They did it again. The Seahawks got what they needed most, first.

With trades galore going on right before them, the Seahawks got what they got in last year’s draft: Biggest need converged with the best player on their 2026 NFL draft board Thursday night.

Instead of trading down, per their usual, the Super Bowl champions selected Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price 32nd overall, the final pick of the first round.

The same need and best player met in the first round last year for Seattle, with 18th-overall choice Grey Zabel. That worked out OK for the Seahawks. Zabel became their new stud starter at left guard immediately. And Seattle won the Super Bowl. Price arrives one month after lead running back and Super Bowl most valuable player Kenneth Walker left Seattle. He signed a rich free-agent contact with Kansas City.

None of the seven running backs on the Seahawks’ 90-man offseason roster entering Thursday are signed past 2026.

Price is only the fourth running back in 51 years of Seahawks football the team selected in the first round. The others: Curt Warner in 1983, Shaun Alexander in 2000 and Rashaad Penny in 2018.

The 5-foot-11, 203-pound Price has rebounded from rupturing his Achilles tendon in 2022. He had only 280 college snaps playing behind Love at Notre Dame for three years. Yet Price averaged more than 6 yards per carry with 18 rushing touchdowns combined in his final two seasons for the Irish. Price was also an elite kickoff returner at Notre Dame.

The finalist for the Paul Hornung Award as college football’s most versatile player returned a kickoff for a touchdown against USC. Price was leading the nation averaging 47 yards per return early last season. The fact that he stayed his entire college career at Notre Dame in this era of NIL and transfers galore also would likely make culture-first coach Macdonald, a huge proponent of loyalty and intangibles, happy.

Trades galore right in front of Seattle

John Schneider made trades involving Seattle’s first-round choice 14 times in his first 16 drafts as the Seahawks general manager.

Here’s why he didn’t trade down out of the first round as usual this time:

There were eight trades in the first round. Seahawks general manager John Schneider watched six of them happen right in front of Seattle’s spot, between the 20th and 31st selections. San Francisco and Buffalo traded completely out of the first round, directly in front of the Seahawks at 30 and 31, respectively.

The conditions most presumed the Seahawks would best be able to trade back and out of round one evaporated about 90 minutes into the draft. The division-rival Los Angeles Rams, at 13 picking 19 spots ahead of Seattle’s place, selected Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson. The second quarterback taken in this draft, after Fernando Mendoza went first overall to the Raiders Thursday, Simpson will be the eventual heir to 38-year-old Matthew Stafford as coach Sean McVay’s quarterback in L.A.

That pick was far higher than most of the league expected Simpson to go. Many felt he would be on the board at 32, and that a quarterback-needy team such as Arizona (which released seven-year starting QB Kyler Murray last month) would be enticed to trade up with the Seahawks to 32 to get the final pick of the first round and the fifth-year contract option on the quarterback.

Simpson going that early made Schneider’s task to find trading partners with whom to move down more extensive. The New York Jets had the 33th pick in the draft immediately behind Seattle, the first pick of Friday’s second round. The Jets traded up ahead of the Seahawks to 30th overall Thursday night, obtaining San Francisco’s first-round pick.

That and only one top cornerback going among the first two dozen selections Thursday conspired for the GM and Seattle to keep their pick at 32.

That became the Price the Seahawks were willing to pay for their newest lead running back.

Draft Day HQ pic.twitter.com/dNXrNQlHUQ

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) April 24, 2026