The Seahawks are set to pick at No. 5 and No. 20 overall in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft. In the latest for Touchdown Wire, Doug Farrar has Seattle selecting defensive players with both first-round picks.
With their first pick, acquired from Denver in the Russell Wilson trade, the Seahawks select cornerback Devon Witherspoon out of Illinois.
“The Seahawks got a total steal in the fifth round of the 2022 draft with cornerback Tariq Woolen, but through the Pete Carroll era, Seattle’s never really had bookend cornerbacks with elite ball skills,” Farrar writes. “It’s time to change that by giving Carroll the best cornerback in this class with the first of many picks gleaned from the Russell Wilson trade. Witherspoon is a one-off in that he has all the aggressive erasing traits you love in a 6-foot-0, 180-pound defender, but he also has the foot quickness and anticipation abilities you expect from smaller cornerbacks. He’s a plug-and-play force for a defense that needs improvement on all three levels.”
With the scouting combine just around the corner, it’s time for Doug Farrar’s first three-round mock draft of 2023. https://t.co/fjqIKkjHc6
— Touchdown Wire (@TheNFLWire) February 25, 2023
Next, at No. 20 overall, Seattle picks Georgia Tech defensive lineman Keion White.
“When it comes to the Seahawks and the draft… well, we’ll just smile and laugh if you say that you think you know what’s coming,” Farrar writes. “Here’s what we do know: Pete Carroll and John Schneider aren’t afraid of athletic projects, at times to their own detriment, and they’re well aware that much help is required along the defensive front. White, a 6-foot-5, 286-pound every-gap pass-rushing monster who used to be a tight end at Old Dominion, has a unique athletic profile, and the potential to terrorize quarterbacks all over the front as Michael Bennett once did for the Legion of Boom.”
