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# ‘It’s No Secret With Us’: Seahawks Hoping to Trade Back in First Round, Plus Other Pre-NFL Draft Takeaways
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/no-secret-with-us-seattle-seahawks-pre-nfl-draft-takeaways/
- Published: 2026-04-20T23:42:42.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T05:55:59.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Seahawks, John Schneider, Mike Macdonald, 2026 NFL Draft

RENTON, Wash. - Just four days away from kicking off the 2026 NFL Draft, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald aren’t planning to give away state secrets as they prepare for their third draft together.

With that said, however, since Seattle only has four draft picks heading into Thursday night, Schneider made sure to make it clear to potentially interested parties during the team’s annual pre-draft press conference on Monday that the Seahawks are indeed open for business trying to trade down from No. 32 overall to recoup a pick or two. In the event that does happen, it would mark the third time in his 17 drafts where the team has traded out of the first round completely, last doing so back in 2017.

“It's no secret with us, guys,” Schneider said with a wry smile. “I mean, we have four picks and we'll be looking to move back and people are usually understanding that, you know, I think we tend to trade backwards, trade back.”

As Schneider noted, most teams should be well-versed in his previous track record of trading down or out of the first round. Though it has been nearly a decade since he did the latter, he has traded down in the opening round in six of his previous 16 drafts, including two separate occasions in 2017 and 2019 where the team made multiple trade downs from their native first rounder.

Gearing up for draft No. 17, Schneider has sights on pulling off such a trade down again, but it remains to be seen whether or not he will be able to accomplish the feat. A myriad of factors could come into play on Thursday night, including the possibility of another team trading back into the first round for a quarterback, likely with Alabama’s Ty Simpson being the target if he has yet to be selected. As for whether they would consider trading with a division rival such as the Cardinals, who hold pick No. 34, to provide an opportunity to land a quarterback, the reigning Executive of the Year said such moves would not be off the table.

This year, there will be one notable change that could potentially impact the ability of teams to engineer trades, as the NFL officially cut down the time allotted for first round picks from 10 minutes to eight. But Schneider downplayed the significance of that change, saying teams tend to be “several picks ahead” and that two less minutes should not have an impact whatsoever on that front.

“You’re a couple picks ahead, so it’s just that time that, you know, an extra two minutes of knowledge trying to line stuff up,” Schneider explained. “Try to do it this week, but really, it’s pretty serious Thursday throughout the day talking about trading down.”

Here are three other takeaways from Schneider and Macdonald’s press availability at the VMAC on Monday:

