Schneider informs the room that the Seahawks are moving back, sending No. 188 to the Jets for No. 199 and 242.
It’s late enough in the draft that scouts and coaches in the back of the room start discussing options for undrafted free agents. Who might the Seahawks be able to sign, and what positions are they looking to fill? The calls to UDFAs can’t start yet, but the planning already has.
The Rams acquire No. 197 via a trade with the Eagles, getting an “Oh shit” from somebody in the room who is concerned the Rams could be going after the same player as Seattle.
The Rams use that pick on receiver CJ Daniels, which is met with relief. It’s the position the Seahawks were worried about, but not the player.
Parrish picks up the phone to make the call to Emmanuel Henderson Jr., a receiver out of Kansas, but there’s no answer. Another couple of attempts don’t get an answer, and suddenly there’s only 2:15 left on the clock for Seattle to submit its pick. Just as it’s starting to get a little tense in the room, Parrish gets ahold of Henderson.
“Glad we got through, we got the voicemail a couple of times,” Parrish says.
“Yes sir, my bad,” Henderson says.
Macdonald, taking the phone from Parrish, says, “Hey, congrats, Emmanuel. We were worried there for a second. Did you have it on do not disturb or something?”
Macdonald adds, “There’s nobody more excited than our special teams coach, Jay Harbaugh. I’m going to pass it off to him.”
Harbaugh says to Henderson, “What’s up, man. You got any speed left for us,” which is met with, “Oh yeah, most definitely.”
Harbaugh then says, “We love the way you play the game, man. Can’t wait for the role you’re going to play for us. You’re going to light up Lumen Field.”
After the call with Henderson ends, Schneider gets the room’s attention for a moment to recognize Seahawks Vice Chair Bert Kolde, who, with the Estate of Paul G Allen announcing earlier this year that it was beginning the process of selling the team, was taking part in his final draft with the team. Schneider presented Kolde with a helmet signed by the personnel staff and coaching staff and thanked him for all that he and the Allen family have done for the team, then told him, “Whoever our last pick is, you’re calling the (expletive) guy.”
The Seahawks are back on the clock with pick No. 216, but Schneider, who for two days had a hard time finding trading partners, can’t stop making moves in the later rounds. This time he has a deal lined up with the Packers, which will send 216 to Green Bay in exchange for a pair of seventh-round picks, No. 236 and 255. The Seahawks, who came into the draft with only four picks, have now made five selections with three picks still to go.
With the Seahawks’ next pick approaching, Schneider tells area scout Jack Green that he will be calling Toledo cornerback Andre Fuller with the good news, presuming Fuller is still available in two picks. Green, the son of well-respected longtime NFL scout Dom Green, is in his third year as a Seahawks scout after getting his start as an intern in the personnel department, and this will be his first time calling to tell a player he was being selected.
The Vikings select center Gavin Gerhardt at No. 235 putting the Seahawks back on the clock, ready to select Fuller. Green can’t get through to Fuller on his first couple of attempts, then, finally, with less than two minutes on the clock, Fuller picks up.
“We’re about to take you right here at pick 236, that sound good?” Green asks.
“Yes sir,” Fuller says, his voice cracking.
“Can’t wait to get you up here, congratulations,” Green says. “Enjoy this day with your family.”
As Green hands the phone off to Macdonald, Fuller can be heard telling the friends and family gathered with him, “I’m going to get drafted right now.”
“Hey Andre, congrats bud,” Macdonald says, adding, “Andre, you there.”
Fuller, the emotion really overtaking him, says, “Thank you coach, yes sir.”
“You all right?” Macdonald asks.
“You’ve got a home now, buddy, we’ll see you soon,” Macdonald says, with Fuller, still crying, saying, “Thank you coach.”
After Karl Scott welcomes Fuller to the team, he hands the phone to defensive assistant/defensive backs coach Neiko Thorpe, a former Seahawks player who is also something of an unofficial hype man on the coaching staff.
“Congrats, bro,” Thorpe says. “Can’t wait to get you up here and get to work. Just what we need, a big, physical guy who can run. I can’t wait to work with you. Enjoy this time with your family, and welcome to the dark side, my boy.”
With another pick coming up soon at 242, the Seahawks have to turn their attention to another pick not long after they get off the phone with Fuller.
Defensive line coach Justin Hinds, who is in the back of the room—most coaches, other than Macdonald, come and go from the room throughout the draft—sees that one of the top players left on the board is Minnesota nose tackle Deven Eastern. Eastern isn’t just one of the best players available, he also fits a need for the Seahawks, who have plenty of front-line talent on their interior line, but who want to stockpile depth behind standouts like Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II and Jarran Reed. Not only do the Seahawks want to keep adding quality players up front, they also want depth so veterans like Reed and Williams can have their practice workloads managed throughout the year. Eastern is one of Seattle’s top options here, but there’s some discussion in the room about the pick, because there is also a cornerback the Seahawks like (spoiler alert: they’ll get him too).
