Month: January 2026

Seahawks playoff pregame mock draft

/ seattleseamocks

By Jared Stanger

We’re hours away from the Seahawks divisional round playoff game at Lumen Field against our rival 49ers, and I’ve got a new 7-round mock draft for everyone.

A few points of order…at one point a follower raised the question of what happened to the Seahawks’ draftpick they acquired when they traded OT Mike Jerrell to Atlanta. I was like, “oh yeah, what did happen with that?” I finally went back to the news releases from the day of the trade and realized that draftpick was actually a conditional 2027 pick. So it is still in play, just not for this year.

The second point…the Seahawks first round pick. I’ve been advocating that John Schneider could/should trade our first round pick for a veteran player. I think that idea lost it’s plausibility when Seattle secured the playoff first round bye. Which also meant they would draft no higher than #27 overall if they lose today. And that might be #28 at the highest, depending on tie-breakers with Denver.

Optimistically, Seattle might be drafting in the 30’s. I just don’t see NFL teams that might be selling off their blue-chip players on big contracts; would be selling them to a team that is drafting that late in the 1st round. This is why Seattle should have gotten it done at the trade deadline last November…at that time, there was mystery about where their pick would land. Now there is much less mystery, and by the time of the new league year; there will be zero mystery…Seattle’s first rounder is more like a second.

I just don’t think we’re going to be winning any kind of bidding war for Maxx Crosby, or whoever, with our low-value 2026 first round pick. And one can surmise from our roster composition that our 2027 draftpick will be in the 20’s as well.

So……what does one do in a bad draft class, with less than 15 consensus first round grades across the league, and a first round pick that won’t interest teams selling vet talent? We go back to the John Schneider well…trading back.

It’s a very legitimate question on whether John is going to worry much about getting more bites at the apple in the 2026 draft. At the moment, he has put himself in position to make only four picks: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th rounds. Is that the end game, or has he been planning to augment that somehow between the end of the season and the end of the draft? We can only speculate.

Personally, I look at the Seahawks pending 2026 free agents, and I don’t see the names of the team’s best players running out of contract. It’s a group of, essentially, role players. The biggest name is probably Ken Walker. After K9, the list goes Riq Woolen, Josh Jobe, Boye Mafe, Josh Jones, Coby Bryant, Dareke Young. Technically, Rashid Shaheed is also coming up, but I expect they will get him done.

We’re not losing big names, so maybe we don’t need to draft big names. We could, theoretically, plan to draft for the class the year has provided, which has serendipitously lined up perfectly for the free agent class we’re losing. But I think you need more lottery tickets because in a weak draft there is less guarantee that each pick will pay off.

I think we need more picks, not less. Having draft capital allows you to be fluid throughout the draft. It’s much harder to pick select spots to move UP in the draft when you only start with four picks. I will make three trades within the draft.

First…trading back #1.32 to Houston for pick #2.38 + #4.106. Texans currently have nine picks to deal from.

Second…trading back #2.64 to Pittsburgh for picks #3.76 + #4.121 + #6.214. The Steelers currently project to have twelve picks throughout the draft.

Third…traing back #6.214 to the Jets for picks #7.218 + #7.242. The Jets also hold twelve picks going into the draft. All of the teams I’ve used for trades have a ton of draft capital.

Final Seahawks draft board: #2.38, #3.76, #3.96, #4.106, #4.121, #6.211, #7.218, #7.242.

#2.38 – Cornerback, San Diego State, Chris Johnson

To my eye; it feels quite obvious that our first pick needs to be a corner. We’re currently set up to lose two starting corners in free agency (ideally, we re-up one of them and draft one), and it’s not a good draft for corners. Need meets depth (or lack thereof).

Chris Johnson just continues to be the guy in this class that has a really high floor. Feels like a Mike Macdonald guy. Listed 6’0″/195lbs.

#3.76 – Center, Florida, Jake Slaughter

I’m not totally sure about this pick. Macdonald and staff might be all-in on Jalen Sundell. Or maybe there’s a sneaky chance that Seattle gets involved in the Tyler Linderbaum free agency. I just need to see Schneider correct his bias against centers, which is so fucking weird in the first place.

Slaughter has been my guy since early in the 2024 college season, and I love that he is still holding value in the third round.

#3.96 – Wide receiver, UConn, Skyler Bell

Receiver is an interesting position for Seattle this offseason. Their only trade-deadline deal was for a WR, who will immediately become a free agent. Tory Horton has predominantly been an afterthought after spending most of his rookie year on the injured list, something I was always concerned about based on his college career. Cooper Kupp is aging. Dareke Young is a free agent, and I let him walk. Bobo has seen fewer and fewer touches each year, and ended 2025 with only two catches.

