BEHIND THE SCENES: The Seahawks 2026 Draft

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]According to sources with knowledge of the selection, their first pick, Seattle's other top target was San Diego ST quarterback Chris Johnson, who went 27th to Miami Dolphins. So, that's one.

[00:00:11]We've got some confirmation. That's not like a shock, but we've got some confirmation that Chris Johnson was the other option.

[00:00:20]Curious your reaction to that. And like how would you have felt, you think, and there's another piece coming up. Um, but how would you have felt if they had gone Chris Johnson first instead of Jadarian Price?

[00:00:31]>> I would have liked it a little better.

[00:00:32]Uh, Chris Johnson was the guy I think Brady mocked to them in his like ESPN beat writer draft and he was on Rob show the week before and he kind of hinted at that that Johnson is the guy and he was a guy Brady last year had the Will Fry stuff. But to get to your question, I would I said I would have liked it like I wouldn't have been over the moon celebrating but I like the corners in the draft. I thought the range made sense and to me he made the most sense to them in that spot.

[00:01:00]>> All right, so now we get to the running back which is the other part of this.

[00:01:04]This is really interesting which is uh with Johnson gone, Seahawks options were to take price at 32 or trade back and hope to land him a few spots later. They discussed deals with the Titans at pick 35 and the Giants at pick 37, but both fell through. Okay, so that's also news.

[00:01:23]Like he's he's got a lot of this in here. It's freaking awesome. Uh five of the six spots immediately preceding Seattle's pick of 32 changed hands amid trades. That led to a few nervous minutes when Tennessee moved ahead of the Seahawks because some thought the Titans were going to get Jadarian Price with that pick.

[00:01:42]>> Oh, interesting.

[00:01:43]>> There was also concern that the 49ers were going to take him with the first pick of the second round.

[00:01:51]He he was a little softer on this in the article. Uh but I think the expectation was that the 49ers were going to take him at 33.

[00:02:00]>> So it's interesting he said that because when that whole thing came out yesterday where I can't remember if he had my days are confused now but Kyle Shanahan was on Rich Eisen I think and he said we had that guy the guy they drafted in the third round ranked as the second running back in the draft. And you had sent me a clip last week. I think one of our listeners sent us where Kyle and Lynch were doing their press conferences and they kind of turned to see who Seattle took and looked shook. They looked a bit shook.

[00:02:25]>> And so my read one, I think it was Josh sent that or Evan, I can't remember who it was. I think it was Josh. But it felt like they were covering up for their interest in price and it felt like they were just trying to sell their guy. And so to hear Brady think that was real and kind of put that full circle, that's really interesting. I haven't thought of the Tennessee thing because they were tied to love the whole time.

[00:02:47]>> Exactly.

[00:02:48]>> And so until like the days before, everyone thought they were taking love.

[00:02:52]>> So it it goes on. It goes on. So it says like many draft analysts, the Seahawks saw a significant gap between Jadarian Price and the next best running backs in this class. According to a source that was Washington's Jonah Coleman and Arkansas's Mike Washington Jr., two prospects viewed as potential day three fallbacks if they didn't land price. So that implies that they saw at least a three round gap between price and the next best back.

[00:03:31]Uh it's pretty funny because literally last Saturday morning that's what we were talking about. And so I kind of laugh. Brady keeps kind of crediting stuff me we and you have talked about on his on other shows, but literally my biggest read coming out of day two of the draft was that at first I was kind of shook by the price pick. But when you saw the whole thing play out and you saw the whole league pass on those guys, I thought that jumped out to me. And I I I didn't know obviously how Seattle would have taken, but when I was kind of re visiting, say they took Chris Johnson first.

[00:04:05]That would have been great obviously, but they would have probably taken Coleman or Washington in 96. And if they didn't get a corner first, who knows what they did. And that was kind of my read. I talked about Golden Hood or Stokes. And there was a comment from John at the press conference where kind of made some Arizona reference to Mike.

[00:04:22]And I wonder if that was Stokes related, but >> it had to be.

[00:04:28]>> It had to be. So like the more I kind of played with scenarios, Price and Julian Neil versus they wouldn't have got Chris Johnson in the end, but a corner and a running back group they felt pretty crappy about, I think would have made their team worse because a team team wants to run the ball to not have a a running back that they felt good about and go with Wilson and a day three pick.

[00:04:51]And usually like a lot of people's mentality is just put a day three pick in there, see what happens. you'll get running backs. That didn't feel real.

[00:04:59]And that's why I don't like having these hard fast rules. Like this class did not feel like that's the way to go.