Hinds, wanting to drive the point home about D-line depth point, tells Leslie Frazier, “If we don’t draft Eastern, I’m playing nose.”
Sarah Ruttkay, Seattle’s player personnel manager and executive assistant to the GM, calls Bert Kolde over to the phone that will be used to call Eastern. It isn’t Seattle’s final pick, but Schneider is making good on his promise from earlier in the day to let Kolde call a pick.
The Seahawks are on the clock after Buffalo selects guard Ar’maj Reed-Adams, and Kolde takes the ringing phone from Ruttkay to welcome Eastern to the team with Seattle’s penultimate pick of the 2026 draft.
“It’s Bert Kolde calling from the Seahawks, how you doing?” he says. “Are you ready to be a Seahawk? Congratulations, we’re going to take you here at 242.”
“Let’s go, I’m ready to work,” Eastern replies. “I’m ready to get out there.”
After Macdonald welcomes Eastern to the team, Hinds gets on the phone, telling Eastern, “It worked out the way it’s supposed to.”
Even at the end of round seven, NFL teams can still get at least a little upset when a team in front of them takes a player they like, and that happens at pick No. 253 when the Ravens select guard Evan Beernsten, though it seemed the Seahawks were more hoping to sign Beernsten after the draft, not select him at No. 255.
“Son of a gun, oh shit” Schneider says, though somewhat playfully.
With Seattle’s final pick coming up, Schneider informs Becca Erenbaum, the team’s senior football research analyst, that she is making the call, much to her surprise. Erenbaum, director of research and analytics Patrick Ward and the rest of the research and analytics department, play a significant role in Seattle’s draft process, though we can’t really go into detail on what they do, both because Schneider and company don’t want to give too much away about their process, and because, let’s face it, most of us mere mortals aren’t smart enough to comprehend what those brilliant folks do anyway.
Erenbaum puts in the call to Arizona cornerback Michael Dansby, who at No. 255 will be Seattle’s eighth and final selection in the 2026 draft.
“We’re about to take you with Pick 255, congratulations,” Erenbaum says. “Here’s our head coach Mike Macdonald.”
The room applauds both the pick and Erenbaum getting to make the call, though the draft room being the draft room, she does catch a few playful barbs for sounding like she rehearsed that line.
“Congratulations,” Macdonald says to Dansby after talking the phone. “I know it was a long wait, but it’ll be worth it, I promise.”
“I’ll make it worth it, for sure,” Dansby says.
Earlier in his tenure, Schneider, like a lot of GMs would make most of the calls to picks, but more recently, he has spread that job around. Having scouts, then Kolde and Erenbaum, make those calls is, as Schneider sees it, a nice reward for all the people who put in the work throughout the year to get ready for a draft.
“The scouts, they’re away from their families so much,” Schneider said. “Like Ryan’s (Florence) got two beautiful little kids. He’s gone all the time. They put in so much time. It’s just a cool thing. They build these relationships with these guys. It’s just great for them to be able to finally say, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to select you,’ then hand the phone to the head coach. I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to do this for a number of years. I hope others in our room will be able to do the same thing, be decision makers. It’s just fun to let them do that. Obviously, the team is going to be sold, so it’s Bert’s last draft with us. Becca, this girl works her tail off, it’s fun for her. We were joking, she was a little AI-ish. It was fun for her to be able to do that, too.
It’s all these people in the background. Again, you guys are interviewing the players, the coaches, everybody throughout the year, but there’s a lot that goes into this behind closed doors.”
Schneider and company were able to turn four picks into eight over the course of seven rounds, adding tough, competitive players who they hope will help the team win games for years to come, much as recent classes have made big contributions to the team’s success. After all, 11 of the 22 starters in February’s Super Bowl LX victory were players selected by Seattle between 2022 and 2025, not to mention a 12th starter, center Jalen Sundell, who signed as an undrafted rookie free agent, and three other players on defense who, while not starters, played at least a third of the teams defensive snaps.
Schneider loves what the team accomplished in the 2026 draft, but much like his head coach who preached process over results, Schneider is even more proud of the work it took to get the Seahawks ready for this year’s draft.
“I love our team, I love our people,” he said. “Everybody that works on this every year, we’re so blessed to be able to do this. I can’t tell you about the coaches, the scouts, medical, everything that goes into this. All of our guys working the phones today, rookie free agency, the whole process. We have great people. I’m very personally grateful and want to say thank you to everybody through the process.”
