John Schneider recalls ill-fated decision to draft Tedric Thompson over George Kittle

In the 2017 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks made an ill-fated decision that had long-lasting implications for the franchise.

No, we’re not talking about the Malik McDowell pick.

We’re going into Day 3. The Seahawks were interested in Iowa tight end George Kittle, who was eventually taken in the fifth round by the San Francisco 49ers. According to Seahawks general manager John Schneider, they were close but not close enough.

Seattle, of course, used its fourth-round pick on safety Tedric Thompson. The rest is history. Kittle later claimed the Seahawks tried trading into the fifth to get him (Note: Seattle had two sixth- and seventh-rounders but no fifth-rounder), but the 49ers were also on the phone ready to select him.

Earlier this week, ESPN’s Dan Graziano had a feature column on the art of NFL roster building. He spoke with a dozen general managers, including Schneider, about the many aspects of constructing a squad.

The money quote from Schneider comes from looking back at the “Thompson over Kittle” decision as a mistake.

Knowing it would be tough to keep the famed “Legion of Boom” secondary together, Schneider started trying to find those players’ replacements in the draft a year or two before their contracts were up.

“Roster building is never like this clean slate,” Schneider said. “People say, ‘Start from within,’ you know? And yeah, that’s awesome. But if you’re drafting well, are you going to let Earl Thomas leave just because you sign Kam Chancellor? No, you keep your best players. Some of the mistakes I’ve made were looking at, well, Earl and Kam are coming up, so you have to draft their replacements. Now you’re pushing those players up your board artificially. And that’s how we drafted Tedric Thompson when we should’ve drafted George Kittle. Philosophically, where you make your biggest mistakes in the draft is when you’re drafting for a need.”

You may also recall the Seahawks took Michigan safety Lano Hill in the third round, so with Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas’ long-term futures in doubt, the Seahawks tried to plan ahead at safety. It just worked out very poorly. Chancellor’s career ended in 2017, Thomas’ Seahawks career ended with a broken leg and an infamous middle finger in 2018, and Thompson and Hill have not been on an NFL roster since 2021. I can think of the cascade effect that led to a certain safety costing the Seahawks a pair of first-round picks within this timeline...

Interestingly, the tight end position wasn’t exactly rock solid for the long-term. Jimmy Graham’s deal was expiring, as was Luke Willson’s, leaving Nick Vannett as the only Seahawks tight end under contract through 2018. In an alternative world, the Seahawks would’ve taken Kittle, and while they may not have drafted Will Dissly, they also wouldn’t have given out a silly contract to Ed Dickson to be the planned TE1.

We’ve definitely seen the Seahawks have a philosophical shift in their last three drafts, and it may have been borne out of some of the decisions made in prior drafts like Thompson over Kittle.