Senior Bowl’s Jim Nagy: Seahawks ‘got themselves a second draft class’ with UDFA signings
May 8, 2021, 10:30 AM | Updated: 3:20 pm
(Getty)
The Seahawks only made three picks in the 2021 NFL Draft, but that doesn’t mean they only added three rookies last weekend.
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Seattle was a key player in the early wave of undrafted rookie free agency and came away with more than 10 reported signings. (Note, no undrafted rookie deals have been made official.)
Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy, a former Seahawks scout, not only got to work up close with two of Seattle’s three picks at the 2021 Senior Bowl, but he knows an awful lot about the team’s reported undrafted rookie class.
Simply put, Nagy is a fan.
“They really got themselves like a second draft class,” Nagy told 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy on Thursday. “They capitalized on the fact of having only three picks and it helped in their recruiting.”
Here’s some analysis that Nagy provided to Jake and Stacy on a few of the Seahawks’ reported signings.
Cade Johnson, WR, South Dakota State
The Seahawks drafted speedy receiver D’Wayne Eskridge in the second round – a move that Nagy really liked – but they didn’t stop there when it came to adding receivers.
One of the receivers the Seahawks reportedly added was Cade Johnson, a 5-f0ot-10, 180-pound receiver from South Dakota State. Nagy was surprised he went undrafted.
“I would think he’s going to make that football team,” he said. “It didn’t make sense he didn’t get drafted … I really thought Cade was going to go in the fourth round.”
South Dakota State is a Division-1 FCS school, so Nagy said the level of competition that Johnson faced may have deterred some teams from drafting him. But Nagy didn’t see any issues in person at this year’s Senior Bowl.
“He came down to Mobile and had a really, really good week … He showed up as a receiver and even in the game as a gunner on the punt team he made a couple tackles,” he said.
When it comes to Johnson’s playing style, Nagy sees a little bit of a former Seahawks star who went undrafted many years ago.
“I think he’s going to be a really good fit in terms of what they had in the past,” he said. “… In terms of his skillset on the field I do see (some Doug Baldwin).”
Tamorrion Terry, WR, Florida State
While Johnson is a small and shifty receiver, Florida State’s Tamorrion Terry is a big guy at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds. He was one of the bigger-named prospects that the Seahawks reportedly added.
“Tamorrian Terry is an interesting guy, especially if you go back to his 2019 tape,” Nagy said.
In 2019, Terry had nearly 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns in 13 games. In six games in 2020, though, his production took a big hit. In his final college season, Terry had just 289 yards and one score. His yards per reception decreased from 19.8 in 2019 to 12.6 in 2020.
“He was not the same guy in 2020, but we’re talking about a big, fast, long-bodied guy from Florida State who has shown the ability to make explosive plays as a sophomore in 2019,” Nagy said.
Connor Wedington, WR, Stanford
Sticking with receivers, the Seahawks also reportedly picked up Stanford’s Connor Wedington, who is from Sumner, Washington.
Wedington had just one career touchdown and under 1,000 career receiving yards for the Cardinal, but he’s a unique athlete who can do a lot on offense and in the return game.
“You can move him around,” Nagy said, “but I think he’s more of a slot (receiver).”
Wedington didn’t go to the Senior Bowl, but Nagy and his staff watched a lot of his college tape.
“What we did like was his ability with the ball in his hands, so if you want to line him up in the backfield and get it to him that way and that’s a guy you want to be creative with, I think he can fill that role,” Nagy said. “That’s another guy I think figures into the mix. To me, he’s at worst a practice squad player.”
Bryan Mills, CB, North Carolina Central
The Seahawks drafted a shorter cornerback in the fourth round in Tre Brown, who was a Senior Bowl. They got length in North Carolina Central’s Bryan Mills, who is 6-foot-1 and has 32-inch arms, who also played and practiced at this year’s Senior Bowl.
“He is your typical Seahawks guy in terms of being long and having the ability to finish,” Nagy said. “He’s really a guy who might need a year on the practice squad because he was a junior college guy who only played one year at (the historically Black college and university) level for N.C. Central and he didn’t have a season (in 2020). That might be a cool guy to stash for a year and have something.”
Mills recorded five interceptions in his lone season for N.C. Central in 2019.
Jared Hocker, OL, Texas A&M
Seahawks fans clamor for Seattle to upgrade the offensive line seemingly each and every year in the NFL Draft. Seattle did draft one lineman in 2021 in Florida tackle Stone Forsythe, but the team also reportedly added an intriguing lineman in Texas A&M’s Jared Hocker in undrafted free agency.
Hocker is a 6-foot-5, 320-pound guard who started at both left and right guard for the Aggies during his college career.
Hocker, like Johnson, is a player Nagy was surprised to see go undrafted.
“He was a guy that when we made calls around the league putting in the bottom end of our (Senior Bowl) roster together, a lot of teams had Jared in the middle rounds,” Nagy said. “I thought he was going to go in the fifth or the sixth rounds. To me he was a draftable player. There’s a guy who could make the football team.”
B.J. Emmons, RB, Florida Atlantic
The Seahawks have a lot of depth at running back, and they got even more with two reported undrafted rookie free agent signings.
One of those players is B.J. Emmons, a talented back from Florida Atlantic University who didn’t have as much college production as many expected given his status as a once highly-touted high-school recruit.
“He was a five-star (recruit in) a loaded Alabama backfield and then he found his way to FAU and really was injured most of his time at FAU,” Nagy said. “But if he’s healthy, that guy is an NFL running back. He is a fun guy to watch.”
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