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Brian Nemhauser·
DraftJohn SchneiderThe Front Office
··2 min read

Best Draft Choices Of John Schneider

From time-to-time, I like to take a stab at grading all of Pete Carroll and John Schneider’s draft picks through their first four years. This seemed as good a time as any to see where this year’s draft picks stack up with past drafts. Keep in mind, I am trying to grade the draft choice, not necessarily the player. In other words, picking Andrew Luck with the first overall pick would not score at the top of this list because it required no special ability to evaluate talent. Drafting Russell Wilson in the 3rd round? That deserves some recognition. That does not mean Wilson is a better player than Luck (although he very well may be). Hopefully, that makes sense. I decided to have a little fun and come up with a simple grading system to see where the choices all stack up.

I listed all of the Seahawks draft choices from the last four years and included key undrafted free agents as well. Each selection was scored based on three categories:

VALUE: Did the Seahawks get the player later than their talent indicates they should have been selected?

UPSIDE: How good can this player be? Roughly, 10 is All-Pro, 8-9 is Pro Bowl, 7 Starter

PERFORMANCE: How have they performed on the field? This takes into account injuries and production. This factor is weighted 1.5X the others, as performance is what matters most.

There is obviously more projection involved in players drafted this year that have not played a full regular season, but this is just for fun, so relax!

Note: Try clicking here if you are having trouble viewing the table below

This stacked up reasonably well. I’d put Russell Wilson as the top draft choice overall, but as when factoring in talent and production, Richard Sherman is a worthy co-leader. Doug Baldwin feels a bit high, but getting a player who is putting up efficiency numbers comparable to Victor Cruz and Steve Smith who came to Seattle as an undrafted free agent is pretty darn special.

I’m obviously pretty high on the potential of Luke Willson, Alvin Bailey and Michael Bowie. They could be a part of the core roster for many years to come.

As far as best overall draft goes, the 2010 draft totals 5,587 points, or 465 points per player. The 2011 draft totals 3,354 points, or 419 points per player. The 2012 draft totals 4,369 points, or 336 points per player. The 2013 class totals 2,124 points, or 177 points per player.

How would you rate these draft choices? Which do you think was the best? Discuss!