Obviously, we don’t need a #1 WR, but there’s a strong argument that we need a legit #2. I don’t know if the current model of JSN dominating target share to the 2025 degree is sustainable. Kupp was Darnold’s #3 in receptions behind TE Barner. Then we see two RB in 4th-5th. This is also the kind of pick that you maybe make a year early, give him 50 catches in year one, and then in 2027, maybe he pops off as the roster changes and he gets more opportunities.

Bell has good size, and a really well-rounded skillset. I like his ability to win in the air. I like his Staten Island swagger. I really want him to continue wearing his #1 jersey from college. He calls himself “Uno” and we could have all kinds of fun with that.

#4.106 – Linebacker, Texas Tech, Jacob Rodriguez

I don’t think Seattle needs an early pick on a linebacker. I think we’re pretty well set next year with All-pro Ernest Jones, and Drake Thomas getting starter reps. But, arguably, we didn’t need a safety when we drafted Nick Emmanwori when we did in 2025. Anyways, if Rodriquez is still on the board this late we run to the podium for him. He immediately deepens our bench and gives us our future replacement for Jones as the MIKE starter in a couple years. It seems that Macdonald likes to kind of take his time installing his defense specifically in his green dot linebacker, so this gives us a great, low-pressure draft cost to take our time with our QB of the defense.

#4.121 – Edge Rusher, Western Michigan, Nadame Tucker

I kind of only see two things Seattle might spend their first pick on: corner or edge. I went with corner because the draft has few of those, while it feels very strong on a certain type of edge. I think we can play more into the depth of edge and wait for one. Especially since he will only be needed to “replace” the snaps of Boye Mafe. He can be a rotational player with a hope for upside.

I’ve narrowed my interest down to Tucker. I think he has more passrush talent to him than most in this draft range. I’m self-aware that Tucker may not be the right TYPE of edge player that Macdonald prefers. I lowkey think a guy named Michael Heldman from Central Michigan might be more of Macdonald’s vibe, but currently Heldman might be able to come to Seattle in rookie free agency.

#6.211 – Guard, Iowa, Beau Stephens

It still seems strange the way this front office and coaching staff has basically deferred the right guard job to Anthony Bradford. Will they continue to do so another year? It feels like a draft where there will be some late value on OL. We took a couple stabs at this idea in 2025 with Bryce Cabeldue and Mason Richman. Both have remained on the roster, while ultimately not overtaking Bradford.

Stephens comes from the same Iowa scheme that Richman came from, but is a much more accomplished player. He’s kind of the sneaky third-best known name from that Hawkeye OL behind center Logan Jones and right tackle Gennings Dunker.

We will be asking Stephens to flip from left guard at Iowa to right guard in Seattle.

#7.218 – Safety, Nebraska, Deshon Singleton

Much like most of this mock, for this draft, for this offseason; the goal might only need to be to replace role player with role player. In this case, we need a replacement for Coby Bryant. Singleton is a favorite of mine going back to the 2024 season. He’s a very high-floor, strong fundamental player. I love adding him to the DB room and letting him build from special teams and we go from there.

#7.242 – Tackle, Washington, Carver Willis

In the NIL era…and specifically in the UW/Fisch era…I have grown disenchanted with watching my beloved Huskies. I find it really difficult to connect with these random rosters of brand new transfer players every year. I don’t know who they are, where they come from, when they’re going to leave UW for another school.

In that spirit, I had not had a targeted viewing of LT Carver Willis until he was recently added to the Senior Bowl roster. After playing RT in 2024 for KState, Willis was the Husky LT this year. Listed 6’5″/312lbs, with sneaky athleticism on tape; Willis will slot into the backup OT role currently occupied by Josh Jones.

Seahawks draft targets: Running back

/ seattleseamocks

By Jared Stanger

I had planned to make these tiered draft pieces by position group for most positions, but I’ve been slacking through the holidays. Today I’m back on my bullshit and looking at running backs. Seahawks are currently looking at a free agency period where Kenneth Walker is at the end of his contract and unrestricted, and George Holani will be an exclusive rights free agent. It remains to be seen if they will pay him. The team HAS made in-season contract extensions this year with Charles Cross, Eric Saubert, Abe Lucas. If both team and player were eager for a reunion; we would have likely seen the extension.

I’m not convinced the Seahawks want him back. Certainly not on a veteran deal with Walker being paid above his current rookie scale. I suspect Mike Macdonald is looking for a different type of runner.

With Seahawks limited 2026 draft capital; it will be tough to project them using one of their four current picks on a RB. But, as you’ll soon see, I think this might be a draft cycle that you can prioritize RB in rookie free agency. John Schneider and his staff seemed to go pretty aggressive in the 2025 UDFA phase where they acquired guys like Jared Ivey, Amari Kight, Connor O’toole, Nick Kallerup.

