A dream trade-up target for Seattle Seahawks in NFL Draft

To be clear, this is not a likely scenario.

But crazy things can happen in the NFL Draft. And in the countdown to next Thursday’s first round, this is a time for football fans to dream.

Latest Seahawks Mock Draft Roundup: Who will Seattle take at No. 18?

With that as the backdrop, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah‘s weekly appearance Wednesday on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk included a conversation about the top edge rushers in year’s draft class. And during that conversation, co-host Mike Salk posed a question: Is there any chance the Seattle Seahawks could trade up to get star Georgia edge rusher Jalon Walker?

Most mock drafts predict Walker to be selected by the Carolina Panthers with the No. 8 overall pick, so he’ll likely be off the board long before Seattle’s first-round pick at No. 18. But with 10 overall picks and five in the first three rounds, is there any way the Seahawks could use their extra draft capital to move up and snag Walker if he slips outside the the top 10?

“I wouldn’t totally punt on the Jalon thing,” Jeremiah said. “Put it this way: I’ve talked to teams in the 20s that say, ‘Do you think he gets to us?’ Like, so that tells me that there are teams out there that don’t view him (as a surefire top-10 pick).

“I mean, I do not envision it’s likely (that’s he’s available at 18). But he could be one of those deals where you’ve got some extra ammunition, so if he starts to drift in range, that would be a fun piece to add to the mix.”

In that scenario, Jeremiah said a trade up would be worth it – especially given the relatively tame cost of doing so.

“To move up a couple spots, you can dump a fourth-round pick,” Jeremiah said. “In this draft, you’re not gonna be a missing a ton there.”

The scoop on Walker

With explosive athleticism and a 6-foot-1, 243-pound frame, Walker played both on the edge and at linebacker for Georgia. He racked up 6.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss this past season – including three sacks and three tackles for loss in a spectacular performance against Texas – en route to winning the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker.

Walker is widely considered the second-best edge rusher in this year’s draft behind likely top-three pick Abdul Carter from Penn State. But with his linebacking experience, he also brings plenty of versatility for modern defensive schemes that emphasize positional flexibility.

“He’s an undersized guy who plays off the ball and on the ball, so they move him around,” Jeremiah said. “He wins from a lot of different entry points with how they blitz him and rush him. But off the edge, he is ultra-explosive. … He’s a big-time fastball off the edge who jolts guys. He dominated the Texas game. He just took the game over.

“You can play him off the ball and spy him and he just sucks people up on the perimeter. (Texas quarterback) Arch Manning in that game tried to escape – Arch can really run – (and Walker) sucked him up, easy. … I think he is a really, really fun chess piece in a league that’s kind of trending toward some position-less, amoeba-type stuff to keep people guessing. This guy’s a chess piece.”

The Seahawks currently have a solid core of edge rushers in Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Derick Hall and free-agent signee DeMarcus Lawrence. But with Nwosu and Lawrence both coming off injury-plagued seasons, Seattle certainly could look to add more firepower to the group.

And if somehow, some way, the Seahawks turned that dream into a reality? Jeremiah, a former NFL scout, summed it up succintly.

“He’s different,” Jeremiah said. “He’s a different cat.”

Listen to the full conversation with NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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