TNT Seahawks mock NFL draft: A trade, a back, Mike Macdonald restocks defense
Get the best player they have on their board.
Or trade down to get more picks in this draft.
How about both?
The Seahawks have the opportunity to capitalize on their place in the 2026 NFL draft as Super Bowl champions, beginning Thursday. That’s when the first round — and true trade offers — will start.
Seattle by virtue of winning it in all in February has the 32nd and final choice of round one. The Seahawks also own the final picks of rounds two and three (the 64th and 96th choices), plus the seventh selection in round six (188th overall). That sixth-round pick is from Seattle trading center Nick Harris and a seventh-round pick in this draft to the Browns last summer during training camp.
And that’s it. Four choices over seven rounds. The Seahawks own the fewest selections in the league. The 49ers, Chargers and Falcons each have five picks.
This is by Seahawks general manager John Schneider’s design: He and his scouts view this draft as weaker and thinner in prospects than next year’s, when Seattle has 12 picks. It’s why Schneider traded two third-day choices to New Orleans in November to acquire Pro Bowl kick returner and wide receiver Rashid Shaheed.
This would be the second-fewest selections in any of Seattle’s 51 drafts. The team had just three picks in 2021, the “COVID draft” the Seahawks largely punted.
But will he stay with four picks?
Schneider has made 74 trades involving draft choices in his 16 years as Seahawks GM. Thirty-three have been trade downs to add picks, 15 have been trade ups to a higher draft standing and 30 have involved veteran players. Most of those trades have happened during the drafts themselves.
Can you imagine Schneider sitting around doing nothing for almost all the final four rounds all day Saturday?
We can’t either.
Says here Schneider again doesn’t have players he’s graded as first-round talents left on his board when Seattle’s turn to pick 32nd comes up Thursday night. He usually has around 24, even in strong drafts.
Cleveland needs just about everything — again — after going 5-12 last year. The Browns have two first-round picks, plus one each in rounds two through four and two choices in the fifth round.
The News Tribune predicts Cleveland moves up from 39th overall in the second round to the Seahawks’ place at 32 to end round one. To do that, Seattle gets the Browns’ second-round pick at 39, plus a fourth-round pick the Seahawks don’t currently have, at 107. That’s seven spots into the fourth round.
That would give Seattle five picks in this draft. And it would keep the team still in play to select at the top two guys Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald have shown interest in.
The TNT’s Seahawks 2026 mock draft:
Round 1 (32)
TRADE, with Cleveland.
The Browns get the 32nd-overall pick to end round one.
The Seahawks get a second pick in round two, plus a pick in the fourth round when they previously had none to begin Saturday.
Round 2 (39, projected trade from Cleveland)
Malachi Lawrence, edge rusher, Central Florida
Lawrence looks and plays like a Seahawks edge rusher. Macdonald can never have enough of those for his multiple, pressure defense.
The All-Big 12 selection last season is 6 feet 4 3/8 inches tall. He is 253 pounds. He has the speed (4.52 seconds in the 40-yard dash) of a 225-pound linebacker. He has the length of a basketball player (with 33 5/8-inch arms). The league rated him with the second-highest athletic score for edge rushers at the combine.
He had 12 sacks with 17 tackles for loss his last two college seasons as UCF. He’s one of nine (!) children. Lawrence thanks his family and his mother Georgianna back home in Louisville for getting him from being an all-state Class 6A linebacker in Kentucky to this NFL chance.
Tacoma-based NFL draft guru Rob Rang of FoxSports.com says: “With five-plus sacks each of the past three seasons, Lawrence pairs production with exciting traits, including an explosive get-off, long arms and rare closing burst.” Rang thinks Lawrence will go in round two, as the 50th-best prospect in this draft.
Boye Mafe left Seattle for a huge free-agent pay day with Cincinnati this offseason. Edge rusher Derick Hall is entering the final year of his contract. Pro Bowl edge/end DeMarcus Lawrence turns 34 next week.
The draft is for the next four years, not just now. So is this pick.
Round 2 (64)
Brandon Cisse, cornerback, South Carolina
A strong-cover cornerback who tackles in run defense?
A smart defender who his position coach in college said can recite the responsibilities of all 11 players on his unit for each play, as Macdonald demands of his Seahawks?
A guy made a top-30 prospect to the Seahawks with Macdonald to learn more of the coach’s multiple Seattle defense?
Yes, yes. And yes. Cisse (SEE-see) is 6 feet, 189 pounds. He played two years at North Carolina State. He joined South Carolina the next season, after the Seahawks drafted the Gamecocks’ Nick Emmanwori last spring. He’s known Emmanwori since they were in high school in the same capital-city area of South Carolina. Emmanwori hosted Cisse in Seattle at the Seahawks’ NFC championship game against the Rams in January.
Cisse sounds like a Macdonald cornerback:
“A prototypical blend of size, speed and physicality in run support,” Tacoma-based Rang says. “His occasional mistakes on tape seemed coachable, and with Cisse not turning 21 until July, the expectation is that he’s just scratching the surface.”
Riq Woolen leaving for a $12 million contract in Philadelphia opens the door for Cisse to become Macdonald’s newest multiplicity project inside and outside Seattle’s top-ranked defense.
Round 3 (96)
Dominique Orange, defensive tackle, Iowa State
Macdonald isn’t satisfied with the depth nor heft on his Seahawks’ defensive line. Tackle Jarran Reed will turn 34 during the 2026 season.
The coach and defensive architect will love 322 pounds of “Big Citrus.” That’s what Orange was known as while at Iowa State.
Scouts view Orange as the truest nose tackle in this draft class. His long arms (33 3/8 inches) threw college offensive lineman around in college. He is also a rarity: He was a four-star recruit who played his entire college career at the same school, staying in Ames from freshman through senior seasons.
Schneider and Macdonald value that loyalty in their Seahawks culture.
Round 4 (107, projected trade, from Cleveland)
Mike Washington, running back, Arkansas
A size (6-1, 223) and speed back whose 4.33-seconds time in the 40-yard dash at the combine caught the Seahawks’ attention. He was reportedly on Seattle’s list for a top-30 prospect visit before the draft.
The Seahawks lost top back Kenneth Walker in free agency to Kansas City. Zach Charbonnet may be out into next season after reconstructive knee surgery this winter. No Seattle running back is under contract beyond the 2026 season. There are questions on Washington’s fit and quickness to the hole in an outside-zone scheme Seattle’s offense is based on. There are more questions about him fumbling 10 times in his college career from the University of Buffalo to New Mexico State to Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference.
This is widely viewed as a weak draft for running backs. That’s how Washington gets here while rated by most as the class’ third-best back.
Schneider selects a running back in the top half of the draft, within the first three rounds, for the third time in five years.
Round 6 (188, from previous trade with Cleveland)
Anez Cooper, guard, Miami
Cooper made 46 starts as a four-year regular for the Hurricanes, also a modern rarity staying at one school throughout his college career. He is an eighth of an inch short of a full 6-6. He’s 334 pounds. He has prototypical NFL lineman size.
Scouts like his footwork getting to and blocking linebackers at the defense’s second level up the field. That’s a must in the Seahawks’ outside-zone scheme.
Yes, Cooper has played the same position Anthony Bradford starts for Seattle.
Macdonald has said he’s been happy with the widely maligned Bradford’s play. Yet his rookie contract ends at the end of the 2026 season. The Seahawks have a decision to make on him.
With Cooper, they will get to see if they can find a replacement for years while on another rookie deal.