This leads us to a refresher on the structure of these pieces on the tiers of the 2026 Draft. Basically, I’m looking for the best player from three tiers of investment: high, mid, low cost. For the Edge Rushers, I called high cost the 1st to 2nd round. Running back typically carries lower positional value, and this year there aren’t likely more than one name that will be picked in the 1st round. So I’m calling high cost for RB; 2nd to 3rd round. Mid = 4th to 7th. And I’m calling low for RB the entirety of rookie free agency.

High round:

Not only do I not really see a running back I would imagine Seattle would draft in the first round; I kinda don’t see anyone they would take in the first three rounds. I like Jonah Coleman very much, but in my analytics study of the RB class; Coleman didn’t really ping.

Emmett Johnson from Nebraska is ranked #84 on the big board, and hit on a few of my metrics, but failed on others. The guy is crazy elusive, but didn’t score highly on running after contact and a couple others.

The highest ranked RB that did ping was Penn State’s Kaytron “Fatman” Allen from Penn State. Listed 5’11″/219lbs, Allen has 1300 rushing yards this year with 15 TD’s. Consensus big board has Allen as the #124 player in the class, which actually lands mid-4th round. Until we get testing data at the Combine; I suspect Allen might test on the slower side.

Mid round:

I’m honestly fudging things a bit to get this mid-tier in here. For whatever reason; the media has a dogshit perception of this RB class. Miami RB Mark Fletcher, the guy who has basically been carrying the Miami offense in the college playoffs, is not ranked draftable. He is a Junior that, due to Miami’s playoff run, has not announced his draft intention. But even if you look at his 2027 draft value it comes in as UDFA.

Fletcher is listed at 6’2″/225lbs and rushed for 1080 yards and 10 TD this year after missing two games near the middle of the season. Up until recently, I was more or less assuming Macdonald likes a RB that resembles something he worked alongside and had to defend in Baltimore where guys like Kenyan Drake and Gus Edwards were bigger backs getting the bulk of the carries.

But recently Seattle has been adding guys like Velus Jones (6’0″/204lbs), Myles Gaskin (5’10″/200lbs), Kenny Mcintosh (6’0″/204lbs) to various parts of the roster, as well as having some rumored interest in Devon Achane (5’9″/191lbs) at the recent trade deadline. It’s a position group without total clarity of where Macdonald’s true vision lies because he has never, really, had to acquire an RB1 or RB2 since he’s been here. The only RB we’ve seen John and Mike draft since Mike arrived was 2025 when they picked Damien Martinez in the 7th round. Martinez was 6’0″/217lbs, but he was shortlived for the roster; and his “replacements” were primarily the smaller backs I just mentioned.

I am moving forward with my projections based on my own speculation of what I THINK would work best in this offense. I think Fletcher ticks a lot of the boxes.

Low round (UDFA):

This is where things really popped for my research, which means you probably don’t NEED to draft a RB. I got multiple guys that came up really interesting and the media has no clue.

Kaelon Black & Roman Hemby – The two guys sharing carries in the same Indiana backfield both scored very similarly in my study. Black is listed 5’10″/211lbs and rushed for 898 yards and 8 TD, while Hemby is listed 6’0″/210lbs and rushed for 1007 yards and 7 TD. Hemby has a little better standing nationally for draft projection as a guy that is barely outside the range of top 256 players on the board.

Hemby is possibly a tougher runner, while Black is a bit more explosive. Black is a better pass-blocker, while Hemby is a better pass-catcher. Two really intriguing players with great intangibles.

Kejon Owens – Owens is a 5’11″/210lb back coming out of Florida International who ran for 1300 yards and 11 TD’s, with bigtime explosive plays on tape. He reminds me a bit of Ken Walker.

Dontae Mcmillan – Listed 5’10″/203lbs, Mcmillan played at Eastern Michigan but he’s actually from Seattle. He has very good explosive numbers, but on tape I fear he might test a little slow in the forty. He ran for 1000 yards this year, but only 4 TD. I don’t know that Mcmillan would be my #1 RB I’d sign in UDFA, but as a Seattle guy; I think if you offer him a deal; he’ll take it.

Robert Henry – Listed 5’9″/205lbs, Henry ran for 1045 yards on only 151 carries, and added 9 TD. In spite of not being the biggest back, Henry posted some of the best scores on running after contact.

I think the Seahawks should punt on RB in the actual draft, and then offer guaranteed money to two RB in the rookie free agency period. If they can swing it; one of the Indiana guys and Kejon Owens would be very interesting.