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Lions GM Martin Mayhew spoke to reporters Wednesday and gave a little more insight into the Lions' decision to trade cornerback Mohammed Seisay to the Seahawks.
"Seattle reached out, I think it was last Friday," said Mayhew, "we had some dialogue about it. Talked to their director of pro personnel (Dan Morgan), and then Saturday I talked to John Schneider. You know John and I have done a lot of deals together. And we had some further dialogue, we both agreed to sleep on it and then Sunday morning it kind of came together."
The Seahawks and Lions have done five trades with each other over the last several seasons, so there's obviously a level of trust between the two front offices.
"They wanted some young guys to try to develop and Mo fits that mold," Mayhew said. "It's a great fit for Mo. They've had a lot of success with that kind of corner, with that kind of guy, with that kind of build. Byron Maxwell was a sixth-round pick, I believe. (Richard) Sherman was a fifth-round pick, so they've had a lot of success with big-bodied guys who were chosen later."
Indeed they have. Seisay, like Maxwell, was not even a full-time starter in college, but the Seahawks really make it a focus to look for traits in which they can develop. They think Seisay has those traits -- speed, length, athleticism, and toughness.
The other big factor here was that the Lions didn't even know if Seisay would make their team. Right now, Detroit has a very strong depth chart at the defensive back position. "And obviously for us, in that situation I wasn't 100% sure he was going to make our team," said Mayhew, "so just having that little bit of doubt of whether he would or whether he wouldn't, the ability to get a draft pick for him was a value to us."
Pete Carroll mentioned that Seattle has a little bit of a depth issue at corner right now with Tharold Simon and Jeremy Lane sidelined with injuries. They didn't want to have to move some of their safeties over to cornerback, so the move to go get Seisay made sense.