There’s no smoke without fire.

By now, we should all be well versed in this when it comes to the Seahawks. The Russell Wilson trade is the best example of reading the tea leaves but there are others.

Adam Schefter, Jay Glazer and Albert Breer weren’t all talking about the Seahawks on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as a team to keep an eye on ahead of the trade deadline because nothing was going on. Admittedly, a lot of the chatter was about Seattle ‘being in on everything’. I think it was more than that though.

I think they were in on something big and just couldn’t get it over the line. We all saw how the NFL is in a new era of aggression. Big trades happened on deadline day and I suspect there were others that nearly happened too.

John Schneider has pretty much been front and centre when it comes to trading in the NFL. I’m pretty sure he was working on something significant and my guess is it was a big name pass rusher.

It would explain why Boye Mafe’s name was dangled over the weekend through Schefter. They were working on a big upgrade, already know they aren’t going to pay Mafe beyond this year and were seeing what was out there just in case everything aligned to bring in a new pass rusher. That’s my guess.

For whatever reason it didn’t come together. It would’ve been very difficult for the Raiders or Browns to trade Maxx Crosby or Myles Garrett with half a season of football still to play. Trey Hendrickson is perhaps the one who surprisingly wasn’t dealt — but were the Bengals ever going to be reasonable over a 31-year-old defender on an expiring contract? It appears not.

The Seahawks ended up trading for Rashid Shaheed but I’d love to know whether there was another move they were working on. Another big splash to match the Colts’ deal for Sauce Gardner and the Cowboys’ move for Quinnen Williams.

It’d make sense if they were. This is a wide open NFL season. Adding a proven blue-chipper for the rest of the year could’ve put the Seahawks in the conversation for NFC favourites. You can’t make other teams give away their best players though — and neither can you be reckless in trade talks to chase one season of opportunity.

However — they could easily return to the negotiating table in March.

My horizontal board currently has 111 graded players. Only five have first round grades. There are 67 players graded for day two. There will be over 100 picks made before the start of day three.

This is a thin draft lacking in top-end quality and depth. If the Seahawks pick towards the back-end of round one, it’s highly unlikely they’ll claim a player with a first round grade. It’s also unlikely they’ll get a player in round two with a second round grade.

It appears to be so thin in 2026 that their fifth round pick used in the Shaheed trade could’ve easily been a player with a priority UDFA grade on their board.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still early. The Senior Bowl and combine will impact grading. I have a handful of players I’m prepared to move into the round one conversation in the future.

There will also still be appealing players available whenever the Seahawks pick. I’m fond of Duke’s Brian Parker — a right tackle destined to move inside who’s a brilliant zone blocker. Francis Mauigoa’s in a similar boat, while Vega Ioane is very interesting too. Yet I think round two could present opportunities to improve your O-line this year (Iowa’s Gennings Dunker or Logan Jones, for example).

My prediction is this — the Seahawks will try to trade for a veteran star in the off-season. They will make the same calls they were making over the last few days. They might have a better chance of succeeding when a selling team can put a PR plan in place, plus sign some free agents to provide some positive headlines.

The 2026 draft class combined with the opening window of opportunity for the Seahawks, not to mention the previous history of Schneider as GM, suggest a future big trade is plausible.

We might not be watching a player like Crosby on Sunday against the Cardinals. We might only have to wait a few months to see him land in Seattle, though.

If there was ever a draft or a time to do it, it’s now.

Finally, please check out my latest conversation with Puck Sports — discussing the Rashid Shaheed trade and other topics!