SB Nation Reacts: Grading the Seahawks’ 2020 Draft, one year later

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Seattle Seahawks fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

That’s right! We’ve got SB Nation Reacts graphics for you this week and man have I had a hard time not calling it FanPulse.

With a new wave of players about to join the league in next week’s NFL Draft, the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey took a look back at last year’s picks and how fans feel about the 2020 draft class a year removed.

You may recall that there was great confusion and surprise when the Seahawks took Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks with the 26th overall pick. Seattle needed pass rush and Brooks didn’t fit the description. The grades that night were still mostly in the B-C range, but 33% of voters gave it a D or an F in the Field Gulls poll.

Oh how things have changed after a year! According to the most recent survey, a vast majority of Seahawks fans support using the first-round pick on linebacker Jordyn Brooks.

Brooks made some big plays late in the season as he earned more playing time, including a 4th and goal stop of Malcolm Brown to deny the Los Angeles Rams a touchdown and help guide the Seahawks to the NFC West title.

The contributions of Brooks, Alton Robinson, Damien Lewis, and to a lesser extent Freddie Swain and Deejay Dallas have prompted a very strong grade for the Seahawks’ 2020 class.... and that’s not even including what we could see out of Darrell Taylor this season.

We didn’t do grades last year but most of you thought the 49ers had the best draft class among the NFC West teams... or maybe 49ers fans stuffed the ballots.

Now onto the national discussion! With the first overall draft pick last year, the Cincinnati Bengals selected quarterback Joe Burrow. Despite an absolutely gruesome knee injury playing behind a horrible offensive line, Burrow played well in his rookie year. A year out, just about three-fourths of fans still believe the LSU legend should have been the top pick.

Justin Herbert and Chase Young won AP Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year respectively so I’d figure those two would’ve been the other options for the “no” voters. Or perhaps Tristan Wirfs or Mekhi Becton in 2020, then get one of the quarterbacks in this year’s draft.

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