THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Despite few picks, Seahawks still need to corner the market in draft

Note to Seahawks junkies…

The NFL draft is looming.

We’re not to the point where you lie miserably in a cold sweat, not yet — but that’s coming.

The draft itself begins next Thursday night, but if you have something else planned, feel free to skip the draft festivities.

The Seahawks will pass on the party, since the Thursday hoo-hah is only for first-round selections.

Seattle has none of those, but hey, would you rather have some unknown college kid or All-Pro safety Jamal Adams?

Let’s take Adams, no question.

He’s brought the “Legion of Sack” to the Seahawk defense (9 1/2 by himself, an NFL record for defensive backs).

Fair enough, so let’s forget about Thursday and move on.

All sorts of players will be available over the weekend, during which Seattle currently has three picks — beginning in the second round with No. 56.

After that, it’s slim pickings unless John Schneider does some of his magic.

The Seahawks GM always manages to deal off the bottom of the deck, and wind up with more selections than he had in his wallet when the whole circus started.

AT THE moment, Seattle has solo picks in the fourth and seventh rounds — and that’s it.

Surely, the Seahawks are not going to let that menu stand.

If history is any guide, look for Schneider to trade down, and take that pick and trade down again for a couple of low-rounders — and then maybe he’ll peddle those, too.

John seems to understand that nobody really knows who will turn out to be a sensational pro and who will be out the door almost instantly.

The remedy for that, Seahawk-style, is to go for quantity.

Get a lot of picks and select players by throwing darts.

OK, I admit John and Pete Carroll and the scouts are paying more attention than THAT, but…

They really do believe in quantity.

I’m going to guess that the Hawks will wind up with six picks before this thing is done.

They might not be terribly sexy choices — like, three of the six could be announced after you’ve gone to bed on Sunday night.

But if the Hawks are good at anything, it’s scouring the late-round bargain bins and finding some good football players.

So…

Now we come to the million-dollar question: What are hoping that the Seahawks will find on some dusty shelf — you know, somewhere between the fourth and seventh rounds?

MY CHOICE?

Really?

Hmmm…

OK, gun to my head, I’d be hoping to pull a surprisingly gifted cornerback out of the barrel.

If second prize is a big kid with good strength, hands and feet — potentially a sold right tackle to displace the often shaky Brandon Shell (and show Russell Wilson that we DO care about his health) — that would be a decent choice.

But truly, if this team is going to compete seriously in the NFC West, there has to be help at corner.

At the moment, the only certain starter is right corner D.J. Reed.

If we HAD to name a left corner for opening day, it probably would be (cough) Ahkello Witherspoon.

So, what do Reed and Witherspoon have in common?

Both were acquired off the 49ers’ trash heap.

Whatever you think of the players — and Reed has performed like a legit NFL defender — it’s not the greatest sign in the world that you hope to prevent teams from scoring points by grabbing discards within your own division.

Witherspoon is the opposite of the steady, generally solid Reed.

Ahkello came pretty much from central casting as your shutdown corner — he’s 6-foot-3, 195 pounds and runs the 40 in 4.4.

Alas, in four seasons with San Francisco, it was deemed that he was not running that 4.4 in the right direction – at least, not often enough.

When he became a free agent after last season, the 49ers let him walk.

HECK, THAT’S even a little more dignified than Reed, who was shooed away on waivers.

All of these acquisitions from the San Francisco thrift shop explain why the Seahawks have re-signed safety Damarious Randall — designating him now as a corner — and this week grabbed another star-turned-flop, Pierre Desir.

Like many of the other combatants aiming for full-time corner work in Seattle, Desir has had some golden moments in the NFL — the Colts liked his game so much in 2018, they gave him a three-year, $25 million contract.

But a year later, after Desir spent a season getting beaten like a goat tied to a post, Indianapolis sent him packing.

Are you getting the picture?

Have you spotted why finding a carload of cornerbacks would be useful?

Oh, I forgot to mention that the Seahawks still have Tre Flowers on the roster.

Never mind.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, 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 which will be published monthly during the offseason.