Carpenter might not be big name, but Carroll, Schneider got their guy
RENTON – John Schneider doesn’t care if you’ve never heard of James Carpenter. Nor does Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. Nor does assistant head coach/offensive line coach Tom Cable.
What the Seahawks’ first-round pick lacks in style, they insist, he more than makes up for in substance. And he symbolizes the direction Carroll wants his running game headed.
The Seahawks wanted Carpenter, a 6-foot-4, 321-pound offensive tackle out of Alabama. And they wanted him badly. So despite Carpenter’s relative lack of name recognition – and after talks of trading down didn’t materialize – the Seahawks made him the No. 25 overall pick in the NFL draft on Thursday.
“We had some fun stuff going on,” said Schneider, Seattle’s general manager, referring to the unsuccessful trade talks that caused Seattle to use its entire 10-minute selection allotment. “But quite frankly, our top-rated guy came to us, and he stayed there the whole time.”
Carpenter’s selection came as a surprise to Seahawks followers who figured the team might use its pick on a more talked-about offensive lineman, such as Gabe Carimi of Wisconsin. Or maybe Jimmy Smith, the super-athletic cornerback from Colorado. Defensive linemen Marvin Austin and Muhammad Wilkerson were still on the board, too. And Schneider had announced to the world two weeks earlier that if he had his druthers, he’d like to trade down from No. 25.
But sitting at the front of the draft media room at the VMAC, Schneider and Carroll let off the vibe of two men who had just pulled a fast one on the rest of the league.
Whether they’re right remains to be seen. But at the end of the day, you get the feeling that they got what they wanted. Regardless of the collective “Huh?” feeling that some fans may have experienced when Carpenter’s name flashed on their television screens.
“I would say to a fan that they should take reassurance in the fact that we’ve been busting our tail since last May covering this guy,” Schneider said. “And that we spent countless hours the last probably eight weekends in a row just evaluating this thing, and this guy’s never changed.”
Carroll said Carpenter will immediately compete for the starting right tackle position, though he played mostly left tackle in his two years at Alabama. During that time, Carpenter started all 27 of the Crimson Tide’s games, helping them win a national championship as a junior while blocking for Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram.
And that’s what has Carroll and Schneider so thrilled about their choice – the Seahawks just barely avoided their worst rushing yardage mark in franchise history last season, Carroll vowing afterward that the team’s most pressing need was to revamp the offensive line and figure out how to run the football.
“James brings a toughness that we need,” Carroll said. “We have to continue to build our football team up front, and it’s just a necessary move for us to make to get this guy.”
It’s Carpenter’s toughness that had Schneider and Carroll raving on Thursday. He’s nasty, they said. He’s aggressive. He’s strong. All of which makes him a logical fit for the philosophy of Cable, hired this offseason to bring some ruggedness back to Seattle’s offensive front.
“I wouldn’t have drafted him if he was finesse,” Cable said, responding to a question about an analyst who used said term to describe Carpenter. “That’s not my style. At left tackle, I thought he was a very physical presence at Alabama playing in a tremendous league against a lot of very talented defensive ends.”
And Carpenter proved well enough to the Seahawks at the Senior Bowl that he can play right tackle, too. He worked out at both tackle positions at the all-star game in Mobile, Ala., and said he also did some work at left guard. Schneider says he’s versatile enough to play four positions (both tackles and both guards).
“It’s definitely a reassurance,” Schneider said of Carpenter’s Senior Bowl performance. “You’re going against the top competition in the country right there, and he has been playing at this level. I think in my opinion he really helped himself.”
“I’m very comfortable at right tackle,” Carpenter said. “I’ve been practicing that since the season (ended), and I’ve been pretty good at it.”
The guy doesn’t really have problems adapting, either. Consider that Carpenter attended Coffeyville Community College for two years after failing to qualify academically at Iowa State, then arrived at one of college football’s most respected programs and immediately started the entire season for a team that went undefeated in the toughest conference in the country.
The rarity of such a feat isn’t lost on Carroll, who knows more than a little about how difficult it is for a JC-transfer to crack the depth chart at a national powerhouse.
“It’s very challenging for guys to make that transition,” Carroll said. “There’s so much going on. They’ve just transition once, then they’ve got to do it again. It’s most challenging for a guy to get focused, and then one of the cool things about James is he has a lot of room for improvement. There’s no way that they can indoctrinate him technique-wise to the level that they would with an incoming freshman, or a guy who may have redshirted and all of that. On a lot of natural ability and talent, he’s able to get that done. He has a very big upside, and we’ve been able to identify that.”
Ideally, Carpenter’s addition will give the Seahawks two young, highly regarded starting tackles. Russell Okung was drafted with the No. 6 overall pick last season as a replacement for the retired Walter Jones at left tackle, and Okung figures to be a cornerstone of Seattle’s offensive line for the foreseeable future.
The Seahawks are hoping Carpenter can anchor the other side.
“This is a bit of a statement,” Carroll said. “Russell was a bit of a statement in the beginning last year. To come right back and get it with a right tackle right now is just a continued commitment displayed.”
With the goal of making Carpenter a household name.
“We’ll show in time that this is a terrific pick for us,” Carroll said. “We have to take these steps along the way to build this football program to where we want to be. You’re going to see in the months to come, our continued emphasis to make this thing work on both sides of the football.”
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