Between now and the NFL Draft at the end of the month, there will be an enormous amount of words devoted to what the Seattle Seahawks should do with their first-round pick. I personally have volunteered to supply a lot of said words.
It’s understandable that we will all focus on the first round. It’s easier to scope out. With each passing round, the number of variables increases, making predictions virtually impossible. General manager John Schneider probably already has a pretty good sense of a player or two he might choose, assuming he holds onto the 18th overall selection.
However, the further you travel down the list of ten picks Seattle currently owns, the less certain you become. There’s simply no good way to know which players are likely to be available. By the time you get to the Hawks’ two seventh-rounders, both past the 200th pick, it’s a complete crap shoot.
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Yet, often, it is those later-round picks that play a vital role in a team’s success. The Legion of Boom was motored by a couple of fifth-round picks (Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman) back in 2010 and ’11. Schneider's inability to find occasional diamonds like that in recent years is one of the reasons the Seahawks’ roster is in a state of flux right now.
He certainly hasn’t had the kind of success defending champion Philadelphia has had of late, finding an elite left tackle like Jordan Mailata in the seventh round in 2018. One of the reasons the Eagles will not miss the departed defensive tackle Milton Williams is that GM Howie Roseman chose his successor, Moro Ojomo, in the final round of the 2023 draft.
So let’s take a look at a quartet of prospects Schneider could target late. These players should be available in the final few rounds, and perhaps even after the draft as UDFAs. Each has the ability to develop into a valuable weapon for Seattle over the next few seasons.
Reuben Lowery, DB, Tennessee-Chattanooga
You need to listen to Reuben Lowery speak for about five seconds to realize this is a guy you want on your football team. The young man is brilliant. He has a 4.0 in mechanical engineering. He builds rockets for fun. He has the thoughtful intelligence that makes him seem much older than his years.
None of that matters if the man can’t play. Fortunately, he has excellent speed and raw strength. The reason he is not a more highly-rated prospect is that at 5’9”, 192, there are legitimate concerns about how he will transition to the NFL. That size may limit where he can play, but given his physical gifts, it is by no means debilitating. Lowery profiles as a slot corner, but he has shown the versatility to move around in the defensive backfield.
Lowery has been a corner at Chattanooga, but his adaptability has allowed him to move to safety when needed, and I think he can do that at the NFL level. It’s silly to compare a prospect like Lowery to an all-time great like Earl Thomas, but if he can bulk up a bit in the pros, I think he could be a similar kind of player. Not as good – few safeties had Thomas’ killer instincts. But I think a versatile, young DB who might give you 75 percent of Earl Thomas would be a pretty good late-round addition.
Jaydon Blue, RB, Texas
Why would Seattle want an undersized back who is prone to fumbling? Well, because Jaydon Blue is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. He has blistering speed. He is challenging to corral in the open field. And he is a very dangerous receiver out of the backfield.
Whichever team drafts or signs Blue, it has to have a creative offensive coordinator who can maximize his strengths. You cannot line him up in the backfield and expect him to pound the ball inside or pick up blitzes in pass pro.
But putting him in the slot or split out wide, using him on jet sweeps and bubble screens? One slip by a defender and he’s gone. If Klint Kubiak can design plays that isolate Blue on a linebacker, he will score on a wheel route. That will force opposing defenses to adjust accordingly, opening up the other receivers, and creating running lanes on draws and scrambles. (That is assuming Seattle’s line can block long enough for a wheel to develop.)
Chandler Brayboy, WR, Elon
Chandler Brayboy played against FCS competition, so you have to question how he will perform in the NFL. Still, this one fact is unavoidable. In 2024, Brayboy touched the ball 83 times for Elon. On average, each time he got the ball in his hands, he gained better than 20 yards.
That number is slightly inflated by his extraordinary 35 yards-per-return average on kickoffs, but the young man from North Carolina also averaged more than 16 yards per catch on 59 receptions and more than 15 yards per rush on eight runs. He is simply an offensive weapon regardless of where he is playing.
At 6’1”, 200 pounds, he is of decent size and has excellent speed and explosiveness, as indicated by his elite 44-inch vertical leap. Brayboy is an immediate impact player on special teams who could develop into a dangerous receiving weapon in time.
Adin Huntington, DL, Tulane
Remember Chandler Brayboy’s elite 44-inch vertical leap? I literally mentioned it two sentences ago. Huntington can’t match that. He only goes 38 inches. However, when you consider that Huntington is carrying 80 pounds more than Brayboy, that number may be even more impressive.
After an extraordinary 2023 season at Louisiana-Lafayette (16 tackles-for-loss and 8.5 sacks in 12 games), he did not match those numbers at Tulane. But he still proved to be a disruptive force. At 6’1”, 281, he is not set up to be an every-down interior lineman. However, Mike Macdonald has a knack for finding ways to exploit gifted athletes along the defensive line.
Huntington can occasionally line up inside and use his excellent burst to shoot interior gaps. He can line up wide and use his raw speed to threaten bigger tackles, who will have trouble getting their hands on him. He has exceptional lateral agility, which will allow him to drop into short zones occasionally.
We often talk about Swiss-army-knife players in the defensive backfield. Huntington is that kind of player on the defensive front, and Macdonald is the perfect coach to get the most out of him.
I had several offensive linemen under consideration for this article. From Iowa State’s mammoth Jalen Travis to Montana State’s undersized but powerful Marcus Wehr, there will be very intriguing developmental prospects available in the late rounds and/or after the draft.
However, I eventually concluded that John Schneider shouldn’t be too concerned with the development prospects on the O-line right now. He needs players who can step in and play right away up front. Save the diamonds-in-the-rough for the positions where you already have some veteran production.