Draft crush

[Seattle Person]

I've heard and read recently that draft experts think that DT Caleb Banks will fall to the bottom of the first round, due to the fact that he broke his foot at the combine. (The same foot he broke earlier in 2025.) If that happens, there is no way the Seahawks can pass on him. I know the Seahawks already have Williams and Murphy, but this is a guy who was projected to be a top-ten pick at one point.

His foot is due to be healed before training camp. I hope that he falls to the Seahawks at 32.

Banks is really talented. In my opinion, he's still raw in some areas as a DT.

He has a reoccurring foot injury. He injured it at some point last year in 2025. He fully broke his foot before the season. Had surgery to repair the injury. Rushed back to participate in games. Re-injured and broke the same foot at the NFL Combine.

If you haven't, I fully recommend you and anyone else go listen to Sam Ramsden's interview on Seattle Sports last Thursday. He is the Seahawks' VP of Player Performance. He talks about the process assigning injury grades to prospects. They look at injuries, they assess past injuries, and assign a grade from 1-6. The higher the better. 1 means you probably failed and most likely gets removed from a board.

I've paraphrased but this is snippet of what he said:

"Let's take if a player dislocated a knee and he hasn't played. I would tag him as a R for rehab. They need to rehab their injury. We then assign a # to that based on how well we think they can recover from their injuries."

Caleb Banks has an injury and is out until at least June. He will get tagged as a R with the Seahawks process/system. He most likely gets tagged R-2 based on his foot injury history. I can see an R-3 at best.

Don't know for sure, I highly doubt Banks is considered at #32. Maybe if he falls...

 

[Seattle Person]

I'm a sucker for big athletic DTs and I would love to have him on the Seahawks. But he has had 3 foot injuries in the last 1 1/2 years which makes drafting him a boom-or-bust prospect. Last year we drafted 3 players coming off injuries and two of the three got injured again while the third didn't recover from his injury until the playoffs. So I'm curious how willing JS is to stomach drafting injured players this year.

Banks would be the perfect fit for DE on our 3-4 defense, but I don't want to take home run swings on boom-or-bust prospects.

Those injuries are completely different.

Arroyo, Horton, Mills don't really have bad injury history.

I described the Seahawks' process above. Being ACLs, I think the team was pretty comfortable with the players above recovering from their injuries.

I don't know if the team wants to stomach reoccurring foot injuries for a 6-6 and 320+ lb dude...

 

[Chevy]

Those injuries are completely different.

Arroyo, Horton, Mills don't really have bad injury history.

I described the Seahawks' process above. Being ACLs, I think the team was pretty comfortable with the players above recovering from their injuries.

I don't know if the team wants to stomach reoccurring foot injuries for a 6-6 and 320+ lb dude...

I did listen to that interview and found it interesting to hear what their process is. I wonder if they alter it a bit seeing that those three rookies (Mills, Horton, and Arroyo) missed a combine 25 games their first year with the Seahawks. With Mike Macdonald going into his 3rd draft with the Seahawks I'm sure he'll have input on whether he wants to draft a player coming off an injury. Seeing that those three rookies missed so many games last year.

Arroyo missed 14 games over 2 seasons because of a knee injury while at Miami. Then he went on to miss 4 games during his rookie season because of a knee injury.

Horton had season ending surgery his last year in college. Then went on to miss the last half of his rookie season and has still not fully recovered from it.

Mills is different because it was known his recovery would go into the regular season.


All teams have some kind of plan when placing prospects on their board due to injuries or character concerns. With the Seahawks in a Super Bowl window, I don't want us to take players coming off injuries (Banks or Jermod McCoy).

 

[Ozzy]

At CB I like Ponds out of Indiana a lot. Also top 30 visits from Colton Hood and Brandon Cisse for a position group in that early first or early day 2 pick. The white safety out of Oregon…..I want to say Thieneman could be a great fit with our schematics

I was a little against ponds because of his size but the more I see the more I like him. Dude is like a faster more athletic Witherspoon. I think a creative coach like Macdonald would maximize him and get a ton out of him.

 

[Seahawker]

Really like Colton Hood who has some tackling, deep ball tracking concerns and could be a penalty magnet but has physical tools and coverage instincts you can't teach.
This is a fierce LOS, boundary guy that WR's do not like facing.
Hopeful that Nehemiah Pritchett can step up but won't be surprised if they take two CB's in this draft.
Feel real good about John & Mike identifying CB's at this point and excited to see who their guy is. Even have a little hope they could grab Tacario Davis in the 4th after a trade down.

The month before the draft is the longest time of the year.

 

[CPHawk]

I'm a sucker for big athletic DTs and I would love to have him on the Seahawks. But he has had 3 foot injuries in the last 1 1/2 years which makes drafting him a boom-or-bust prospect. Last year we drafted 3 players coming off injuries and two of the three got injured again while the third didn't recover from his injury until the playoffs. So I'm curious how willing JS is to stomach drafting injured players this year.

Banks would be the perfect fit for DE on our 3-4 defense, but I don't want to take home run swings on boom-or-bust prospects.

Yeah. Big men with foot injury history, scares me. Smaller guys can get over it, but 300lbs on weak feet, never heals right.

 

[FrodosFinger]

Hopeful that Nehemiah Pritchett can step up

Nehemiah looked amazing last year when used. I already thought he was better than Woolen. Between Jobe and Pritchett I have confidence in both

 

[Seahawker]

Nehemiah looked amazing last year when used. I already thought he was better than Woolen. Between Jobe and Pritchett I have confidence in both

If Pritchett is ready that changes everything in my mind. There seems to be a dozen CBs in the top 100 and hopefully they can take one of their top rated when they are available.
Johnson, Hood & Cisse all look like value picks in the 2nd but I hope they don't trade down too
early before seeing who could fall to them.

