Seattle Seahawks: Grading every 2019 NFL Draft pick
By Samuel Teets
The Seattle Seahawks had a ton of picks during the 2019 NFL Draft and they pulled in an interesting array of talent.
With the 2019 NFL Draft officially closed and nothing but a long extent of endless days until the pre-season, it’s time to obsess over the draft. The Seattle Seahawks held a large number of picks thanks to the team constantly trading around and acquiring more assets.
Before you begin reading, be warned, I like to be overly critical when it comes to the draft.
Here are my initial grades on every player the Seahawks selected this year.
Round One, Pick 29: L.J. Collier, DE, TCU
With Frank Clark gone, the Seahawks needed to find a young replacement fast. Collier appears to be Clark’s successor in Seattle, but he’s not one of the top defensive ends in the 2019 class, which hurts his grade here. Still, Collier will get plenty of chances as a rookie to get after the quarterback and bond with star defensive tackle, Jarran Reed.
Collier had a four-year college career at TCU, but he really only broke out as a redshirt senior. The 6-2, 283-pound defensive end recorded 42 combined tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, six sacks and four passes defensed with the Horned Frogs in 2018. Despite these numbers, Collier was projected as a late first-round to late second-round pick in most mock drafts, and rightfully so considering the star power of the other defensive ends ranked ahead of him.
He’s not one of the players that every scout thought was going to go in the first round, but Collier was one of the best remaining edge rushers. Seattle seems to have a habit of picking smaller name players with their picks and the trend continued here.
The reason why his grade is so low is that I don’t see Collier as an effective replacement for Clark until his third or fourth season. He’s 20 pounds heavier than Clark and the Seahawks already invested money in free agency and draft picks last year into the defensive end position. For the team to add another defensive end and have him not be one of the most sought after players at his position is disappointing.
Pick Grade: C+