Can Seahawks trade Olu Oluwatimi or Anthony Bradford?

"Trades" is the topic on the minds of many Seahawks fans

I asked for questions about the draft on Sunday night. Here are a round of answers.

Sea Hawk Run!: Odds that JS will want to trade down from 1.32? 98%. Odds that another team will make an attractive offer to trade up to 1.32? 5%. (Those are my guesstimates for the odds. What are yours?)

The idea that teams will want to trade up to pick 32 for the fifth-year option is a MYTH. In the last seven years, only one team has traded up for 32 and the return was nothing: In 2024, the Bills went down from 32 to 33 and for that they swapped pick 200 for 141.

The problem with the “teams want to trade up to 32 to get a player at the end of the first round for the fifth-year option” is simply:

There’s also pick 31. Or pick 30. Or pick 29. Or pick 28…

In fact, Seattle is the team most handcuffed by their first round draft position. John Schneider is helpless until he’s on the clock and he’s the last one on the clock. It’s like being in the Cinderella position of the family where the three older sisters are supposed to have the first pick of the prince.

Any team that wants Ty Simpson or any other prospect, why are they risking the wait to 32? Last year, the Giants traded up to 25 for Jaxson Dart, they weren’t gonna wait until 32. I also thought this was an interesting quote from an AFC executive shared by Tom Pelissero: “If I was sitting there in the seat and didn’t have a quarterback, I’d much rather get Carson Beck at 34 than Ty Simpson at 28.”

We hear so much pre-draft chatter and mock drafts that we start to believe that X, Y, Z is going to happen for sure. In reality, we don’t know if Simpson is going to go 2 or 25 or 50 or 75.

Do the Seahawks want to trade down? Sure, but they are among the many teams that feel this way. I always try to look at the draft from the perspective of all 32 teams, not just Seattle, and it’s apparent that “trade down” is the wish of most fans of most teams. Probably most GMs.

32 is not a very valuable pick and should the Seahawks manage to find a trade down partner at all, I’d expect the return to be insignificant relative to how much it increases Seattle’s chances of being a better team in 2026. Unless it is a Cinderella Story.

Barbara Peterson: Are we staffing through the draft ANYWHERE around the loss of Walker and Charbs, or do we think Charbs will come back soon; or that we have enough runners-in-waiting already on the squad to give us a running game; or that Darnold can throw until our running game is back on point to get us back to parity running/throwing?

The Seahawks are keeping tabs on running back prospects at every level of the draft, so it would not be surprising to draft one. Day 2 is much more likely than Day 1, and Day 3 might be more likely than Day 2, if the Seahawks are able to secure another pick or two on Day 3.

Seattle seems to be prepared for anything at running back, including going into and coming out of camp with the same players they have right now.

Sandman: Is there any prospects in this draft with the potential to slide that JS would be compelled to move up to get? Any round.

When I look at the mock draft of players I want to take, I see Domonique Orange as a nose tackle prospect worthy of moving up for in the third round.

I think our brains are going to be blended by the end of Thursday night from how many prospects go earlier or later than everyone is telling us to expect. So who knows if a cornerback like Tennessee CB Jermod McCoy or a Oregon S Dillon Thieneman is sitting there at 23-25 and the price to move up is relatively small. Is that worth it? If the Seahawks need to trade up for San Diego State CB Chris Johnson, then do they need to do that?

Going to be difficult to trade up, even when prices are low. It’s like the Seahawks showed up to a Black Friday sale without any money in the bank.

Sandman: Brady Henderson thought the Seahawks might obtain more draft picks by trading a player. What player besides Olu Oluwatimi might have trade value that the Seahawk would be willing to give up?

If the Seahawks did what I wanted and drafted a guard with their first pick, then why not shop Anthony Bradford and see who bites? Guard being such a common need for teams, I wouldn’t be surprised if a team overpaid just a little bit because at this point Bradford is experienced and some teams would definitely see him as an upgrade.

The Raiders have three fourth round picks. Could you reunite him with Klint Kubiak for one of those?

Maxx: What’re the chances that the Seahawks scouting department is checking every prospect’s shoe size?

12.5 US/9.5 EUR.

rpmschevy: Darnolds season splits. Games 1-9 on fire passing. 10-17 plus, lower YPG, TD %, lower INT % (thankfully). Not necessarily worse play, one could say improved, but we clearly need ball in JSN, Rashid, AJ (maybe Arroyo) hands.

