Before getting into the notes, my weekly appearances on Bump & Stacy have restarted again until the draft. The first pre-draft conversation aired today and is available below. Please check it out and if you can, like the video and leave a comment!

I don’t understand what’s going on with Emmanuel Pregnon

The grades match the tape and both are really good. His explosive testing profile puts him in an elite bracket, comparable to some of the top offensive linemen in the game:

Lane Johnson — 3.44
Emmanuel Pregon — 3.40
Rashawn Slater — 3.40
Terron Armstead — 3.38
Peter Skoronski — 3.37

Typically players like this go in round one. However, he’s not even close on a lot of high profile boards.

Todd McShay has him ranked 53rd (he said on a recent podcast he will move him up). He’s not included in Daniel Jeremiah’s top-50. Pregnon was way back at #79 on Dane Brugler’s February board. He’s ranked 40th by Lance Zierlein.

Bob McGinn’s scouting sources joined the party this week. Whether you appreciate McGinn’s anonymous quotes or not, typically he’s pretty on the money at projecting draft range. He had Pregnon in the R2/3 bracket.

This is a fully consistent theme. It’s hard to find anyone saying ‘this player will go in round one’. I am projecting him at #21 to the Steelers and talking him up as a possibility for the Seahawks if he lasts to #32, on an island with Pete Prisco (who also put him at #21 in his mock last week) and Tony Pauline — who has been suggesting Pregnon will go between picks #25 and #42.

I just find it really hard to think that at least one team isn’t going to look at his testing profile and readiness to start and think — this guy gives us a safe starting option in a tricky draft to find value.

Yet most of the talk at the moment is he will very much be available at #32 if the Seahawks want to go in that direction.

I will note — Steve Muench threw it out there on McShay’s show as to whether Pregnon sneaks into the first round. McShay said he didn’t think it would happen but that he was solidly in the second, before adding later on that he preferred Pregnon to Chase Bisontis (in his recent top-100 ranking he had Bisontis at #42 and Pregnon at #53, so that gives you an idea as to where he will eventually move Pregnon up to).

It might be the first sign that we’ll see the media come around on this.

Mike Macdonald emphasises a point we’ve been making

That was a quote from the Seahawks Head Coach today when discussing the impact of losing Boye Mafe:

“The best thing that Boye does is win quick. You need to be able to affect the QB fast. If you get the QB off his spot, someone should be there to make the play.”

We’ve been discussing this a lot recently. While we all can appreciate Seattle’s desire to be a great run-defending unit — they’ve already achieved that. They don’t need to add another one to the group unless they’re simply waiting for the draft to finish before announcing DeMarcus Lawrence is retiring (Doug Baldwin retired right after the 2019 draft).

What they really need are quick wins. They’ve not had enough of them even with Mafe on the roster. Now he’s gone. They don’t have enough speed in their rush.

Mafe ran a 1.56 10-yard split. Every year we mention that anything in the 1.5’s is excellent. It’s notable that the only three players at the combine to run a 1.5 split were Arvell Reese, Cashius Howell and Malachi Lawrence.

They have no shot at Reese but the other two are very much in play. And remember our stat from Sunday? Lawrence (16.1mph) and Cashius Howell (16mph) had the two fastest max speed recordings via GPS during the college season among players realistically capable of being available at #32.

They also score well for pass-rush win percentage — Howell at 19.9% and Lawrence at 19.2%. Howell’s personality and motor also scream ‘Seahawks’. His lack of arm length feels less of an issue given the success Macdonald had with Kyle Van Noy in Baltimore.

If quick wins are what they need though there aren’t a ton of obvious alternative options. It might lessen how likely they are to draft a pass-rusher, knowing that players like Von Miller can fill that hole for a season if needed.

Could the Seahawks make a dramatic trade down?

Eric Edholm wrote an interesting piece this week for NFL.com looking at win-win trades for the draft.

He had the Steelers pulling off a blockbuster — electrifying the home fans (the draft is taking place in Pittsburgh) to move up from #53 to #32. It would mean the Steelers picking twice in the first round.

They have 12 picks to play with so moving up isn’t unrealistic for the Steelers. They are primed to make a move at either #21 or #53. I think they might move up to target Vega Ioane or one of the receivers with their top pick. If they don’t take a receiver at #21, getting back to the #32 pick to grab someone would be very interesting and not unrealistic. That’s the range where the likes of Omar Cooper Jr, KC Concepcion, Chris Bell and possibly Denzel Boston will go.

Edholm projected the Steelers would give up:

#53 (R2)
#76 (R3)
#161 (R5)
#216 (R6)

The Seahawks would drop down 19 spots to gain three more picks.

I wouldn’t hate that move, frankly. The options at #53 are not likely to be significantly lower in grade than the players at #32. If the late first is a sweet-spot for receivers, it would appeal to the Steelers far more than the Seahawks.

With the extra picks they could replenish some of their lost depth and it wouldn’t be the worst area to select in — picking four times between #53 and #96.

I will probably do a mock later this week looking at the options if they made a move like this.