Reigning champ Seattle does well supplementing dominant roster with bottom-heavy draft | Dave Boling

RENTON - Don't bother scoping out the report cards that experts bestow upon the Seattle Seahawks in this weekend's NFL draft.

Entirely irrelevant.

They could have traded out of these festivities entirely, and headed into the 2026 season with a pat hand, and still been a solid pick to defend their 2025 World Championship.

Here's why: The Seahawks' draft haul last spring was so impressive they had enough talent to practically "redshirt" half of it and still win 17 games and dominate the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

It's left them, even before this draft, with so many talented guys circling for a landing on the roster. Last season they had 24 rookies on the roster, on the practice squad or on injured reserve.

And now they're adding more.

Even with this abundance of riches, GM John Schneider refused to approach this draft with any less intensity.

"There's a natural anxiety there ... how can we improve?" he said at the close of draft weekend at the team's Virginia Mason headquarters. "Part of our philosophy is, like, what are we missing, how do we get back?"

For the record, the Seahawks conscripted a running back of need, a guard who will compete on the offensive line, and a couple other guys with nice potential and talent for immediate depth and special teams duties.

They started the draft with one pick in Saturday's late rounds, and came away with a Round 5, a Round 6 and three Round 7s. Four of the newbies are defensive backs, three CBs.

It turned into a bottom-heavy draft, which played perfectly into the Schneider/Mike Macdonald philosophy of stacking 70 players to feed the 53-man roster, with injuries last season having opened the way for depth-chart guys like Drake Thomas and Ty Okada.

Yes, they lost Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker III, safety Coby Bryant and edge Boye Mafe as free agents. Those were meaningful, especially Walker.

Other than a proven starting running back, though, the roster had no glaring potholes.

How well did Schneider nail it with the last draft? Last year's top two picks, guard Grey Zabel and safety Nick Emmanwori, both were on the All-Rookie team and are on the verge of Pro Bowl status - maybe for a long time. Both were home runs with huge immediate production and brilliant futures.

Tight end Elijah Arroyo (second round) then was the first among a handful of picks that flashed obvious promise but played only part of the season because of injury. Arroyo had 15 catches with a touchdown, and showed the potential to become an effective spread tight end.

The fifth round, alone, was a triumph of scouting and balancing of roster calculus, as they landed defensive lineman Rylie Mills, receiver/returner Tory Horton and fullback Robbie Ouzts.

Horton scored five touchdowns, two on returns, before suffering a midseason ankle injury. Ouzts flashed competence as a lead blocker in the burgeoning rushing attack, playing in 12 games, working around an ankle injury.

Mills played the least of any of those three, being inactive until mid-December, but came up with a play that was a highlight of the Super Bowl - sacking Patriot Drake Maye for a 10-yard loss on a bull-rush that exemplified the Seahawks' dominance over New England.

Get a full year of healthy play out of those guys, alone, and playing time gets precious for everybody.

Two others from the draft the previous year, defensive tackle Byron Murphy II and tight end A.J. Barner, both seem on the edge of Pro Bowl consideration, and toss in a free-agent center entering his third year, Jalen Sundell, who is also on a steep rise.

On Friday, Macdonald said the common denominator of this year's crop is "swag" and "confidence" and they play "an exciting brand of football."

What really makes them feel like a nice fit with the incumbent champs is the obvious love of the game, and an ingrained nature to be aggressive.

Schneider said that "the younger, hipper scouts have a saying ... leveling up." A generational translator in the media room informed me that means "exceeding expectations, always getting better, meeting challenges."

For instance, rookies stepping into a defensive-back room with the likes of Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori, Julian Love, etc., are going to be faced with having to level up from the first day of minicamp.

If draft-day interviews are any indicator, the group will bring abundant personality.

Seventh-round nose tackle, Deven Eastern, conceded: "I like to be violent." He's 6-5, 320.

Bud Clark, a safety who had 15 interceptions in his career at TCU, either has a curious physical condition or trouble mixing metaphors. When asked his response to being drafted by the Seahawks: "First, my heart dropped to my butt."

Cornerback Julian Neal was asked how he approaches press coverage: "I'm going to go punch somebody on the line."

Fans may remember in the early days of the Seahawks' Legion of Boom era when the NFL kept fining them because the players were so naturally aggressive and competitive that they couldn't be trusted to observe days when the no-contact restrictions were in force.

Could be a problem this year, too.

Except now they call it "leveling up."

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