Cody Barton
The Seahawks raised plenty of eyebrows when they used their first round pick on run-stuffing linebacker Jordyn Brooks out of Texas Tech.
After all, the team got a renaissance season from K.J. Wright at the WILL linebacker spot, has a future Hall of Famer in Bobby Wagner in the middle and seemed set to allow Cody Barton, a third round pick in 2019, play the SAM spot this year.
Now the competition is on, and while some think this could be a sign that Wright will be cut, it seems more likely to me that Brooks and Barton will be competing for snaps at SAM, a sentiment coach Pete Carroll echoed after the draft.
“We’ve got Bobby and K.J. and we love what they’ve done,” Carroll said. “We’ll give this guy [Brooks] a chance to see where he can fit in. We’ll work the competition so that we can uncover exactly what’s best. We really think that he’s got a chance to be fighting for playing time right away. Cody Barton did a great job for us last year so it’ll be a very competitive situation, just like we like. Jordyn is all about competition, he’s got a great head on his shoulders.”
So it sounds like Barton and Brooks will compete to replace Mychal Kendricks at the SAM position, with Wright and Wagner staying on at their respective positions.
Barton isn’t in danger of getting cut, but the plan always seemed to be for him to spend one year as a reserve and take over as a starter in year two, and now he has a much more difficult path to immediate playing time in the Emerald City.