Question, as Prez of Spoon Fed fan club, if Spoon costs too much, will you survive ????

The Seahawks don’t beat the Rams in either of Seattle’s season-defining games against L.A. without Sam Darnold. As long as he’s blending into most games without being “the problem”, and then showing up for the big dog shootouts, I believe in Darnold’s unparalleled value to the Seahawks.

Jeffrey James: Just read your “skipping the draft” post and wanted to follow up. My sense is JS and crew end up with 4-5 picks after swapping with at least one, maybe two teams. How much does the draft strategy of the rest of the NFC West impact the ‘Hawks if at all?

It’s difficult for me to imagine a direct relationship between Seattle’s draft strategy and the strategy of the Cardinals, 49ers, and Rams.

If the Cardinals trade up for Simpson, as some believe they will, it would be ahead of the Seahawks. Seattle will be the last team picking in the first round and I don’t imagine them caring to trade up to get ahead of the 49ers at 27.

I also wouldn’t expect them to go tit for tat. As Schneider says, “We draft for our team, we don’t draft for the league.”

Maybe some of you see an answer to the question that I didn’t see though:

MarkE: Lots of chat about trading down in order to accumulate more picks, but to what extent might the 2027 picks become chips?

I believe that Seattle currently have their full seven rounds due up next year, plus an extra R7 (Jerrell), and a R4 (Mafe) and 3x R5s (Walker, Bryant, Woolen) through comps. That’s good for a total of 12 at the moment.

To what degree should the Seahawks care about using their “draft credit card” to borrow money from their future to buy something today? From the fan’s perspective, the draft seems to largely serve the purpose of:

Staving off boredom and avoiding the inevitable gap between this week and the start of training camp for as long as possible with more “breaking news” about the team as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, from my perspective at least, there’s not enough going on in the 2026 draft—especially for the team picking 32nd—to believe that Seattle’s best objective is to have more capital this year.

I would actually say that I’m more interested in finding out who the Seahawks sign as undrafted free agents than hoping that the Seahawks obtain more day three picks. If the Seahawks keep all their picks for 2027, I’d love to be able to look forward to that in 2027 and I don’t feel the need to get ahead of that. Especially because a 2027 fourth round pick is not very valuable and trading a 2027 second or third round pick doesn’t feel worth it.

zezinhom400: Seems we (and most teams) seem to keep pretty much everyone we pick, for at least one season, and we generally keep a UDFA or two as well. This means at least 5 of our current roster are going to get bumped. Who do you think are the 5 Seahawks that won’t be Seahawks any more at final cutdown?

The articles I’ve written about Seattle’s depth chart going into the draft is probably a good place to start for this question. To “bump” 5 players from the current roster is difficult to answer because the roster already has more than 53 players on it and there are already position battles going with unknown winners.

For example, if I said that free agent cornerback Noah Igbinoghene would not make the roster, is that the same as being “bumped”? Igbinoghene could be competing against Shemar Jean-Charles and Nehemiah Pritchett, totally absent the outcome of the draft and adding a cornerback.

Or if the Seahawks draft a running back, he would make the roster but is that at the expense of Cam Akers? Or Kenny McIntosh? Or George Holani?

I know the objective here is to take a shot in the dark to name 5 players who won’t make the roster. I guess I’m running into the issue of seeing a lot more than 5 names because we are practically at the doorstep of seeing Seattle’s 90-man roster and the Seahawks don’t have many needs.

Luke: I like Seth McGowan’s combine numbers and Kentucky tape.

I wrote about character concerns the other day and it just so happens McGowan was one of the only two mentions in Dane Brugler’s draft guide for having character concerns. His arrest for robbery was six years ago, people mature and change, so perhaps teams are comfortable with that now.

Maybe the bigger issue is spending six years in college, transferring four times, a little bit of an injury bug last season, and so-so numbers. Could be a good pickup at the end of the draft or as an undrafted free agent.

Chris H: Do you think we’re under valuing the in-house options at RB and Edge? Second question, why is picking up a true nose tackle a bad idea? I’m surprised more people aren’t pointing at it as a true need. Murphy can play nose, but that’s underutilizing him IMHO. Give me a man-monster of a nose tackle.

The Seahawks could play right now and I don’t have any concerns about running back or edge rusher or being the favorites for the Super Bowl.

I highlighted Orange as a nose tackle the other day, so I’ll stick with that.

Seaside Joe 2605