When his final pick came up in the 2026 NFL Draft, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider chose Arizona cornerback Michael Dansby. Dansby was generally rated as a likely undrafted free agent, but at the tail end of any draft – and only two picks were remaining after the selection – you can usually throw out external scouting reports.
Schneider and the Seahawks scouts obviously saw something they liked in the slot corner.
At the time of the pick, Toledo’s Avery Smith was still available. On most pre-draft draft boards, scouts had rated Smith – another projected slot corner – as a better prospect than Dansby. But it was close.
On cutdown day, the Seattle Seahawks acquire a player they could have drafted four months ago
Except for Dane Brugler’s comprehensive scouting report for The Athletic – called the Beast – most of the publicly available rankings had Dansby and Smith rated fairly evenly. Brugler favored Smith by a wide margin.
As it turns out, Avery Smith was not drafted last April. He signed with the Los Angeles Chargers shortly after the draft and has been with them through the summer. On cutdown day, Schneider dealt a reported 2027 sixth-round pick for Smith.
This shows the inexact nature of the draft. Schneider could have had Smith for a seventh-round pick in April. He instead has given up a sixth-round pick next year in addition to using this year’s seventh-rounder on a player who did not make the Seahawks roster. What changed between April and August?
Drafting Dansby was not necessarily a mistake. He may well return to the practice squad and still have a bright future in Seattle. The pick was curious primarily because Dansby was one of three cornerbacks chosen by Schneider in the ’26 draft. If you throw in safety Bud Clark, the Seahawks’ GM devoted half of his eight picks to shoring up his defensive secondary.
That makes some sense, given the loss of both safety Coby Bryant and cornerback Riq Woolen this offseason. Clearly, this was a primary area of concern.
That concern has not abated through the summer. In addition to projected starters Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe, Seattle returned Nehemiah Pritchett and signed veteran Noah Igbinoghene early in free agency.
Then, they reached deals with two other veterans – Terrion Arnold (currently on the Commissioner’s exempt list pending resolution of legal matters) and Trevon Diggs. They also brought in UDFA Jordan Washington early in August.
Those players joined Dansby and fellow draft picks Julian Neal and Andre Fuller in competition for spots behind Spoon and Jobe.
The trade for Smith might suggest that many of those players failed to meet expectations. Pritchett, an excellent special teams player who performed well at corner this preseason, and Neal, a third-round pick who missed much of training camp with an injury, made the roster, along with Smith. They currently constitute Seattle’s cornerback room.
However, neither Dansby nor Diggs underperformed this preseason. Diggs was only in camp for a brief time, but he had an interception in his only preseason game. Dansby made the types of mistakes rookies are apt to make, but also flashed aggressiveness and skill that could earn him a spot down the road.
It would seem then that John Schneider didn’t necessarily sacrifice a sixth-round pick in 2027 out of desperation. This may be a rose-colored view of what has happened, but I suspect Schneider, his scouts and coaches, saw something this summer in Avery Smith that they had not noticed before.
They may not have had surefire contributors in Igbinoghene, Diggs, and Dansby, but they did have players with some upside. To trade a future pick and commit a roster spot, they must see something more than that in Avery Smith.
Smith is not a special athlete. He isn’t big or fast. But he was very productive at Toledo, registering 26 pass breakups over his final two college seasons.
The former high school quarterback is well suited to play the type of pass defense Macdonald prefers. He reads zones very well. He comes up aggressively and makes tackles. Despite his lack of size, he recorded five tackles-for-loss in 2025. He also proved to be a quality special-teamer, blocking a couple of kicks at Toledo.
Schneider would have known all that when he was choosing Michael Dansby back in April. Because Dansby did not disappoint this summer, I’m guessing Avery Smith moved up in the Seahawks’ estimation. They saw him as an upgrade over other talented but uncertain corners. That is why Schneider made the trade. Not out of desperation, but because he sees this as a clear upgrade.
Seahawks fans have yet to see Avery Smith in action. Pretty soon, we will all get that chance, and we will be able to form our own judgments on the rather odd way in which Smith came to be a Seahawk.
Add us as a preferred source on Google