Seahawks’ offseason ranked 26th by ESPN writer — Brock Huard explains why he agrees

The Seattle Seahawks have had a curious offseason.

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Coming off a 2019 season where pass rush was the most obvious of several clear needs, they’ve added rotation players to the position, stockpiled little-known offensive linemen and made several NFL Draft picks of the head-scratching variety. Their biggest free agent and their apparent top priority to re-sign, defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, remains unsigned two months into free agency.

Oh, and their biggest move of the spring, a trade to acquire cornerback Quinton Dunbar, suddenly became a questionable one when Dunbar was charged with four felony counts after being accused of having a role in an alleged armed robbery last week in Florida.

With that all taken into account, it’s not all that much of a surprise that ESPN NFL writer Bill Barnwell ranked the Seahawks’ offseason thus far as No. 26 overall among the 32 NFL teams. In fact, the surprise may be that Seattle wasn’t ranked lower.

“The fact that they’re not 30 or 29 on that list speaks to the homework I think Bill Barnwell has done,” 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard said Tuesday during the Blue 42 segment of Danny and Gallant.

As one might expect, the Houston Texans came in dead last in Barnwell’s rankings thanks to puzzling moves that have become head coach/general manager Bill O’Brien’s calling card in recent years. But the Seahawks aren’t the only franchise that has performed well for the most part over the last decade to fall in the bottom portion of Barnwell’s rankings.

“When you look at New England at No. 30 and the Packers at No. 27, quality organizations right around there, (they) operate in the offseason a little bit differently than their peers,” Huard said. “They don’t necessarily just try to win the offseason. Seahawks never have. They have a very clear picture of what they want to do, do not really care what the outside forces think about it, so 26 I think is a pretty fair number (for Seattle).”

Huard delved a little deeper into why he thinks that ranking fits what the Seahawks have done in 2020.

“(Barnwell) didn’t love necessarily any of the (offensive) linemen the Seahawks added. I don’t think he sees an impact player other than possibly B.J. Finney,” he said. “A lot of the rest of the guys in his mind are depth. They’ve not signed back Jadeveon Clowney, which is still an enormous priority for a team that couldn’t get to the quarterback a year ago. Other than (first-round pick) Jordyn Brooks, like me he feels like there’s probably not a ton of impact with these draft picks.”

You can hear the full discussion from Blue 42 in this podcast from Tuesday’s episode of 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny and Gallant.

Follow 710’s Brock Huard, Danny O’Neil and Paul Gallant on Twitter.

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