Seattle Seahawks: Revisiting the botched 2016 NFL Draft

Third Round

C.J. Prosise

As I mentioned earlier, Lynch retired after the 2015 season and the only real contributor in the backfield besides him was Rawls. Technically, Christine Michael and Fred Jackson saw touches for Seattle, but they didn’t stand out as key players on the roster.

While Rawls, an undrafted rookie, did well in 2015, he missed the final two weeks of the season with a significant injury and the Seahawks were suspicious about whether he could replicate his success the following season. So the team took C.J. Prosise out of Notre Dame with the 90th overall pick.

Prosise was a one-year standout in college. He only became a star contributor in his senior season when he switched from wide receiver to running back. He started 10 games in his final collegiate season and rushed for 1,029 yards and 11 touchdowns on 157 attempts (6.6 yards per carry). He also had 26 receptions and 308 receiving yards. The Seahawks were excited to have him on board.

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Prosise’s best season came as a rookie. He carried the ball 30 times for 172 yards and a touchdown and also caught 17 passes for 208 yards. That gave him a total of 380 yards from scrimmage in 2016.

Since then Prosise hasn’t crossed the 150-yard mark. In 2017, he carried the ball 11 times for just 23 yards and caught six passes for 87 yards before being placed on injured reserve (IR) in November. In 2018 he had one carry for -3 yards and three catches for 22 yards. Prosise finished the year on IR again.

Even though running back Mike Davis is an impending free agent, Seattle should feel confident with Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny. I don’t believe Prosise will be extended after 2019, assuming he even stays on the roster that long.

Nick Vannett

The Seahawks took Nick Vannett with the 94th overall pick. The Ohio State product played all four years of college and finished his career with 55 receptions, 585 yards and six touchdowns. Needless to say, he was a blocking tight end at Ohio State, and that’s something the NFL hasn’t changed.

Vannett was actually a really good pick for the Seahawks considering how their offense functioned this year. He was indispensable as a run blocker, which Is the whole reason why he was even taken in the third round to begin with. Unfortunately, the Seahawks are still without a true pass-catching tight end. They added Will Dissly, another great blocking tight end, in the 2018 draft, but he only had one big game out of the four he played in before landing on IR.

In his stead, Vannett started nine games in 2018 and caught 29 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns. I don’t see him developing into a lethal offensive weapon anytime soon, but Vannett will have a long career in Seattle if he continues to block well.

Rees Odhiambo

Odhiambo was taken with the 97th overall pick out of Boise State where he’d been a redshirt senior in 2015. During that final season in college, the offensive lineman started the first eight games before an injury ended his college career.

He appeared in eight games for Seattle in his rookie season, then started all seven of his appearances in 2017. In November 2017, he was placed on IR with another serious injury. Since then, he’s bounced around the league and also been worked out at several spots along the offensive line.

He’s currently entering the second year of a two-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals. As obvious as this sounds, he’d be significantly more successful in the league if he could just stay healthy.