Sunday 26 April 2009

Calm after the storm

After months of debate, review and discussion the 2009 NFL Draft is in the bag. The Seahawks made some dramatic moves over the two day event. Aaron Curry was selected with the fourth overall pick, before Tim Ruskell negotiated two separate trades in order to grab Max Unger and Deon Butler. Another trade with Denver saw the Seahawks grab an extra first round pick in 2010.

Here's Seattle's draft results in full:

Round 1 - #4 Aaron Curry (LB, Wake Forest)
Round 2 - # 49 Max Unger (OL, Oregon)
Round 3 - # 91 Deon Butler (WR, Penn State)
Round 6 - #178 Mike Teel (QB, Rutgers)
Round 7 - # 245 Courtney Greene (SS, Rutgers)
Round 7 - # 247 Nick Reed (DE, Oregon)
Round 7 - # 248 Cameron Morrah (TE, California)

Picks acquired in 2010: Denver's 1st round selection
Picks traded in 2010: 3rd round selection to Philadelphia

The right hand side bar is now dedicated to Seattle's new recruits. Click on each prospects' photo for a full profile courtesy of NFL.com. You can also see highlights from the first four picks further down the page. Time to play Mel Kiper - how would you grade the Seahawks' 2009 NFL Draft? What are your thoughts on each pick? Did Tim Ruskell fill all necessary holes or are there areas of the team that didn't get enough attention? Have your say in the comments section below or email rob@seahawksdraftblog.com

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would give this year's draft class a solid B Rob. I think getting Unger and Curry as well as the Broncos '10 first rounder was worthy of an A but I didn't like the second day picks as much. I think Deon Butler came at too steep of a price and for each of the picks Ruskell made from Teel onwards (aside from Morrah), I thought there were better players available. I was quite disappointed they only drafted 2 lineman (offensive and defensive combined) and didn't draft a RB. I thought Peerman or Jennings would have been nice picks and you know how I feel about Meredith.

Anonymous said...

Rob,
Great job with the Seahawks draft coverage. This site has been great.
Erik

Brandon said...

i like deon butler...hell be good

Anonymous said...

I give the draft overall an A-. The first day was sepctacular despite not drafting the guy I wanted (Crabtree). I thought the Butler pick was inspired as I wanted either he or Mike Thomas but giving up next years 3rd along with the 5th and 7th was a little painful. Green was a steal. I thought we could have gotten Teel in the 7th and I liked Reilly better and I really wanted Cedric Peerman. Reed is a decent pick but with Gerald Cadogan (3rd/4th round value) still on the board?? Morrah is very good value. We got a 1st rounder next year that could be a top 10-15, very good overall draft.

Steve in Spain said...

I'll go with a A-/B+, depending how I end up feeling about Deon Butler and how much we gave up to get him. I gotta say that when we moved up into the late 3rd to grab a wide receiver I was getting ready to pre-order my Joaquin Iglesias jersey. I was a little taken aback at first, but Ruskell must think Butler's a special prospect and the talking heads seem to agree, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. I just feel like we needed some late round picks to round out our depth in defensive back and RB. We'll see if he can solve that through FAs and waiver-wire scavenging. I refuse to get excited about 7th round prospect, as intriguing as Greene and Reed may be.

As for the first day, well, I was pretty envious of the Browns at first for trading down, but it turned out they didn't too well for themselves in doing so. I'll stick with Curry. It would be nit-picking to second guess the choice there. Unger's awesome. And acquiring the Bronco pick is ... inexplicable. So A+ for the first day and a tentative B-/C for the second = not too shabby.

Steve in Spain said...

Oh, and as good as the Seahawks' draft was, they may have had the worst draft of the NFC West. I wouldn't have liked taking Crabtree at no. 4, but at no. 10 that's incredible value for the 49ers. Wells may just push the Cardinals over the edge into full-on offensive scariness. The Rams made solid, unimpeachable picks top to bottom. One draft won't solve all the problems but it does point out that these organizations are all putting themselves back together and have clear game plans for building toward competitiveness.

Byron said...

I find myself intrigued by the possibility that drafting Teel gives them another wideout. If he's ready to step up as the #2 QB this season, I'd love to see Seneca Wallace as a part-time unofficial WR....anyone have thoughts on that?

Timshorts said...

Day 1 was superb. Day 2 not so, The Deon Butler deal particularly horrific. The time to try and strike a deal there was (atthe earliest)the top of round 4. That would probably have saved our third rounder 2010 for our fourth rounder of 2010, and probably have cost less in 2009 picks. I doubt the guy would have gone by then.
I gave A-grades to Green Bay, Arizona, Tennessee, NY Giants, Houston.
We should now be in a position to sort out a QB/OT in round 1 next year
Grades for NFC West, however were all higher than for our four old adversaries in the AFC West.

Akki said...

Draft grades would probably swing wildly depending on what you thought about Sanchez and Crabtree. I would give it a B grade overall. Can't complain about Curry since I liked Crabtree but didn't think he was a must, and Sanchez wasn't really an option if Hasselbeck is truly healthy.

Unger was a good trade-up move and he'll be able to help immediately.

Butler came at a steep cost, and it seemed like the team got forced into a need pick to some degree. After the 3rd round run on receivers, Butler was probably the only fast guy left who came out of a pro style offense at a major school.

For Teel, I don't question who a coaching staff takes at qb late. They all need a lot of work.

I like all of the 7th rounders.
For Greene, I'd hope that his senior slump can be attributed to Rutgers changing their secondary coach, and that his older production comes back.

Reed looks like a practice squad project to see if he can put on 20 pounds and still be effective. He might end up being like Jason Babin.

Morrah, I like to contribute down the road. My ex-Cal brother-in-law thought he was a WR upon watching the catches he was making last year.

My main concern following the draft is that I hoped we could get someone to groom at safety. I don't think any draftee at safety would have started ahead of Russell next year, since it's experience that's keeping Russell in the lineup, but maybe one could step in the following season. I don't feel like we have a future hope guy between Adams, Wallace, and Greene. (And I sure hope that we stay the heck away from Michael Huff should he get cut.) Hopefully I'm proven wrong on the concern, but this seems like a similar situation to where we had a bunch of untested talent at WR last year that we were asking to step up.