It’s 6:45 on Friday evening and Seahawks West Coast scout Josh Graff is standing atop a table in the middle of the Derrick Jensen Draft Room at the behest of general manager John Schneider.
It’s not uncommon in NFL scouting circles to hear the phrase “stood on the table” for a prospect, meaning a scout is so convinced the team needs to select that player, he would get up on a table to plead his case. That expression isn’t actually taken literally too often, in this case Graff was indeed on top of a table as the Seahawks were prepared to select Washington State tackle Abraham Lucas with their third-round pick, No. 72 overall.
And it wasn’t that Graff needed to do any more convincing at this point to sell his colleagues on Lucas, an athletic right tackle who was a four-year starter for the Cougars, but rather that Schneider and company wanted to let everyone in the room, and especially Graff—who not only scouted Lucas but who also attended the same high school, Archbishop Murphy in Everett—enjoy the moment as the Seahawks made their final of four picks in the top 72 that they hope will help lead the franchise to years of future success.
Both before and after this year’s draft, Schneider and Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made comparisons to 2010, their first draft together and the last time Seattle held a Top 10 pick. Some of the players acquired in that draft, most notably first-round picks Russell Okung and Earl Thomas, second-round pick Golden Tate and fifth-round pick Kam Chancellor, helped build the foundation for the most successful decade in franchise history, and if the Seahawks are going to quickly rebound from their first losing season in over a decade and set off on another run of sustained success, they’re counting on the players taken in this year’s draft to also become foundational pieces of that next run.
The Seahawks had more draft capital this year than they have since that 2010 draft, adding the ninth overall pick and an early second-round pick (No….