The Seattle Seahawks raised some eyebrows when they used their first round draft pick to select Texas Tech linebacker Jordyn Brooks.
While Brooks possesses the speed, tenacity and nose for the football that coach Pete Carroll and the rest of the Seahawks staff craves, he doesn’t fill an immediate position of need.
The Seahawks biggest need is rushing the passer, an area they struggled mightily in 2019, and are now without Jadeveon Clowney and Quinton Jefferson – two big pieces of the unit from last season.
However – the Seahawks pride themselves on their creativity with players, and it looks like they may attempt to utilize Brooks in a pass rushing role, something he feels confident doing if called upon.
“It was something that I got a chance to do a lot in last year’s system,” Brooks said about rushing the passer, during his first press conference with the Seattle media. “I didn’t get as many sacks as a I wanted to, but I definitely got back there a lot and was causing a lot of disruption in the backfield. So I feel really comfortable getting off offensive linemen, tackles, guards, whatever they want me to do.”
While Brooks may not be a huge factor in that area, it’s entirely possible he gets opportunities to rush the quarterback on third downs – something the Seahawks tasked SAM linebacker Mychal Kendricks to do at times in 2019.
“I think where you play him and all that, just in general, when you look at our division and the team speed, we’ll figure it out,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said on Thursday. “That’s not for today. The guy can fly and he’s a run and hit guy. He’s actually a really good rusher from the A gap, the inside stuff. He’s a very disruptive football player.”
Brooks did more rushing in his final collegiate season, thanks in part to a change in the defensive scheme brought on by new coach Matt Wells, who came over from Utah State – where he previously coached Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner.
Brooks recorded 20 tackles for loss in his final season at Texas Tech, including three sacks.
“This past year, they changed schemes and he was really in a position where he was a lot of the time responsible for the quarterback and would chase the quarterback and spy him,” Carroll said. “He was up in the line of scrimmage and pressuring so we’ve seen him do a variety of things that give him the scope of ability to play inside or outside for us.”
While he’s not the replacement for Clowney many Seahawks fans were hoping for, there’s plenty of reason for optimism surrounding Brooks – and he could end up being a plus pass rusher for this team as well.
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