DB, DL, RG, RB would seem to be etched on their board but John could surprise us.
Having the least amount picks (4) and the lowest draft slating (32) it would not surprise me if JS ended up with one of the stronger draft classes with a couple rookies contributing early.

I think it's important not to force things, reach too much and not to be desperate to fill every need. A bird in the hand... Just chill and let the draft come to us with the knowledge this is not the deepest class.
Let the Mark Davis' & Jerry Jones' do their thing and push players down to us.

I love the draft and used to think getting one starter and a couple of backups was a solid draft. Now I feel the possiblity of a Richard Sherman or Rylie Mills around every corner like a hidden BB gun behind the Christmas tree.

 

[Chevy]

Nehemiah looked amazing last year when used. I already thought he was better than Woolen. Between Jobe and Pritchett I have confidence in both

I wasn't impressed with Pritchett when he played, and I highly doubt JS and the coaching staff agree with you. I haven't heard anyone that covers the Seahawks that have the opinion that we are good at CB because of the "amazing" or even good play of Pritchett. Look at our 30-visits, a bunch of projected 1st round CBs. A lot of fans and JS have confidence in Jobe because he played good and stole the starting job from Woolen. It's still to early to label Pritchett a bust, but hasn't shown anything more than being JAG.

 

[nwHawk]

He may end up a long term solid contributor, similar to Niko Thorpe.

Definitely need to draft a body and keep Turing over stones.

 

[onanygivensunday]

Mine are...

Chris Johnson (CB)... if available at #32.

Keylan Rutledge (G/C)... if available at #64.

Jalon Kilgore (S)... if available at #96.

Nicholas Singleton (RB)... if available at #188.

 

[Ozzy]

Mine are...

Chris Johnson (CB)... if available at #32.

Keylan Rutledge (G/C)... if available at #64.

Jalon Kilgore (S)... if available at #96.

Nicholas Singleton (RB)... if available at #188.

I love all of these guys. Good list

 

[Wsumatt1982]

I tried to find a pic of Mel Kiper but couldn't find any so I'll go with Ian

 

[jackchristensen]

Mine are...

Chris Johnson (CB)... if available at #32.

Keylan Rutledge (G/C)... if available at #64.

Jalon Kilgore (S)... if available at #96.

Nicholas Singleton (RB)... if available at #188.

Funny enough, this was my exact mock draft simulation yesterday! Would be a bit unreal if we got all 4 of those players without trades, but we can certainly dream. Rutledge is such an elite athlete at guard and would excell in the scheme with his agility. I do think they like Bryce Cabeldue as a future starter for the same reason. Would certainly be a BPA selection and I couldn't complain.

If Johnson's not available and it makes sense to do so, I would be highly in-favor of trading down and taking Treydan Stukes. Older rookie, but a freaky athlete who is top character guy in the class. He's a Seahawk-type. If they choose to go another direction in round 1, taking a sliding EDGE rusher or Kayden McDonald, this DB class is so deep that I wouldn't even blink.

Singleton apparently clocked something in the mid 4.3s which is absurd for his size. Outisde of Mike Washington Jr, that size and speed combo doesn't exist in this class. Plus, he can actually pass protect unlike Mike Washington Jr who's just big and fast.

 

[samwize77]

My crush is a trade down from 32, IF we can stay in mid-2nd round. The reasoning is I want Price, IMHO losing Walker was the biggest off season loss and we need to cover that. Could we get him @ 32? Probably. But trading back a little and getting 1 or 2 extra picks adds valve to that one pick and places Price about where he should be. Its a gamble, but what draft usually isn't? After that, its edge and db/cb/safety. I like that Rutledge kid, but we need to bolster positions where we lost in FA. The Oline and dline got us a SB win. We'll get Horton back(hopefully soon) so the WR room is intact. LB is something of a question mark but not need to panic there.

We aren't a team with alot of needs. So we need to stick with our mantra of being a run first team on offense, which to me, again IMHO, WE ARE not RIGHT NOW. With Walker gone, and CHARBS not ready for a good portion of the start of the season, we have NO bonafide starters there. We need a true threat there and Price, I believe, is that guy. Might I add, since this is a "draft crush" thread.........if in later rounds, and JS is happy how its gone, if Eli Heidenrich is there...grab that guy.

Now, I say all that with something in the back of my mind. NEXT YEARS DRAFT. We'll have a TON of ammunition for picks or to trade up/down(get even more picks). Our true future is in THAT draft.

 

[seabowl]

Lee Hunter, Kyle Louis, and Sadiq

 

[FrodosFinger]

Lee Hunter, Kyle Louis, and Sadiq

Sadiq when we got Barner and Arroyo? I’m not sure about all that. We need to focus on BPA and if the best available player at 32 happens to be Zion Young that would already be an upgrade from Boye Mafe. If Thieneman is on the board at 32 you have to consider the fit. Colton Hood, DeAngelo Ponds and Brandon Cisse have to be considered

 

[ivotuk]

I'm a sucker for big athletic DTs and I would love to have him on the Seahawks. But he has had 3 foot injuries in the last 1 1/2 years which makes drafting him a boom-or-bust prospect. Last year we drafted 3 players coming off injuries and two of the three got injured again while the third didn't recover from his injury until the playoffs. So I'm curious how willing JS is to stomach drafting injured players this year.

Banks would be the perfect fit for DE on our 3-4 defense, but I don't want to take home run swings on boom-or-bust prospects.

6th round would be a good place to risk it

 

[Chevy]

6th round would be a good place to risk it

Agreed. There are sooo many late round DTs that I like in this draft.

 

[Shane Falco]

Lee Hunter, Kyle Louis, and Sadiq

Lee Hunter would be a sneaky good pick not many would see coming.