Clayton: Seahawks should get two compensatory picks, have seven choices total in 2017 draft

Now that the NFL has decided to give the Seahawks only a warning instead of a penalty for not disclosing Richard Sherman’s knee injury, John Schneider and Pete Carroll can look ahead to the draft with a better idea of what picks they’ll have.

Draft meetings have started at team headquarters. At the end of the month, the staff will head to Indianapolis for the scouting combine. At the moment, the Seahawks have seven draft choices, which gives you the sense that Schneider will be making some moves to acquire more.

In his seven drafts as the Seahawks’ general manager, Schneider has never made fewer than eight selections and most often he’s made nine or more. Trading down in some spots to get additional picks will be on Schneider’s agenda.

A few of things happened to limit the Seahawks’ current number of draft choices to seven.

Practice penalty. It wasn’t in the plans for the Seahawks not to have a fifth-round pick, but the NFL penalized the team a fifth-rounder for extra contact in practices last spring. It was the third violation since Carroll has been Seattle’s head coach. The penalties escalate with each new incident. Schneider can certainly get a choice back in the fifth round if he can make a trade in the first three rounds, where the Seahawks have four picks.

Compensatory picks. The Seahawks will pick up a third-round compensatory choice for losing linebacker Bruce Irvin to Oakland in free agency and a fifth-round compensatory for guard J.R. Sweezy, who went to  Tampa Bay. The Seahawks were eligible for two more compensatory picks. They could have gotten maybe two sixth-rounders for the losses of left tackle Russell Okung and defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, but they won’t get those choices. The way the compensatory game works is that a team can get up to four picks to replace lost free agents. But the Seahawks signed offensive tackles Bradley Sowell and J’Marcus Webb as unrestricted free agents. Webb got a two-year deal for around $6 million. Sowell got a one-year deal at $1 million. Schneider needed the veteran competition for Seattle’s young offensive line. Those signings cancelled out the other two possible compensatory picks. The NFL doesn’t officially notify teams until the owners’ meeting in March about the exact decisions made on compensatory picks. What’s interesting this season is that for the first time in NFL history, compensatory picks can be traded. Prior to this year, teams with compensatory picks could only make those selections. Having the ability to include compensatory picks in trade discussions will help Schneider maneuver to gain more choices.

Other trades. Not only are the Seahawks missing their fifth-round pick for the OTA violation – remember they’ll still have a compensatory fifth – they also don’t have a fourth-round choice. It was given away in a draft-day trade last April, when the Seahawks moved up to take defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson. There is one seventh-round pick available. It is believed the Seahawks will lose their seventh-round pick for the conditional trade they made to acquire safety Dewey McDonald from Oakland before the season. They will have a seventh-round pick from when they traded wide receiver Kevin Norwood to Carolina in 2015.

So overall, the Seahawks are in pretty good shape. They have four picks in the first three rounds but only one between the fourth and fifth. Expect them to be wheeling and dealing.

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