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The Seattle Seahawks lost a few key players to their Super Bowl LX championship team. One player who has now moved on is Riq Woolen, who left via free agency to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Seattle holds the No. 32 pick and could go in any direction to fill a hole on their team after the departure of a key player in free agency. Moreover, on Day 2, the Seahawks have the 64th and 96th picks in rounds two and three, respectively.
As for who they can take to fill that cornerback need with one of their three picks in Day 1 and Day 2, Seattle Sports’ Brock Huard named former Indiana Hoosiers cornerback D’Angelo Ponds as a potential target for the Seahawks.
“Man, is [Ponds] feisty,” Huard said on April 14. “He will scratch the cornea off your eyeball. … They actually put him into the boundary and let him just take people away. They said, OK, even though you’re that size, you are so ferocious, we are going to let you go play man to man over there, go play into the boundary and take that dude away. And he did it over and over and over and over again.”
Can D’Angelo Ponds Fit Into Seahawks’ Secondary?
Moreover, Huard notes that Ponds would be able to slide into the Seahawks’ secondary and be the ideal No. 2 guy alongside Devon Witherspoon.
“You can’t be a dummy and just line up and play in (the Seahawks’) system,” Huard added. “You just can’t. You’ve got to have a high football acumen, high football IQ. This guy has both. You’ve got to have a relentlessness when it comes to details. He does.”
“You want to talk about a force multiplier? You put him with (Seahawks three-time Pro Bowl cornerback) Devon Witherspoon on the field, you’re talking unbelievable energy. … The amount of explosion off the ground that this guy creates, the amount of speed he has, is off the charts.”
What’s the Major Concern Surrounding D’Angelo Ponds
Ponds saved some of his best moments for the postseason. In the Rose Bowl quarterfinal, he forced a fumble on a strip-sack of Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, helping fuel a dominant performance.
He followed that up in the Peach Bowl semifinal by intercepting a pass from Oregon quarterback Dante Moore on the opening snap and returning it 25 yards for a touchdown to immediately shift momentum. Ponds finished the season ranked No. 7 among 908 FBS cornerbacks. He also placed ninth in coverage grade and 37th in run defense, per PFF.
“The height and the length – that’s the only question,“ Huard said. “It’s why he’s somewhere between the fourth to eighth corner (in the draft class) with different people. He’ll probably not be maybe even on some boards because (of his) length. And when you’re facing the big, physical receivers in this league, and in this division in particular, is there enough there to rip that ball away? That’ll be the question.
“But I love the competitive spirit. I love the force multiplication. I love the explosion. … This guy can play. It’s just whether or not he can compensate for the deficiency of that length, because he’s got every single other thing you’d look for and want.”
Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo
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