NFL draft day 2: After no Penix, what it would it take for Seahawks to move into round 2?
The Seahawks reportedly tried to trade up to draft Michael Penix Jr.
Their general manager said they ignored four offers to trade down in round one.
Will they try to do the same to get a pick in the second round they don’t currently have?
“We have to wait all the way to 81? Wahhh, wahhhhhh,” GM John Schneider joked with mock surprise late Thursday night after the first round of the NFL draft ended.
“C’mon...what a bummer.
“’I’d be lying to you if we said we didn’t think about it. But the player, he was just too good. He influences the game. Like, a lot.”
That player is Byron Murphy.
Seattle didn’t move up into the top 10 to draft former Washington Huskies star quarterback Michael Penix Jr., as NFL reporter James Palmer said late Thursday citing league sources. The Seahawks didn’t trade down to get back the second-round pick they entered Friday without; they traded it last October to acquire defensive tackle Leonard Williams.
Seattle stayed with its 16th-overall choice and drafted Murphy, regarded as the best defensive tackle in this class. Schneider and the Seahawks didn’t expect Murphy to fall to them. Then again, they didn’t expect the unprecedented: the first 14 players selected in this draft to be offensive players.
That pushed all but one of the defensive players in this year’s class down to being available for Seattle to take.
“It was just coming down there (to us),” Schneider said. “We had four opportunities (to trade down). We were ready. He just kept coming.
“We were super blessed. And we stayed and picked.”
Seahawks’ day 2
So they entered rounds two and three Friday owning only the 81st-overall choice midway through round three — with needs galore.
Interior offensive line. Safety. Linebacker. More defensive linemen. And, yes, the quarterback of the future beyond 2025. All were in play as the Seahawks began the second day of the seven-round draft with six picks remaining.
If Schneider was to fulfill his earned reputation as a draft dealer and get into the second round to fill all those holes, he’d likely need to trade a player on the roster and/or a future high draft choice to do it. Seattle entered Friday with that third-round choice, two picks in round four, two in round six and one in the seventh and final round remaining in this year’s draft.
That’s not enough capital to move into Friday’s second round.
The team entered Friday with one choice in each round of the 2025 draft except the fifth. Schneider traded that future fifth-rounder to the Giants as part of the package to get Williams from the Giants in October.
Seattle has traded a player for a pick during a draft only once in Schneider’s 14 years as GM.
On the third and final day of the 2010 draft Schneider sent a fifth round pick to the New York Jets to acquire kick returner Leon Washington plus a seventh-round choice that year.
In 2017, the night before that year’s draft began, the Seahawks traded the contract rights to running back Marshawn Lynch, who had indicated he wasn’t going to play anymore, to his hometown Oakland Raiders. That and a sixth-round pick netted Seattle a 2018 fifth-round selection. That pick became cornerback Tre Flowers to Seahawks the following year.
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NFL draft best available
The push of the best defensive player down the draft has a trickle-down effect into the second day of the draft.
Cooper DeJean, the Iowa cornerback some see as an NFL safety and many saw a first-round pick, entered Friday a top player remaining available to be drafted.
He won’t be there if the Seahawks wait until 81 in the third round to pick for the first time Friday.
Jer’Zhan Newton, the defensive tackle from Illinois rated behind Murphy, is also likely to go early in round two.
More likely to be available through late in the second round into the third round Friday, piquing Seattle’s interests and needs:
- Washington Huskies edge rusher Bralen Trice
- Kansas State interior offensive lineman Cooper Beebe
- Connecticut interior offensive lineman Christian Haynes
- Washington State safety Jaden Hicks
- And, maybe, South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler.
The Seahawks had Rattler in as one of their league-allotted 30 prospect visits to team headquarters in Renton within the last month.
This story was originally published April 26, 2024 at 7:24 AM.
