I’m not inherently against drafting someone at a position of strength, and the Seahawks weren’t much stronger anywhere else than they were at linebacker. But, there’s a lot of risk whenever you take someone in the first round, and that risk is only compounded now by taking someone like Jordyn Brooks.

He HAS to play as a rookie, somewhere on that defense. It can’t just be special teams! And, quite frankly, he has to be a starter by Year Two otherwise he’s already treading on Bust territory. Now, I’m hearing some talk that the Seahawks might get creative with Brooks; that with his speed, they might consider using him in passing situations as a coverage linebacker/defensive back (almost). Hey, whatever it takes to get him out there! I mean, I heard he’s better as a run-stuffing linebacker than he necessarily is out in space or covering guys deep (or, maybe more importantly, making plays in the defensive backfield), but if the team feels that he has it in him, then great.

But, are they trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?

The Seahawks went Linebacker, Defensive End, and Guard with their first three picks. The linebacker ended up being the de facto Best Player Available, the end was surely the Best End Available, and my hunch is they returned to BPA for Damien Lewis (who, again, was the second guard taken in the entire draft). I’ll never begrudge the team for taking a BPA approach to drafting, but it’s always fair to question if their “best players” were ACTUALLY the best players or not.

I’m on record as really wanting a wide receiver from one of our top three picks in this draft. So, if There Can Only Be One gripe – in some sort of Highlander duel to the death – mine would be the Seahawks not adding to a position of strength … in that wide receiver room.

I don’t know if I necessarily needed the Seahawks to take a receiver with their first round pick – I probably would’ve gone after defensive end in that spot – but Brooks is going to constantly be compared to any number of potential receivers or pass rushers taken after him.

There were seven receivers taken between Brooks and Lewis. There were four legitimate pass rushers taken between Brooks and Lewis (not counting Darrell Taylor, who we took in that second round). What if the Seahawks had gotten one of those receivers and pass rushers and that combination – with Lewis – would’ve accounted for three starting-calibre players by 2021?

That’ll be worth monitoring as things go forth. Of course, the need will be less pressing if Brooks is awesome. But, if he stinks? Like Collier did last year? Then, you better believe I’ll be dreaming of what might’ve been!

My biggest worry, in case you were wondering, is that we only drafted one starter out of those three guys, and it’s the guard. Don’t get me wrong, I love a quality guard as much as the next grunt, but if that comes to fruition, then not only have we wasted back-to-back-to-back-to-back first draft picks the last four years, but it’ll mean we’ll have utterly failed across the board to organically replenish the defense with stars across that same span. As we all know, you can’t build a championship team through free agency, so there’s really a lot riding on the coaches to build these guys up.