A review of the Seahawks' draft picks following rookie mini-camp – The Seattle Times

With rookie mini-camp having concluded, here’s a quick review of how it went for each of the Seahawks’ 10 draft picks with some thoughts from coach Pete Carroll.

RG Germain Ifedi: Ifedi spent the weekend working as a right guard with the No. 1 offense. He also did a little kicking in an impromptu field goal contest to end the camp on Sunday (he went 1-2 to Jarran Reed’s 2-2, handing a win to the defense). Carroll said Ifedi looked “exactly like we like them.’’ But he also issued the annual disclaimer that linemen can be particularly tough to judge in these settings. “It’s harder with those guys,’’ Carroll said. “We work really hard to cooperate and we fit together because we can’t do any banging and all. So it’s a little hard to understand really what you have until you put your pads on. But you can see their movement and you can see they’re learning the system and you can see how they look and feel so you can get a sense. We’ll draw as much as you can draw out of this that we get but it’s not real ball though, until you put your pads on.”

DT Jarran Reed: Reed worked at the nose and three-technique spots, and earned the same praise from Carroll as did Ifedi, that at first glance he looked the part. “We worked him more a the 3-technique (Sunday),’’ Carroll said. “He’s played 50-50, so he can do both. He’s very comfortable, very natural with it. It gives us a really good flexibility with Rubin. Ahtyba has played both as well, so right now if we didn’t know anything else, we’d be able to match guys according to people they’re playing against. It’s just such a crucial pick for us. Jarran can really jump right in and give us the stout play, he’s just got a great savvy for the running game. He’ll play both spots, for sure. Which one we feature him at we’ll determine later when we get back to camp and as we get into game planning and all that. But it gives us really good flexibility and he’s a terrific football player.”

RB C.J. Prosise: Prosise worked first in the running back rotations, but for the long-term the one-time receiver at Notre Dame continues to project first as a possible immediate replacement for the third-down back role held last year by Fred Jackson. Said Carroll: “He’s really unique. I’ve never had anyone that was a receiver that went to running back that could do both. You commit one way or the other. We put him with the receivers (Sunday). He ran one on one routes with the receivers today and he looked normal, as comfortable as the receivers. He does have great speed too. And he is tall. His hands are totally adequate. It’s a real prize for us. I don’t really have a guy to compare him to at this point. He’s got a long ways to go, a lot of pass protection to pick up and a lot of blocking and stuff he has to do as well that he did OK. We’ve also looked at that or course extensively and he did OK at that for not knowing what he was doing and barely hanging on to it. It’s going to be a really fun position to see him develop.’’

TE Nick Vannett: Vannett showed nice hands throughout the camp. But his greatest immediate value will likely be as an in-line blocking tight end, which will free up Jimmy Graham and Luke Willson to be used even more in receiving roles. Said Carroll: “We got a great look at him. He got a lot of balls thrown to him. He’s a really natural catcher with great catching range. He’s 6-6 with long arms and the whole thing. He had no trouble in any of the routes, so very comfortable there. It’s hard to tell about the blocking. What he has shown is a really good combination blocker, which we do so much of. We move our tight ends and he works in conjunction with the offensive tackles. He’s shown good flexibility and ability in that area and he did that again in camp. You can’t see him coming off the football because we don’t get that done here. That’s where we will develop him is his ability to block defensive ends, coming off the ball when he has to do it single. He did not have to do a lot of that on film at Ohio State so we will see. But 6-6, and he’s almost 260 and he’s got really good feet natural feet. I don’t see anything but real upside here. We are going to stick him right into the rotation of playing a lot of the Y spot and we’ll see how that goes because we know Jimmy is terrific, Jimmy can do all the stuff but Jimmy is terrific too to move him around, too. We love playing him in two tight end sets, Luke can do it all too but we like those guys in receiver spots moreso whenever we can get them there so we are hoping that Nick will be able to pick up some good slack there. We’ve felt like we needed that the last couple of years but there just weren’t guys available to get, that’s why he was really a priority to see if we could nail him in the draft and we were every fortunate to get him.’’

LG Rees Odhiambo: Odhiambo worked with the No. 1 unit at left guard throughout the camp and will enter training camp competing with Mark Glowinski for the suddenly vacant LG spot with the move of Justin Britt to center.

DT Quinton Jefferson: Jefferson was used at several different spots on the defensive line and projects to potentially have a role similar to that of Michael Bennett, with the ability to play outside on run downs and inside on passing downs.

RB Alex Collins: Of Seattle’s three rookie running backs, Collins projects as more of a first- and second-down tailback than a third-down back. Here’s how Carroll described the three rookie running backs. “We see some crossover between C.J. and Zac (Brooks), both those guys have receiver background, which is good for us. Alex has played a lot of football, he has great experience, he has a great sense for stuff, he’s a bright kid. All three of those guys picked everything up and did a nice job. I’m really excited about that spot and complementing what Thomas (Rawls) can do and Christine (Michael). It’s going to be a great camp of competition for us.”

C Joey Hunt: Hunt worked all weekend as the center for the first offense and figures to have a legitimate shot to win what is a suddenly crowded competition for the center spot. Said Carroll: “He’s a really, really smart football player and that’s going to give him an opportunity to contribute early. He’s not going to have any problem with the system. He’ll study like crazy. He’s a very savvy football player. We saw that throughout, and he brings a nice background for us. He’s going to have a chance to compete. Just like we hoped he would fit in very well.”

WR Kenny Lawler: Lawler was a standout the first two days making a handful of highlight-reel catches before sitting out on Sunday with tightness in a leg. Afterward, Carroll made an interesting assessment of Lawler, listed at 6-2, 203.  “He was a little tight today coming out of day two. He had a great camp. He showed us that he has a marvelous catching range. We thought he had as good of hands as anyone in the draft and felt very fortunate to get him where we did, and he had the opportunities and he showed it. He made plays down the field, made plays in traffic, running around and just us the feeling that ‘ok, that’s the guy we were hoping he was going to be and away we go.’ I think he has a big upside in terms of development. He’s thin, thin kid. Probably lost almost 15 pounds since the combine or whatever it was. He dropped a lot of weight after he finished working out with his guy in preparation for the combine. We think we can build him up and get him a lot stronger and his hands won’t change, so we think we have a nice prospect there.”

RB Zac Brooks: Brooks went third in the tailback rotation behind the two taken ahead of him. As Carroll said in the comment above, he projects initially as more of a third-down back due to his receiving background, and that the team has a need at that spot.

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