Seahawks interested in Zay Jones?

On Monday I’m going to be interviewing Tony Pauline. One of the things we’ll talk about is Tony’s latest ‘Draft Buzz’ instalment that includes the following report:

In our most recent mock draft, I have the Seattle Seahawks selecting receiver Taywan Taylor in the third round. I’m told that if Zay Jones happens to fall into their laps a round earlier in the second they would quickly scoop him up, omitting the need for Taylor in the third.

Tony, the #1 draft insider, has been extremely reliable in the past for Seahawks info so this is noteworthy.

Seattle showed tentative interest in Kamar Aiken in free agency, suggesting they were open to adding another receiver. With Paul Richardson approaching a contract year, Jermaine Kearse a possible cap casualty next year and Tyler Lockett recovering from a broken leg, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility they’ll select a receiver early in the draft.

And Jones is one of those players that just screams Seahawks.

At the end of March we touched on Jones (and WR in general) as a possible target at #58. He had a fantastic Senior Bowl. Just read through the Senior Bowl live blog and see how many times his name appears.

Jones lives for the game. He’s from a football family and the NFL is in his bloodstream. His father won a Super Bowl with the Cowboys. He is basically at Russell Wilson-level football character. A worker dedicated to his craft.

You see that on the field too. He’s a hands-catcher and a reliable one at that. He high points the football, he’s incredibly consistent. His production was off the charts as he set NCAA records for most receptions in a career (399) and in a single-season (158 catches in 2016).

As an added bonus, he has some experience returning kicks. This is important if Lockett is unable to resume that duty at least early in the season.

At the combine Jones ran a 4.45 at 6-2 and 201lbs. He jumped an 11-1 in the broad and a 36.5 inch vertical. His short shuttle (4.01) was really good too.

When we talk about the possibility of the big name receivers (Davis, Ross, Williams) dropping a bit — it’s because of players like Zay Jones, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chris Godwin. The difference between the first and second tier appears to be much smaller than at other positions (D-line, EDGE, O-line)

With the Seahawks reportedly very interested in Jones at #58, this suggests they’re not necessarily expecting him to be there. There’s a chance, of course, but if the bigger names do go in the first round it’s hard to imagine him getting beyond teams like San Francisco, Chicago, the Rams, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Cleveland (where they love stats).

If Seattle trades up from #58, he could be a target. They traded up for Lockett in 2015 after all.

The interest does suggest that they might be willing to let this draft class ‘come to them’. We know their bigger needs are depth in the secondary, pass rush and O-line but there’s enough depth at corner and safety to wait until round three if they need too. Simply adding really good, impact players that can develop into a future core has to be a consideration too.

If they can’t get to Jones in round two, the third round and beyond should provide some nice alternatives. We’ve talked about Jehu Chesson as an option for a long time. There are others too. There are a few gems to be uncovered in this class at receiver. It wouldn’t be a total shock if the Seahawks also found Smith-Schuster’s personality, grit and character appealing as a possible round two target.

It seems quite likely the Seahawks will add a defensive player with their first pick unless they trade down. That pick at #58 could go in a number of different directions.