INDIANAPOLIS — On the surface, a safety might seem like one of the last things the Seahawks need in the 2023 NFL draft.
They have Pro Bowlers Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams under contract and more than $37 million committed to the position, according to OvertheCap.com — almost $8 million more than any other team.
That’s without accounting for restricted rights free agent Ryan Neal, whom they are expected to keep. Placing a second-round tender on Neal, as many expect the Seahawks might have to do, would give him a salary of $4.3 million in 2023.
Those three, assuming Adams is healthy and back to playing as he did in 2020 when he had 9.5 sacks, would give the Seahawks potentially as good of a safety group as there is in the NFL.
Look a little closer, and safety comes more into view as a possible need.
Adams is still recovering from a knee injury and it’s still unclear whether he will be ready for the start of the season. Diggs and Adams have no more guaranteed money in their contracts beyond this season (Diggs’ also only goes through 2024) and both could be at risk of being cap casualties. Neal might be on a deal for only the 2023 season if the Seahawks use a tender.
The Seahawks learned the value of safety depth in 2022 when injuries to Adams and Neal meant five safeties lined up next to Diggs as starters for at least one game (Adams, Neal, Josh Jones, Johnathan Abram and Teez Tabor — Jones, Abram and Tabor are free agents).
Maybe a safety who could add depth and insurance and be groomed for the future makes some sense.
Some even think the Seahawks could use their second first-round pick on someone such as Alabama safety Brian Branch, considered by many the best safety available.
With three more picks in the second and third rounds, maybe it’s more likely they reach for a safety there.
It’s in that spot of the draft where the Seahawks could look to Boise State’s J.L. Skinner, who emulates his game after one of the best in Seahawks history to play the position — Kam Chancellor.
Asked this week at the NFL scouting combine for a safety he likes to watch, Skinner said there isn’t anyone currently playing, but “the main guy I really watch is Kam Chancellor. Like, I watch a lot of Kam Chancellor film because he was so dominant and really was able to cover tight ends, cover all types of positions, and he was just so versatile to where I feel like I can be that same way in the NFL.”
Skinner fits the physical bill in replicating Chancellor’s game, measuring 6 foot 4 and weighing in at 209 pounds at the combine (Chancellor measured 6-3, 231 at the combine in 2010).
That the two are similar in size, Skinner said, is part of why “Chancellor is the biggest inspiration I try to model my game after.’’
Skinner, originally from San Diego, likes viewing Chancellor film so much that he says he’s watched Chancellor’s famous hit on San Francisco’s Vernon Davis in 2012 “probably 1,000 times. I just love that play.’’
Reminded that Chancellor was flagged for unnecessary roughness for the hit on Davis, Skinner smiled and said, “It’s all right. It’s all right.”
Some of the pre-draft analysis of Skinner is reminiscent to that of Chancellor, who many figured might have to play linebacker in the NFL, one reason he fell to the fifth round.
“If an NFL team’s scheme has a defined box safety role, there’s not a better player to fill it in the draft class than Skinner,’’ wrote Pro Football Focus in naming him as the fourth-best safety available. “He’s extremely fluid for a 220-pounder and can easily be a tight end eraser at the next level. This past season, he allowed only 17 catches on 32 targets for 176 yards with four picks and three pass breakups. The worry is what happens when he can’t play around the line of scrimmage. His range is average at best, and his change-of-direction ability doesn’t come close to that of others on this list. In many schemes, a switch to linebacker may even be in the cards.”
Another who has made the comparison of Skinner and Chancellor is one of Chancellor’s former teammates — Jeron Johnson. Johnson, a Boise State grad, was a cornerbacks coach for BSU in 2021. While he resigned this year to spend more time with his family, he has remained in contact with Skinner.
“He told me a bunch of stories about Kam Chancellor,’’ Skinner said. “He actually told me I reminded him a lot of him when he got here because of how physical I played. So hearing that was great because that’s who I modeled my game after my whole life.’’
Chancellor was forced to retire after suffering a neck injury in 2017, and the trades for Diggs and Adams illustrated the great lengths the Seahawks have taken to try to replace him and Earl Thomas, who left as a free agent following the 2018 season.
The Seahawks could try to start a new era in the back end this year. Skinner promises whoever takes him will also get some Chancellor-esque thump.
“You can’t play this game and not be physical,’’ he said. “So that’s the main objective of the game is to be physical and tackle. I just love it and I embrace it every time because like I said, not many people can take getting hit by a guy over and over where it hurts. It’s going to hurt eventually. You’re not going to want to make the same mistake twice. I just want to continue to punish guys and really make my presence felt in that way and make guys continue to think for a second when they come around me.’’