Seahawks Day 2: Best Players Remaining

Seahawks have a list of things left to do and these are the prospects remaining

If you’re a fan of the Seahawks drafting elite college football players who could translate exceptionally well to the next level, then Thursday was the night for you. Before we get ahead of ourselves on the career futures of cornerback Devon Witherspoon and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, what I can safely acknowledge is how exciting each of these picks are even for someone like me who loathes college football but loves great NFL draft prospects.

I only watch college football players to prepare for the draft and two of the top-10 in the country—JSN in 2021 and Witherspoon in 2022—are heading to Seattle. These were not the two highest-rated players in the 2023 NFL Draft, but Witherspoon has “best overall in the class” traits for things like physicality and effort (and as I said, he was probably the only blue chip prospect in the class who comes with a chip on his shoulder) and if JSN could have declared last year he might have been picked earlier than teammates Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, as well as Drake London, who went eighth.

If Smith-Njigba comes back and plays with all the potential he showed as a sophomore in 2021, the Seahawks could essentially be getting two prospects worth top-five picks—and they’ll be sharpening iron against one another in practices.

Witherspoon is getting mentorship from Quandre Diggs, Julian Love, Jamal Adams, and Tariq Woolen. JSN is taking notes from Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. That helps charge an opportunity for each to be able to help the 2023 Seahawks, not only the 2024, 2025, and 2026 Seahawks, and Pete Carroll said as much in Seattle’s post-draft press conference:

“They’ve got a chip on their shoulders and they’ve got all the makeup things to have a chance to help us out early.”

The Seahawks pick the top cornerback and receiver in the 2023 draft and they still have three picks on day two, including 37th, 52nd, and 83rd overall.

These are some of the best remaining prospects, some of whom could have easily qualified as first round talents and were either elite college football talents or super intriguing athletes but who have made it through 31 picks without a team. The Seahawks may choose one, two, or three of these players on Friday.

QB - Will Levis, Hendon Hooker

Mel Kiper’s first mock draft have the Seahawks selecting Levis with the fifth overall pick and I immediately wrote that I was skeptical of going in the top-10. Turns out he didn’t go in the first round. There’s no guarantee at this point that Levis will go before Hooker and both quarterbacks could still be available in round three.

TE - Michael Mayer, Darnell Washington, Luke Musgrave, Sam LaPorta, Tucker Kraft

I wrote a mock draft a few months ago that had the Seahawks picking Mayer very early and the perception of him as a first round pick got less apparent as time went on. Dalton Kincaid was the only tight end drafted in the first round and it may be a while before all of these names are off the board. More running backs went in the first round than tight ends and both were much higher than Kincaid; what does that say about the NFL’s perception of the positions? Early tight end picks have been pretty awful for a while.

OT - Dawand Jones, Matthew Bergeron

There was a late push of people saying Bergeron—who might be a guard—making it into the first round. That didn’t happen. Jones met with Seattle in the pre-draft process.

iOL - O’Cyrus Torrence, John Michael Schmitz, Steve Avila, Joe Tippmann, Cody Mauch

More running backs went in the first round than tight ends, centers, and guards combined! There wasn’t a single one unless we’re counting Peter Skoronski. The Seahawks met with Tippmann in the pre-draft process.

DT - Keeanu Benton, Zacch Pickens, Siaki Ika, Gervon Dexter, Tuli Tuipulotu

Not a super class for defensive tackles. If the Seahawks weren’t going to pick Jalen Carter, it was a good sign that they’re not feeling pressed to add beef here. I suspect Al Woods, Poona Ford are on speed dial.

EDGE - Keion White, Adetomiwa Adebawore, Derick Hall, B.J. Ojulari, Byron Young, Isaiah Foskey, Zach Harrison

Logical to assume that the Seahawks may be focusing on a name here with pick 36 or 52. They are known to have met with Adebawore and Young.

LB - Drew Sanders, Trenton Simpson, Daiyan Henley

Only one first round linebacker, as the Lions took Jack Campbell at 18. I’ll be surprised if the Seahawks take a second round linebacker, but if they do, that’s a hell of an endorsement coming from Pete.

S - Brian Branch

There are more good safeties than this, but Branch was the only expected first round safety and he was not picked on day one.

RB - Zach Charbonnet, Roschon Johnson, Devon Achane, Tyjae Spears

Not going to say much about the running backs because there’s a large lump of remaining players at the position after Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs went in the first round. I’ll be a little surprised if the Seahawks don’t draft a running back—they only have two!—relatively soon.

WR - Jalin Hyatt, Josh Downs, Tyler Scott, Jonathan Mingo, Cedric Tillman

I think Seattle’s done here, at least until day three.

CB - Joey Porter, Jr., Cam Smith, Kelee Ringo, D.J. Turner, Julius Brents

Porter was thought to be a lock for day one, basically. Not so. I don’t think the Seahawks will be drafting a cornerback earlier than the sixth round.

Top Names for the Seahawks?

Based on the first two picks and what we saw last year? I think Tippmann and Schmitz are interesting. I think Young is interesting. I wonder how they value Sanders as an inside linebacker. No one is jumping out to me as a must-have at 36, so trading down is in the cards.

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