NFL draft grades: Seahawks getting a solid, albeit pointless B average for their haul

Not that it matters, but the Seattle Seahawks are receiving a “B” grade for their 2017 draft class in most places you look on Sunday. A pointless exercise, it seems a lot of analysts didn’t exactly know what to think of the Seahawks 11 picks, but they also didn’t want to come off looking dumb again after the 2012 debacle.

(Here’s a good reminder of 2012 draft grades:

“After one of the worst picks in the first round I can ever remember, the Seattle Seahawks didn't draft any positions of need or draft for the future. Pete Carroll is proving why he didn’t make it in the NFL the first time. Not only was Bruce Irvin a reach at No. 15, the Seahawks proved they were oblivious to their madness by celebrating their selection. As if the day wasn’t bad enough, Seattle selecting Russell Wilson, a QB that doesn’t fit their offense at all, was by far the worst move of the draft. With the two worst moves of the draft, Seattle is the only team that received an F on draft day.

Grade: F”)

Now for some reason, let’s look at 2017 draft grades. SB Nation compiled five such grades, and they all ranged in the B area:

SB Nation grade: B-

CBS Sports: B+

USA Today: B-

Sports Illustrated: B

Washington Post: B-

Even Pete Prisco was complimentary, saying “They had a couple of good days.”

Walter Football had those great, really useful, really helpful, necessary, totally insightful, totally relevant immediate draft grades of every pick and gave the selection of Malik McDowell a C+ moments after it happened.

McDowell was a second-round talent I dropped into the third because he interviewed extremely poorly. He has the traits the Seahawks look for in a prospect, but doesn't seem very competitive, so it's surprising to me that Seattle would take him.

And the selection of Ethan Pocic a C:

The Seahawks wanted Garett Bolles, but they're taking another offensive lineman instead in the second round. Only, it's at a different position, and one that isn't needed. The one thing the Seahawks do have up front is a solid center, so I imagine Ethan Pocic will play guard. I guess that's fine, but I had Pocic in the fourth round, so I think this is a bit of a reach.

What I like about these grades is that Walter Football knows more about Seattle’s needs than Pete Carroll does. I hate it when an analyst doesn’t think that their grades on a player are more accurate than NFL coaches and GMs. Walter is probably right that when the Seahawks had a private meeting with McDowell, they probably came out of it also thinking “He doesn’t seem very competitive, but let’s surprise ourselves and take him anyway.” Walter also knew for a fact that Seattle wanted to take Bolles, which is nice for him to share with us, and that Carroll and John Schneider were so bad about it that they decided to draft a center to punish themselves. I love it when a grader takes chances and says “This isn’t a position of need, so I don’t like it, even though in my next sentence I’ll concede that he’s probably not going to play that position at the next level.” It shows balls that most writers don’t have. The move was a bit of a reach in the opinion of this guy with this website, so good move to knock it down a peg.

All in all, it seems the graders out there this year felt comfortable giving the Seahawks a B for this draft. And they definitely didn’t do that just because they were afraid of being posterized for their opinions on Carroll and Schneider five years from now. Nope, definitely not for those reasons.

This has been another edition of “Useful Draft Grades.”