The NFL draft is a two-day event where the best football players are picked by their teams. This year’s draft had some incredible trades and surprising picks, but not as many big names going in the first round as previous years. The 2018 NFL Draft was also one for the ages because it featured an unprecedented amount of trades up until Day 2 of the draft.
The “seahawks 2012 draft” is the second day of the NFL Draft. The Seahawks are on the clock, and they will be picking at number 2 overall. They have a lot of options with their pick, so it will be interesting to see what they do.
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Brady Henderson is a professional football player. ESPN
General manager John Schneider of the Seattle Seahawks enjoys listening to reggae music in the team’s draft room. It may help relieve the pressure of such a high-stakes event and avoid the disappointment of celebrating a selection just to watch a draft commentator blast it on national television. As a result, the Seahawks will turn down the TV and crank up the Bob Marley in between choices.
Don’t worry about a thing… because everything will be OK.
After Day 2 of the 2012 season, Schneider and Seahawks coach Pete Carroll found those statements to be particularly accurate.
Even yet, comfort may have been required on that Friday afternoon a decade ago.
West Virginia outside linebacker Bruce Irvin, the Seahawks’ first-round selection that year, had been arrested for burglary as a teenager and confessed to trafficking narcotics. Most experts gave him a lesser grade as a result of this, and he was ranked No. 15 overall by Seattle. Bobby Wagner, a second-round selection out of Utah State, was a small-school linebacker with a diminutive build, not to mention a medical condition revealed during a pre-draft visit. Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, the third-round pick, stood little under 5-foot-11. For the game’s most vital position, he’s not quite the right height.
The commentators had a field day with this one.
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But no one knew at the time that Seattle had struck gold for the third year in a row, adding two likely Hall of Famers — according to Pro Football Reference, the top two players in the 2012 NFL draft in terms of approximate value — and other key pieces to a roster that would win the Super Bowl the following season.
As painful as it was for Seahawks fans to watch the organization sell Wilson and release Wagner on the same day last month, the symmetry seemed appropriate considering that the two franchise legends were selected only hours apart a decade earlier.
Here’s how the Seahawks navigated a draft that began with quarterbacks Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III being selected to land two franchise icons:
‘I assumed they were going to be the last team to choose me,’ says the player.
Not since 1996 has an NFL team drafted two Hall of Fame players in the same class. The Baltimore Ravens did it that year with linebacker Ray Lewis and offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden. According to ESPN Stats & Information, it has happened only seven other times since the common draft era began in 1967. Of those eight instances, the 1968 Raiders — who picked quarterback Ken Stabler in the second round and offensive tackle Art Shell in the third — are the only team that didn’t draft at least one of its same-year Hall of Famers in the first round.
The Seahawks will join that group if Wilson and Wagner, who have a combined 17 Pro Bowl appearances, continue on their route to Canton, Ohio.
And then there’s the possibility that it may have never occurred in the first place.
In the modern history of the NFL draft, only eight teams have picked several Hall of Famers in the same year. If Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner continue on their route to Canton, the Seahawks will join them.
QB with the Raiders in 1968 Ken Stabler is a well-known figure in the world of (2nd round) Shell of OT Art (3rd round)
QB, Pittsburgh Steelers, 1970 Terry Bradshaw is a defensive back who plays for the Dallas Cowboys. Blount, Mel (3)
Steelers, 1974 (1) WR Lynn Swann LB WR John Stallworth (2), Jack Lambert (2) (4) Mike Webster, C (5)
Bears OT in 1983 (1) DE Jimbo Covert Dent, Richard (8)
1985 DE for the Bills Andre Reed (1), Bruce Smith (1), Bruce Smith (1), Bruce Smith (1), Bruce Smith (1), Bruce Smith (4)
Warren Sapp (1), DT, Buccaneers, 1995 Brooks, Derrick (1)
DB with the Patriots in 1995 (1) RB Ty Law Martin, Curtis (3)
1996 OT, Ravens Jonathan Ogden, 1st baseman Ray Lewis is a well-known figure in the (1)
Sources: ESPN Stats & Information and Pro Football Reference
After an interesting pre-draft visit to club headquarters, Wagner would never have thought he’d be a Seahawk.
He was unable to attend the scouting combine due to a battle with illness. The Seahawks’ medical team didn’t find out about Wagner’s kidney ailment until he went to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, where he was diagnosed with a kidney disease that makes it difficult to take anti-inflammatories, as Wagner would later describe. The team had to persuade him to remain the night so that further testing could be done in the morning.
