RENTON — After Friday’s second and third rounds of the NFL draft, Seahawks general manager and president of football operations John Schneider struggled to contain his excitement about the team’s haul.
“It’s a cool day in Seahawks history,’’ he said. “It really is.’’
Saturday, once all seven rounds had finally completed, Schneider smiled and thought about what he’d said the night before, apparently realizing that there have been some pretty franchise-altering drafts before during his tenure.
“Historic was a little aggressive last night,’’ he said with a smile. “I was like ‘slow down sheriff.’’’
Still, he couldn’t totally bottle up his enthusiasm.
“I don’t know,’’ he said. “It’s just really cool, these guys.’’
Seattle ultimately put together an 11-man draft class, tied for the largest of the 16 during Schneider’s tenure and most since 2019.
It ended up tilting heavily toward offense with nine picks on that side of the ball compared to just two on defense.
Schneider said going big on offense wasn’t really by design.
“It was just the way it happened,’’ Schneider said. “We had some defensive guys that we talked about, had a couple upsets (meaning, players picked they hadn’t expected) and things started happening. So it was like ‘OK, we’re going here, we’re going here, we’re going here.’ The offensive guys ended up standing out on our board.’’
The offensive haul included six of the seven picks Seattle made during rounds four through seven on Saturday, which included drafting two more offensive lineman (guard Bryce Cabeldue of Kansas taken 192 overall and tackle Mason Richman of Iowa at 234), two receivers (Colorado State’s Tory Horton at 166 and UNLV’s Ricky White III at 238), a fullback (Alabama’s Robbie Ouzts at 175, the first time Seattle has drafted one since 2014) and a running back (Miami’s Damien Martinez, a standout at Oregon State in 2022 and 2023, at 223).
The lone defensive player was end Rylie Mills of Notre Dame (142).
That group added to guard Grey Zabel, taken 18th overall on Thursday, and safety Nick Emmanwori (35th overall), tight end Elijah Arroyo (50th) and quarterback Jalen Milroe (92nd) taken on Friday.
Together, Schneider thinks it’s a group that could prove transformative as Seattle enters the second year of Mike Macdonald’s coaching tenure in 2025.
“The toughness, the competitors, the reliability,’’ he said. “Just excited for this growth-minded staff to get their hands on these guys and get ripping.’’
After giving up a pick to take a big swing and move up to take Emmanwori on Friday, Seattle used an alternate strategy on Saturday, pulling off two trades that added two additional picks while also dealing backup quarterback Sam Howell to Minnesota to move up 30 spots (from 172 to 142).
With that pick Seattle took Mills.
Mills suffered an ACL tear in the team’s playoff game Dec. 20 against Indiana or Seattle felt he would have gone higher.
The team brought him in for a physical recently and felt comfortable enough to take him.
“We’re hopeful mid-to-later season he’s going to be a viable candidate to add to our group,’’ Schneider said,
Among Seattle’s trades was dealing the 144th overall pick to Cleveland for 166 and 192.
The Browns immediately used the pick to take Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and finally stop his slide, which figures to forever be the enduring legacy of this draft.
The rest of the way was offense.
The three OLs drafted gives Seattle six offensive linemen taken the last two years, the most in the NFL.
Zabel projects to start immediately at left guard while Saturday’s two additions will compete for depth spots and maybe playing time down the road.
Prior to the draft, Seattle hadn’t added any OLs since the end of the season other than veteran Josh Jones, who projects as a backup tackle.
Schneider said the lack of activity was in part because once the team assessed the position at the combine it felt it could find some options in the draft.
“We knew we were going to address this,’’ Schneider said, saying the plan all along had been to take at least one high in the draft.
By the end of the draft, Seattle had 10 interior linemen on its roster and four tackles and was sure to sign a few more as undrafted free agents.
The drafting of Ouzts and Martinez also spoke to the team’s desire to become a better running team under first-year offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
Seattle also has moved tight end Brady Russell to fullback, making it clear that two-back sets will be a regular part of the scheme after Seattle didn’t have a fullback on the roster last season when Ryan Grubb was the offensive coordinator.
The 6-foot-3, 274-pound Ouzts played primarily tight end at Alabama but did some fullback work early in his career there while Martinez became known for his bruising style at OSU and Miami.
“I’m really excited to see our run game come to life,’’ Macdonald said of an attack that ranked 28th in the NFL last season. “These guys fit what we’re trying to do, how we want to do it. You’ve got to move people, man, and got to get downhill and play North and South and that’s what they are going to help us do.’’
Horton suffered an LCL and hamstring injury in October that required surgery. But the 6-foot-2 Horton recovered well enough to run a 4.41 in the 40-yard dash at the combine, a size-speed combination Schneider said had the team thinking he’s “an underrated guy.’’ Horton also could factor into the return game.
Horton was indicative of a group that overall oozed athleticism.
NFL’s Next Gen Stats reported that Seattle selected a league-high four players with an athleticism score of 85 or higher and that Seattle’s first for picks all had an average score of 91, the highest by any team since 2003.
White’s stock fell after he ran a 4.61 40-yard dash at the combine.
But he improved that to 4.44 at his Pro Day and the Seahawks are banking that’s a truer indication of his ability.
He also was a special teams’ standout at UNLV, leading the nation with four blocked punts in 2024.
Schneider said White “kind of reminded me of Donald Driver’’ the former longtime Green Bay Packer standout (Schneider worked at Green Bay during much of Driver’s career there).
The feeling was so good in the draft room that the Seahawks decided to switch things up before taking Richman.
Zabel had just arrived in town and walked into the draft room as the seventh round unfolded.
As the pick of Richman neared, the team decided to have Zabel handle the duties of calling him to let him know he was a Seahawk instead of a coach or scout.
Richman, who had begun to worry he might go undrafted, wasn’t sure what to think when he got the call.
“I’m not going to lie, it was getting down to the last picks there,’’ said Richman, who started 52 games at left tackle at Iowa. “I had to actually believe that it was true. Somebody gets on the phone, and I’m worried about a prank call, I know guys get prank calls nowadays. It was Grey Zabel, which I think was hilarious.
“… Hearing that, that wasn’t what I expected. I thought I would hear from my agent or someone else. But the first person I heard from was Grey Zabel, which is so funny.’’
Or as Schneider might have said, really cool.