the slot in Week 2, he punched out four fumbles and made a pair of sacks on nickel blitzes, showing off his versatility at a position he had not played previously. Like Woolen, he will have a chance to be a fixture in the secondary for years to come.

Scheider made two other Senior Bowl selections later on day three, using a fifth-round pick on Smith and a seventh-round pick on Melton. But neither played a down this season, as Smith landed on injured reserve in training camp and Melton was plucked off the practice squad by the Packers in December.

---

Hey, 12s! Get your Seahawks Tickets from SI Tickets ... HERE!

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Seahawks? Click Here to subscribe to AllSeahawks.com's Newsletter.

Follow All Seahawks.com on Twitter and Facebook

Make sure to subscribe to our daily podcast @lockedonseahawks today! Click here To Listen.

Want even more Seattle Seahawks news? Check out the SI.com team page here.