Seahawks’ 1st 3 draft picks of day 3: A needed LB, needed TE, another long, slender CB
Straight need so far for the Seahawks in the NFL draft.
Seattle began day three of the draft by addressing some of their questions at linebacker by selecting Tyrice Knight from Texas-El Paso with the 118th pick in round four.
Knight was a tackling machine at UTEP, playing both inside and outside linebacker.
“It means everything to me,” Knight said Saturday morning from Kissimmee, Florida, where he found out Seattle had drafted him while with 35 family members and friends.
“I’ve been waiting for this call my whole life.”
The Seahawks lost starting inside linebackers Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks in free agency this winter, after not offering them deals after their contracts expired. Seattle signed inside backers Jerome Baker from Miami and Tyrel Dodson from Buffalo.
Baker and Dodson signed one-year deals. The Seahawks also have Jon Rhattigan returning at the position, on a one-year deal.
So the team’s future at inside linebacker remains iffy. And the draft is about two, three and four years from now, not just now.
The 6 foot 1/2, 233-pound Knight led the Football Bowl Subdivision in solo tackles in 2023. He had 33 1/2 tackles for losses in four seasons at UTEP. That was after two years at Independence Community College in Kansas.
“I was always under-recruited coming out of high school,” Knight said. “I always took a long route since I was young...
“God is (such that) everyone’s got their own clock.”
Knight played his first two seasons at UTEP as an outside linebacker. Last season the Miners moved him inside in a 4-2-5, nickel-base scheme.
He thrived inside. His 84 solo tackles were the most in major college football. He had 15 1/2 tackles for losses last season. He also had five sacks.
“Inside I was always over the ball they could run from me. Outside, it seemed they schemed away from me, and ran inside.”
Asked to characterize his game, Knight said, “my tenacity.”
The Seahawks drafted Knight after trading with Denver down from the top of round four. That netted Seattle an extra pick in round six.
Physical tight end AJ Barner to Seattle
With their second pick in round four Saturday, the Seahawks took AJ Barner, a 6-6 tight end from Michigan, where Seattle’s new coach Mike Macdonald was defensive coordinator in 2021.
Barner was a team captain while playing three years at Indiana, including with former University of Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Barner transferred to Michigan in 2023 for his final college season. He won a national championship last season in Michigan.
The 6-foot-6, 251-pound Barner played on all four special-teams units for Wolverines special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh, who now has the same job with the Seahawks.
He is known as an old-school, physical, blocking tight end. The Seahawks need more of those.
They cut Will Dissly in a salary-cap savings move this offseason. Seattle re-signed Noah Fant this offseason to a $21 million, two-year contract to remain its lead pass-catching tight end. The team signed former first-round pick Pharaoh Brown to a $3.2 million, one-year deal. Brown, who turns 30 next week, is known as a blocking tight end.
“This has been a dream since I was a kid,” Barner, the native of Aurora, Ohio, said by telephone Saturday. “It means everything...
“It means everything. I’m here to win championships, and I just want to help the team however I can.
“It’s just an honor to be going to a city like Seattle.
“I’m a football player. If you ask me to go out there and catch 10 passes a game, I’ll go do that. If you ask me to man up the C gap (between the tight end and tackle) and be physical, I’ll go do that.
“If you ask me to plays on every special team, I’ll go do that. I love strapping up the helmet. I love playing physical football.”
Another long, slender Seahawks cornerback
In the fifth round, 136th overall, the Seahawks chose Nehemiah Pritchett, a long, slender cornerback from Auburn.
The 6-foot, 190-pound Pritchett played primarily press coverage and man-to-man coverage at Auburn. He calls those his specialties. His junior year he played primarily inside as a slot cornerback. He lead Auburn in 2022 with eight pass break-ups while covering slot receivers.
He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds at the NFL scouting combine in early March.
He said he ran a 4.28 in training.
“It’s been in my blood. I’ve been running fast all my life,” Pritchett said Saturday by phone from his hometown of Jackson, Alabama (population, 5,557 per the 2020 U.S. Census).
Yet he said he’s never run track.
“Jackson is a really small town, really small school,” he said. “Our school didn’t even have a track team.”
He is the fourth cornerback Seattle has drafted in three years. Devon Witherspoon from Illinois was the fifth pick in the 2023 draft who became a Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback as a rookie. Coby Bryant a fourth-round pick and Tariq Woolen was a fifth-round choice by Seattle in 2022. Woolen also made the Pro Bowl his rookie season and remains the Seahawks starting right corner.
“I’m a really smart corner. A really long, fast corner. I’m really good at press. I’m versatile. I can play inside and outside ,” Pritchett said.
He said he talked via Zoom with Seahawks defensive backs coach Karl Scott and at the Senior Bowl, plus three days ago when Scott called on background.
Like new right guard Christian Haynes, Seattle’s third-round pick from Connecticut Friday night, Pritchett played a ton in college. He started 40 of 54 games in five seasons at Auburn and in the top-flight Southeastern Conference.
Pritchett was Auburn’s primary kick returner in 2021. He said so far the Seahawks haven’t talked to him about that job.
It’s open in the wake of Seattle letting DeeJay Dallas’ contract expire after last season. Dallas, the Seahawks’ kick returner last season, signed with Arizona in free agency.
Another Seahawks trade with Denver
The Seahawks began Saturday with general manager John Schneider’s 16th trade of picks during a Seahawks draft in the past six years.
The Seahawks traded with a familiar partner, the one to which they traded Russell Wilson two years ago. They sent the second pick of the fourth round, 102 overall, plus their seventh round choice to Denver. The Broncos gave Seattle picks 121 (round four), 136 (the first pick of round five) and 207 at the end of round six.
It was Seattle’s third trade with Denver in the last three years. The draft trade last year with Broncos netted the Seahawks Anthony Bradford. He will compete for the starting right guard job in 2024 with Christian Haynes, Seattle’s third-round choice Friday night.
This story was originally published April 27, 2024 at 11:39 AM.
