RENTON, Wash. — The challenge for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider entering the 2026 NFL Draft was trying to accumulate more picks while still acquiring impact players.
Seattle began the draft with just four picks. By Saturday afternoon, it had added eight total rookies.
“Unfortunately, people don’t want to trade with us until, like, the sixth and seventh round,” Schneider quipped in a post-draft news conference at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. “I don’t know why it happened like that this year.”
The Seahawks made three trades on Day 3 of the draft. They sent the Cleveland Browns a 2027 fourth-round pick in exchange for No. 148, which became Iowa guard Beau Stephens. Seattle sent the New York Jets No. 188 in exchange for Nos. 199 (WR Emmanuel Henderson Jr.) and 242 (NT Deven Eastern). Then the Seahawks gave up No. 216 to the Green Bay Packers to acquire Nos. 236 (CB Andre Fuller) and 255 (CB Michael Dansby).
The Seahawks felt comfortable sending fourth- and fifth-round picks to the New Orleans Saints for Rashid Shaheed during the season because of how their scouting department felt about the depth in the 2026 draft. But there was just no way general manager John Schneider was going to make only four selections. The draft is too important to the team-building process to make only a handful of selections.
Even though three of the picks Seattle added were seventh-round selections, acquiring more bites at the apple is generally a good practice. The draft is a crapshoot; a seventh-round pick could be a guy who doesn’t make the team, or someone like Chris Carson, David Moore, J.R. Sweezy or Malcolm Smith.
That said, the first half of Seattle’s class is the most intriguing and likely the most impactful. Running back Jadarian Price has a direct path to the starting lineup. Safety Bud Clark (Ty Okada) and guard Beau Stephens (Anthony Bradford) have veterans in front of them, but we’ve seen rookies snag jobs before.
Best value pick
By the consensus big board, the Seahawks didn’t get great value with any of their first three selections. Price (No. 47 on the big board), Clark (No. 77) and Neal (No. 123) were selected a bit earlier than their consensus rankings projected. It would be unfair to deem any of those picks reaches, but they probably aren’t steals, either. That said, Clark and Neal will look like steals if they become impact players in Year 1. Clark has a clean path to the starting lineup, and if he winds up there, he’ll prove to be a very valuable pick.
Stephens was No. 125 on the consensus board, so there would perhaps be some value there if the Seahawks hadn’t traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to acquire him. Henderson was No. 292 on the consensus board with a seventh-round grade in Brugler’s draft guide.
Most surprising pick
Schneider has been saying for months that the 2026 draft class lacks depth. So, it was shocking to see him use 2027 draft capital to jump into the fifth round of this draft.
The Seahawks figured they were working with surplus draft capital in 2027. They have their own picks in all seven rounds and are projected to receive four compensatory picks for losing Boye Mafe (fourth round), Coby Bryant (fifth), Ken Walker III (fifth) and Riq Woolen (fifth) in free agency, as well as a seventh-round pick from the Falcons in the deal that sent offensive tackle Mike Jerrell to Atlanta. With that many extra picks in 2027, Seattle clearly felt comfortable dipping into its stash to add another player in this class.
“It was too big of a gap and too much talent there,” Schneider said of trading into the fifth round to select Stephens.
The trade is the only surprising aspect of the Stephens selection. Seattle can otherwise very easily justify drafting an All-Big Ten guard from the unit deemed the best offensive line in the country, one who comes from a zone-blocking scheme and takes pride in being a mauler in the run game and “breaking an opponent’s will to play (so) he doesn’t want to stay in his gap.”
“Make the linebackers have to make a play,” Stephens said, describing what it means to be a mauler. “It’s making it so that a guy wants to put his eyes down and not care where the ball is at. It’s just, ‘I don’t want to get killed by this person across from me.’”
Seattle’s starting left guard is 2025 first-round pick Grey Zabel, who finished sixth in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. On the right side is Bradford, who has had to battle for his starting spot each of the past two seasons. Bradford, a 2o23 fourth-round pick, will be a free agent after this season. Seattle’s other backup guards are 2024 third-round pick Christian Haynes and 2025 sixth-round pick Bryce Cabeldue. Adding Stephens to the mix is understandable.
Biggest question mark
This is the third consecutive year in which the Seahawks didn’t draft an edge rusher (Rylie Mills, a fifth-round pick in 2025, is a defensive tackle). They also didn’t add one in free agency after losing Mafe to the Cincinnati Bengals. That’s an interesting decision given the perceived depth in this class; Dane Brugler’s draft guide had 16 edge rushers in the top 100.
Seattle’s top three edge rushers — DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu and Derick Hall — are very good, but the top backups are 2025 undrafted free-agent signees Connor O’Toole and Jared Ivey. The lack of offseason investment (for now, at least) suggests a lot of faith in Ivey and O’Toole, who were never exposed to waivers during the regular season while Seattle was willing to take risks with other bottom-of-the-roster players throughout the year.
“Jared Ivey is a guy that had a great season last year,” coach Mike Macdonald said, also name-dropping Jamie Sheriff and O’Toole. “Connor O’Toole was up and does a lot of great things.”
As for the players the Seahawks selected, it will be interesting to see what kind of impact Henderson can make this summer. The Seahawks have a deep wide receiver room headlined by Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed. The notable backups are Tory Horton, who had 13 catches for 161 yards with five touchdowns; Jake Bobo, who signed a two-year, $5.5 million deal in March; and Cody White. Toward the bottom of the depth chart, there’s Tyrone Broden, Montorie Foster Jr., Velus Jones Jr. (who has also played some at running back) and Ricky White III, a seventh-round pick in 2025.
Making the team as a sixth-round pick is always an uphill battle, but Henderson certainly has his work cut out for him. The good news for Henderson (6-0, 185) is he had a knack for big plays in college — he was No. 2 among Power 4 players with four receptions of 50-plus yards last season, according to Brugler — and if he’s able to translate that to the pros, he’ll easily be a preseason standout.
Henderson also returned kicks in college. Seattle has Shaheed and Horton to handle kickoff and punt returns, but maybe some big returns in the preseason will boost Henderson’s stock (he also racked up 14 career special teams tackles in college, so he could be a gunner if nothing else).
“This guy is an outstanding special teams player,” Schneider said.
Remaining needs
The Seahawks could still use a veteran edge rusher, if only for depth and pass-rush situations. They kicked the tires on Von Miller last year before he signed with the Washington Commanders. Revisiting those discussions this offseason would make sense.
Defensive end Dante Fowler Jr visited the Seahawks on April 16. Fowler, who turns 32 in August, spent a couple of seasons in Dallas with Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde (they were also together in Atlanta for one year). Fowler had three sacks and 10 QB hits with a pressure rate of 13 percent in 2025, which ranked 48th out of 184 defenders with at least 200 pass-rush snaps, according to TruMedia.
By pressure rate, Fowler was in the same range as Lawrence (13.7 percent), Nwosu (13.5) and Mafe (12.7). Seattle would be able to add Fowler without impacting the number of 2027 compensatory draft picks it is projected to receive.
Post-draft outlook
The Seahawks entered the draft with one of the best rosters in the league. The Price pick alone makes the team better and addresses the only real hole on the roster. Once the Seahawks acquired a starting running back with their first pick, everything else became about adding depth at spots where they lost players in free agency or have players on expiring contracts.
The Seahawks were able to do that, minus the edge rusher position (and center, where Jalen Sundell and Olu Oluwatimi are on expiring contracts). Neal, Fuller and Dansby add depth behind Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe. Julian Love was previously the only safety under contract beyond 2026; Clark is a long-term option there. Stephens might be the future at right guard.
