Seahawks didn’t pick on day 1, but are in the best position for rest of the draft

Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider — aka J-Schneiz, Wizard Boi — didn’t enter the 2017 NFL Draft with a ton of capital. The Seahawks picked 26th overall and did not have a pick in rounds four or five. That’s how he entered day one, at least, but Schneiz is now basically the Cleveland Browns for the rest of this draft.

Consider this:

Seattle now picks “second overall” to open things up due to their trade down with the San Francisco 49ers. It’s sort of like the Tennessee Titans in the first round having two picks, except it just happens to be day two.

The Seahawks also have four third round picks. They have twice as many day two picks as any other team. Consider that Schneider has the power to stay where he is and add six day two players for competition this year, or he can easily move up from 58 to secure perhaps two of the next 10 players off of the board. Who is to say that they can’t have Forrest Lamp and Kevin King?

The move down from 31 to 34 also gave Seattle the Niners fourth round pick (the fourth pick on Day 3, acquired via the Chicago Bears), meaning that if they don’t trade it, they don’t have to toss and turn all Friday night based on the players that are available that they might miss out on. Last year, they had to deal their fourth round pick in order to secure Quentin Jefferson in round five — now they have a little more leverage.

Even the Seahawks acquiring an extra seventh rounder from the Atlanta Falcons in moving down from 26 to 31 (the other compensation being a sweet third rounder) means that they have to hustle for one less UDFA that they really like. Most seventh rounders don’t turn into anything, but it’s a little more security that Seattle has that other teams don’t.

Overall, the Seahawks are the most powerful team in the draft from this point forward. Sure, they have not added a player yet, but hey, neither have the LA Rams. And not even they are working with as much draft power as J-Schneiz, Wizard Boi has right now.

Let the draft truly begin.