12-2 with almost no contribution from 2013 Draft Class

It's pretty amazing the Hawks are 12-2 with almost no major contributions this year from the draft class. Look at the picks.

Harvin [1st round pick] - 1 catch, 1 kick return
Christine Michael - never plays
Jordan Hill - plays some but minimal contribution
Chris Harper - on the Packers
Jesse Williams - in Australia or something on IR
Tharold Simon - on IR, never played
Luke Willson - looks good
Spencer Ware - minimal if any
Ryan Seymour - on the 49ers
Ty Powell - on the Bills
Jared Smith - Practice squad?
Michael Bowie - helped bigtime during injuries to OL

So really Hill, Willson and Bowie are the only guys contributing at all. it's pretty amazing you would think a 12-2 team would have a couple studs from the draft as a big part of the success.

This is not a post to bash the draft as Harvin & Michael could turn out to be big contributors down the road, but right now it doesn't look so great?

Just thought it was interesting.

This was pretty much inevitable given the huge rush of talent and the massive talent upgrade the Seahawks have had the last three years. Fact is we had far too many picks in the '13 draft for the spots we needed to bolster/replace for our talent level. The Niners had the same problem in both '12 and '13.

It's more important now to pick wisely rather than having a massive number of picks IMO.

I hear what your saying, but you have to think of the depth of this team. Name a player on our roster that needs to be replaced next year. I can't really think of a guy. Then when you see a guy go down and see his backup play at the same level and sometimes even better you know rookies are going to have a hard time getting any playing time. Its a good thing IMHO.

Still think Michael should be seeing the field more but then again I'm not in the locker room. The running game has been stagnant as of late and Michael adds an explosive element to our offense. Obviously Lynch should be getting 80% of the carries but would love to see Michael a little bit

10' and 12' drafts were amazing and they hit on just about all of their picks. 13' has been less than stellar and they're going to need to continue to hit in 14' and 15' if they want to keep this thing rolling while we lose guys to FA who are coming off rookie contracts, etc from those awesome drafts a few years ago.

I have faith. They've done a really good job of scouting and player development and I think everyone has bought in now. They have a knack of putting guys that fit the system in positions to succeed.

You can only play so many stud picks from the last 4 years. It just seems strange because we have reached year 4 of the turn around. This is exactly how you rebuild. I'm not surprised in the least about the rarity of our rookies playing.

Would have liked to see a tad bit more production out of Hill and a healthy Williams. Harper was a disappointment but it happens. The fact is this upcoming off-season will start to see players coming off the board from JS/PC's first draft. Thurmond, Tate and a couple others I cannot remember. This will be the first time you get to see the complete cycle occur as far as replenishing players drafted by the current FO.

I am not sure what rate of replacement and 2nd contracts metrics are acceptable but ideally you don't have to count on the upcoming draft to address holes created by losing players, at least right away.

MRob seems to be on his way out, you can tell by the continued work Coleman gets. Willson has accelerated his role with the injury to McCoy. WR is shaky with Tate and Baldwin having some form of Free Agency coming up. Bowie and UDFA Bailey help prepare for the potential loss of McQ and Breno. Then there are all the potential cap cuts.

Anyway, the class of 2013 hit rate may be at or below average in the long run. We will see a couple years down the road if it makes a difference.

I don't find it surprising at all. Rarely do pre-season Super Bowl favorites get major contributions from their rookie class. That's part of what makes them SB favorites - the fact that they're well-established with quality/upper-tier veteran players at most positions.

Really only been one disappointment and thats Harvin, but you can't blame him at all.

I think from this class on forward, unless the player fills an immediate need that we won't be able to fully judge the class for a couple years. It's honestly a testament to how well this team has drafted the prior 3 seasons to end up with All Pro's and Pro Bowlers and starters in late rounds and such.

Any draft class will pail in comparison to what we got last year! Wilson, Wagner, Turbin, Irvin, Lane, Sweezy have all been huge! Tough act to follow.

Polaris":1qepwuix said:

This was pretty much inevitable given the huge rush of talent and the massive talent upgrade the Seahawks have had the last three years. Fact is we had far too many picks in the '13 draft for the spots we needed to bolster/replace for our talent level. The Niners had the same problem in both '12 and '13.

It's more important now to pick wisely rather than having a massive number of picks IMO.

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I thought that going into the `13 draft, but I just don't think that's JS's style. I think he realizes that outside of maybe the first 8-10 picks of the draft, the difference in talent between the 1st rounders and the mid to late rounders is really not all that big. So instead of moving up and puting a laser focus on ONE guy who could just as easily be a miss (you could pick Lawrence Jackson just as easily as you could pick Clay Matthews in the late first), he'd rather trade back and cast a REALLY wide net in the mid to late rounds. Then bring all those guys into camp (plus a shitwack of UDFA's) and start the churn; the cream will rise to the top, and those guys will stick around to contribute. Once we're talking the 53 man roster, we could be looking at only 2-3 guys, but you can bet your ass those guys will be purebred ballers.

