Kam Chancellor's extension, a trade the Seahawks didn't make, and more key takeaways from Seahawks GM John Schneider's interview Tuesday morning on KJR-AM.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider was a guest on KJR-AM Tuesday morning on the Mitch in the Morning Show.
Here are five key takeaways, in no particular order.
1, If the team is working on an extension for strong safety Kam Chancellor, Schneider isn’t saying.
Asked about an extension for Chancellor, who is entering the last year of his contract, Schneider said “I’d love to get into that with you but I’m not going to’’ and then rebuffed several other Levy attempts to offer more.
That basically fits with what the tack the team has taken on extensions all off-season, which has been to say almost nothing. Asked about Chancellor at the Combine, for instance, Schneider said “We have several guys that we will get to. We want to be able to take care of our team and he’s obviously a huge part of that.”
The Seahawks typically handle extensions in the period between the draft and the start of training camp, so if one is to happen the work would likely pick up a little bit now.
Seattle drafted two safeties over the weekend, including Michigan’s Delano Hill who most likely will start out at strong safety, Chancellor’s position.
Schneider, though, also intriguingly said the two safeties — the other being Colorado’s Tedric Thompson — would also get looks at cornerback to see if they might be better fits there. The Seahawks have already said safety Mike Tyson of Cincinnati will be tried first at cornerback.
“All three safeties we took have really good coverage skills, too,’’ he said. “So I’m sure we will take a look at all of them out there at some point.’’
2, The Seahawks thought about trading up once — apparently in the fifth round to take a tight end.
Asked a question from Levy about one thing he would change about the draft if he could, Schneider said the team wanted to trade up at one point “for a position that we had two guys sitting there. They both went back-to-back so we had to pull out of the trade.’’ Schneider described it as “not necessarily’’ a position of need “but the players were just too good. Felt we wanted to take a shot at the guys at the same position.’’
While Schneider didn’t name the position or players, all evidence would point to the start of the fifth round, where Denver took tight end Jake Butt of Michigan at 145 and then the 49ers selected tight end George Kittle of Iowa at 146. That was during the long stretch where Seattle had no picks — 111 to 187 — which Schneider earlier described as an “abyss.” Schneider also said earlier the team did think about moving up during that period. There had been speculation going into the draft Seattle might take a tight end with Jimmy Graham and Luke Willson each entering the final years of their contracts.
3, While the Seahawks had four guys they liked with their pick at 35, Schneider said Malik McDowell was who they wanted all along.
The team has consistently said that it would have taken McDowell, a defensive tackle from Michigan State, at 26 but being able to move down to 35 and still get him while adding four other picks helped make the entire draft.
Schneider said “absolutely’’ that the Seahawks felt McDowell was worth a first-round pick repeating that the Seahawks have been trying “for eight years’’ to get an “interior pass rusher with length like that and he ended up sticking around.’’
He added “we had four guys we would have felt very comfortable taking’’ but that “the compensation was too great’’ not to trade down.
Schneider said six of the seven players Seattle selected from 35 to 111 were players on which the Seahawks had at least a second-round grade.
4, The Seahawks don’t appear worried about Trevone Boykin’s availability due to his legal issues.
Schneider said the Seahawks “have been in contact’’ about Boykin, who was arrested in March for possession of marijuana and public intoxication, an incident that also triggered an arrest for violating probation, but that for now the team doesn’t have concerns about his ability to play.
“As of right now, he’s available to us,’’ Schneider said.
5, Schneider said Luke Joeckel could get looked at guard as well as tackle.
Schneider repeated something he has said earlier — that when he watched film of Joeckel’s time at Jacksonville he thought he played better at guard than tackle. Joeckel, signed by Seattle to a one-year contract worth up to $8 million as a free agent, was moved to guard last season after spending his first three years at tackle.
Joeckel’s contract has led to the idea that he’s basically being penciled in at left tackle. But Schneider said “his versatility is going to be huge for us,’’ intimating again that his position is far from set.
Also, it sounds like the team may need to wait a while to get much of a real look at Joeckel, who is coming off ACL and MCL injuries suffered last October.
Schneider said Joeckel will “take minimal reps’’ in training camp and that the team has “got to be careful with a guy coming of an ACL.’’
As for a few other offensive line notes:
— Schneider said newly-signed free agent Oday Aboushi can play right guard or right tackle.
— Second-round pick Ethan Pocic can play right guard, right tackle or center and he compared him to “like a Matt Birk-looking center.’’ Birk played from 1998-2012 with the Vikings and Ravens.
— Schneider said again sixth-round pick Justin Senior will start out at left tackle.
— Schneider said 2016 third-rounder Rees Odhiambo will start out this year at left tackle and left guard.
— Schneider said George Fant has “added like 15 pounds’’ and will remain in the mix at left tackle.
— And he confirmed that Jordan Roos of Purdue got the biggest bonus the team handed any undrafted free agent — reported at $20,000 — and said he will “compete inside, too,’’ meaning apparently he will be a guard. Roos started at right guard the last three seasons at Purdue.