The Seattle Seahawks lost to the Cowboys in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, but they can keep building for the future in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The Seattle Seahawks came into the Wild Card Round of the 2019 NFL Playoffs with hopes of potentially making a little bit of a run. Despite the fact that many thought that this would be a down year for Pete Carroll’s team, he coached his team beautifully, rebuilding the defense on the fly and establishing a running game that no one saw coming to complement Russell Wilson and his abilities at quarterback.
Unfortunately for the Seahawks, that didn’t translate to success in the postseason. In a hard-fought game on Saturday night against the Dallas Cowboys, neither unit had enough juice to get it done. The most unfortunate part may have been the injury to Sebastian Janikowski at the end of the first half, which took him out and made him unable to take the final onside kick for Seattle.
Even still, the Seahawks are in a much better position for the future than many previously had thought. With the Legion of Boom all but wholly disbanding, the offensive line remaining questionable, the defensive front having suffered losses as well and so on, it wasn’t far-fetched to say that Seattle was on the precipice of a rebuild.
Instead, this team is a playoff contender that now just needs to fill certain holes before they can start turning their eyes to the Super Bowl again. Of course, that will be difficult to do in the 2019 NFL Draft, as they only have four selections. Even though that’s a severely limited amount of draft capital, the Seahawks can address major needs.
And that’s what they can do here in this 7-round 2019 mock draft following their Wild Card Round loss.
Round 1: Deandre Baker, CB, Georgia
With the departures that the Seahawks have seen in recent years, their secondary has taken a major hit. The Legion of Boom that made the Seattle defense the stuff of legends in recent years is no more. While Earl Thomas leaving could indeed leave the Seahawks with some big holes at safety moving forward, where they already had noticeable holes in the 2018 season was at cornerback.
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The hope for the Seahawks was that they might see Shaquill Griffin become a viable No. 1 option on the outside. However, that did not come to fruition and the group as a whole was left with some up-and-down play throughout the secondary. Be it Justin Coleman or Tre Flowers or Akeem King, it’s abundantly clear that the Seahawks need to add more talent and youth at cornerback if they are going to survive on defense in the pass-happy NFL.
That’s where Georgia cornerback Deandre Baker could come into the fold as the Seahawks’ first pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. While he may not have the big-time size that we’ve seen from Seattle cornerbacks in the past, he is the type of player that fits what they like to do and what could help them.
Baker is terrific in man coverage and a physical, sticky presence on the outside. While he might not be a tremendous athlete in terms of his speed, he rarely gets beat with his ability to press and stay on his man. That’s the way that the Seattle Seahawks defense win and Baker can help them continue to do that moving forward.
Round 3: Yodny Cajuste, OT, West Virginia
The offensive line for the Seattle Seahawks has no doubt been a point of concern for them in many recent years. There have been far too many instances of Russell Wilson having to run for his life just to make something positive happen on a given play. That’s not a recipe for success and, in truth, the talent level with the Seattle offensive line is still not much to write home about.
Having said that, the Seahawks made one of the most underrated assistant coaching hires heading into the 2018 season with Mike Solari as the offensive line coach. While he didn’t have tremendous talent to work with, the Seahawks line played by far the best that they have in some time under his direction, which helped the team ultimately avoid a down year and establish their newfound run game.
While that’s all great, Solari’s job and the plight of the Seattle offense with Chris Carson, Rashaad Penny and Mike Davis leading the way would be easier if they were able to bring more talent onto the offensive line, particularly at tackle. West Virginia product Yodny Cajuste could be the perfect man for that job.
Cajuste is a powerful player on the edge of the line that wins with his strength and punch. He’s not a great athlete nor is he exceptionally quick. However, for what the Seahawks like to do in their run game and how they play right now as a whole, he’d be an ideal fit for them and a talent upgrade on either the right or left side of the line.
Round 4: Wyatt Ray, EDGE, Boston College
Despite key departures in terms of the Seahawks edge rushers heading into the 2018 season, they were still able to get solid production out of guys like Frank Clark and others on the edge. Even still, moving forward the Seattle defense needs a player that they can rotate and, hopefully, develop into a full-time complement to put across from Clark on the edge for the future of this unit.
There’s no question that Boston College senior Wyatt Ray has the potential to be that player. The 6-3, 250-pound edge rusher really broke out for the Eagles this season with 11.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks on the season. However, the consistency wasn’t there with performance or production. What is there, though, is the physical tools to be a force of an edge rusher in the NFL.
With the coaching in Seattle, he could be a stud sooner rather than later.
Round 5: Antoine Wesley, WR, Texas Tech
Though Texas Tech’s lack of success may have gotten Kliff Kingsbury fired, the man knew how to run an offense and that surely included getting Antoine Wesley involved. The junior wide receiver caught 88 balls for 1,410 yards and nine touchdowns on the season, proving to be the heart of the Red Raiders offense.
While the Seattle Seahawks have solid players the like of Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett, what they lack in their wide receiver corps is solid depth. A player like Wesley would help provide them just that, so landing him in the fifth round with their final pick of the 2019 NFL Draft would be a wise move by this team.