The Seahawks are weighing a heavy, likely choice: Whether or not to draft Jalen Carter

They drafted pass rusher Frank Clark months after he got kicked off his team at the University of Michigan.

They ignored red flags and drafted dynamic defensive tackle Malik McDowell. Soon after, he crashed an ATV. He had serious head injuries. He never played for Seattle.

They made another defensive linemen their top pick, L.J. Collier. He barely contributed over four NFL seasons. He is now gone, to Arizona.

Then in 2022, after years of high-profile risk-taking and big misses at the top of the draft, the Seahawks hit home runs. Six of them. From first picks through the final ones, Seattle found five immediate starters. They included a rookie Pro Bowl selection in Tariq Woolen and a 1,000-yard rusher in Kenneth Walker.

“The lessons you learned along the way, and some of the mistakes — I’m Catholic, so I beat myself up a little bit,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said last month. “So (I ponder) the mistakes I’ve made and why.”

So why the gold mine in last year’s draft?

Schneider credits the Seahawks returning to focusing on strong character and background for a common thread connecting their sterling 2022 class: Starting offensive tackles Charles Cross (round one) and Abe Lucas (three), Walker (two), Woolen (five) and fifth, nickel defensive back Coby Bryant (round four).

“Our area (scout) guys do a phenomenal job concentrating on character,” Schneider said last month at NFL’s annual scouting combine. “It’s really...we’ve always, we’ve really focused on who that person is.

“Like I said, some of the mistakes we’ve made is not necessarily being correct on the person as much as you could possibly be correct, if you will.”

We will.

“(With) some of the background information that we had on players, (those in the 2022 draft class were) really good people,” Schneider said.

Now here comes another dynamic defensive lineman with red flags at the top of the 2023 NFL draft.

Jalen Carter was at Seahawks headquarters last week.

Jalen Carter’s risk-reward calculations

Schneider and the Seahawks hosted on a pre-draft visit the University of Georgia tackle some believe may be the most skilled player and accomplished prospect in this draft. Seattle owns the fifth and 20th picks in round one. It’s possible if not likely Carter will be available when the Seahawks’ first turn of this draft comes up April 27.

After Carter dominated the mighty Southeastern Conference and led Georgia to winning the national championship in January, many believed he would be the first-overall pick in this draft April 27.

But then Carter was implicated in incidents that allegedly led to a single-car crash Jan. 15 that killed University of Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staff member Chandler LeCroy. A warrant for his arrest in Athens, Georgia, forced Carter to briefly leave the scouting combine in Indianapolis in early March, to turn himself in. Carter eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing.

Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court sentenced him to 12 months of probation, a $1,000 fine and a mandate of 50 hours of community service, among other stipulations.

Police alleged in an arrest warrant Carter was racing his 2021 Jeep Trackhawk against the 2021 Ford Expedition driven by LeCroy at the time of the crash. Willock was a passenger in the SUV LeCroy was driving.

A statement from Carter’s attorney Kim T. Stephens said the state can’t bring additional charges against Carter, and that Carter entered the pleas “in order to resolve this matter in the most efficient manner possible.”

Some teams have reportedly dropped Carter off their draft boards entirely.

Not Seattle. That’s not Schneider’s and coach Pete Carroll’s way.

Carroll’s never seen a talent he doesn’t think he can maximize through leadership and force of personality. The 71-year-old coach cultivates players who have chips on their shoulders with much to prove, like Iowans cultivate corn.

Schneider, Carroll and Seahawks assistant saw Carter in person at the combine. They saw him again March 15 at Georgia’s pro day.

They saw Carter couldn’t finish his position drills that day in Athens last month. He reportedly weighed 323 pounds there. That was nine pounds heavier than he weighed in at the combine two weeks earlier. Carter did only position drills. He didn’t participate in other aspects of the pro-day workout. He didn’t finish the position drills and was “cramping up and breathing heavily,” per an ESPN report.

The Seahawks’ pre-draft visits

This past week, the Seahawks finished their pre-draft visits. That included Carter plus reportedly other prospects, such as: Ohio State offensive tackle Dawand Jones, Texas Tech edge rusher Tyree Wilson, Louisville edge rusher YaYa Diabe, Florida State safety Jammie Robinson, Minnesota defensive back Jordan Howden, Utah guard-tackle Braeden Daniels, LSU guard Anthony Bradford, New Mexico safety Jerrick Reed, Tennessee defensive end Byron Young, Northwestern defensive lineman Adetomiwa Adebawore, Illinois defensive tackle Calvin Avery, Clemson guard-tackle Jordan McFadden and Alabama offensive tackle Tyler Steen.

