
Three days. Ten selections. Two trades. More than 12,000 words here at Seahawks.com to recount each move the team made during the 2012 NFL Draft.
But there were still some leftovers that are worth taking a closer look at in the wake of these three days in April. So let’s not waste any time getting into the topics worth touching on:
Why didn’t the Seahawks take a wide receiver in one of the rounds, with one of those 10 picks? – General manager John Schneider was pretty blunt when asked this question on Saturday.
“Quite honestly, I thought it was a pretty average group compared to the last couple years,” he said. “It was just a little frayed all the way through.”
So average, that Schneider said wide-outs ![]()
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Also, there are three wide receivers among the 10 rookie free agents the club got agreements with right after the draft – Washington’s Jermaine Kearse, Oregon’s Lavasier and Ohio University’s Phil Bates.
Why did the Seahawks draft Utah State running back ![]()
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“We like the thought of when Marshawn comes off the field that we still have that impact player, big-time guy keeping kind of the rhythm going,” coach Pete Carroll said. “So that’s something we really like.
“We’ve been looking for that the whole time. And we think Turbin is that guy.”
Why would the team draft North Carolina State defensive tackle J.R. Sweezy in the seventh round with the idea of moving him to guard, rather than just taking a guard? – The simple answer is that after the Seahawks took Sweezy with the 225th pick, no guards and only two offensive linemen were selected in the remaining 28 picks.
But of course there’s more to the story than that.
“You get to the point in the draft where there’s a certain level of athleticism, there’s a little bit of a cutoff,” Schneider said. “Here’s a guy that is a really tough, aggressive, quick defensive lineman who the staff at NC State would tell you on the way out the door like, ‘Hey, this guy’s really got a chance to be a good offensive linemen, too. He’s that athletic.’ ”
The Seahawks didn’t just listen; they dispatched offensive line coach Tom Cable to see for himself.
“Tom came back just raving about the workout,” Schneider said. “There are certain guys – like the Kris Dielmans – who have a certain defensive mentality that you like to add to your offensive line. He fits that category.”
That’s the same Kris Dielman who just retired from the San Diego Chargers. And the same Kris Dielman the Seahawks tried to sign in free agency a few years ago.
With Atari Bigby leaving in free agency, who fills the third safety role that allows either free safety ![]()
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“He’s a versatile player, they moved him around in the kind of fashion that we liked moving our guys around,” Carroll said. “We’re very excited about him; he’s a very aggressive kid. We’ve got a real spot in mind. He plays a lot like our guy last year, Atari Bigby.
“All of those things that we used Atari, we thought that this kid fit the role very well. So we’ll see what happens; we can’t tell until we get him out there.”




