Seattle Seahawks mock draft: Seahawks fill gaps with few picks

Round 2, Pick 56

The Seattle Seahawks will have to let this draft come to them. With so few assets they can’t afford to move up, although moving back might be an option. With their first pick coming in the back half of the second round, they can use a split approach being half best player available and the other half best fit. Essentially, take the best player available that isn’t out of reason like a quarterback.

In this case, the best player on the board is edge rusher Ronnie Perkins. The Seahawks drafted L.J. Collier in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, but he hasn’t shown what they would have hoped with just three career sacks and 25 tackles over two seasons. They also brought back Carlos Dunlap and signed Aldon Smith, but those both seem like short-term band-aid fixes. Perkins has a lot of upside and would provide a long-term option.

At Oklahoma, Perkins showed both consistency as well as growth. He met expectations each season while also building on the last to improve his game. In 2018 he began with eight tackles for loss and five sacks over 14 games. Then in 2019 he raised those stats to 13.5 tackles and six sacks in two fewer games. As for 2020, he repeated those steps by still managing to log 10.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in half the amount of games, playing in just six.

Seeing that Perkins was able to improve each season should be a big plus for the Seahawks. They have been criticized in the past for reaching in the early rounds. While Perkins’ name might not be as well known as some of the other edge rushers that could be available, he does provide a much more stable game to the point where you know what you’re getting rather than some flashes of potential over a short window.