Wagner also had an awkward encounter with Ken Norton Jr., the team’s linebackers coach, while visiting the headquarters. Norton interrogated him about his personal life and harshly critiqued his performance.
Wagner subsequently recounted, “We saw 40 plays.” “The first five plays were probably the finest plays I’ve ever had at Utah State, and the following 35 plays were probably the worst plays I’ve ever had at Utah State, and he just destroyed me every time.”
Norton was attempting to assess Wagner’s hardness, Wagner realized. However, Wagner claimed it was his worst pre-draft visit due to Norton putting him through the wringer and concerns about his kidneys.
“I felt they were going to be the last team to choose me,” he remarked.
Throughout the pre-draft process, the Seahawks had Wagner and Cal’s Mychal Kendricks ranked neck and neck, flip-flopping them on their board a few times. When the Philadelphia Eagles selected Kendricks with the 46th overall selection, one place ahead of Seattle’s turn at 47 after a trade back from 43, the choice was made for them.
Schneider told ESPN, “We were really, very lucky the way it worked out because we were going back and forth.” “We couldn’t make up our minds. Then Kendricks went, so it was rather simple.”
‘We’ve got to get this man,’ says the group.
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Charlie Whitehurst started that weekend in place of Tarvaris Jackson, who had injured a pectoral muscle two weeks before. The Seahawks were defeated 6-3 by the Cleveland Browns, a low point in a season-long offensive struggle that highlighted the team’s need for a quarterback.
Schneider had his sights set on Wilson, but he needed to persuade the rest of the board, notably then-owner Paul Allen, who was doubtful.
Schneider tasked a scouting intern with keeping track of how many balls Wilson had knocked down at the line of scrimmage and how many times he had to bail out of the pocket due to a lack of clear passing lanes. His stature did not seem to restrict him, according to the footage.
Carroll phoned Bud Grant to get his mentor’s opinion on Fran Tarkenton, a shorter quarterback he had coached with the Minnesota Vikings.
Wilson’s height was “a major factor,” Schneider said. “There were some individuals in the building who didn’t want to take him,” says the narrator.
Schneider, on the other hand, was adamant and afraid about other teams catching on. In addition to his trip to Madison, he watched Wilson play live in the Big Ten championship game a month and a half later. Wilson met with the Seahawks at the Senior Bowl and then again at the scouting combine.
Schneider then went into hiding. Wilson’s pro day was ignored by the Wisconsin native, who grew up two hours from UW and resisted the impulse to witness him throw live one more time. He wanted the rest of the NFL to believe that the Seahawks thought his height was a deal breaker, and he hoped that other clubs shared his concerns.
The Eagles, on the other hand, did not.
“I adored Russell Wilson,” Andy Reid, then-coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, remarked at the owners meetings last month. “One of the finest combo interviews I had.”
According to Reid, the Eagles’ goal was to pick Wilson and Nick Foles and let them battle, hoping to get at least one keeper. They were selected 76th overall, one position ahead of Seattle at 75.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks had hired veteran quarterback Matt Flynn to a bridge contract that contained $10 million in guaranteed money. They also had Jackson, the incumbent starter who had won the locker room despite a torn pec.
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Wilson’s height fears had been allayed, and the Seahawks were set on picking him. It was only a matter of when. They believed he had a chance to get to the fourth round, but opted not to pass him up in the third.
The first of numerous calls Schneider got from other teams after picking Wilson at 75 was from Reid, who regretted how Seattle had snatched the Eagles’ guy.
“We really wanted him,” he told Schneider.
Because of Wagner and Wilson’s success, it’s easy to ignore how excellent the Seahawks’ 2012 draft class was beyond the second and third rounds. In ten seasons, Irvin has 52 sacks. Robert Turbin (fourth round) was a good complement to Marshawn Lynch in the backfield. Jeremy Lane (sixth) was a nickelback in the Legion of Boom and was signed by Seattle for a second contract. J.R. Sweezy (eighth) started 104 games in his career. All were members of Seattle’s Super Bowl teams as starters or contributors.
Defensive lineman Jaye Howard (fourth) and linebacker Korey Toomer (fifth) were both excellent enough to be picked up by other teams. All but one of Seattle’s ten draft choices in 2012 played in at least 35 NFL games.
Reggae music permeated the room as draft experts scratched their heads.
Everything would be just fine.
The “2022 draft class nfl” is a day that will go down in history. The NFL had its most talented and deepest draft class ever.
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