The reigning Super Bowl LX champion Seattle Seahawks lost quite a bit of talent via free agency. A great way to replace what’s been lost is the NFL Draft. Normally, a team has one pick for every round (1-7) but John Schneider used some of his draft capital to make a couple of midseason acquisitions. Clearly, those additions worked out. But, now Seattle only has 4 picks (rounds 1-3, 6) left to work with. Here are some of the positional groups the Seahawks should be looking at.

Running Back – Kenneth Walker III was simply outstanding during the Seahawks Super Bowl run. Across the 3 playoff games, he racked up 313 rushing yards on 65 attempts, adding 4 rushing TD’s and picking up 17 first downs. He morphed into the lead back everyone thought he could become. It ended up being a little bit of a doubled-edged sword as K-9 led the Seahawks to the championship then immediately departed in free agency for Kansas City, who gave him a 3-year, $43.05 million dollar deal to help shore up their running attack. Zach Charbonnet was expected to step into the starting role in 2026, but a torn ACL suffered in the Divisional round against San Francisco will table that talk until midseason. Seattle opted to sign Emanuel Wilson from Green Bay to a 1-year deal as backup. George Holani will see some action as well. Seemingly, Seattle is equipped with the personnel to run between the tackles and in short yardage situations. What they need to add is a home run hitter. Someone who can take a simple handoff, make a couple of defenders miss and take it to the house.

Right Guard – Surprisingly, having a below-average right guard in Anthony Bradford didn’t come back to haunt the Seahawks. He’s inconsistent in both pass protection and blasting opening holes for the running back, has penalty issues – holding, false start, hands to the face, etc, and sometimes doesn’t have his body positioning right, which leads to him getting blown up by an opposing defensive tackle, defensive end or run around by a more mobile pass rusher off the edge. There isn’t any depth behind him either, so bringing in someone to compete with in training camp wouldn’t be a bad idea. He also only has 1-year remaining on his rookie contract.

Cornerback – Covering opposing wide receivers has never been more important, which is why the Seahawks chances at repeating depend heavily on who they can draft and how quickly he gets up to NFL speed.

Going into free agency Seattle had two guys who tested the waters; Josh Jobe and Riq Woolen. Jobe ended up re-signing for 3-years and $24 million dollars. Going into 2025 Jobe was expected to be the 3rd/4th CB, instead he impressed so much he took the starting role from Riq midseason and replaced him opposite Devon Witherspoon. While he doesn’t have the length and physicality of Riq, he has better coverage and ball-skills.

It’s too bad about Riq though. He exploded onto the scene in 2022 as a 5th round pick out of UTEP, starting all 17 games. Amazingly, his 6 interceptions tied him with Minkah Fitzpatrick, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Justin Simmons for the league leader. He also had 63 combined tackles (46 solo) and 16 passes defended. Those impressive numbers saw him come in third in the Defensive Rookie of the Year, only behind Aiden Hutchison and eventually winner Sauce Gardner. It felt like Pete Carroll always gave him plenty of rope to go out and play and live with the occasional mistake. When the coaching change happened it felt like Mike Macdonald wanted to tighten up the players-first culture Carroll had built, which hurt Woolen as he wasn’t given the rope to play through his mistakes. This led to him being benched in favor of Jobe about halfway through 2026.

There was one play in the NFC championship that highlights the full Riq Woolen on-field experience best. He broke up a pass on crucial third down to force a punt, and instead of running to his sideline he decided to woof at the Los Angeles Rams bench. The referee closest to the incident didn’t like what was said and threw a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. This gave the Rams a free first down, keeping the drive alive. On the very next play Puka Nacua cooked Riq for a 30+ yard TD that pulled LA to within one score. Thankfully, Seattle held on and won the NFC championship, so it’s all water under the bridge. But, just think about the horror if that penalty and subsequent TD set-off a Rams comeback. Riq never would’ve been able to visit the Pacific Northwest ever again. It feels like he knew he lost the trust of Mike Macdonald and had to move on. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for 1-year, $15 million dollars.

Safety – This might be the one position on the team that lost a player to free agency but the overall talent remains the same. Coby Bryant morphed into a quality starting caliber player, had some good moments throughout the season and then left for Chicago to get paid (3-years, $40 million dollars). Good for him. Luckily, Nick Emmanwori fell out of the first round in the 2025 NFL draft and Seattle made the shrewd decision to move up in the 2nd round and select him. He had some injury issues early in the season, but as he overcame those and felt better about his health he blossomed in the 2nd half of the season and into the postseason. His unique blend of size, athleticism and ball skills allow Mike Macdonald to deploy him all across the field, doing numerous different roles. You can bring him up into the box to help out against the run, he can cover tight ends, running backs and wide receivers, you can blitz him and he can fallback into zone coverage. A jack-of-all-trades type of player, who’s only going to improve with time on the practice field, film study and weight room. The kid is special.

Pass Rusher – Even with the Seahawks holding a stellar pass rush, one of the leagues best, there is always room to add more. While it’s nice to have a set of guys to lean on, it’s better to have depth so you can keep everyone fresh. Leonard Williams (32), Uchenna Nwosu (30), DeMarcus Lawrence (34) and Jarran Reed (34) are all key contributors to the defense and are all 30+ years of age. Getting younger in the defensive trench is a must for this franchise going forward to sustain success.

GO HAWKS!