Heaps: Moves the Seahawks must make and avoid ahead of 2021 season

The Seahawks are no strangers to making splashes during the offseason.

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Since Pete Carroll and John Schneider joined the organization in 2010, the Seahawks have regularly made big splash trades during the offseason, sending draft picks and/or players for big names. We’ve seen this with players like Percy Harvin, Jimmy Graham, Sheldon Richardson and more recently, Jadeveon Clowney and Jamal Adams.

Those trades (and more) have all had various degrees of success, but one thing they’ve done is decrease the Seahawks’ draft capital. In this most recent NFL Draft, for instance, the Seahawks had only three picks due to the trade for Adams as well as deals for veterans Gabe Jackson and Carlos Dunlap.

While adding proven players is something that any team – especially a contender like the Seahawks – likes to do, former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps doesn’t believe Seattle needs to go out and make a big move ahead of the 2021 season. He explained why on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy on Monday.

“I don’t believe they have the ability to make a big blockbuster trade, nor do I believe they should,” Heaps said. “It’s always good to get good talented players and proven commodities – I’m always a fan of that. But I do believe you’re in an interesting crossroads where you look to the future in 2022.

As noted, the Seahawks made only three picks in the 2021 draft. That was not only far and away the fewest picks that Carroll and Schneider made since joining Seattle in 2010, but it was the fewest picks in franchise history and one of the smallest draft classes in NFL history. Prior to this most recent draft, the Seahawks had made at least eight picks every year since 2010.

The Seahawks don’t have a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft due to the trade for Adams, but they do have one pick in rounds two through seven, and they also picked up an extra fourth-round selection in the deal for Adams.

“You need some of these draft picks that you currently have in the draft and you need to get back to normal in terms of going after more quality draft picks and not be left with the cupboards bare entering the draft with only three picks,” Heaps said. “So I think that’s part of it is being disciplined in the sense of you’re not giving up lots of draft capital you have in the future year.”

But a big trade isn’t the only thing the Seahawks don’t need to do according to Heaps.

“What I will say is I think the Seahawks are good in the skill position department,” he said. “I know you could still go out and add at the cornerback position like Richard Sherman, a veteran-type player, but I think they created the talent and the competition that they ultimately want, and I think they’re good there. I think they’re good at receiver, I think they’re good in a variety of different places.”

Where Heaps does want to see the Seahawks make a move prior to Week 1, though, is on the defensive line.

“I still see that three-technique defensive tackle as a position behind Poona Ford that I would like to see them secure,” he said. “I know they might be thinking that L.J. Collier or Kerry Hyder Jr. can fill that role, but I would love to see somebody out there on the veteran market that is a veteran commodity that you know you can get some good, quality production out of and maybe somebody who’s a surprise cut after June 1.”

Listen to the full second hour of Monday’s Jake and Stacy at this link or in the player below.

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