Seahawks GM Schneider: Rookie observations, insight on draft trade

Fresh off the Seahawks’ rookie minicamp over the weekend, general manager John Schneider joined Seattle Sports Station’s Wyman and Bob on Monday afternoon to share some his observations after watching his new draft class up close as well as insight into how the previous week’s NFL Draft went for Seattle.

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Here’s a quick look at some of the key takeaways from the interview, which you can listen to in full on the Wyman and Bob podcast page or in the player below.

Standouts at Seahawks rookie minicamp

The biggest question for Schneider was about his impressions after seeing his draft picks up close for the first time since they joined the Seahawks organization.

The players that he mentioned by name were offensive tackles Charles Cross (first round) and Abraham Lucas (third round), running back Kenneth Walker III (second round), cornerback Coby Bryant (fourth round), and seventh-round receivers Bo Melton and Dareke Young.

“Seeing the size of the two tackles and the quickness that they played with,” Schneider said stood out to him as he first replied to the question. “And then seeing Ken Walker catching the ball, he caught the ball really well this weekend. You saw it in the workouts and everything but in the game (Michigan State) didn’t throw to him a ton in the fall.”

Making it look easy @Kenneth_Walker9 pic.twitter.com/V5qoobJktk

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) May 6, 2022

He added that Bryant, the Jim Thorpe Award winner as the best defensive back in the country, “made several good plays on the ball,” and that “the two young receivers really stood out, as well.”

So smooth @CobyBryant8_ pic.twitter.com/HD5aH7pelx

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) May 7, 2022

The one draft trade

There was a lot of trade activity during the draft, but the Seahawks uncharacteristically were pretty quiet on that front.

“There’s some younger guys that just seem to be way more, like, aggressive and open to doing deals,” said Schneider, who is in his 13th year as Seahawks GM, about other GMs around the league. “So you can see a lot of people moving around this year.”

While the Seahawks only made one move, Schneider said it wasn’t for lack of trying.

“For us, it was kind of weird. We were in probably, I don’t know, call it 15 to 16 different deals that just for one reason or another didn’t come to fruition.”

The one trade proved to be valuable for Seattle, though, as the Hawks picked up an extra seventh-round selection that allowed them to get both Melton and Young instead of having to make a tough decision between the two receivers.

“We did the one where we traded back and were able to pick up that extra seventh, which was huge for us because we really had those two receivers staring at us down there that our staff really wanted to work with and that our scouts were obviously very high on,” he said. “So to get it where we didn’t have to pick between one of the two and be able to grab both of them was a really big deal for us. I think you guys are gonna be really impressed with these two young men.”

Look for more from Schneider’s interview in the coming days here on SeattleSports.com.

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