The Seattle Seahawks, like every professional team ever, has made some horrible first-round picks. The last few picks, such as Jordyn Brooks, Charles Cross, and Devon Witherspoon, have been fine, but in the years just before Brooks things were not so good. Seattle whiffed on many early choices.
Some of these choices have set the team back for several reasons. One reason is that the player was injured which kept them from reaching their potential. Another is that simply the player should have never been taken in the first round. In another situation, it was a player that was passed on to choose the one Seattle did.
The three players that follow were whiffs. This helped put the Seahawks in a position to have to rebuild a bit in the 2022 offseason. Hopefully, now that general manager John Schneider is fully in charge of roster decisions, the team won't miss as much as it did in the late 2010s.
Three recent first-round picks the Seattle Seahawks can call duds
Germain Ifedi, offensive tackle - 2016 draft, pick 31
Seattle could have had Chris Jones, defensive tackle
Unfortunately, this pick has more to do with who Seattle didn't take than who they did. Was Ifedi worthy of a first-round choice after all? No. In fact, he could be out of the league in 2024. But he wasn't awful during his four years with Seattle after first starting as a guard and then moving to tackle. And for anyone complaining Seattle never spent draft capital on an offensive lineman when Russell Wilson was wearing a Seahawks uniform, Ifedi was a first-round choice.
But he pales in comparison to Chris Jones. Jones was not chosen until the second round. In hindsight, the Seahawks were not the only team to overlook Jones; almost every team did. No player taken in the first round after pick nine has ever been named First-Team All-Pro, for instance. Only four players between picks 10 and 31 have ever made a Pro Bowl.
But Jones is a different breed altogether. He is still playing his best football even though he has spent eight years in the league. He has also helped his team to three Super Bowl victories. He has been named First-Team All-Pro in the past two seasons and hasn't missed making the Pro Bowl since 2019. While Ifedi was not Seattle's worst first-round choice ever, he also wasn't the likely future Hall of Famer that Chris Jones is.
Rashaad Penny, running back - 2018 draft, pick 27
Seattle could have had Nick Chubb, running back
In the late 2010s, Seattle was still at a stage where they were trying to get the best player available, at least the best player they deemed worthy. Seattle did not truly need to take a running back in the first round. In fact, unless a running back is almost certain to be a multi-time Pro Bowler, or as certain as any draft pick could be, then waiting until later rounds was and still is the way to go when choosing running backs.
Penny had stayed healthy in college at San Diego State and he was a fast and powerful runner whether he was returning kicks or taking handoffs. Seattle choosing him meant the team was simply looking for the icing on its cake instead of making more batter. For instance, Seattle could have taken safety Terrell Edmunds, who went a pick after Penny, as Seattle had lost Kam Chancellor to a neck injury in the previous season.
Seattle could not have known just how injured Penny was going to be during his career, however. He was never consistently healthy enough to help the team over a full season. He had bursts of greatness, but that only made the fact he wasn't playing much more frustrating. If the team only had a healthy Penny for a couple of years the offense would be so much more explosive.
While I am not going to mention Seattle could have taken Lamar Jackson at pick 27 - doing so would be 20/20 hindsight and unfair to the situation in 2018 - Seattle could have chosen Nick Chubb who was also great in college. Chubb was hurt in 2023, but he missed only seven games prior to this past season. He also has made four Pro Bowls.
L.J. Collier, defensive tackle - 2019 draft, pick 29
Seattle could have had Dalton Risner, offensive lineman
Collier is one of Seattle's worst first-round picks in franchise history. Seattle did need defensive line help in 2019, but taking Collier was still a bit like choosing Penny the year before. Collier also was more of a tweener who the Seahawks must have seen some Michael Bennett-type qualities in. The difference between Bennett, who went undrafted out of college in 2009, and Collier was that once they were in the league Bennett worked hard and Collier did not.
Collier somehow found his way to starting 16 games in 2020. Those would be the only games he would ever start with the team. He also had 3 sacks that season and those would be the only sacks he ever had. But make no mistake that Collier was not good in 2020 either. He underperformed in terms of pass rush and stopping the run and by 2021 and 2022 he was a healthier scratch than an active player on game days.
It would be too easy to say Seattle could have taken A.J. Brown instead of Collier (Brown went in the second round) or possibly Deebo Samuel. But the Seahawks did take DK Metcalf in the second round of that draft so arguing that Seattle could have had a receiver instead of Collier would have meant no Metcalf. But Dalton Risner has been a solid interior lineman. He would have been in his second season in 2020 when the Seahawks took Damien Lewis. In theory, Seattle's starting guards the last four years could have been Lewis and Risner and that would have been excellent.