Seattle is compelled to (eventually) draft a defensive tackle early

The position has become quarterback-esque in terms of needing early draft capital to find the best players.

The Carolina Panthers extending defensive tackle Derrick Brown has continued an offseason dominated by big paydays for big men who clog and disrupt the interior. From a Seattle Seahawks perspective, they got in on the act by giving Leonard Williams a three-year, $64.5 million deal that makes him one of the highest paid players at his position.

As PFF’s Arjun Menon and ESPN’s Bill Barnwell have noted, interior defensive linemen/defensive tackles have seen their value skyrocket relative to other positions.

As the Seahawks mull their decision over how to reshape their defense, it’s worth noting that all of these highly paid defensive linemen share a commonality: they were drafted early.

I should note that Menon made (and acknowledged) an error in classifying the Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Madubuike as a first-round pick when he was actually a third-rounder. Only Madubuike and Javon Hargrave were taken outside of the top-50. Everyone else who’s at or near the top of this list was taken in the first or early portion of the second. I’d expect the New England Patriots’ Christian Barmore to get a big contract, and he was also a second-round pick.

The Seahawks have generally not used early-round draft picks on defensive tackles under John Schneider. Seattle’s only DT picks taken in Rounds 1-3 over a 14-year span are Jordan Hill (3rd, 2013), Jarran Reed (2nd, 2016), Malik McDowell (2nd, 2017), and Naz Jones (2017). If you want to get real technical, L.J. Collier was a first-round pick in 2019 but the Seahawks didn’t make him a full-time DT until 2021. Collier was a 5-tech (lined up on the outside shoulder of the tackle) in the ‘Michael Bennett’ role, which in Seattle’s case meant moving him around like a chess piece along the line. Reed aside, you don’t need me to tell you how the aggregate results look for the other DTs.

Seattle had the luxury of Mebane on a $5 million/year contract from 2011 up until his departure in 2016. It’s perhaps not coincidental that the team’s brief interest in early-round DTs occurred right after he left. They’ve also spent several years investing in cheaper veterans like Clinton McDonald (combined cap hit of $1.5 million over three seasons), Kevin Williams ($2.1 million in 2014), Tony McDaniel (never had a base salary higher than $1 million in three seasons), Ahtyba Rubin ($5.6 million total cap hit over two seasons), and Al Woods ($8 million combined cap hit from 2019 and 2021-2022). Undrafted free agents Bryan Mone and Poona Ford were also significant rotation players.

This isn’t to say the Seahawks haven’t made splash moves. Sheldon Richardson cost the Seahawks Jermaine Kearse and a second-round pick, although Richardson likely never gets dealt if McDowell doesn’t have his ATV crash. Leonard Williams cost Seattle another second-round pick and he received a new contract. Dre’Mont Jones’ snap alignments shifted heavily from the B-gap (between guard and tackle) to the outside after the trade.

It is not a coincidence that guards and defensive tackles are getting paid at exorbitant rates at the same time. There’s a clear emphasis in today’s NFL as far as valuing the trenches, and I’m not sure that gets reversed any time soon. A dominant pass-rushing interior lineman is as valuable if not more valuable than a great edge rusher, and the supply of talented iDL is not as plentiful as the edge market.

Perhaps it won’t be this year for the Seahawks, but the bargain hunter approach to defensive tackle in the draft has to stop. If they take Johnny Newton or Byron Murphy II then I’d be totally fine. The Seahawks need young, elite talent at defensive tackle, and it’s way overdue.