Round 5: Seahawks take CB Tye Smith at No. 170

RENTON – The Seahawks have drafted at least one cornerback in one of the later rounds every year under general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll, a streak that continued this year with their selection of Tye Smith from Towson in the sixth.

Smith is 6 feet tall and weighs 190 pounds. The Seahawks view him as an outside cornerback but believe he has the potential to play in the slot as well.

General manager John Schneider described him as an aggressive cornerback with good length who’s always around the football. Then he gave a pretty good example of those attributes, describing how Smith made “probably one of the cooler plays in college football this year” when he deflected a pass, forced a fumble after the ball was caught then almost recovered that fumble himself.

Smith isn’t quite as big as some of the towering cornerbacks that Seattle has drafted, closer to Jeremy Lane than to Richard Sherman. In fact, Smith and Lane have a few things common aside from their similar size as both were drafted by Seattle out of smaller Division-I programs.

Smith described himself as a late-bloomer, which he said was one of the reasons why he only received one scholarship offer coming out of high school. He called it a “blessing” to be drafted by Seattle, where he’ll be able to see first-hand what it takes to become a late-round success story like some of his new teammates in the Seahawks’ secondary.

“You couldn’t ask for better guys to learn from,” he said, “to come in and just soak up everything they know and learn from them about how to be a pro in the NFL.”