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Brady Henderson
Multiple Authors
RENTON, Wash. — The defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are hoping to trade down in this year’s NFL draft — even if it means potentially sending a quarterback to a division rival.
“It’s no secret with us,” general manager John Schneider said Monday during his annual predraft news conference alongside coach Mike Macdonald. “We have four picks, so we’ll be looking to move back.”
That much was widely assumed. The Seahawks’ four selections, which include the No. 32 pick, are the fewest in the NFL. They also have a long history of trading back in the first round or out of it under Schneider, and they’d logically have as much incentive as ever to do so in this year’s draft, which is not considered top-heavy in talent.
More revelatory was Schneider volunteering that the team is not opposed to making deals within its own division. He then said he’d do so even if he knew one of Seattle’s NFC West counterparts was moving up to select a quarterback.
That is noteworthy given how commonly the Arizona Cardinals have been linked to Alabama’s Ty Simpson, widely considered the second-best quarterback in this class behind Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza. Arizona’s picks include Nos. 3 and 34. The New York Jets, another team that could be seeking a quarterback, own the 33rd pick.
According to ESPN Research, there have been 35 draft-day trades between division opponents in 24 drafts since the NFL realigned in 2002. Since Schneider became the Seahawks’ general manager in 2010, he’s only been a part of one such trade — with the San Francisco 49ers in 2017.
“We’ve talked within our division,” Schneider said. “That was kind of frowned upon for a while, like you don’t trade within your division. Everybody in our division, we would trade with. We have good relationships with all three of those teams. You’re maneuvering around the board to try to help your team no matter what. So, when you look at it through that lens, you’re basically not concerned about [helping another team].”
Speaking generally about the appeal of the 32nd pick in any draft, Schneider noted that — as with the contracts for every other first-round selection — it comes with a team option for a fifth year.
The last time the Seahawks owned the 32nd pick as reigning Super Bowl champions, they traded it on draft night in 2014 to the Minnesota Vikings, who moved up eight spots to select quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Schneider also traded back in the first round at least one time in 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. The Seahawks didn’t have first-round picks in 2013 or 2015. In the past five drafts in which they’ve owned one, they’ve stayed put — though that hasn’t been for lack of interest in moving back.
Schneider said negotiations toward draft-day trades aren’t as easy now because teams assign their own values to each pick as opposed to how everyone used to work off the same chart popularized by Jimmy Johnson.
Starting this year, the time in between first-round picks will drop from 10 minutes to eight. Schneider doesn’t see that impacting trades, noting that negotiations tend to happen before the team that would be moving down is on the clock.
“No, I think that you’re usually ahead anyway, you’re a couple picks ahead,” he said. “That extra two minutes is not going to make a difference in terms of trading or moving around, that sort of thing. Everybody tries to line stuff up. You try to do it this week, but really, people get serious Thursday morning, throughout the day, talking on the phone, talking about trading up, trading down and all that.”
The Seahawks have made at least eight selections in all but one of their 16 drafts under Schneider. In addition to No. 32, their other picks this year are Nos. 64, 96 and 188. They gave up fourth- and fifth-round picks at last year’s trade deadline to acquire wide receiver/kick returner Rashid Shaheed from the New Orleans Saints.
“I think there’s a lack of depth in this draft,” Schneider said. “I thought our scouts did a great job in the fall of identifying that, and that allowed us to be a little bit more willing to give up the fourth- and fifth-round draft pick. But no matter what draft you’re in, what year, it’s our responsibility to the organization to be able to find true Seahawks all the way through it. So, that means if we did have that fourth or fifth or we’re moving around and we acquire more draft picks, we’re still going to be focused on making those guys true Seahawks.”
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