Every Sunday is unpredictable. Just as game day is a crap shoot, so is the NFL draft.
Mock experts and fans have been shooting darts at the draft prediction board since before February’s Super Bowl in millions of tries to get a few to stick.
According to Cody Benjamin, a staff writer for CBS Sports, the Seattle Seahawks could make an unexpected move. “Seattle could be a sneaky candidate to move up or even sit tight and use this pick on a Geno Smith successor at quarterback,” he wrote on the 14th of April, “but with no second-rounder in their possession, they could stand to field calls about a bump down the order.”
Seattle is without a second due to a shot that went in just before the buzzer. With just hours until the NFL trade deadline, the Seattle Seahawks sent this year’s second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick to the New York Giants in exchange for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Leonard Williams.
Will the Seahawks Use Draft Pick No. 16 on a Quarterback?
If the draft had taken place in February, quarterback would have ranked higher on the list. However, much have changed since then, and it is exceedingly unlikely that Cody Benjamin’s quarterback intuition will come true.
The Seahawks traded for Sam Howell for a reason: to give themselves some much-needed flexibility and avoid spending a high choice on a quarterback. It’s a ho-hum quarterback class, but with Geno Smith at the helm, they’re not desperate.
While Seattle needs offensive help, it is more in the form of an offensive lineman—whether that’s a tackle, center, or guard.
Three NFL Network analysts — Daniel Jeremiah, Bucky Brooks, and Peter Schrager — all believe the Seahawks will sign Washington tackle Troy Fautanu. Lance Zeirlein is interested in Graham Barton, a versatile offensive lineman, while Charles Davis is interested in Fautanu’s colleague, quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
According to USA Today’s most recent estimates, Penix will advance to the second round. Though it does not necessarily predict outcomes, the Seahawks did not meet with Penix at the NFL Scouting Combine or bring him in for a top-30 visit.
According to Seahawks Wire’s top-30 visits predraft tracker, Oregon’s Bo Nix, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, LSU’s Jayden Daniels, UNC’s Drake Maye, and UCF’s John Rhys Plumlee are among the field generals who have met with Seattle.
Trading for Howell and having Smith under contract doesn’t necessarily preclude Seattle from taking a flyer on a QB somewhere on day two or three. They will need to address the depth issue behind Howell before heading into training camp.
Per Over the Cap, Smith has a $10 million roster bonus due in March 2025, bringing his cap number to $38.5 million—nearly 15 percent of the team’s projected cap number. The team could want to move on from the veteran, who will turn 34 in October.
ESPN Predicts Seahawks to Trade Down in NFL Draft
If Cody Benjamin’s predictions come true, it will be in the second half. Because the Seattle Seahawks do not currently hold a second-round pick, recouping it by trading down with an interested opponent may be the best option—a strategy that the franchise is known for. Johnson Schneider, the general manager, has a predilection for trading back. With 14 first-round picks from the previous 14 drafts, his Seahawks have used six of them. ESPN believes history will repeat itself on April 25.
Their reasoning has been that if a given draft contains only about 15-20 players that have been assigned a first-round grade, they are usually left with second-round quality by the time they pick in the mid-20s,” noted Brady Henderson. “And, their thinking goes, if there isn’t much of a dropoff between a player they could take at 35 compared to 25, they may as well move back and pick up an additional selection along the way.”
