Seahawks are fielding ‘periphery’ trade calls for their 5th pick in NFL draft, expect more

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The Seahawks have hosted two of the most ballyhooed defensive players in this NFL draft: Jalen Carter last week and, on Wednesday, Will Anderson.

General manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll have been conspicuous showing up at the pro-day workouts of all four of the top quarterbacks. They turned their pro-day visits with C.J. Stroud at Ohio State, Bryce Young at Alabama, Anthony Richardson at Florida and Will Levis at Kentucky into the Seahawks’ pithy, online selfie tour.

“The ‘selfie tour’! There you go,” Carroll said Wednesday, flashing an approving smile.

The result of the Seahawks, owners of the fifth and 20th picks in the 2023 NFL draft next week, visiting with and being linked to just about every conceivable top-10 pick in this class?

They have a lot of elite options.

And they are getting calls from teams interested in perhaps trading up to Seattle’s first-round spots.

“Kind of periphery stuff,” Schneider said Wednesday of the trade calls he and the Seahawks have received so far.

“That stuff really gets pretty intense, I’d say, next Tuesday and Wednesday. Those are really the two days that people kind of set up broad parameters for moving up, moving back at different spots.

“And you have to be really pliable once it starts, because if you move into other spots, or move up, you have to be ready to roll.”

In the meantime, the Seahawks are wrapping up their draft preparation.

Anderson’s visit came on the last day of pre-draft visits across the league. Schneider says his team scouts are done reviewing the Seahawks’ draft board. Coaches will comb it this weekend.

Carroll said over the years they have narrowed their pool of players they will consider drafting. That has streamlined the pre-draft process.

Tuesday night, two days before the draft, Schneider and Carroll will meet with team chair Jody Allen Tuesday to detail their draft plan to the Seahawks’ owner.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, middle, talks with Ohio State coach Ryan Day as Buckeyes players run a drill at OSU’s Pro Day for NFL scouts in Columbus, Ohio, March 22, 2023. Seahawks general manager John Schneider is at the far right, cropped in this photo.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, middle, talks with Ohio State coach Ryan Day as Buckeyes players run a drill at OSU’s Pro Day for NFL scouts in Columbus, Ohio, March 22, 2023. Seahawks general manager John Schneider is at the far right, cropped in this photo.

Seahawks’ draft-trade history

Schneider knows of which he speaks.

He and Seattle have traded their original first-round pick 10 times in the last 11 years. That’s always been to trade down, when the Seahawks have been picking mainly in the 20s and 30s of the 32-pick first round because of all their winning seasons under Carroll and Schneider. Or the team has traded its first-round pick for a veteran starter, such as the first-rounders for 2021 and ‘22 Seattle traded to the New York Jets to acquire safety Jamal Adams and the first-round pick in 2015 the Seahawks gave New Orleans to get tight end Jimmy Graham.

This year Seattle has what for the team is a generational pick. This is only the second time in 27 years the team has had a top-five pick. So the odds of the Seahawks trading that pick in the next week are lower — unless they assess the player they covet will still be available at the lower place Seattle might trade down to.

A players such as Carter, perhaps?

There is a consensus growing around the league the Seahawks will select the University of Georgia defensive tackle at five.

Considering Jalen Carter

Carroll and Schneider have said multiple times this offseason they believe their renewed emphasis on drafting players with high character and strong backgrounds is why the Seahawks’ 2022 rookie class was so splendid. Five draft picks became instant starters last season, including rookie Pro Bowl cornerback Tariq Woolen and bookend offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas.

Now they are considering Carter.

Many believe he is the most skilled player and accomplished prospect in this draft. After Carter dominated the mighty Southeastern Conference and led Georgia to winning the national championship in January, many believed he would be the first-overall pick April 27.

Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter reaches for a ball in the second half of Georgia’s spring game, Saturday, April 16, 2022, in Athens. The Seahawks were reportedly hosting Carter for a visit before the 2023 NFL draft.
Georgia defensive lineman Jalen Carter reaches for a ball in the second half of Georgia’s spring game, Saturday, April 16, 2022, in Athens. The Seahawks were reportedly hosting Carter for a visit before the 2023 NFL draft.

But then Carter was implicated in incidents that allegedly led to a single-car crash Jan. 15 that killed University of Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staff member Chandler LeCroy. A warrant for his arrest in Athens, Georgia, forced Carter to briefly leave the scouting combine in Indianapolis in early March, to turn himself in. Carter eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing.

Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court sentenced him to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and a mandate of 50 hours of community service, among other stipulations.

Police alleged in an arrest warrant Carter was racing his 2021 Jeep Trackhawk against the 2021 Ford Expedition driven by LeCroy at the time of the crash. Willock was a passenger in the SUV LeCroy was driving.

Some teams have reportedly dropped Carter off their draft boards entirely.

Not Seattle. That’s not Schneider’s and Carroll’s way.

Not anymore.

In 2012, two years into his and Carroll’s tenure of running the Seahawks, Schneider declared, “we would never take a player that struck a female or had a domestic violence dispute like that.”

Three years later they made Frank Clark Seattle’s first pick of the 2015 draft. That was months after Clark got kicked off the University of Michigan team following his charge and arrest for assaulting his girlfriend at a hotel in Ohio. The prosecuting attorney in Sandusky, Ohio, eventually agreed to reduce the charge through a plea bargain to disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

Clark has become a three-time Pro Bowl pass rusher and two-time Super Bowl champion with Kansas City. The Seahawks traded Clark to the Chiefs in 2019. Now 29 and an unsigned free agent, Clark has earned more than $80 million in his NFL career Schneider and Carroll created.

Wednesday, a week after hosting Carter on a pre-draft visit, how has Schneider changed in how he evaluates players with so-called “character issues” leading up to a draft?

“I think every situation’s completely different,” Schneider said. “We learned early on — or I did, I don’t want to speak for Pete — but I learned early on you can never say ‘Look, this is the way it is, and that’s how we are going to move forward.’

“I think you can back yourself into a corner.”