Getty Seahawks DT Leonard Williams at USC in 2014.
The Seattle Seahawks made one of the biggest deals of the season, acquiring former New York Giants defensive tackle Leonard Williams at the 2023 NFL trade deadline to bolster an already strong defense. While this move came as a surprise to many, it wasn’t an impulse buy for head coach Pete Carroll. The former USC Trojans coach revealed ahead of the Seahawks’ Week 9 matchup with the Baltimore Ravens that he’s had his eye on Williams ever since he played at the school Carroll used to coach at.
Pete Carroll Has Loved Leonard Williams Since the DT’s College Days at USC
Former USC head coach Carroll left his position with the Trojans following the 2009 college football season. At that point, Williams was just 15 years old, playing high school football in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Just three seasons later, though, Williams would show up on Southern Cal’s campus as a four-star recruit, per ESPN’s college football recruiting rankings. After three seasons at USC, Willams declared for the 2015 NFL Draft, and the New York Jets took him No. 6 overall.
Carroll and the Seahawks didn’t even have a first-round pick that season, so they had no chance of nabbing Williams. However, Carroll admits the now-$63 million DT was on his radar all the way back then.
“[Williams] is such an amazing person,” Carroll told Steve Raible on his weekly Pete Carroll Preview on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. “It’s something I’ve known through the whole (USC) thing way back when he was coming out (of college), and we’ve heard a lot of great stuff about him and all that and have had our eye on him all along, kind of watching his career as he’s played along the way.”
As Williams turned into a Pro Bowl D-lineman with the Jets and a standout star with the Giants, Carroll continued to keep Williams on his mind, at the 2023 NFL trade deadline, he and Seattle general manager John Schneider finally got their man.
“When this season rolled around – and even last year, we talked about it. I mean, just (about) guys that you would like to add to your team, this was one of them,” he said. “And so (Schneider) went to work on it and just stayed with it, stayed after it, and really orchestrated it so that we had the opportunity. There were a number of teams that wanted to get him in, and we were able to pull it off.”
So, after around a decade of coveting Williams, Carroll finally got his man.
Carroll and the Seahawks nailed the 2015 NFL Draft
Carroll and Schneider came into the 2015 NFL Draft without a first-round pick because they sent it to the New Orleans Saints in the Jimmy Graham trade, per Bleacher Report. Even if they did have that pick in their arsenal, drafting Leonard Williams would have been nearly impossible, as the team has the 31st overall pick after losing in the Super Bowl the season prior.
Despite not having its own first-rounder, the team still nailed that draft and has multiple players on the team today from that year’s selection process.
With the Seahawks’ first pick, Carroll and Schneider took Michigan defensive end Frank Clark. The pass-rusher had four good seasons in Seattle, putting up 35.0 sacks, including a season of 10.0 sacks and one of 13.0 sacks.
While Clark didn’t make a Pro Bowl until he went to the Kansas City Chiefs, he was a standout defender for Carroll, and after the Denver Broncos cut him just a few games into the 2023 NFL season, he is now back with the team that drafted him.
In signing back with the Seahawks, Clark also reunites with fellow Class of 2015 draftees Leonard and Tyler Lockett, the former Kansas State wide receiver that the Seahawks drafted in the third round that year.
As all Seahawks fans know well, Lockett has been one of the team’s best offensive players for nine seasons now and has a Pro Bowl and All-Pro team on his resume.
All three of these 2015 draftees should be on the fields for the Seahawks Week 9 showdown with the Ravens.