Over the course of a week and a half we have gone through each of the players the Seattle Seahawks selected in the 2018 NFL Draft
individually and graded each pick with the the benefit of a season worth of
production. Obviously
Cheap Shaquill Griffin Jersey , voting is still open for all of the picks, so things could change, but as of the time of writing, these are the
grades as voted on by Field Gulls readers for each of the individual selections
the team made in the 2018 draft. First round running back Rashaad Penny: CThird
round defensive end Rasheem Green: CFourth round tight end Will Dissly: AFifth
Round linebacker Shaquem Griffin: CFifth round cornerback Tre Flowers: AFifth
round punter Michael Dickson: AFifth round tackle Jamarco Jones: CSixth round
defensive end Jacob Martin: ASeventh round quarterback Alex McGough: CSo that
brings us to the question of how we should grade the draft class as a whole.
Does the fact that the class is graded half A’s and half as C’s simply mean the
draft class is a B? Orshould we simply tabulate all of the votes for the
different players and assign the grade based on the overall percentages of
things? And this is where things become less structured and less defined, and
it’s up to each of you to decide individually because there is no one right way.
As frustrating as that may sound, the simple fact is there are few absolutes.
Coming to a final conclusion is not an absolute, as the conclusion from one
perspective is most certainly going to be different than the perspective of
others. In any case, here’s the table for the cumulative grading up to this
point. Seahawks 2018 NFL Draft class grading table of votesPickABCDFTotal
VotesPickABCDFTotal VotesSo, with all of that in mind, what kind of grade do you
give the Seahawks 2018 draft class with a year of hindsight?Why it will be hard
for the Seahawks to be terrible Russell Wilson. There’s your answer to the
headline.Wilson has done enough at this point to prove himself as a year-in,
year-out top-eight quarterback in the NFL. I say “top-eight” to really weed out
anybody who has the worthless opinion that Wilson isn’t great while not going so
far up the list to leave out folks who think he’s really good but not top-three.
But Wilson has all the resume necessary to prove that he’s one of the absolute
best at the position.Over the last three seasons, Wilson ranks fourth in
touchdown passes, third in passer rating, fourth in adjusted yards per attempt,
and does so while rushing for over 450 yards per year. Behind an offensive line
that is the most clowned in the league. The argument for top-five is an easy
one, but I’ll be generous to the doubters and say that at the very
least
Bobby Wagner Jersey , there aren’t more than seven quarterbacks in the NFL who are better.For me, once you get past Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Aaron
Rodgers, it’s wide open between Wilson and another three or four guys. And these
guys very rarely play on terrible teams; that’s sort of why these quarterbacks
get paid on a different scale than every other position in the NFL.Since his
first season as a starter in 2002, Brees has played in 16 seasons. Of these, he
has posted six losing records: In 2003, he went 2-9 when things fell apart for
the San Diego Chargers, and with the New Orleans Saints he’s had seasons of 7-9,
7-9, 7-9, and 7-8. In pretty much all of those 7-9 seasons, the Saints had
historically bad defenses. And yet, they “only” went 7-9. That was the power of
Drew Brees. The Seahawks may have lost a lot of name players on defense, but
they still have Bobby Wagner, Frank Clark
http://www.seahawkscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-tre-flowers-jersey , K.J. Wright, and most likely, Earl Thomas. It would be surprising if they were
bad, let alone historically bad.Looking for good quarterbacks who have been on
bad teams in recent years, you won’t find many.Philip Rivers had another solid
season in 2015, throwing 29 touchdowns against 13 interceptions, but the
Chargers went 4-12. This may be a “doomsday” worst case scenario for Wilson and
the Seahawks, but it is rare. The Chargers went 5-11 the next season too and
Rivers threw 33 touchdowns, but he also led the NFL in interceptions. In his
12-year career, Rivers has posted just one other losing season, going 7-9 in
2012.Since 2010, there have been just six other instances of a QB posting a
rating of at least 90 while also losing 10 games:- Jameis Winston went 3-10 for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year- Matt Schaub went 6-10 for the Houston Texans
in 2010- Matt Ryan went 6-10 for the Atlanta Falcons in 2014- Eli Manning went
6-10 in both 2014 and 2015- Colin Kaepernick went 1-10 for the San Francisco
49ers in 2016Of these, only Ryan is on par with Wilson’s proven abilities. The
