NFL Draft | Seahawks' first move in draft is tough to predict

Late this afternoon, the Seahawks will be on the clock.

Who will they take with the 25th pick of the NFL draft?

Or will they trade out of the first round, maybe for two picks in the second? Ah, the intrigue. Who will be available when Seattle's turn arrives?

Will it be the tight end that so many experts feel the team must have? The defensive tackle with the big frame to bolster a depleted line that coach Mike Holmgren said the Seahawks are looking for? The defensive end that graded out too well to pass up? The offensive tackle who one day will take over for Walter Jones? The stud running back or big wide receiver?

This year, it's difficult to tell. The Seahawks maintain they aren't locked into a certain position and therefore can pick the player they rank the highest, regardless of position. But trading down is a very viable option.

"We don't have firepower, really, to go up in any of the rounds," Seahawks president Tim Ruskell said. "We don't have the extra picks and don't want to expend picks. But always we'll listen to a drop-down scenario because that would get us extra picks. Then maybe if you get some extra picks in the second or third, maybe you could move up."

Every draft week at Kirkland headquarters, a temporary fence is put up on the practice fields, and the coaching staff and scouting department face off in a home-run derby. It's a chance to blow off steam at the end of months of preparing and bantering and exchanging ideas about where draft prospects grade out and who should be the team's choices.

It figures to be a bit easier to relax and swing for the fence this afternoon before the Seahawks are on the clock, with all of the "heavy lifting," as Ruskell put it, complete. It had to be done this way, because this year there are only 10 minutes between each team's pick in the first round and seven minutes between picks in the second round.

That means all trade talk has to be finalized beforehand. There just isn't time to swing something last-minute. And if there is no trade, the decision on whom to pick and all contingency plans have to be ready.

"This is a brave new world for us. But we felt like, to compensate for that, if there was something that we wanted to convey to another team, do that ahead of time," Ruskell said.

Ruskell and those in the draft "war room" will have to get used to the tempo. But he feels the change in pace is necessary.

It's a new world indeed for the Seahawks. They didn't have a first-round pick last year. They have a head coach in his final draft and the future head coach, Jim Mora, already on staff waiting to take over in 2009. There are several new assistant coaches — most notably offensive-line coach Mike Solari, quarterbacks coach Bill Lazor and running-backs coach Kasey Dunn — whose input in draft meetings is a fresh perspective.

Everyone in that room today will understand that the Seahawks are not just going to target a certain position when making their player choices.

"Everybody is happy when you get a new guy that you get to work with that you pushed for and did the work on, but it's all about helping the football team," Ruskell said. "They [assistants and scouts] know that is our goal, coach Holmgren's goal. What is best for the football team."

Time to take a swing and try to knock one out of the park.

Note

• Holmgren took the Horrigan Award — given to the person who is not a player or team media-relations member and helped the media best do its job — handed out Friday by the Professional Football Writers of America.

Holmgren, one of the league's most popular and influential coaches, edged NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in voting by the association's members. The Seattle Seahawks media-relations department also took the Rozelle Award.

Other honorees: the Packers' Brett Favre, the Bills' Kevin Everett and ESPN's Len Pasquarelli.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com