War Room Reactions - Day 1

I watched the draft on TV while setting up a laptop nearby that was streaming the live-feed of the Seahawks war room. I'm not a body language expert, but I figured I'd share my observations:

• From about the 20th pick on, John Schneider was on the phone pretty frequently, not much of a surprise there.

• Pete Carroll is even more fidgety in his chair than you might imagine. He's constantly rocking around and being physically 'active' while seated. He was like this the entire time he was seated during the whole draft. It's very much like watching a little kid.

• Everyone else was in their chair at least 90% of the time. Pete Carroll was in his chair maybe 40% of the time. He was constantly getting out of his chair and disappearing off camera for long periods of time.

• The war room barely registered any activity before Seattle traded down. It looked as if the entire room pretty much expected a move down to happen. There was no discussion in the room about whether or not to trade. It appeared that John did so on his own. It's possible, perhaps likely, that this was decided before the draft.

• The 10 minute clock seems to start after the pick card is handed in by the previous team, so it seems very likely that GMs can see the picks a few minutes before Goodell reads them on TV. The Panthers picked right ahead of Seattle after the trade down. The Panther's handed their card in, and the Seahawks war room reacted in a strange way. I can only speculate if the following reaction was negative in nature, or simply indifference. Just after Carolina handed in the card, everyone in the Seahawks war room just kind of froze up- nobody really even moved for a few minutes. It wasn't an overly demonstrative reaction but it stood out to me and made me wonder who the Carolina pick was. The pick by Carolina ended up being Vernon Butler.

• While Seattle was on the clock at #31, JS appeared to take several phone calls. He then stood up and engaged in debate with the war room staff members behind him. This debate went on for a few minutes and almost looked like a speech by JS. About a minute later, the entire room ERUPTED in applause and everyone was hugging each other. JS and others were grinning ear to ear. It was exactly as this happened that the ESPN broadcast updated their graphic to say "the pick is in."

I don't know how much Seattle celebrates picks in their war room but it seemed like a pretty big celebration. Some really big smiles on their faces.

I wonder if the Hawks were targeting Butler and when Carolina picked him right before, John gave a pep talk and told the other war room staffers to celebrate the Seahawks pick for the cameras like Ifredi was their guy all along to portray a positive spin and hide the fact that the Hawks were forced to select their second choice. Before the draft, I really thought Butler would be the pick at 26.

I felt like their reaction to the Kenny Clark pick was odd, i think pete started to put hi shands on the back of his head then caught himself, and tried to show no reaction.

I really think we wanted to go DT and at #27, #29, and #30 all went DT leaving us with a solid pick but not the primary target. All three of those DT were two factor DT's ones that were powerful enough to hold up in the run game but provide some inside pressure. Going forward the DT pickings will be either or Bullard a top target as a pass rusher and Billings as a run stuffer with a chance to get some pressure. I actually like Sheldon Day a lot as he is active and can get some penetration. His measurables aren't that great and might be a great 3rd round value.

I agree that I think they were targeting a DT with some pass rush in the first round, and that this time the trade back cost them. Neither John or Pete appeared that excited in the press conference afterward and they definitely made a point of not saying that Ifredi would have been their selection at 26. In past years when they traded down a few spots, they did not hesitate afterwards to tell the media they still got their man.

CalgaryHawk":9yp843if said:

I wonder if the Hawks were targeting Butler and when Carolina picked him right before, John gave a pep talk and told the other war room staffers to celebrate the Seahawks pick for the cameras like Ifredi was their guy all along to portray a positive spin and hide the fact that the Hawks were forced to select their second choice. Before the draft, I really thought Butler would be the pick at 26.

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I was pretty shocked too though..like wtf panthers....DT is prob one of if not THE strength of that entire team and they draft another one in the 1st... :34853_doh: Star and Short is not enough i guess

good points. i concede that their pick was probably going to be butler. butler wasnt my fav, but checked all their boxes. i can see it.

could be a case that they too cute again when they traded back, dont think they expected carolina to grab him in the first since the already have 2 stud d tackles. however... its not something to hang our heads about. we gained ifedi and the 3rd rounder... ifedi, who is raw but because of his physical attributes has a ceiling of an all pro RT, and the 3rd could work out well for us anyway considering how deep this draft is in rounds 3-4 or be used as additional ammo for a trade up...

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who else would like to see some aggression early tomorrow?

i hope pcjs are pissed off and go after the next best dt they covet, whether its billings, reed, bullard, jones, kafusi. they may have to package their 2nd and the 3rd they just received and move up to the late 30's/early 40's to do it though, as the only one i can see possibly even lasting till pick 25 in the 2nd is kafusi. gotta fight fire with fire, cant let rams/cards/panthers get too far ahead of us in line talent. even the lowly 49ers have added 2 players in the trenches already.

the nfc heavyweights are bringing a whole new meaning to "trench warfare"

I personally believe they were after Garnet, but ended up with GI, which is also a winner when u throw in the 3rd. Gonna be fun tonight

Marlin Man":35ggwaj5 said:

I personally believe they were after Garnet, but ended up with GI, which is also a winner when u throw in the 3rd. Gonna be fun tonight

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That would explain why the 49ers traded up to no. 28. I think there's a possibility that when they made the trade, the Hawks had Clark, Butler, and Garnett rated ahead of Ifredi. I've never seen John, Pete, and Cable so unexcited in a post draft press conference as they were last night. I think for one of the first times, the Hawks screwed up by trading down, but hopefully with good coaching it will work out in the end anyway, and Ifredi will eventually turn into a very good right tackle.

I was sure they'd chosen their pick before it was ever announced because I could see John on the phone, then he handed the phone to Pete. That was right before I noticed some guys starting to give each other high-fives.

I think it was between Butler and Ifedi. Carolina obviously made that decision much easier for us.