The 2005 Draft – It’s more than my Bosworth
By HawksHead (Andrew Robinson)

I have been a Seahawks fan since 1983 but it took me 4 years to have a real concept of how the best young players were brought into the NFL.

In 1987 I learnt that we had ‘drafted’ the most outstanding college player in the country. Brian Bosworth. What a player he was, the Gazza of the USA, daft as a brush and with hair that looked like the sort you cleaned toilets with.

The thing was he had neither the heart nor the shoulders to make it in the NFL. In short he was a draft bust, more glamour than graft, more hype than he-man.

And so I learnt that the draft was fallible. It can bring no exact answers to the problems of your team.

Fast forward to 5pm on Saturday 23^rd April 2005 with me clutching a beer and wearing more Seahawks gear than the ProShop possessed, I was about to witness my first NFL draft live on TV.

I knew that the first round took about 5 hours but I was prepared for that thanks to convenience snacks and convenience beer, so who was going to be the first pick for the 49ers? Alex Smith or Aaron Rodgers the 2 stellar QB’s of this year’s draft?

The 49ers had 15 minutes in which to decide. The reality was that they’d already had 7,500 minutes since their status as the worst team in 2004 had long since been confirmed.

Hey, call me picky (no draft related pun intended) but did they really need to make it 7,515 minutes? OK, calm down dear, it’s only a commercial. I saw lots of those and quite a few blank screens as atmospheric conditions on the US East Coast allegedly interfered with the NASN satellite link. Mmmm, either that or the guy in NASN’s back yard dropped the dustbin lid.

Smith it was who stepped up out of the Green Room to an array of flashing lights and questions that a 5 year old could have asked.

The Green Room contained the top forecasted draft picks along with their friends and family but the person sat closest to them was always their agent.

The draftees were clean-shaven, smart young men wearing sharp suits and even sharper haircuts. As they were selected they all came up for the photo and trotted out a nice line in how happy they were etc. All that is except RB Cedric Benson selected 4^th by the Bears. He seemed to find the whole draft process demeaning because people that would pay him millions of dollars over the next few years had the temerity to ask him questions in the previous months. Draft bust for sure.

Selecting at 23 and already over 4 hours into proceedings the Seahawks were eventually on the clock. The need was for a pass rushing DE, yet rather annoyingly lots of the teams with higher picks than us kept selecting the best ones which I thought was dashed unsporting of them.

Then, over my advice from 5,000 miles away I heard a faint murmour of a loud speaker announcement in the hall. The Seahawks had traded the 23^rd pick to the bloody Raiders and dropped back to 26.

You’ll remember Aaron Rodgers. He was forecast by many to be the number 1 pick of the whole draft but he was still there in the Green Room like an old aunt who comes for a visit at Christmas and who you can’t quite get rid of. All of the other top picks had gone hours ago and were busy putting deposits on Cadillacs and their girlfriends.

Even though he started the day clean-shaven, Rodgers had found time to grow a respectable goatee and learnt the ancient art of basket weaving until the Packers eventually selected him to replace Brett Favre at Green Bay. Rodgers immediately left the draft room to put his expensive collection of sun-tan lotions on ebay.

And so it came to pass that Seahawks could put right the hoax they had played on me in 1987.

Out of a process of attrition my wife had joined the draft room with a puzzled expression, however I fancy I detected a glimmer of respect on her face when I announced that trading down had been a great idea. Why? Because we could still select our number 1 choice of Dan Cody, or Matt Roth or Shaun Cody. Which one? Look does it really matter who we pick as long as we get that pass rushing DE? But? Oh, do be quiet woman.

Tagliabue on stage. With the 26^th pick of the 2005 NFL draft the Seattle Seahawks select Chris Spencer, Center from Mississippi.

Maybe it was the over consumption of Mexican style snacks but my jaw dropped open and locked into place.

I was hoping to avoid mention of ESPN’s draft expert Mel Kieper who is a Grade A idiot in my book with the sort of face that you would never get tired of slapping.

Because the next player on his value chart was a receiver rather than a center he was dismissive of our pick and wondered why we didn’t pick his guy. Possibly because, if he ever took his draft head from out of his backside he would have seen that we had already signed 2 free agent receivers and could have populated a small African country with the WR’s on our roster.

I’m rather hoping that Chris Spencer is a positive shift in our draft policy. I admit that I’d barely heard of the guy but despite the initial disrespect of Kieper he was reported as the best Offensive Lineman in the draft and a 10-year starter. Seeing as we’ve sometimes struggled to get 10 games out of our number 1 picks in the past this sounded very good.

The policy seems to be don’t draft the player, draft the person

The rest of the Seahawk draft followed the same pattern. Little known players with big hearts and even bigger attitude rather than hype and hypertension.

As a draft philosophy I like it. Sorry Boz.