Seahawks on first-round pick Germain Ifedi: ‘We see him as a cornerstone player at tackle’

The Seahawks drafted offensive lineman Germain Ifedi in the first round, and Ifedi, general manager John Schneider, coach Pete Carroll and offensive line coach Tom Cable all spoke about the pick. Here are five interesting quotes from the first day:

1. John Schneider: “It could have gone either way. It could have gone defensive line or offensive line.”

What’s interesting: Schneider was asked if the Seahawks had targeted offensive line with their first pick, and this was his answer. Those are the two positions most commonly associated with the Seahawks, and they were often listed as Seattle’s biggest areas of need entering the draft.

2. Germain Ifedi: “(Tom Cable) was very honest with me. He told me what he liked about my game. He told me what I could improve. He said, ‘You have all the ability. You have everything to be a good offensive lineman.’ But he wasn’t there to stroke my ego. There’s enough people to do that. He’s there to tell me how it is and see how I can do when put under pressure or in an adverse situation.”

What’s interesting: Cable has talked about his approach to workouts with offensive lineman before. He wants to put guys in uncomfortable situations, to see how they adapt and how they listen when things are flying. So that’s what Cable did with Ifedi, and he liked the way Ifedi responded. It’s also interesting because even Ifedi said that sometimes his technique could go “awry” and that Cable said he needed to become more fundamentally sound at this level.

3. Cable: “As typical of us, we try to find guys who are going to be capable of playing more than one spot. But I think, long term, down the road, we see him as a guy who can be a cornerstone player for you at tackle.”

What’s interesting: The Seahawks have always made clear their preference for versatility among offensive linemen, but it’s also interesting to note that the Seahawks see Ifedi as their right tackle of the future. He has to play well this preseason and claim that spot, but it’s clear the Seahawks intend for him to be their right tackle. Cable was later asked if Idefi was a guy who could develop quickly enough to be an impact player in Year 1. He said, “You certainly hope so. That’s obviously why we picked him with the 31^st pick.”

4. Cable: “What they do, everything is kind of retreat, set and you just back up and catch and hold on. In this league that won’t do it. You’ve got to close space on people and use your strength and power and size, so he’s going to learn how to do that. He’s going to have to learn to play with leverage. It’s not a system he’s coming from where they come off the ball and are trying to knock you back. The cool thing is he’s wired to do that. It’s just a matter of teaching him and getting him the reps to do that. But that distance, for me, to get him where he needs to be is rather short.”

What’s interesting: The Seahawks have talked a lot about the difficulty of evaluating college offensive linemen with the rise of spread offenses in college. As Cable pointed out, the Seahawks demand that their linemen are aggressive going forward and knock defensive linemen back. It’s not something required of many college linemen anymore. Ifedi will have to adjust to that physical style of play.

5. Schneider: “When we played in Kansas City, I went to Kansas. That was my first school to call this year, and Troy Kema is their academic adviser there. He was like, ‘You can ask me about all these guys at Kansas, and you can ask me about all these guys at Texas A&M, and I’m just going to tell you one thing: If you don’t draft Germain Ifedi, you have no idea what you’re doing.’ So I was like, ‘I guess we’re drafting Germain Ifedi.’ So this whole last couple of months, we’ve just been waiting to take Germain Ifedi.”

What’s interesting: Schneider said this tongue-in-cheek, so mostly it was just an entertaining anecdote.