Seattle Seahawks 2023 mock draft: Never too early to guess
By Lee Vowell
Now that the 2022 NFL draft is over, we have a Seahawks season to look forward to next. But in 2023, Seattle might need to find its next long-term quarterback in the draft.
It is never too early to look ahead to the next draft anyway. People like Mel Kiper, Jr. have made a very good living just spending 365 days a year reviewing tape on college players and then projecting where those players will be drafted.
While on paper Seattle’s 2022 class looks very good (even though there seem to be a bunch of people who disliked Seattle not taking a quarterback in a not-very-good QB draft), expecting a bunch of rookies to help immediately turn Seattle into a championship-caliber team is wrong.
Seahawks 2023 mock draft: Finding their next long-term quarterback
A lot of success this coming season depends on Drew Lock or Geno Smith, of course. While Smith knows the offense better at this point, Lock, if he plays well, seems like the QB to play. Seattle needs to find out quickly what they have in Lock. Is he the player at the end of his Bronco days or the one for a few games in 2019?
If Lock, who was a second-round choice in 2019, finds his way in Seattle and is very good that could minimize Seattle’s need for a QB in 2023. But if Lock is no better than he was in Denver, Seattle will need to take its first pick in the 2023 NFL draft on a QB.
For the following mock draft (I didn’t do specific selection slots as we don’t know the records of the teams so I based it on the 2022 draft spots, such as Seattle picking 9th overall and so on) I used Pro Football Network’s mock simulator. I also assume Lock will be decent in 2022 but not great, therefore I went with Seattle still mostly building the overall team first.