5 quick bold predictions for the Seahawks in the 2022 NFL draft

Thursday is the first round of the 2022 NFL draft. This is when the Seattle Seahawks can partially remake the team.

But Seattle has many positions of opportunity that need to be addressed in this draft. Beyond the first round, Seattle needs to find impact players, not just depth.

The great thing about this year’s draft is Seattle has a high choice coupled with there seems to be no consensus on what Seattle is going to do with that pick.

Here are five (most likely wrong) predictions for the Seahawks in the 2022 NFL draft

Seahawks stand pat pick number 9 and take a quarterback

The shock here is that Seattle doesn’t actually trade back. (OK, in reality, they probably will but what’s the fun in making “bold predictions” if there isn’t some chance I could be wrong?) But Seattle needs something at pick 9 other than a quarterback. What the Seahawks really need to do for long-term success is build the total team and then find a good quarterback. But at number 9, Seattle will choose Malik Willis.

Seattle moves back into the late first round by trading pick 40 and pick 109 for number 29

Under John Schneider, Seattle has been a team that has traded out of the first round many times. Lots of 12s have stayed up late over the last decade to see who their favorite team will choose only to go to bed having to wait until the next day to find out who Seattle’s first pick in that draft would be. But maybe Schneider and Pete Carroll want to change things up this year and be more aggressive.

This year, Seattle will trade back into the first round and pick up one of the two picks the Chiefs have late in the first round in return for the Seahawks early second and fourth-rounder.

Seattle takes edge rusher Arnold Ebitketie at pick 29

Seattle has several needs in the 2022 draft. The team needs offensive tackles, a good cornerback and an edge rusher or three. The reason the Seahawks trade back into the first round is that Ebitketie is still available but likely will still go late in the first round or in the second round before Seattle can take him. Ebitketie played at Penn State in his senior year and had 9.5 sacks. He is extremely athletic and should provide immediate production.

Seattle picks up another third-rounder by trading pick 41 for a later second-round choice and a third

Expecting Schneider to come out of a draft with fewer picks than what he had when the draft started seems contrary to history. So even though Seattle traded back into the first round, they will look to gain more picks later on. That will start with pick 41 that Seattle will trade to the Packers for Green Bay’s 53rd overall as well as pick 92.

Seattle winds up with 10 picks with 5 coming in rounds 5 through 10

Seattle will make a couple of more trades, probably trading the recently added number 92, and eventually wind up with 10 total. That said, many of them will come on Day 3. That’s OK as Seattle has done really well in the fifth round over the last decade. That’s where the Seahawks have found Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman, and Michael Dickson.