Seattle also held its annual local prospects scouting day this past week. Oregon State cornerback Jaydon Grant was reportedly among those at that event.

With a week and a half until the draft, Schneider, his scouting assistants and Seahawks coaches are finishing their interviews of prospects.

“We’re still Zoom (calling) a bunch of guys. We had a huge portion of our visit (Wednesday). And then (Thursday), we had our local group in for our local visit, which is a big tryout day. Awesome,” Schneider said late last week on Seattle’s KIRO-AM radio. “We had some really really cool guys in (Thursday), and it was one of our better local days that we’ve had.”

Now, the Seahawks will refine their draft boards before round one starts April 27.

Is Carter at the top of it?

Assessing the top of this NFL draft

Carolina traded up with Chicago from ninth to the first overall pick to get a quarterback. Houston is assuredly going to take a quarterback second. The consensus belief around the league is Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud are going to be those first two picks, in whatever order.

Arizona at three is the pivotal pick for Seattle’s choice.

The Cardinals have franchise quarterback Kyler Murray, the first selection of the 2019 draft, under a $230 million contract through 2028. If Arizona doesn’t trade its third pick to a QB-desperate team (Tennessee? Washington?), the Cardinals will draft at a position other than passer. That means the third quarterback in this draft would likely go to Indianapolis. The Colts also REALLY need a QB. They pick just ahead of Seattle, at four.

The Seahawks like the athleticism, high potential and physical skills of Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson. Carroll, Schneider, Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and quarterbacks coach Greg Olson were at Richardson’s pro day in Gainesville, as they were at Stroud’s, Young’s and quarterback Will Levis’ at Kentucky.

Richardson may not last past the Colts at four, or past three if a team trades up to there with Arizona.

But if Richardson is available, the Seahawks may be using their highest pick on a quarterback since Rick Mirer out of Notre Dame in 1993. (No, that didn’t work out so well for Seattle.)

If Richardson is not available, that could mean the Seahawks have every defensive player in this draft available to them.

Including, and most intriguingly, Carter.

At five, Carter would be the highest defensive lineman Seattle has drafted since Cortez Kennedy out of Miami at third overall in 1990. (That worked out incredibly for the team, and for Kennedy. He’s enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

For the Seahawks, the need at defensive tackle is mammoth. Carroll is not done with his offseason overhaul of the defensive front seven, which malfunctioned most of the last two seasons and ruined a Pro Bowl year by quarterback Geno Smith last season.

Seattle’s choice on Carter comes down to this: What have Carroll’s and Schneider’s three in-person meetings with Carter over the last six weeks yielded? What have the Seahawks’ decision-makers learned from the team’s own investigation of Carter’s background, his attitude, his decision-making on (and off) the field?

That investigation started about a year ago, by the way.

“So, you know, the (Seahawks scouting) guys start in May, probably about two, three weeks after the draft, with all their contacts. Coaches. Equipment guys. Trainers. Everybody,” Schneider said at the combine in March.

“Yeah, we’re getting questions answered. ...We have a whole list of questions we want to get answered. And then we’ll get more questions from our conversations here (at the combine). And we’ll carry that all the way through until the end of April.”

All the way through potentially their latest, high-leverage decision weighing talent with red flags.

Last month, Schneider was asked on his weekly appearance with KIRO radio about Carter’s agent Drew Rosenhaus telling ESPN he was declining pre-draft visit requests from any team not picking in the top 10 of this draft.

“Agents are gonna advise their clients how they deem fit,” Schneider said this month. “Obviously, I’m sure a lot of people want to spend time with Jalen. There’s only so much time you have with these guys. There’s only a couple of weeks post-combine before the draft to be flying around the country. It takes a ton of time to set up all these visits and everything, even just our (top) 30 visits we have. ...It’s a process.

“I’m sure Drew had a reason and Jalen had a reason for cutting it off at a certain point. That’s their prerogative. I really don’t have an opinion one way or the other on that.”

Seahawks waive five players

The team on Monday waived defensive tackle Jarrod Hewitt, cornerback Chris Steele, running back Darwin Thompson, wide receiver Easop Winston and wide receiver Connor Wedington, a Tacoma native and former Sumner High School star.

None of the five played in a regular-season game for Seattle last season.