1. **An early understanding on concerns about the 2026 draft class made parting ways with picks for Rashid Shaheed easier.**Barring a trade, the Seahawks will make only the four aforementioned picks this upcoming weekend, their fewest since making three selections back in 2021\. As Schneider recalled, that specific draft half a decade ago presented unique challenges with the COVID pandemic still wreaking havoc on the traditional draft process as coaches and scouts tackled virtual interviews with prospects for the first time. The team also lived with having limited draft capital due to the previous blockbuster trade for safety Jamal Adams, viewing him as their first round selection, as well as a relatively weak class to pick from.Five years later, conducting business with players on Zoom and FaceTime has become a natural aspect of the process for everyone within the organization and a key part of the process each draft cycle. As the scouting department dug deeper into the incoming draft class during the fall, they began to signal concerns about a thin crop of talent overall, information that helped pave the way for Schneider being more game to deal both a fourth and fifth round pick in this year’s draft as a package to the Saints for speedy receiver/return specialist Rashid Shaheed at the trade deadline last October.“I think there's a lack of depth in this draft, and I thought our scouts did a great job of fall identifying that and letting that allow us to be a little bit more willing to give up \[fourth and fifth round\] picks for Rashid,” Schneider explained.As things turned out, that decision by Schneider proved to be a wise one, as Shaheed returned two kickoffs and a punt for touchdowns after arriving in town, including putting six points on the board on the opening play of a Divisional Round blowout win over the 49ers. Then in March, the Seahawks extended the lightning fast wideout, rewarding him for his efforts helping the team win a Super Bowl with a three-year, $51 million contract.Stating the obvious, Shaheed’s performance last year after the trade coupled with the new long-term commitment made by Seattle helps ease the sting for Schneider that comes with only having four throws at the dart board in an underwhelming draft class.
2. **Macdonald feels much more at home in regard to his role in the entire draft process in his third go-around.**Two years ago at this time, Macdonald found himself engulfed in a crash course learning how to become an NFL head coach on the fly. Succeeding Pete Carroll in February 2024, he was thrust immediately into the madness that is the pre-draft process, simply trying to keep his head above the water as he and Schneider teamed up for the first time and he adapted to how the organization operates from the scouting department all the way up to the front office.But now with a Super Bowl ring, or at least he will have one for real come September, Macdonald has found his comfort zone in what he deemed as a less is more approach. In his first year on the job, he felt that he stuck his neck into everything, not to be overbearing but trying to navigate his way and understand where his role fit as head coach. Last spring, he started to pull back a bit and allow everyone else to handle their responsibilities without too much intervention, better understanding how all of the different gears operate in the machine.“There's a lot of information being harvested over the course of years of work,” Macdonald commented. “So kind of understanding how our process is now, probably my role in the whole process is probably clear. You kind of jump into the first couple years, but you kind of see where my role kind of fits in. And so it's just clarity. But I'll tell you what, I really appreciate the amount of work that goes into it. Even our coaches, they come in at the 11th hour, like I said, they have a great understanding of what it takes to generate this information from our scouting department, how great they do.”Referencing the cohesive vision that coaches, scouts, and the personnel department have in regard to how they would utilize specific players, with safety Nick Emmanwori’s selection last April as an example, Macdonald acknowledged that the Seahawks try to pinpoint where they want to take their scheme on offense and defense leading up to the draft. This allows the organization to find the right prospect rather than having to turn around and change everything on the fly during the summer to adapt to a draft pick that doesn’t match that game plan, though they will be ready to pivot when necessary.From that perspective, while drafting for need will always be part of the equation, Macdonald and Schneider’s main focus will be on the current state of the roster and looking for the right personnel fits more than simply filling a need at a certain position.
3. **The hunt for elite competitors remains a top priority learning from Schneider’s past post-Super Bowl drafts.**This isn’t Schneider’s first rodeo when it comes to trying to defend a Super Bowl title, and with the previous experience of conducting drafts after making the big game in 2013 and 2014, one lesson in particular stood out to him as an area of improvement this time around. After those two years with draft classes that didn’t have near as much success as their predecessors, he has lamented not adding players with the competitive fire to battle against the likes of Leonard Williams, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, or Devon Witherspoon rather than admiring the stars who just hoisted a Lombardi Trophy.Adjusting his process over the years, Schneider has worked on eliminating player comparisons, something that he believes got Seattle in trouble in those prior drafts as they sought out players who shared commonalities with big-name stars to fill needs rather than evaluating the entire player to select the best talent available.“\[The goal is\] finding those players that want to come in and compete at a high level and not be enamored by the guys they just saw playing in the Super Bowl, or whether they played them on Madden four years earlier or something like that,” Schneider said of what he learned from those earlier drafts. “But, also, not necessarily just kind of throwing darts a little bit. Like, ‘Hey, we might as well take a shot at a guy that looks like Richard Sherman or runs like Earl Thomas, or we think could be the next Kam Chancellor’ or something like that. We're really, really careful about comparisons. That never goes real well.”There’s a certain DNA that the Seahawks desire from players, which can be trickier to figure out with such limited time speaking with various prospects leading up to the draft. The onus falls on the team’s scouts to fill those gaps in the fall, presenting as much information to coaches as possible so that they have a good baseline for players before meeting with them in the spring.Fortunately, Seattle has a highly respected, experienced scouting department that played a crucial role in the team’s ascent back to Super Bowl champion. Whether they won it all or missed the playoffs last year, Macdonald doesn’t think it matters, applauding the consistency from those doing the ground work year round and understanding what it takes to be a Seahawk.“You're working with a personnel department that's been together for a long time. They've got a really clear understanding about what makes a Seahawk a Seahawk. This isn't their first rodeo. That's constantly being discussed from the meetings that I'm in. Like John said, there's clarity there. There's alignment. Whether we won the Super Bowl or not, it would have been the same criteria, the type of person we're looking for to join our team. It's pretty consistent, honestly.”