4 potential steals in the 2024 NFL draft if the Seattle Seahawks trade back

Offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson, Oregon

Seattle has an abundance of needs along the offensive line. The team certainly needs a left guard to start in Week 1 of next season. Center Olu Oluwatimi was drafted in 2023 and was productive in college but he could not work his way into the lineup very much last season even though Seattle's starting center, Evan Brown, was not very good. Right guard could belong to Anthony Bradford, but Bradford wasn't very good either in 2023.

Jackson Powers-Johnson will likely still be around late in the first round (and possibly even in the second round where Seattle currently does not have a selection) as he is an interior lineman with no previous history of playing tackle. NFL teams like players who have position flexibility, but they also like players with tackle experience as that position is normally seen as more important than guard or center.

Very few mock drafts have Powers-Johnson going inside the top 20 of the draft so Seattle could potentially find a trade partner and move back into the early 20s, hopefully pick up a second-round choice, and then the Seahawks would choose the offensive lineman. Powers-Johnson could then be a Week 1 starter at either guard or center, though guard appears to be the greater need currently.

Powers-Johnson has been a standout this offseason, however. He was perhaps the best offensive player overall at the Senior Bowl. He also had a terrific NFL Combine where he did 30 reps on the bench press and had a 32" vertical (helpful for rebounding in case a basketball game breaks out in the middle of an NFL game, I guess). He is 63" and 328 pounds and strong enough to be very good immediately.