[00:05:04]>> Yeah. Well, I think I will continue to kind of fall back to what I think you and I said before free agency really, which is the one thing you could not do process-wise is enter this draft with this group of running backs as a need. Like you you couldn't go into this draft needing to find your starter at running back. And that's what they did. I mean, honestly, and so I I do feel like that was a the deliberate decision they made. They went for comp picks instead of signing some better backs. They decided not to franchise Ken Walker. They made those decisions and then you kind of get backed into this situation. So, I think process-wise, you can definitely poke poke a little bit at how they went about it. But if they had done all those things and then not drafted until day three and you were left hoping Jonah Coleman or Mike Washington Jr., >> that is a big risk that your whole team is reliant on.

[00:06:11]>> Yeah, I think everyone's gotten the conversation about price totally wrong.

[00:06:15]>> He gets into some some stuff about Bud Clark and this section is I'm not going to read all this stuff. Uh, obviously you should check it out on ESPN.com, but he he talks about the fact that Schneider really was aware of making sure that they drafted guys that were going to be confident enough to compete with the Super Bowl roster, right? And he in looking at Clark, uh, he said there was no turnoffs in that regard about Clark.

[00:06:44]They knew about his ball skills, uh, his speed, his versatility, and how those traits would make him a a vi a viable option to replace Kobe Bryant. But Mike McDonald also noticed his competitiveness at the Senior Bowl where it seemed like he stepped in on every other one-on-one rep in practice. Um, and the visit he had left the Seahawks excited about adding another dynamo to their secondary. They see a supercharged playing style and spirited demeanor that reminded them of Devin Witherspoon. Um, so I I've seen that already. Like this guy I think I think this guy's going to be a fan favorite pretty quick and just watching him warm up yesterday. I could feel the juice that felt like a really good fit for that that secondary room.

[00:07:25]>> Yeah. Like when I coming out of the draft, I think him and I think I tweeted this the day of the draft, so this isn't just me pulling just agreeing with you.

[00:07:33]Uh, Clark was my favorite. Clark and Stevens were my two favorite picks. I think Ryland Fowler put out a tweet like after day three, here are the players that I think are going to be better than draft spot in the two he had for Seattle were Clark and Stevens. So that was my read and it's one of those things where it just it made so much sense but I I hope they're not overcompensating a little bit in terms of like guys I think the L team was different where like they had a lot of like superstars like Sherman and Chancellor and Earl. I don't know if they feel that way about Julian Love. And not to take shy about Julian Love or even Witherspoon, but they don't have that kind of profile. And so, again, ignoring that take for a second though, I think that guy just fits perfectly. And I think fans are going to like him quickly. And it's kind of weird just going through hindsight. I know Lewis Riddick had an article about his like favorite players the day before the draft and he's buried right at the bottom. He was in there, too. So, this isn't like a hindsight take. It's just kind of weird. There wasn't a lot of chatter about this guy in >> pre >> and I heard some people talk about him and we spent a lot of time on all those other DB corner safety hybrid types.

[00:08:40]>> I'm kind of wondering like myself, how did I miss this guy?

[00:08:44]>> So on the Julian Neil pick, one of the things they said in here was among the reasons Miss Brady among the reasons Seattle didn't give Reek Woolen a second contract was that he wasn't as sound or willing a tackler as they preferred.

[00:08:59]That's not news, but it is va verification of something that I think we've believed to be the case. It's also something to kind of store away for their quarterback profile.

[00:09:11]>> Well, yeah, someone like you has been building these charts and profiles like and you put part of the Seahawk draft credit tackle and you talked about that a lot when you were building like the 10 profiles you built. So, all that work, it's pretty good. I would have figured there'd be Yeah, I that's not a shock with Woolen. I would have figured there was all kinds of different things. I don't want to bag on the guy because he's gone, but we saw the play he made in the biggest high-profile moment. We saw what happened in San Francisco.

[00:09:42]Tackling was an issue through multiple coaches though. I think Pete regime benched him for the same thing. He was a really poor tackler. I think it was his second year. And yeah, when you watch Baltimore play or Michigan and you think of like the Mike McDonald defenses, the first thing that's always come to me is the high IQ player and we've talked about that now for two years. Julian Love was literally the first guy they extended like the definition of that. So that was always my thought. The tackling certainly adds to it because if you want to play the way they play, you can't be giving. Like the 2024 when they couldn't tackle, you saw what that defense looked like and he did improve to his credit.

[00:10:18]But I think when you combine that with some of the other things you get with Woolen, the crazy thing is is the whole league kind of turned on him.

[00:10:26]>> Yeah. I I will say this. I think I don't think it was a willingness thing the last couple years. I think it also is just his body type. He's like a He's not made to be a like a physical player. That's just not that's not his physical profile. So, I thought he became a lot more willing, but it is just useful to know. And and Brady goes on as he talks about the Bose Stevens move and he talks about how the compensatory picks figured into this and we all we we knew that.

