No trade! Seahawks select top pass protector Charles Cross at 9 to begin NFL draft
Russell Wilson had been wanting added, better pass protection for years.
The Seahawks finally invested in a top, young pass blocker Thursday — a month after trading Wilson away.
Seattle selected athletic, stonewalling Mississippi State offensive tackle Charles Cross with the ninth pick in the 2022 NFL draft.
“We are just really excited that we have a pillar at left tackle,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said, adding he felt “blessed” to get one of the top three offensive tackles in this draft along with Ikem Ekwonu from North Carolina State and Evan Neal from Alabama.
“We feel like he fell to us. I think you are going to love this guy.”
The 6-foot-4 1/2, 307-pound Cross (he said he is 315 now) was reputed to be the most NFL-ready pass protector in this draft class. The former basketball player allowed just two sacks in 682 pass snaps last season on coach Mike Leach’s pass-a-rama Air Raid, zone-run offense in the elite Southeastern Conference.
“Cross, just 21 years old, is already the cleanest pass-blocker of this class,” Tacoma-based NFL draft guru Rob Rang of Fox Sports said.
Cross allowed no quarterback pressures in 66 pass plays playing left tackle against mighty Alabama.
“I’m excited,” Cross said by telephone Thursday evening from the draft in Las Vegas. “I’m excited to be going to Seattle, to be with the 12s, some of the best fans in the league.
“I’m excited. I’m excited to go out and get to work.
Cross said “we had a few conversations, a couple Zoom calls” between him and Seahawks coaches between Mississippi State’s Liberty Bowl loss to Texas Tech the last week of December (which Cross skipped), the pre-draft process and Thursday’s selection. He said he also had a formal interview with the Seahawks at the NFL’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis in early March.
“So I felt pretty good about them,” Cross said.
“I kinda expected this, to be honest. ... They preach physicality, toughness, nastiness.”
What did the self-described tough, nasty tackle do after he got off the phone with Carroll Thursday night?
“The first thing I did was give my Mom and Dad a big hug,” he said.
“It’s a surreal feeling. It’s a blessing.”
The Seahawks chose Cross with both their starting offensive tackles from the last two seasons unsigned and currently off the team: 36-year-old left tackle Duane Brown and right tackle Brandon Shell.
Carroll said last week the team had not moved on from trying to re-sign Brown to potentially play for Seattle this year past his 37th birthday. Carroll said the Seahawks were still trying to re-sign Brown, whom Seattle traded for in the middle of the 2017 season.
The urgency to do so just went down with the drafting of Cross.
Cross, who said he’s never been to Seattle, said he’s been training the last few months preparing for the draft at left and right tackle.
“I feel comfortable playing either position,” he said. “But I just want to get in, get to work and do whatever is best for the team.”
Offensive tackle and pass rusher were the two most pressing of multiple needs for the Seahawks following a 7-10 season, their most losses since 2009. Last season was only the second time in 10 years Seattle failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Even with Wilson gone to Denver, quarterback was not what Carroll and Schneider had in mind with their top pick Thursday. This is a weak quarterback draft. Seattle didn’t see a rookie-starter quality passer in this class.
Carroll wants to see what Drew Lock, acquired from the Broncos in the Wilson trade, can be with Seattle. The Seahawks loved Lock when he was entering the 2019 draft out of the University of Missouri. Carroll and Schneider didn’t select Lock because that draft was two weeks after the Seahawks had re-signed Wilson for a then-NFL record $140 million contract. The Broncos drafted Lock in the second round in 2019.
Seattle drafted unheralded (and since underwhelming) L.J. Collier and since-often-injured safety Marquise Blair with their first picks that year.
Those unhappy with the Seahawks drafting Cross in round one haven’t noticed the team’s offensive line the last six years.
Cross is the first offensive tackle Carroll and Schneider have drafted with their first pick in a draft since 2016 and Germain Ifedi at 31st overall that year. He’s the highest offensive tackle selected by the Seahawks since Russell Okung, sixth overall in 2010.
Okung was Carroll and Schneider’s first draft choice for the Seahawks after they took over running the team in January 2010.
So Cross is going all the way back to Carroll’s draft roots in Seattle, and in (re)building a team.
Cross, Ifedi, Okung and James Carpenter are the only offensive tackles Seattle has drafted in the first round since Carroll and Schneider arrived to run the team in January 2010. They moved Carpenter to guard for the Seahawks.
Carroll and Schneider had teams calling asking Seattle to trade down from nine. Ultimately, Seattle did not. It was only the second time in their last 11 first-round picks the Seahawks didn’t trade it.
The Seahawks had their highest choice in a draft since 2010 because of the top choice of five they received last month in their mammoth trade of franchise quarterback Wilson to Denver.
The draft began with three consecutive defensive players selected. Defensive end Travon Walker from Georgia went to Jacksonville as the first-overall pick. End Aidan Hutchinson from Michigan went to Detroit at two. Houston selected LSU cornerback Derek Stingley, Jr. at three.
It was the first time since 1991 the NFL draft began with four defensive players selected: Russell Maryland, Eric Turner, Bruce Pickens and Mike Croel.
And then a fifth consecutive defensive player went: Oregon rush end Kayvon Thibodeaux, to the New York Giants at five. That was a player Carroll and Schneider had their eyes on entering this draft, to fix Carroll’s stated first offseason priority of fixing a pass rush that forced opposing quarterbacks and offenses into just 18 turnovers last season. Those were the fewest takeaways by Seattle over an entire season in team history.
The first offensive player taken in this year’s draft was at sixth overall: Ekwonu, to the Carolina Panthers. He was rated as the top overall offensive tackle in this draft, as a pass and run blocker.
Neal went to the New York Giants at seven. Seattle took Cross two picks later.
Only one quarterback got drafted in round one: Kenny Pickett from Pitt, at 20th to the Steelers.
Malik Willis from Liberty, Desmond Ridder from the University of Cincinnati — and all other passers in this class — will be available when round two begins at 4 p.m. Friday.
The Seahawks have the 40th and 41st picks, the eighth and ninth of the second round. Seattle also has the 72nd-overall selection in round three Friday.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 6:16 PM with the headline "No trade! Seahawks select top pass protector Charles Cross at 9 to begin NFL draft."
