In Seattle's defense (God I hate saying that), I think they look for character attributes a lot in the players they are drafting. And I'm not talking about choir boys, I'm talking about tough guy, bully types is what they value.
You are definitely right about that, and I am not trying to take anything away from John Schneider’s ability in all his time as their general manager. After all, he was the reason they got players like Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, K.J. Wright, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner and Russell Wilson. You are also right that they seemingly target a certain type of players, and Schneider has certainly used a lot of their first picks the concerned year on players with huge baggage such as Bruce Irvin, Christine Michael and Frank Clark.
My point is that his approach has not worked for several years, and he has not shown a willingness or maybe even the ability to adapt accordingly. Going back the last five drafts, and excluding the one a weak ago, he has used their first three selections in each year on players that neither I nor the media considered likely to be drafted in that area. While an admirable number of nine out of those 15 selections are still on the team, you could argue that only two of them (Shaquill Griffin and Frank Clark) are big contributors. Further, it is not at all unrealistically that at least the six picks the last two years are mostly on the roster because it would simply be a personal defeat to Schneider to let them go. That approach to roster building happens all the time in the NFL.
To compare the above, 10 of the Cardinal’s 15 top draft selection from the last five drafts are still with the team. Arguable six of them (Bucannon, Humphries, Golden, David Johnson, Reddick and Budda Baker) can be described as big contributors, and important building blocks for the future. Of course, in that timespan the Seahawks has made the playoff four times while the Cardinals has only made it two times, but I would argue that is in part because of Schneider’s great drafts years ago, and in part because of good free agent acquisitions. Not because of his drafting the last five years.
