The 2011 NFL Draft is in the books, giving us an overall look at which teams won and lost. We'll be going further into depth over the next few days, but we'll start with an early, brief overview of the Seattle Seahawks draft. It was a need-based draft for Seattle without the "sexy" picks we'd normally see. Instead, the Seahawks looked to rebuild their offensive line, secondary and linebacking corps with the draft, filling in small parts with the rest of their picks.
Offensive line: The Seahawks reached with their first two picks, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Upon further reflection, both picks fill an immediate need and are expected to jump into the mix right away. In the first round, Seattle took Alabama offensive tackle James Carpenter to slide into the right tackle spot opposite Russell Okung. In the third round, after trading down from the second round, the Seahawks took Wisconsin guard John Moffitt, who is expected to start right away at the guard spot
Grade: C+. While they were reaches, the two did fill needs
Defensive back: The Seahawks went after defensive backs en masse during the fifth and sixth rounds, choosing three-in-a-row in an effort to rebuild the secondary. Cornerback Richard Sherman was first and has a familiarity with head coach Pete Carroll. When Carroll was at USC, he recruited Sherman hard, but lost out to Stanford. Sherman plays with a chip on his shoulder and was out to take down the Trojans in college. Later in the fifth round, Carroll went with a small-school defensive back, picking up ball-hawking safety Mark Legree from Appalachian State. Byron Maxwell was the third of the bunch as Carroll looked to create competition in the secondary through the draft.
Grade: B-
Linebacker: The Seahawks took two linebackers, both of the outside variety. K.J. Wright will likely be a LEO and was a scheme-based pick. Malcolm Smith is a speedster and was excellent in workouts, but he's an unproven commodity in many ways.
Grade: C-
Wide receiver: The Seahawks took just one wide receiver: Kris Durham from Georgia. He's a big redzone target, but was a reach, and likely would've been around in the late rounds. Nothing about him jumps off the page and he seems like little more than depth to sit behind Mike Williams.
Grade: D
Defensive line: The line was a need for the Seahawks and little was done to address it in the draft. Pep Levingston was the only lineman taken and he appears to be little more than depth to back-up Red Bryant.
Grade:C
That's it for position-based grades. These are the parts, but a draft is the sum of all parts. We'll be back with an overall view of the draft shotly.
Check out the rest of our 2011 NFL Draft grades to get caught up on all the picks. We'll be covering the latest news and rumors throughout the entire process in our 2011 NFL Draft StoryStream. Stay with us for more on the draft as it becomes available. Check out our 2011 NFL mock draft StoryStream for even more predictions and projections.