Falcons also went 4-12 a year earlier (Ryan was just a touch under a 90 rating
that season), so they did find a floor lower than what a top-tier quarterback
can usually hit. But you won’t find a single notable player on Atlanta’s defense
outside of Desmond Trufant, who was just beginning his career. And Mike Smith
does not deserve the same credit for building a franchise and coaching up a
young team that Pete Carroll does.Rodgers went 6-10 during his first season with
the Green Bay Packers. Despite building a pretty poor roster for most of the
five years, Rodgers has not posted a losing record. I can’t speak to what
Seattle would look like without Wilson
Cheap Rashaad Penny Jersey , if he got injured, and there’s no point in doing so either. The Seahawks would likely be terrible, as most teams without
good quarterbacks are terrible. Green Bay is terrible without Rodgers. I know
that Matt Cassel once helped the Patriots to 11-5, but I think they’d be much,
much worse off this time around if Brady went away for any reason. Basically, if
you think that the Seahawks are going to be the worst version of themselves with
a healthy Wilson, I think you’re looking at a 6-10 team. And that’s me pushing
and pulling in reasonable ways to see how bad that team could be, outside of a
season where they just lose game after game by 6 points or less in heartbreaking
fashion.In six seasons together, the worst job that Wilson and Carroll have done
was 9-7. In the other five, they went to the postseason and won at least one
game. Their losses over the last year do include Richard Sherman, Kam
Chancellor, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, Sheldon Richardson, Jimmy Graham, and
Paul Richardson. But over their last seven games
Cheap Tyler Lockett Jersey , without Sherman, Chancellor, and Avril, they went 3-4 and were quite close to 5-2. To be picking at the top of the draft, the
Seahawks would need to win three games or less over the course of 16 games, but
they managed to do that in their final seven without a full offseason of
preparation to replace those stars like they’ve had in 2018.So how many “wins”
or “losses” are four games of Avril, nine games of Sherman, Chancellor, plus
full or near-full seasons of Bennett, Richardson, Richardson, and Graham really
worth? Well, they aren’t quarterbacks like Wilson is, so it’s not nearly the
same impact. Let me ask you this: How many games would the Seahawks have won
last year if they hadn’t traded for Sheldon Richardson? Do you think they
would’ve gone 9-7 still? 8-8? How much worse would it have gotten? Well, how
much worse off do you think they are this year without Richardson, and instead
getting back Nazair Jones
http://www.seahawkscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-nick-vannett-jersey , plus signing Tom Johnson and Shamar Stephen and Poona Ford? They traded Bennett,
but what they’re losing is the 2018 version of Bennett (who is 32), not the
2013-2017 versions necessarily. And he could be as good as ever. But how many
wins or losses is the 32-year-old Bennett worth vs Rasheem Green, increased
playing time for Dion Jordan or Marcus Smith? A whole win? I don’t see the
changes outside of Wilson being more dramatic than a couple of wins, and even in
the case of what Seattle lost, it’s impossible to quantify what they will gain.
The Seahawks didn’t replace Paul Richardson with a Christmas tree at wide
receiver. It’s not from one Preach to one Zero. Tyler Lockett could end up
playing better in Richardson’s absence. Brandon Marshall or someone else may
provide some value and it could still live up to — or surpass — Richardson’s
frankly-okay 2017 season.Let’s not forget that he had provided 599 yards over
his first three seasons prior to 2017. Jaron Brown’s had 808 yards over the last
three seasons.All that being said, I don’t know exactly how the current Seattle
53-man roster will stack up to the previous iteration. It could be worse. It
might even likely be worse. The strength of schedule is a relative unknown and
can change in a heartbeat. It may also be better. It could noticeably better
immediately with Duane Brown at left tackle instead of Rees Odhiambo. I don’t
really know, nobody does yet, not even a single preseason game has
transpired.But here’s what I do know: franchise quarterbacks matter for a
reason. If the Seahawks lose 14 games, I’m confident that it wouldn’t have been
with Russell Wilson under center. If they lose 12 games, I’d be shocked if
Wilson was healthy. If they lose 10 games, then maybe the worst-case scenario
with Wilson has gone down. But more likely than not, this is a .500 team looking
for two close games to break in their favor, instead of two close games that go
against them. This is not the worst team in the NFL, or close to it.Not as long
as Wilson is taking the snaps.
