Seahawks General Manager John Schneider came into the first round of the draft with designs on trading out of the 32nd pick, but way things played out in the picks leading up to that selection changed those plans.
Five of the six picks leading up to Seattle’s time on the clock were traded and Schneider said after the draft that the flurry of moves wound up leaving the team without options to move down while remaining in position to “have a shot” at running back Jadarian Price. As a result, they stayed put and made Price part of their offensive backfield.
“Great player, great person,” Schneider said, via the team’s website. “We thought he had some opportunities for a minute, they fell apart. A lot of trading going on right ahead of us, but I mean, he kind of stood alone. Great player. The person’s outstanding, the competitor, he’s a Seahawk. It’s really cool. We were kind of concerned people were going to go ahead of us because we felt like he was so out there in terms of mock drafts and what have you.”
Schneider was hoping to move down because the Seahawks came into the draft with four picks, but Price fits a need after Kenneth Walker’s departure as a free agent and the inability to make a deal will be forgotten if the rookie is part of a strong title defense in Seattle this fall.
Seahawks Clips
Seahawks General Manager John Schneider said this week that it was no secret that he wanted to trade down on Thursday night, but it takes two to tango and Schneider couldn’t find a dance partner.
That left the Seahawks to make the 32nd and final pick of the first round. They used it to take former Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price.
Price became the second Notre Dame running back to go in the first round. The Cardinals selected Jeremiyah Love with the third overall pick and they were the only two running backs selected on Thursday night.
Price ran 113 times for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns last season and he also returned a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns. He joins a team that lost Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker as a free agent and has Zach Charbonnet coming off of a torn ACL, so Price could find himself in an even more prominent role than he played while sharing the backfield with Love in South Bend.
Offensive lineman Shane Lemieux has announced his retirement.
Lemieux made the announcement in a post to his LinkedIn account. Lemieux wrote that he dreamed of spending at least a decade in the NFL when the Giants drafted him in the fifth round in 2020, but “five surgeries and more time in the training room than on the field” led to his decision to walk away from the game.
Lemieux played 12 games and made nine starts at guard as a rookie, but only played in six games over his final three seasons with the NFC East club. Knee, toe and biceps injuries contributed to his extended absences from the lineup.
Lemieux moved on to play seven games and make four starts for the Saints in 2024 and spent last season on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
The Seahawks officially re-signed a member of their Super Bowl-winning roster on Monday.
They announced that safety Ty Okada signed his exclusive rights free agent tender. Seattle also tendered running back George Holani and he re-signed earlier in the offseason.
Okada appeared in every game for the Seahawks last year and made 11 starts in the regular season. He had 67 tackles, 1.5 sacks, an interception and a fumble recovery over all 20 games that Seattle played.
Coby Bryant left for the Bears in free agency, so Okada joins Nick Emmanwori and Julian Love at the top of the safety depth chart heading into the 2026 season.
The Seahawks currently hold the final pick in the first round of the draft on Thursday night, but they wouldn’t mind waiting until Friday to make their first selection.
After making other deals to help build a Super Bowl champion, General Manager John Schneider only has four picks in the arsenal heading into the draft. During a press conference on Monday, Schneider saw no reason to put up a smokescreen about his desire to add to that total.
“It’s no secret with us,” Schneider said. “We have four picks, so we’ll be looking to move back.”
Schneider expects the No. 32 pick to be an attractive one as he tries to make that happen. He called No. 32 “the pick everybody wants” because teams get a fifth-year option on a first-round pick, so it should not come as a surprise to anyone if the final pick of the first round is made by a team other than the reigning champs.
The World Cup is coming soon. And it’s quickly becoming a pain in the posterior for the 13 teams playing in stadiums that will be commandeered for intercontinental soccer.
Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal recently reviewed some of the practical impacts of FIFA bigfooting the various venues where fútbol will be played. This week, for example, the Jets and Giants will move their annual draft parties away from MetLife Stadium to Manhattan.
In all, 13 teams are impacted by the World Cup: the Cowboys, Jets, Giants, Falcons, Chiefs, Texans, 49ers, Chargers, Rams, Eagles, Seahawks, Patriots, and Dolphins.
For the teams that have employees at the stadiums hosting World Cup games, many will be moved. Those who are staying put will be subject to FIFA credentialing to get into their workplaces. And the Giants will start training camp in West Virginia, since MetLife Stadium will be hosting the final match on July 19 on a grass field that will need to be removed and replaced with one of the worst artificial surfaces in the entire league.
