THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Seahawks throw a curveball in first round

Don’t try to earn your wages by outguessing John Schneider.

One more time Thursday night, the Seahawks GM zigged when he was expected to zag.

Absolutely everyone who follows the Hawks was sure of two things…

First, that Seattle would trade down in the first round — adding more picks to the seven the Hawks had as ammunition.

Second, that sometime over the next two days, they’d try to address their top priority, an edge rusher.

That first item seemed to be a certainty.

Consider: The last time Schneider and Pete Carroll used their own pick in the first round (2011), Russell Wilson wasn’t even on the roster.

So as the NFL’s awkward but necessary virtual draft unspooled and edged closer to Seattle’s spot at No. 27, you HAD to be waiting for a trade.

But even as teams right around them were swapping spots to grab particular players — the shocker being Green Bay dealing up to get Utah State quarterback Jordan Love — the Seahawks remained silent.

AND THEN…

When it sunk in that the Hawks would actually hand in a selection at their own spot, you waited to see which pass rusher they’d been coveting all along.

Iowa’s A.J. Espenesa, maybe, or Yatur Gross-Matos from Penn State?

Because after all, this team absolutely, positively needs to get more pressure on the passer — unlike those Charmin-soft efforts of last season (28 sacks in 16 games).

The selection?

Jordyn Brooks, a middle linebacker from Texas Tech.

No question Brooks is a hell of an athlete. Draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. called him a “tackling machine.”

Oh, and of his 108 tackles as a senior (he had 367 for his career), an astounding 20 were for losses.

However…

Seattle has perhaps the best middle backer in the biz with Bobby Wagner, and returning starters K.J. Wright and Cody Barton figure to flank Wagner.

Snagging Brooks, then, suggests some type of plan that Schneider and Carroll have cooked up.

You don’t use the 27th pick in any draft unless you have a serious idea what you’ve got in mind — and you’re pretty sure you’ve found just the right player for it.

SCHNEIDER and Carroll no doubt will give us reasons and possible scenarios for choosing a fast, 240-pound middle linebacker who plays side to sideline.

You know, even though they have three starting linebackers all coming back.

To the uninitiated, this did not feel like a position of need.

But the Seahawks are not known for ignoring their draft board simply for need, not unless a true star lands in their laps.

There is a saying about these NFL drafts, and the danger of reaching too hard to fill a need while ignoring a player you consider extra-special.

Need is temporary, but elite is forever.

From that we have to conclude that the Seahawks felt, right from the beginning, that Brooks — considered a second- or third-round choice by most teams — has something in his skill set and ability to play the game that will make him elite.

There is also a chance that they believe Brooks can beat out Barton, and they haven’t forgotten that Wright is now 32, and in the last year of his contract.

Besides, even as they hunt pass rushers (with Jadeveon Clowney and Everson Griffen still unsigned out there), you suspect that they see Brooks as a guy who can get into the backfield from any position.

We don’t know the exact rationale.

What we can take to the bank, though, is that Schneider and Carroll DID have a plan all along.

And Brooks was part of it.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.