[00:10:58]But check this out. Um, uh, came in the fifth round as Iowa Guard Bo Stevens was still available.

[00:11:07]According to sources, some in the organization preferred him. Bo Stevens to Georgia Tech guard Keelin Rutled who went in round one. They and they took Stephen with the expectation that he'll push starter Anthony Bradford at right guard. It's a lot of information in those couple of sentences.

[00:11:27]>> Yeah. I don't even know where to begin, but Ruglage was a first round pick and this guy was a fifth round pick. And I don't think that's crazy. Some people might be like the Seahawks are nuts for that evaluation. Brothers is a guy that was like consensus board like in the 60s up until like as the process went on. I feel like there was just a gap. He got pushed up and up and up and I think one of the teams they were actually going to trade with the Giants were going to trade up for Rublich. I think that's why that deal fell through. But yeah, I think it's very encouraging to hear that they think you can battle with them. I think it's very encouraging that they like them so much. And yeah, again, the two guys I love with for Seattle, Clark and Ste. So, this is very encouraging news to hear that. Uh, I I just love the fit. I love the player. I'm reading this. I'm kind of shocked they didn't take him in the third round.

[00:12:16]>> He goes on talks about some of the other players. Sixth round selection, Emanuel Henderson Jr. special teams was in mind.

[00:12:22]He was a favorite of Jay Harbaugh because of his ability to return and cover kicks. Allah Derrick Young, which I think we all picked that out uh pretty quickly. And then um we're almost done. And there's a couple more here. There's one there's one there's one that's my favorite and you're going to know it as soon as I read it. Uh so towards the end he talks about um they thought Stevens would be long gone by pick 148. They had a fifth round grade on Toledo's Andre Fuller. Um so they get him in the seventh. We've been talking about him for a while. Like I think that's a great fit. Um, and then with the picks that they added by trading back, the Seahawks rounded out their class with defensive tackle Devin Eastern and quarterback Michael Dansby.

[00:13:11]Danby, two players they thought they'd have a hard time signing as undrafted free agents, given what they already had at those positions. This is another thing we've talked about this week, which is those day three picks that they got, Jeff, that wasn't just a like, oh, let's have eight picks. That was a oh my god, no one's going to sign with us as an undrafted free agent because they don't think there's any chance they're going to make this team. If we don't do this, we're going to have really thin competition um among that rookie class.

[00:13:44]>> And I' I've been following the Seahawks with you for a long time. And in general, I can't remember the last time you saw a UDFA class of seven guys or eight guys.

[00:13:54]It's usually 15, 18.

[00:13:56]>> Yeah.

[00:13:57]>> Seven or eight guys. And that's because of the numbers we talked about in the previous weeks where they had a ton of guys signed usually before the draft.

[00:14:06]Usually you have to add like 23 players just to get yourself a 90man roster. And so they knew there there weren't a lot of openings there. And like you said, if you're a defensive tackle, are you probably going to the place with Murphy and Williams? I don't think so. Uh, and then this this little tidbit I you should have seen my face, Jeff, when Brady told me this yesterday. He says, "As always, the Seahawks suffered some quote upsets, as they called them.

[00:14:32]Players that they targeted but missed out on. Kucky's Kendrick Law, who went >> who went 20 spots after Stevens in round five, was another special team standout they wanted."

[00:14:45]And I I'll say this, my understanding is they also saw him as a potential running back.

[00:14:54]>> Somewhere John Schneider and his staff hate you right now.

[00:14:59]Like somewhere they hate you. Like if that's true or or they think you have great ideas. One of the two. But your draft board is literally pumping out ideas that they're coming up with through like technology and you've come out Fuller Stevens over Rutled. Uh and then Kendrick I still remember he texted me that in February. I'm like you don't even know the first rounders. How did you find this guy? That is so funny.

[00:15:27]>> I I like nearly knocked him over when Brady told you like you are not serious.

[00:15:33]You are not serious. like he didn't know I had any connection with Kendrick Law.

[00:15:37]He just said the name and I was like, "Wait, what did you do?

[00:15:41]>> You must be trolling me. You must be trolling me."

[00:15:43]>> Uh that that really put a smile on my face. At least for all the people that that give us that we don't know about what we're talking about and why should we listen to them.

[00:15:55]But I think we did pretty well, man. I think we did pretty well. Uh if you have not uh already uh taken advantage of prize pick uh it works team pics culture pick works in the state of Washington in Oregon. You can take advantage of it um there. Make sure you use the link in the description of the video to download it.

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