Pre-quarantine visit sold Seahawks on second-rounder Darrell Taylor

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The Seahawks considered drafting Tennessee pass rusher Darrell Taylor on Thursday night. They waited until Friday, jumped up to pick No. 48 in round two, and got him.

“Our guys did a great job working their tails off to try keep getting up to try and acquire him,” G.M. John Schneider told reporters after Friday night’s session ended. “It was pretty hot. We view him as one of the very, very top pass rushers in this league. He played through a stress fracture last year in his leg, in his fibula, and just sucked it up. Then he ended up having surgery at the end of the year. Doctors feel good about him. We’ve seen him run around and there’s video of him working out and that sort of thing.”

In a year that entailed dramatically limited in-person evaluations, the Seahawks had a chance to sit down with Taylor before the world turned upside down.

“We had him in for a visit, he had a great visit with the staff,” Schneider said of Taylor. “He was actually the last guy that we had in before the quarantine came into effect. Just very excited and I know the coaching staff is very excited about a guy that can really put his hand in the ground and jump off the ball and play with leverage and effort and work his way back to the quarterback.”

With Jadeveon Clowney not likely to return, Taylor is exactly what the Seahawks needed in the draft.

“[H]e’s [got a] very upbeat personality,” coach Pete Carroll told reporters. “Aggressive kid. Like John said, he had that one visit with us that worked out great for us. We got to get up close and personal. He’s done a lot of stuff on the edge so he’s a real edge player. He’s done some dropping [into coverage], but he’s mostly been a rusher. Really was effective when you look at him in his third-down rushes when he was really determined. They did a lot of stuff with him defensively. There was times when you could see him, he had to do a lot and he had a lot of responsibilities, which is really good. Well versed. We really wanted to get a pass rusher if we could. Two things that I mentioned, last night when we had [Seattle first-round linebacker Jordyn] Brooks right where John had him nailed the whole time that this is where this guy may come to us, we were waiting on it and it worked out great. And then the next shot was to try and get [Darrell] Taylor so it just worked out excellent and in excellent fashion for us. Really good picks and will give us a big boost.”

And so the Seahawks, who have plenty of money invested in their offense with quarterback Russell Wilson being the highest-paid player in football, are doing what they can to beef up their defense. Given the potency of the other offenses in the NFC West, it makes plenty of sense.