They’ve done it again. The Seahawks got what they needed most first.
With a plethora of trades being made right in front of them, the Seahawks got what they got in last year’s draft: a blend of the biggest needs with the best players on the 2026 NFL Draft board Thursday night.
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Instead of making the usual trade down, the Super Bowl champions selected Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price, the 32nd overall pick at the end of the first round.
Last year, Seattle had the same need and best player in the first round, selecting Gray Zabel with the 18th pick. That worked out well for the Seahawks. Zabel immediately became their new starter at left guard. Seattle won the Super Bowl. Price arrives a month after starting running back and Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker left Seattle. He signed a lucrative free-agent contract with Kansas City.
Of the seven running backs on the Seahawks’ 90-man offseason roster entering Thursday, none are signed beyond 2026.
The 5-foot-11, 203-pound Price is already recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2022. He played just 280 college games in three years behind Love at Notre Dame. However, in his final two seasons with the Irish, Price averaged more than 6 yards per carry and had 18 rushing touchdowns. Price was also an elite kickoff returner for Notre Dame.
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The Paul Hornung Award finalist as college football’s most versatile player returned a kickoff for a touchdown against USC. Early last season, Price led the nation with an average of 47 yards per kick return. In this era of NILs and mass transfers, the fact that he spent his entire college career at Notre Dame might also please culture-first coach McDonald, a big proponent of loyalty and intangibles.
Jadarian Price (24) of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs for a touchdown against the Syracuse Orange during the first quarter at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, on November 22, 2025. (Photo by Justin Castellin/Getty Images)
(Justin Castlin/Getty Images)
Pre-Seattle trades rife
There were eight deals in the first round. Seahawks general manager John Schneider watched six of those games take place in front of Seattle’s position, between the 20th and 31st picks. San Francisco and Buffalo were completely eliminated in the first round, finishing directly ahead of the Seahawks with 30 and 31 points respectively.
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The conditions that most believed the Seahawks were best positioned to make a trade and move out of the first round evaporated 90 minutes into the draft. The division rival Los Angeles Rams selected Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13, 19 spots ahead of Seattle. Simpson, the second quarterback taken in this draft after Fernando Mendoza was selected No. 1 overall by the Raiders on Thursday, will become the eventual heir apparent to 38-year-old Matthew Stafford as Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay’s quarterback
This pick was well above what most around the league expected for Simpson. Many believed he would be on the board at age 32, and a quarterback-needy team like Arizona (which released seventh-year starting quarterback Kyler Murray last month) would be tempted to trade with the Seahawks until age 32 for the final pick of the first round and the quarterback’s fifth-year contract option.
Simpson’s early move made Schneider’s task of finding trade partners and moving down the chain even more onerous. The New York Jets own the 33rd overall pick in the draft, just behind Seattle with the first pick of the second round on Friday. The Jets moved ahead of the Seahawks at No. 30 overall on Thursday night, acquiring San Francisco’s first-round pick.
*****With only one top cornerback in the top two drafts Thursday, the general manager and Seattle jointly kept their pick at 32*****. ***This is only the third year in 17 drafts under Snyder that the Seahawks have not made some kind of trade involving a first-round pick.
