The one position the Seahawks must address through the NFL Draft this week

The Seattle Seahawks have few draft picks to play with come Thursday’s NFL Draft. Fortunately, the Super Bowl champions have so few pressing needs that it’s not cause for panic.

One of Seattle’s top needs—at least in my opinion—is cornerback. A common refrain I’ve heard regarding the exit of Riq Woolen in free agency is that Riq eventually became the third corner on the depth chart after ceding his starting role to Josh Jobe. From Week 2 onward, Jobe was the official starter and Woolen was “relegated” to CB3.

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Sort of? But it’s misleading. Riq was not an ordinary third option at cornerback, and a times he was outsnapping Jobe. Their snap count difference in the regular season was Jobe +1. In the playoffs it was Woolen +26. Some “CB3” set-up.

Josh Jobe vs. Riq Woolen snap count comparison

Discounting the one game each Woolen and Jobe missed, it was practically even in terms of how many times each cornerback outsnapped the other. Seattle did not lose “CB3” on the depth chart; they lost a corner who played starter-level snaps and was an integral part of the defense no matter how much you want to bemoan his penalties and concentration issues. If it was a true benching then we would’ve seen far more Nehemiah Pritchett than what actually happened. I think it’ll be harder to play five and six DB looks moving forward unless they find a requisite replacement.

Don’t conflate “Mike Macdonald’s scheme is so good it can create a lot of plug-and-play situations” with “Mike Macdonald can just have anyone on the roster and there’s no need to add high-potential talent.” Even Macdonald’s brilliance and strategy can be compromised when he has Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker (neither of whom is a bad player necessarily, but just bad fits) as his starting linebackers before jettisoning both mid-season.

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Seattle’s CB room at present is shaky beyond Jobe and Devon Witherspoon. Noah Igbinoghene has been in the league since 2020 and has a grand total of one season in which he played a majority of his team’s defensive snaps. Nehemiah Pritchett has barely played over his first two seasons in Seattle, although at least his limited reps this year were better than his rookie season. Shemar Jean-Charles was hurt and didn’t make the active roster last season and the only time he saw’s ever seen significant defensive action was on an injury-riddled 5-12 New Orleans Saints squad. Maybe Nick Emmanwori could absorb some boundary corner snaps in addition to his slot work but I wouldn’t count on it.

The frustrations over Woolen’s worst mishaps should not bleed into how well he played over entire games, and he was also the only cornerback on the roster over six feet tall—he provided a physical advantage with his unique combo of height, speed, and long arms. Either somehow, someway, the Seahawks already have a good third corner on the team among a practice squad player, a draft pick who’s barely seen the field, and a journeyman whose only starting spell came via injury, or the CB room in 2026 is set to be a downgrade from 2025 pending what they do in the draft. There’s a natural tendency to overhype the bottom-end of the roster on good teams, but the odds are overwhelmingly against the bottom-end becoming viable starters.

Seattle stacked their 30 visits with cornerbacks and met with plenty of them at the combine. I don’t think it’s a smokescreen. This is one of the few positions in this year’s class that is well-stocked to the point where Seattle has some viable options outside of their top pick. Chris Johnson, Avieon Terrell, Colton Hood, and Brandon Cisse should all be in the general range of where the Seahawks will make their first pick. Arizona’s Treydan Stukes can be either a safety or corner and projects for the second round. Miami’s Keionte Scott and Indiana’s D’Angelo Ponds played for a national title and either one could be a Round 2 option. Arkansas’ Julian Neal is a big-bodied corner with speed and will likely be available at pick 96. For local options, Washington’s Tacario Davis and Ephesians Prysock are in late Day 2/early Day 3 territory, although Seattle’s Day 3 inventory consists of just a sixth-rounder at the moment.

I don’t care how it happens, which round it occurs, but the Seahawks should approach this draft with cornerback in mind for one of their handful of picks.