The Seattle Seahawks once again did not take a quarterback in the NFL Draft, and they really didn’t have much of a shot when the top half-dozen were off the board after just 12 picks.
By far the biggest story of Round 1 was former Washington Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr going to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 8 overall. Atlanta signed Kirk Cousins to a massive contract in March, but still took Penix Jr with its top pick. At the end of the first round, it was reported by NFL insider James Palmer that the Seahawks were one of three teams vying to get him by trading into the top-10.
In the interest of just tidying up this story, local Seahawks reporter Curtis Crabtree says this was not the case.
It doesn’t mean that the Seahawks wouldn’t have considered (or picked) Penix at No. 16 if he was available, but looking for a trade up that would’ve involved substantial draft capital was evidently not in the cards.
The last major draft day trade up from a non-top 10 spot into the top-10 for a quarterback was the Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2018. Buffalo had the No. 12 pick and two second-rounders shipped to the Bucs in exchange for No. 7, which was used on Josh Allen. The Bucs took Vita Vea, so I’d say that worked for both teams. The Seahawks didn’t have a second-round pick this year and No. 16 to No. 8 is a big leap, so any hypothetical trade surely would’ve required a bigger haul than what Buffalo did for Allen.
Based on John Schneider’s response to Gregg Bell about the long-term plan at QB, it seems that he is a strong believer in Sam Howell.
