Posted by ESPN.com's Mike Sando
Tim Ruskell might be the Seahawks' president and general manager, but the former college scouting director hasn't changed at his core. He's still a scout at heart.
Entering this draft without a fifth-round choice gnawed at him because, well, because any self-respecting scout wants to pick in every round. That's one reason the Seahawks traded back in the first round before taking USC defensive end Lawrence Jackson with the 28th pick, acquired from Dallas.
"When we looked at it, and tried to ascertain where he would go, all week we wanted more picks," Ruskell said. "We didn't have a 5. We thought maybe Lawrence was going to go bottom of the first, top of the second, just left to its own devices. So we told everybody we were willing to go down. That was not a smokescreen, that was for real.
"We thought it would be because of the action coming on the quarterbacks, but apparently that wasn't meant to be, other than what happened to [Joe] Flacco. Jerry Jones called us, and we hashed it out, and to get a 5 and a 7, and to go down to a place where we thought we could still get Jackson, who was one of our targeted guys, we said, 'Let's do it, it's a minimal risk,' and it turned out great for us."