THAT'S how we're going to round out this roster after we have to tie up the majority of our cap in 3-4 guys (RW, ET, RS, PH); young, cheap, late round talent is going to supplement the superstars and group of economic second tier difference makers for decent contracts (guys like Tate, maybe Baldwin, Maxwell, maybe Willson, etc). It's a brilliant, and more importantly SUSTAINABLE way to build a franchise. Hawks might not be as earth shatteringly dominant as they will be over the next year or two, but they will be relevant for a long long time.

I have no objections to having a lot of rookies and UDFAs fighting it out, but given the talent of the team now, we have to accept now, that the vast majority (even in our own draft classes) simply aren't going to make the cut (unlike say 2011). IMHO this is not a bad thing.

Polaris":1xy3dwtz said:

I have no objections to having a lot of rookies and UDFAs fighting it out, but given the talent of the team now, we have to accept now, that the vast majority (even in our own draft classes) simply aren't going to make the cut (unlike say 2011). IMHO this is not a bad thing.

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Not at all. Really, we're going to be that team that has other team's GM's sniffing around our back door on cut day to pick up our scraps. That's awesome.

Polaris":1wu68n7t said:

I have no objections to having a lot of rookies and UDFAs fighting it out, but given the talent of the team now, we have to accept now, that the vast majority (even in our own draft classes) simply aren't going to make the cut (unlike say 2011). IMHO this is not a bad thing.

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I don't know about 'making the cut,' but it's unlikely that rookies will start or get much significant playing time going forward. The coaches would have to force the issue, kind of like how they're grooming Coleman. I actually like this system, where a player has 1-2 seasons, generally, before they are required to carry the full load. Meanwhile, we'll get maybe 3-4 players that even make the roster every draft. Draft gurus may hate it, because we're never going to be looking for 'that one guy' for the duration of this regime. But I'm OK with that.

Harvin, Michael and Willson look like home runs from a pure talent perspective IMO. On pure talent alone, could they match up with the Irvin, Wagner, Wilson haul from 2012? Maybe not, but it's really not that far off.

Bowie and Bailey look like steals in the late rounds. Hill and Ware looked like legit NFL players in pre-season, but the book is still out on them. Same with injured dudes like Simon and Jesse Williams.

This is a hard one to gauge right now, but I think the potential is still there for this to be a really strong draft class.

Our 2010 season didn't have spectacular performance from that year's class other than Earl. Thurmond and Chancellor were playing in spot roles, Okung was hurt, and Tate and McCoy were raw.

Throwdown":1at5ckq2 said:

Really only been one disappointment and thats Harvin, but you can't blame him at all..........

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Your agenda's showing through.

sutz":a6z6w0dm said:

Polaris":a6z6w0dm said:

I have no objections to having a lot of rookies and UDFAs fighting it out, but given the talent of the team now, we have to accept now, that the vast majority (even in our own draft classes) simply aren't going to make the cut (unlike say 2011). IMHO this is not a bad thing.

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I don't know about 'making the cut,' but it's unlikely that rookies will start or get much significant playing time going forward. The coaches would have to force the issue, kind of like how they're grooming Coleman. I actually like this system, where a player has 1-2 seasons, generally, before they are required to carry the full load. Meanwhile, we'll get maybe 3-4 players that even make the roster every draft. Draft gurus may hate it, because we're never going to be looking for 'that one guy' for the duration of this regime. But I'm OK with that.

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Hells to the yeah! I got pretty fricken tired of looking at draft sites and what not in late November, hoping to find some light at the end of the tunnel or some savior to descend from the heavens to rescue us from football purgatory. Researching draft picks became a full time occupation, more important than actually watching games. So lame. I haven't looked at, or even really THOUGHT about a mock draft in... forever. Why would I? We want for nothing.

What an amazing time to be alive...

I mostly hated Seattle's draft on day three, so I don't feel too surprised that so many of those players aren't with the organization any more.

That said, Willson is a better player than he was at Rice, and seems to be fitting our offense nicely. He hasn't proven himself to be #1 TE material yet, maybe he never is with his blocking issues, but he's more than adequate as a #2 guy. Good value for a late 5th rounder. Bailey has been a stud, I wish I knew the real reasons they are holding him back. Ditto Michael.

Hill is okay but seems roster-fringe to me (so far), like the DL equivalent of John Moffitt. Bowie is already a good run blocker, but right now he can't pass block well enough to start in the NFL. He needs time. Still hoping that Simon can be a stud. I think the Harvin trade was too much to give up but regardless, Harvin is a stud who deserves our patience. Seattle paid too much for Rice and Miller too, but their on field performance has been good so I choose to focus on that aspect, knowing that Seattle will score "moneyball" points elsewhere.

Ok, so, how does the average tenure of 3.5 seasons for an NFL player figure in with a rookie that does well enough to be kept by the team, but see's little, if any, playing time?

When does the clock start?