That last part still has to be the most galling for NFL players. Owners with stadiums that don’t have grass have bent over backwards to do whatever had to be done to placate FIFA. Their regular employees, however, will still be stuck with a lesser (and far cheaper) playing surface.
The various sacrifices involuntarily made by the players and other team employees should prompt FIFA to give them all a phony, made-up award. Especially since FIFA has already done that, for far less.
Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba played only three games in his final season at Ohio State due to hamstring issues. The Seahawks did foot scanning on Smith-Njigba when he arrived as a first-round pick in 2023 and discovered something that cleared up his tight hamstrings.
The Seahawks’ director of equipment, Erik Kennedy, explained the result on The John Schneider Show on Thursday.
“You’re always trying to find little edges that can help players,” Kennedy said, via Brent Stecker of Seattle Sports. “Let’s just say Jaxon Smith-Njigba, you were talking him about in college, he was wearing a size 12, had hamstring issues and things like that. Gets here, he’s a 10 1/2. . . . It’s helped him, right? He hasn’t missed time and done things like that. That helps build the trust for us with the players.”
Smith-Njigba has played all 51 possible games in his three NFL seasons, as well as all three playoff games in 2025.
Schneider said the Seahawks were the first team in the NFL to do foot scanning, thanks to Kennedy’s relationship with Nike. Kennedy said he and his team do more than just fit players in the correct shoes.
“What we get into is the helmet, to protect the players, everything should be custom, right?” Kennedy said. “We’ve gotten to the point we believe everything’s custom, and John and those guys and the ownership and everybody’s afforded us the opportunity to go out and chase and do those things where wearing the top helmets, wearing custom shoulder pads that are scanned to the body, scanning the feet, like getting to the point where you’re basically scanning everything to fit the person, and then having the crew to be able to do it. There’s five of us full-time guys that do it.”
The Seahawks are taking a look at a former first-round pick for their defense.
Dante Fowler visited with Seattle on Thursday, according to the league’s transaction wire.
Fowler, 31, spent last season with the Cowboys, appearing in all 17 games with 11 starts. He finished the year with 3.0 sacks, four tackles for loss, and 10 quarterback hits.
Fowler has been quite durable recently, playing all 17 games in each of the last four seasons.
In 159 career games with 58 starts for the Jaguars, Rams, Falcons, Cowboys, and Commanders, Fowler has registered 58.5 career sacks with 74 tackles for loss and 97 QB hits.
The NFL has announced the names of the current and former players that will take part in next week’s draft by announcing second-round picks.
The list includes players associated with all 32 teams, including Cardinals running back James Conner. Conner has strong ties to the Pittsburgh area after playing for the Steelers and attending Pitt, which likely made him an easy choice as the Cardinals’ representative.
Former Bears tackle Jimbo Covert, former Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, former Chiefs defensive lineman Bill Maas, current Vikings tackle Brian O’Neill, former Jets running back Curtis Martin, and former 49ers punter Andy Lee are other Pitt alums who are set to take part.
The hometown team will be represented by four players. Former Steelers Jerome Bettis and John Stallworth will be joined by Joey Porter Sr. and Jr. next Friday.
The other players taking part and their team affiliations appear below:
Falcons: Michael Turner
Ravens: Mark Ingram
Bills: Shane Conlan
Panthers: Jake Delhomme
Bengals: Ken Anderson
Browns: Phil Dawson
Cowboys: Drew Pearson
Broncos: T.J. Ward
Lions: Calvin Johnson
Packers: John Kuhn
Texans: Billy Miller
Colts: Pat McAfee
Jaguars: Paul Posluszny
Raiders: Matt Millen
Chargers: Shawne Merriman
Rams: Tavon Austin
Dolphins: Dwight Stephenson
Patriots: Deion Branch
Saints: Marques Colston
Giants: Osi Umenyiora
Eagles: Brian Westbrook
Seahawks: Cliff Avril
Buccaneers: Ronde Barber
Titans: Jeffery Simmons
Commanders: Mark Rypien
Cornerback Brandon Cisse is among the prospects making the rounds with the draft a little over two weeks away.
Jordan Reid of ESPN.com reports that Cisse recently visited with the Cowboys. He’s also set to meet with the Seahawks.
Cisse played two seasons at North Carolina State before transferring to South Carolina for the 2025 season. He had 27 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and an interception while building a profile that has led many to project him as a second-day pick this year.
The Cowboys signed Cobie Durant to go with Shavon Revel, DaRon Bland and Caelen Carson at corner. The Seahawks parted ways with Riq Woolen this offseason, but the Super Bowl champs have Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe set to return.
