Eagles wanted to draft Wilson

[HawkWow]

Ain't gonna' lie....I didn't want Wilson. I wanted Foles and felt he'd be there for us in the 4th. So if I had any say, we'd be 6-6 with Flynn right now.

 

[drdiags]

The story I read was that Pete wanted RW badly and wanted to go ahead with taking Wilson in the 2nd round. JS talked Pete into waiting one more round.
Does anyone have links to firsthand sources on this? I can't recall exactly where I read it; could have been on one of the local TV station sites or blogs.

It's the other way around. Every time you see Pete get interviewed about Wilson, he will give credit to John for identifying him and being the first in the building to stomp for him. And probably in the Seahawks archive of the draft or KJR/KIRO you can find audio of Pete saying it was him and others who had to talk John out of drafting Wilson in the 2nd.

EDIT: I see HawkWow already commented on this but I will leave my post in case there is some info to olyfan63 about the archives he can use.

 

[drdiags]

I did find this video/article on NFL.com

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...le-seahawks-gm-eyed-russell-wilson-in-round-2

"(General manager) John (Schneider), he wanted to go in the second round with it," Carroll told fans at Wednesday night's annual Town Hall meeting, via theSeahawks' official website. "He was willing to do it and take him right there. ... We had had a plan to wait until the third round. But as the first round came and then the second, John was starting to get antsy because he just didn't want to miss (out on Wilson)."

EDIT: Another NFL.com article

The Seattle Seahawks rolled the dice when they went against general manager John Schneider's gut feeling to pull the trigger on quarterback Russell Wilson in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

It worked out in the long run, as the Seahawks snatched up middle linebacker Bobby Wagner with the 47th pick while Wilson dropped into their laps at No. 75 overall.

But the gamble nearly backfired. NFL.com draft analyst and former scout for the Eagles, Daniel Jeremiah, revealed on Tuesday's "Inside Training Camp" that Philadelphia was all set to draft Wilson at No. 88 overall, only to watch the Seahawks steal the quarterback out from under them

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...-wilson-nearly-drafted-by-philadelphia-eagles

 

[joeseahawks]

The Panthers wanted to draft Wilson, so he could back up Cam.
How many teams would have given him a chance to even play? There are backups in this league (Cousins) who don't even see the field, unless the main guy goes down injured.
I think we need to give credit not only to drafting RW, but most importantly to having a patience to let him learn.
How many people here would have pulled Wilson after the first ... 5 or so games, when the offense was struggling?

 

[Sprfunk]

There was one fan here that sung his praises before draft. Said something to the effect of him being a franchize qb for some lucky team.

 

[HawkWow]

I did find this video/article on NFL.com

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...le-seahawks-gm-eyed-russell-wilson-in-round-2

"(General manager) John (Schneider), he wanted to go in the second round with it," Carroll told fans at Wednesday night's annual Town Hall meeting, via theSeahawks' official website. "He was willing to do it and take him right there. ... We had had a plan to wait until the third round. But as the first round came and then the second, John was starting to get antsy because he just didn't want to miss (out on Wilson)."

EDIT: Another NFL.com article

The Seattle Seahawks rolled the dice when they went against general manager John Schneider's gut feeling to pull the trigger on quarterback Russell Wilson in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

It worked out in the long run, as the Seahawks snatched up middle linebacker Bobby Wagner with the 47th pick while Wilson dropped into their laps at No. 75 overall.

But the gamble nearly backfired. NFL.com draft analyst and former scout for the Eagles, Daniel Jeremiah, revealed on Tuesday's "Inside Training Camp" that Philadelphia was all set to draft Wilson at No. 88 overall, only to watch the Seahawks steal the quarterback out from under them

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap10...-wilson-nearly-drafted-by-philadelphia-eagles

I can close my eyes and still see the war room. But at that time, I read it all wrong. "with the 75th pick......", then camera goes on Pete who is clearly giddy, hugging a JS that looks much less giddy. Being a pick I was unhappy with, I felt JS too was unhappy about the pick and giving Pete a vibe of "you better be right on this (little) guy". It wasn't until later I understood that look on JS' face was the look of a cat with a bird in it's mouth "did we just get away with this"?

Arguably the greatest pick / day in Hawk history.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

There was one fan here that sung his praises before draft. Said something to the effect of him being a franchize qb for some lucky team.

kearly

He was on the guy well before the draft and has mentioned several times he was absolutely giddy when Seattle drafted him. He won't jump in and toot his own horn on this subject so I'm doin' it for him.

 

[hawk45]

I feel ill thinking that there 72 chances for another team to grab him before we got him at 75. For all the great things Pete and JS have done, that one move was the difference between a decade of threatening SB wins and a decade of being Houston or worse. I'm breaking out in a sweat typing this. In hindsight of course you'd spend 3 first round picks to get your franchise QB for the next decade if you knew you were getting Wilson.

In constructing this post I revisited the Hawks draft history, good god it's sick what this regime has done. You're getting NFL starters like BMax and Malcom Smith in the 6th and 7th rounds. You're getting best-in-the-league players in rounds 5 and up. Is it...unfair? I mean Schneids and Pete could build a winner if you took away the first 3 rounds. They flashed that crazy ability to spot scheme-fits and talent in year one picking guys like BMW off the trash heap and having them contribute significantly.

The Pete-big-DB-defense scheme combined with Schneider has to be compared with some of the historically great schemes that created a temporary bubble as the league fought to catch up. I think of examples like the Tampa 2, but in that case Sapp was a huge part of that and he was a no-brainer draft pick. ET is as close as it comes to the no-brainer draft pick anchor, but I don't remember it being such a consensus at the time that ET was the guy to draft at that spot. The rest of the secondary are a bunch of no-name (draft-wise) all-pros. Who does that?

 

[hawkcrazzed]

I remember mayock just crowing when we got earl like we had stolen him at that pick. everybody else was less excited.

 

[Happypuppy]

I know they really wanted Luke Kuechly. I was surprised they didn't trade up to get him. In retrospect, I know why. They would've missed out on Russell Wilson I suspect

 

[Axx]

if any other team in the NFL would've drafted wilson he would still be on the bench while RG3/vick continue playing like garbage.

 

[Donn2390]

Nobody, not even us, saw Wilson as being the guy that he is. That was confirmed on multiple occasions by Pete and by John.

Gruden........

 

[Donn2390]

The Jags were gonna draft Wilson too...but of course having a franchise punter is more important than having a good QB.

When you have to punt after every third down, a punter is valuable,,,,

 

[Polaris]

Actually according to Wilson himself, the Eagles interviewed him several times and expressed a strong intereste in him, and the fmr Eagles scout (I think it was on NFL network) said that the Eagles originally had a 2nd round grade on him and deducted a full round from it based on his measurables.

I seem to recall at the time that the Eagles were ready to use their third round pick on Wilson but we took him first.

 

[HawkWow]

I keep waiting for him to fail so I can say I told you so.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

Ain't gonna' lie....I didn't want Wilson. I wanted Foles and felt he'd be there for us in the 4th. So if I had any say, we'd be 6-6 with Flynn right now.

At least you're honest. At least I knew about and saw Wilson play so I was jazzed but I had no clue who Foles was. Good thing neither of us run the team I guess.