{"id":609208,"date":"2026-04-27T12:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609208\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:25:13","slug":"winners-and-losers-on-the-seahawks-roster-following-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609208\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners and Losers on the Seahawks roster following 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL Draft is over for another year, and the Seattle Seahawks have their class of eight players<\/a>. They started the draft with only four picks before doubling up through three separate trades. With the Seahawks keeping so many of their free agents<\/a>, their 90-man roster nearly filled out before the undrafted free agent period.<\/p>\n

Of course, the tale of every draft is what it means and doesn\u2019t mean for players already on the roster. Let\u2019s take a look at Winners and Losers from the Seahawks\u2019 2026 draft.<\/p>\n

Olu Oluwatimi stays, Jalen Sundell is in pole position<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Brady Henderson speculated<\/a> that Olu Oluwatimi could\u2019ve been a trade option for the Seahawks in order to gain draft picks. Thankfully, he stayed put and Seattle doubled its draft capital. This doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility of Oluwatimi being dealt if Seattle wants to make a trade during preseason\/roster cuts, but the Seahawks are committed to the continuity of last season\u2019s offensive line.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, Jalen Sundell is all but certain to remain the starting center after Seattle opted to draft a guard instead of anyone who could play center.<\/p>\n

A vote of confidence in Tyrice Knight?<\/p>\n

The Seahawks gave Drake Thomas an extension to remain their starting linebacker alongside Ernest Jones IV. Tyrice Knight went from bench player to starter to back on the bench at the end of his second season. Seattle did not add to the linebacker group in the draft and so far have only added one through the UDFA period.<\/p>\n

Seattle\u2019s ILB depth is not great but it\u2019s also not dire; Knight has had flashes of good play and he contributes as a heavy hitter on special teams. One name to watch heading into camp is Chris Paul Jr, who was stashed on the practice squad all season.<\/p>\n

Jared Ivey, Connor O\u2019Toole will get their chance to compete<\/p>\n

Not that this was a strong EDGE class to begin with, but the Seahawks didn\u2019t bother touching this position. There\u2019s a good chance Dante Fowler<\/a> turns his visit into a signing, but that might be as much as they do unless a greater, splashier opportunity arises. Even though Jared Ivey and Connor O\u2019Toole scarcely played on defense as undrafted rookies, there\u2019s clearly a reason the Seahawks never attempted to expose them to waivers throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Boye Mafe\u2019s exit will create an opportunity for Ivey and O\u2019Toole to push to make the rotation.<\/p>\n

Christian Haynes is probably done in Seattle<\/p>\n

Some picks just don\u2019t work out. Haynes not beating out Anthony Bradford for starting right guard as a rookie was not a failure, but he couldn\u2019t even get ahead of Sataoa Laumea, who found himself mostly out of the league last year before signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I was at Seahawks training camp when Haynes was working on center snaps and getting no reps for actual scrimmaging due to a \u201cminor\u201d pec issue. They drafted Bryce Cabeldue last year and now they\u2019ve got Beau Stephens this year, so the writing appears to be on the wall in permanent marker.<\/p>\n

Haynes\u2019 time in Seattle is coming to an end one way or another.<\/p>\n

Noah Igbinoghene and Nehemiah Pritchett are put on notice<\/p>\n

The Seahawks only had five cornerbacks entering the draft. They came away with three more, although it\u2019s more likely Michael Dansby is seen as a special teams option than anything else.<\/p>\n

Julian Neal and Andre Fuller are two taller, bigger, physical corners who wouldn\u2019t be out of place on a Pete Carroll defense, never mind what Mike Macdonald covets. With Riq Woolen gone, there\u2019s 800+ snaps that need to be replaced at cornerback, and Neal at the very least will be in the running for significant playing time.<\/p>\n

Free agent signing Noah Igbinoghene has only had a regular role on defense once in his six-year career, and it was borne out of injury to Emmanuel Forbes back in 2024. Nehemiah Pritchett has scarcely played, and even when Devon Witherspoon missed time and Riq Woolen was sort of in the dog house, the Seahawks trotted out Derion Kendrick.<\/p>\n

The two Auburn corners will be battling for a roster spot with Neal on the squad. I also think Andre Fuller has the strongest chance of any of Seattle\u2019s seventh-rounders to make the 53.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe the \u201cbottom of the depth chart\u201d running back hype<\/p>\n

The Seahawks played it coyly regarding the running back room. John Schneider has spent the whole offseason hyping up George Holani and citing his NFC Championship Game performance, which has led to the thought that a player whose number of non-garbage time carries is still in the single digits over two seasons could suddenly become a starter.<\/p>\n

Taking Jadarian Price at No. 32 pretty much ends that little fantasy that really didn\u2019t have much justification to begin with. But Holani himself isn\u2019t in the losers column because I think he\u2019ll likely make the team anyway. The ones on notice the most are Kenny McIntosh and Jacardia Wright, both of whom have flashed in preseason but have had respective injury issues. McIntosh has had two major injuries in two of his three seasons, while Wright literally didn\u2019t make the active roster and his only NFL touches came in garbage time against the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n

McIntosh in particular is instantly on the bubble, which is a shame because of his potential, but that\u2019s the reality as a late-round running back who\u2019s not been available to play.<\/p>\n

Undecided: Anthony Bradford and Ty Okada<\/p>\n

Either Anthony Bradford\u2019s starting job is going to be under threat from Beau Stephens or (more likely) we\u2019re watching Seattle take his successor. Bradford had his best season in 2025 but will need a really good follow-up to justify an extension. We\u2019ve had our fair share of Bradford discourse but let\u2019s not act like he hasn\u2019t been in some sort of starting competition in each of his previous three seasons.<\/p>\n

Bud Clark looks to be the logical replacement at safety for Coby Bryant, but Ty Okada impressed deputizing for either Bryant or Julian Love. Just in my brief chat with Okada during Super Bowl week, he\u2019s very much a coaching staff\u2019s delight who\u2019s willing to do whatever is asked of him in any role. I can sooner believe there will be a rotation of him and Clark than definitively going one way or another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL Draft is over for another year, and the Seattle Seahawks have their class of eight players.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,50640,221609,99],"class_list":["post-609208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-seattle-seahawks-analysis-and-opinion","tag-seattle-seahawks-draft","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}