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How about some feel-good?
On April 23rd the Seattle Seahawks chose Jordyn Brooks to join GM John Schneider’s “why even use first-round picks” club.
At the time, people were a bit baffled.
I don't get this... Patrick Queen was staring at them in the face They also could have taken a pass rusher like Yatur Gross-Matos!!
— Samuel Gold (@SamuelRGold) April 24, 2020
The Seahawks take a linebacker.
— Baltimore Beatdown (@BmoreBeatdown) April 24, 2020
It is not Patrick Queen.
LB Jordyn Brooks goes to the Seahawks.
Brooks was slowed by injury early on while Baltimore Ravens’ Patrick Queen immediately began playing high snap counts. Subsequently, fuel was added to that truly strange fire which is the “Schneider is great at his job except for his first pick” theory.
Fast forward to December, and Jordyn Brooks continues to develop extremely well while Patrick Queen has started to fade.
Over at Seahawk Maven, Corbin Smith gave Brooks the third-highest grade on the team in the loss to the New York Giants. It was Brooks’ highest involvement of the season as well, playing in 77% of the team’s snaps.
Pete Carroll very happy with Jordyn Brooks' play yesterday: "Jordyn Brooks really showed up. I think this was by far his best game."
— Curtis Crabtree (@Curtis_Crabtree) December 7, 2020
Jordyn Brooks played a career-high 43 snaps and recorded a career-high 11 tackles, his first ever game with double digit tackles. His PFF grade was an impressive 72.6.#Seahawks
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) December 7, 2020
Too easy for noted coverage linebacker Jordyn Brooks pic.twitter.com/jjve0nV9WC
— Alistair Corp (@byalistaircorp) December 3, 2020
It should not be lost on fans that Brooks’ primary question mark in the draft was his coverage, while apparently scouts thought Queen was the much better cover linebacker.
One scout on Patrick Queen vs. Jordyn Brooks:
— Joe Fann (@Joe_Fann) April 24, 2020
“I thought they were both top-of-the-second-round guys. The gap between the two is not much, and Jordyn plays bigger at the point of attack. Only place Queen was an upgrade was in matchup coverage.”
Story: https://t.co/3CKlikPGtK
However, Queen has been struggling in that very category of late, as noted by Baltimore media everywhere, including Baltimore Beatdown’s Winners and Losers this week.
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Jordyn Brooks is currently giving up a passer rating of only 90.4, a full 11 points better than Queen.
Brooks seems to have ingrained himself fully into Seattle’s defensive scheme, as K.J. Wright has taken very well in transitioning to the other side. The Seahawks have an even more formidable linebacker trio than they did last season.
As they head into the final weeks of the season, these last few games will go a long way in perspective of the 2020 first round of the draft. Queen also completely missed on the previous week’s touchdown to AJ Brown, and is anything but a surefire better player than Brooks. Queen has had a good year thus far on a great defense, getting lots of numbers because of high volume. But I am not convinced at this point that this was a miss by Schneider and his scouting team.
Looking forward to how Brooks handles these last, and perhaps the greatest proof of his success is how little complaining about base defense (three linebackers) has taken place this year.