The News Tribune du lieu suivant : Tacoma, Washington • B1

WEDNESDAY APRIL 22 2020 1BFACEBOOK.COM/TACOMANEWSTRIBUNE TWITTER.COM/THENEWSTRIBUNETHENEWSTRIBUNE.COM Coming out of Bethel High School, Ezra Cleve- land one of the state of most widely recruited linemen before he grad- uated in 2016. He even the most sought after lineman in his school district those days with Foster Sarrell garnering national recruiting attention and piling up the offers, before committing to Stanford. There are likely plenty of big- time college football programs right now that wish they had given Cleveland more consid- eration at the time. Cleveland, who is projected as a first or second-round pick in this NFL Draft, went on to a decorated career at Boise State. As the left tackle, he was named to the All-Mountain West first-team in 2018 and 2019, starting all 40 games over Boise past three seasons.

happy whatever hap- pened, happened (coming out of high Cleveland said. was able to be coached by a fan- tastic staff at Boise State and I used those tools on gameday. I say frustrated about being under-recruited. Everything happens for a All of that is in the rear view mirror now for Cleveland, who could be the first player from the state of Washington taken off this draft board. actually know Cleveland said.

new information to me. pretty cool. I really that big of a prospect. People undervalued me. That changed when I could show- case the skills I developed.

definitely Cleveland, a 6-foot-6, 310- pound tackle, garnered widespread praise for his per- formance at the NFL Scouting Combine. He ran a 4.93-second 40-yard dash and put up 30 reps of 225 pounds in the bench press. But while the performance sent his stock soaring, Cleveland was more measured in his reaction. I was he said. were a few things in there I do up to my stan- dard, the 20-yard shuttle and bench.

But overall, I did a decent job and it put me in that position in right now. happy over- all with the part of what has made Cleveland a dominant athlete at the collegiate level his own toughest critic. like to hold myself to a high Cleveland said. like to think my standard is higher than what coaches want me to do. Bethel grad, Boise Ezra Cleveland ready for NFL Draft BY JONMANLEY jon.manley@thenewstribune.com MICHAEL CONROY AP Boise State offensive lineman Ezra Cleveland, seen here at the NFL scouting combine in February, among widely recruited linemen before he graduated from high school.

SEE CLEVELAND, 2B While pastime re- mains on hold, Seattle Mariners third base coach Manny Acta appreciates how this rare break from baseball has given him the opportunity to revisit one of his favorite pastimes reading. Not that he read during the season, he says he still scrolls through social media look- ing for interesting stories but with the extra time he suddenly has, like most others waiting out the COVID-19 pandemic, returned to longer forms. These days at his home in Madeira Beach, where he and his wife, Cindy, reside in the offseason, Acta has carved out a morning routine that makes time for reading books. He often reads about the histo- ry of the Dominican Republic, where he was born and has dual citizenship, but right now is work- ing his way through an English translation of Hundred Years of which Gabriel Garcia Marquez penned back in 1967. And there are more books to read in his queue, Acta says.

The hour or more he spends reading each day is part of his new normal until baseball can resume. been really Acta said during a Monday conference call. we miss being out there. This is the first time in 34 years that at home at this time of the Acta, 51, spent six seasons in the Houston Astros organization after he was signed as an un- drafted free agent infielder out of the Dominican Republic in 1986. He has managed both the Nation- als (2007-09) and Indians (2010- 12) during his 16-year career as a big league coach, and is entering his fifth season with the Mariners, and third as their third base coach.

Never has something like the COVID-19 shutdown happened in his long baseball career, but Acta, like the rest of coaches, is trying to maintain positive and productive relationships with players during this unprecedented stretch. have a group of guys that in touch with Acta said. try to get out of that little group and text a guy here and there, but the main thing was Scott (Servais) and our front office made us talk to them (on the phone). no such thing as just texting or talking to them through social media or anything like that, so able to talk to these guys, find out how their families are doing, what up to and what kind of physical shape keeping themselves in, what heard, what heard, and I think It helps cultivate relationships Manny Acta staying connected with players during shutdown BY LAUREN SMITH SEE ACTA, 2B there a pandemic halting normal life. Schneider will have on one of his home walls the draft board of players they want.

Another wall will have a board of what staff has projected and is tracking for the 31 other teams in each of the seven rounds. Last week on his Flying Coast podcast with Golden State War- riors coach Steve Kerr, Carroll likened this all-remote draft and its unprecedented challenges with communication and improvisa- tion to wild, wild how I predict it will go on Thursday in round one with an addendum of high local in- terest for the top of sec- ond round. 1. CINCINNATI: Joe Burrow, QB, LSU: Bengals get their home-state guy who tore up col- lege football with an incompara- ble 2019. His job: Oh, only to resurrect the Cincinnati franchise.

2. WASHINGTON: Chase Young, DE, Ohio State: a passer-and-sack-the-passer league, as the Seahawks are acutely aware. The best QB goes first. The best pass rusher goes next. The sun will come up.

The top quarterbacks will go right away. And the Seahawks will trade down. These draft-day truths are about all you can count in this unprecedented, wholly remote 2020 NFL draft that begins Thursday frommore than 100 different homes across the league and nation. all be linked by video conferencing, by cellphones and by more draft-day trading by Seahawks GM John Schneider. The highlights of my annual News Tribune mock first-round of the draft: Joe Burrow will come home to his native Ohio to be new franchise quar- terback at No.

1 overall. Ohio Chase Young will go second, to Washington. Then Chaisson and Penn Yeuter Gross- Matos, this other elite pass rushers, will go later in round one. Schneider and Seattle coach Pete Carroll once again have fewer players rated as first-round talent than the slot their team owns in round one. why the Seahawks are going to trade their first-round pick for the ninth consecutive year.

This draft like no other will begin with commissioner Roger Goodell addressing our coro- navirus pandemic from a video camera in his basement in sub- urban New York City. Then each team will get 10 minutes or more, if the remote communi- cations working as they rehearsed with the league on Monday to make their first- round choices. Carroll, Schneider and their scouts and assistant coaches will be in separate locations, mostly their homes, connected by video conferencing, FaceTime, cellular phones and land lines. The information technology team has been in house outfitting it with upgraded internet and re- mote capabilities. Staffers have even been tacking white dry- erase boards to the walls of the family home, to create a remote draft board.

Those will approximate the two boards Schneider and his staff maintain in the huge, double draft room they have set up inside team headquarters in Renton in years GERALD HERBERT Associated Press Just about everyone who can spell has the Cincinnati Bengals selecting Heisman Trophy- and national-title-winning quarterback Joe Burrow from LSU with the first pick in the NFL draft Thursday. 2020 NFL mock draft Seahawks make (yet another) trade BY GREGG BELL PHELAN M. PHOTO Florida cornerback CJ Henderson plays in the 2019 season opener against Miami in Orlando, Fla. expected to be selected at the top of the NFL draft. VASHA PRESS Jerry Jeudy from Alabama is at the top of what many see as a historic class of wide receivers in the 2020 NFL draft that begins Thursday.

JOHN PRESS Chaisson, a top edge rusher, might give the Seahawks a solution to the impasse in the Jadeveon Clowney situation. AJ PRESS TCU defensive tackle Ross Blacklock runs a drill at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in late February. The Seahawks need defensive tackles. BRIAN SPORTSWIRE VIA AP IMAGES All-Pac-12 left tackle Austin Jackson (73) is expected to be available in the NFL draft when the Seahawks choose in round one.SEE DRAFT, 2B Sports.