GM: Come on down! Seahawks open seeking to deal 1st-round pick in NFL draft
John Schneider might as well have worn a sandwich board and walked up and down I-405 advertising it.
The Seahawks’ top pick is for sale.
The Super Bowl champions’ general manager could not have made that clearer three days before the start of the NFL draft.
“It’s no secret with us, guys,” Schneider said Monday. “I mean, we have four picks (this year). So we’ll be looking to move back.”
He wants the entire league to think of Seattle when considering a trade up into the end of the first round Thursday.
As Schneider noted, the league knows his Seahawks for their habit of trading back in drafts to acquire more picks. Schneider has made 74 trades involving draft choices over 16 previous years as the Seahawks GM. They’ve traded back to get more selections 33 times in those 16 drafts. They traded up less than half that much (15 times). Thirty 30 other draft-pick trades have been to acquire or give up a veteran player.
Schneider has made a trade involving a first-round draft choice 14 times over 16 Seattle drafts. Ten of those 14 times were trading down to get more picks.
The other four such deals involved acquiring veteran players (Percy Harvin in 2013, Jimmy Graham in 2015, Jamal Adams in 2020, or trading one (Russell Wilson in 2022).
The only other time Schneider had the 32nd and final pick of the first round was the other time the Seahawks had just won the Super Bowl. That was the 2014 draft. Seattle traded the number-32 pick that year to Minnesota. The Vikings used it to draft quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Those champion Seahawks got from Minnesota the 40th pick during round two plus the 108th-overall selection in round four.
That trade two more of the acquired Vikings picks netted Seattle defensive end Cassius Marsh, wide receiver Paul Richardson, fullback Keiro Small, wide receiver Kevin Norwood and tackle Garrett Scott. Only Marsh played extended time (three seasons, 37 games) for the Seahawks.
The News Tribune’s Seahawks mock draft predicts they will do it again. They will trade back out of round one from 32 to 39th overall, swapping with Cleveland and gaining a fourth-round pick Seattle currently doesn’t have.
We aren’t the only ones expecting the Seahawks to trade back and not pick anyone Thursday evening.
“People are usually understanding that we tend to trend backwards, trade backwards,” Schneider said.
The Seahawks could do the same with their 32nd-overall pick Thursday at the 2026 NFL draft in Pittsburgh that they did as champions a dozen years ago: Find a team that wants to get back into the first round, with the potential to have a fifth-year option on that QB’s rookie contract that all first-round picks get, and trade back with that quarterback-needy team.
This year, there are teams right behind the Seahawks in the draft order at the top of the second round that need a quarterback.
Trade within NFC West?
The Arizona Cardinals released former franchise cornerstone Kyler Murray last month; the 28-year-old QB then signed with Minnesota. The Cardinals have the third pick in the draft, then the second choice in round two (34th overall). The Cleveland Browns own two first-round picks then the seventh pick of the second round, at 39th overall.
Most draft observers see Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson below the top level of quarterbacks in this year’s draft class. Thus, most believe he won’t be selected in the top half or perhaps at all in the first round Thursday. That would mean Simpson is likely to be available when the Seahawks are scheduled to pick at 32.
Schneider expects the draft calls for potential trades of picks to heat up as they almost always do each year: On the morning of then during the first round Thursday. It begins at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
The GM won’t rule out trading with the Cardinals — or the 49ers or Rams inside Seattle’s NFC West, for that matter.
“You know, we’ve talked within our division,” Schneider said. “That was kind of frowned up for a while: Don’t trade within your division. Everybody in our division we trade with, and we have good relationships with all three of those team.
“And you are maneuvering around the board and trying to help your team, no matter what.”
Asked directly if he would trade within the division even if he thought that rival was moving up to draft a quarterback, Schneider said: “Yeah.”
He smiled and flashed a look of “why not?”
“I can see what you’re doing there,” Schneider said, grinning.
Yes, the Seahawks are open for business to trade their first-round pick. No matter who their trading partners are.
This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 4:24 PM.
