Brady Henderson, ESPN 6y

Rashaad Penny, Rasheem Green can make early impact for Seattle

From 2013 to 2016 -- a stretch in which the Seattle Seahawks won one Super Bowl, got back to another and didn't miss the playoffs -- they consistently had one of the NFL's most stacked rosters.

That made it harder for draft picks to make the team, let alone carve out significant roles as rookies. It was by no means the only reason Seattle's 2013, '14 and '15 drafts yielded such underwhelming returns, but it was a factor.

Those days are gone. All of the turnover Seattle has undergone this offseason means more jobs are there to be had than in recent seasons.

With that in mind, here's a ranking of the Seahawks' nine draft picks by order of those most likely to make immediate contributions:

1. RB Rashaad Penny

The first player Seattle selected gets the first spot on this list because he has the best chance to start right away. To be sure, the Seahawks won't hand the job to him, not with Chris Carson back from the leg/ankle injury that cut short his promising rookie season. But they wouldn't have drafted Penny as high as they did -- 27th overall -- if they didn't think he could be their starter right away. The Seahawks said a few times after taking him that they view Penny as a three-down player, so there's not such a glaring hole in his game that it would require him to sit and develop before he is ready to be the No. 1 back. He wouldn't have been a first-round pick if there was, anyway.

2. DE Rasheem Green

General manager John Schneider identified Green as the player the Seahawks felt most fortunate to see still on the board when they chose him. In other words, they thought there was a good chance he'd be drafted before they took him midway through the third round. Seattle plans to use him as a five-technique end and move him inside in passing situations, similar to what Michael Bennett did and similar to the role they had in mind for Malik McDowell before he suffered a head injury that still has him sidelined. Green could conceivably beat out Dion Jordan to start opposite Frank Clark, but either way he figures to see a good amount of playing time as an interior pass-rusher.

3. TE Will Dissly

Free-agent addition is Ed Dickson is in line to replace Jimmy Graham as Seattle's No. 1 tight end, but the No. 2 job that Luke Willson held for several seasons is wide open. Nick Vannett hasn't given the Seahawks a whole lot since they chose him in the third round in 2016, and the team considered Dissly (fourth round) the best blocking tight end in this year's draft. For reference, Willson averaged about 24 offensive snaps per game as Graham's backup last season, which gives you an idea of how much Dissly could factor in if he beats out Vannett for that role.

4. P Michael Dickson

Comments from coach Pete Carroll and Schneider indicated that long-time Seahawks punter Jon Ryan will have every chance to compete to keep his job, but the writing seems to be on the wall here. Teams don't carry two punters, so it'll be one or the other. The Seahawks not only drafted Dickson in the fifth round, which is pretty early for a specialist, but they also gave up a seventh-rounder to move up seven spots for him. That shows you how highly they think of Dickson. The price the Seahawks paid to draft him plus the fact that Ryan is scheduled to count a combined $6.8 million against the cap over the remaining two years of his contract makes Dickson the favorite to be punting for Seattle next season.

5. OLB Shaquem Griffin

This might be lower than some expect, but here's the rationale: Carroll said after the Seahawks chose Griffin in the fifth round that they view him as a weakside linebacker. K.J. Wright is the starter there, so barring an injury, Griffin's best shot at finding the field on defense right away probably will be in a sub-package role, and there are only so many snaps per game in which Seattle might do something with the back seven other than simply swapping out the strongside linebacker for a third cornerback. Either way, Griffin will have a chance to be a big contributor on special teams as a rookie, particularly the coverage units.

6. OT Jamarco Jones

The Seahawks drafted Jones in the fifth round, which was considered good value for a player that ESPN's Todd McShay considered a "fringe third-rounder." But the Seahawks said he's a left tackle, and Duane Brown is entrenched as the starter there for at least one more year with his contract running through 2018. If the Seahawks think Jones is strong enough for right tackle and polished enough to handle NFL edge defenders right away, he could give 2016 first-round pick Germain Ifedi a push for the starting job. But that's a lot of ifs, and it would also require Ifedi to be as uneven as he was last season. It seems more likely that Jones competes to be the swing tackle who backs up on both sides and gets a few plays a game in heavy packages.

7. CB Tre Flowers

Another fifth-round pick, Flowers is a prototypical Seahawks cornerback in terms of height (over 6-foot-3) and weight (202 pounds). But he's lower on this list because he didn't play a whole lot of cornerback in college. He was a safety. The Seahawks are converting him to cornerback like they're doing with Mike Tyson, a sixth-round pick from last year who played safety in college. That means 2018 could be something of a redshirt season for Flowers like 2017 was for Tyson.

8. DE Jacob Martin

The sixth-round pick has nice speed and what the Seahawks described as a great motor. But he's a little undersized for a defensive end, and Seattle added one of those much earlier in the draft (Green). The best-case scenario for Martin is that he works his way into the bottom of the pass-rush rotation and contributes on special teams, but sixth-round picks usually have to fight just to make the team, and that will be the case with Martin.

9. QB Alex McGough

Austin Davis is the clear favorite to back up Russell Wilson again in 2018 after Seattle brought him back on a one-year deal. And even if McGough (seventh-round) were to surprisingly beat him out for the job, he'd still have one of the NFL's most durable quarterbacks in Wilson ahead of him.

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