The Seahawks actually gave away two third-round picks for Quenton Nelson.
There was the one they gave the Colts in the trade (along with a future 5), and there was the one they cut to make room for the All-Pro guard.
It’s a great lesson about how John Schneider should always approach his third-rounders: Trade them. For players, for higher draft picks, for a cup of coffee. Just get rid of them.
Christian Haynes — let go after the Nelson trade and picked up off waivers by Miami — was Schneider’s latest failed third-rounder.
Schneider knocked it out of the park with Russell Wilson (2012) and Tyler Lockett (2015), but he has hit on just 3 of 13 third-rounders (23%) since 2016. That ranks 21st in the NFL, according to data compiled by PerThirtySix.
Of his three hits, he paid just one (Abe Lucas) on a second contract. Shaquill Griffin and Damien Lewis both went elsewhere for their big paydays. Schneider has admitted that letting Lewis go was probably a mistake.
We’ve pointed out multiple times that Schneider’s draft whiffs in 2016 and 2017 were a major reason the Seahawks’ defense faded after the Legion of Boom group dissolved in 2018. His third-round misses in those two years were C.J. Prosise, Rees Odhiambo, Lano Hill, Nazair Jones and Amara Darboh. Nick Vannett was a decent backup who ended up being traded before his rookie deal concluded. Griffin was the only real success in that group. In other words, Schneider went 1 for 7 in the third round those years.
Add in the Germain Ifedi failure in Round 1 of 2016, plus the Malik McDowell debacle and the head-scratching Ethan Pocic pick in Round 2 of 2017, and those two drafts really set the Hawks back as they transitioned out of the LOB era. Schneider had to start making veteran trades to make up for all of those mistakes: Sheldon Richardson, Duane Brown, Jadeveon Clowney, Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, Carlos Dunlap.
Schneider included third-rounders in deals for Brown, Clowney and Adams – a better use for those picks than drafting with them. (Yes, Adams was a bust and Clowney was a rental, but Schneider had the right idea.)
Since 2018, Schneider has drafted six guys in the third round. Lewis and Lucas were hits, and Cody Barton was a decent backup. But Haynes and Rasheem Green are among the worst third-rounders of Schneider’s tenure.
So this is why it was smart of Schneider to find a way to send a 3 to Indianapolis for Nelson. It continues a new strategy for him this decade. Including this deal, Schneider has traded a third-rounder in all but one draft covering 2019-27.
In 2019, he moved up from 77 (third round) to 64 to draft DK Metcalf.
In August 2019, Schneider gave up his third pick in 2020 to get Clowney from Houston. But he still made a pick in the third in 2020, moving down from 64 to 69 to draft Lewis.
Schneider’s 2021 third was part of the July 2020 trade for Adams. He kept his 2022 third, making a smart pick of Lucas. But since then, he has moved five more picks in Round 3.
In 2023, he gave Denver the No. 83 pick and received a 2023 fourth-rounder (which became Anthony Bradford) and a 2024 third-rounder.
In March 2024, he included a 3 in a pick-swap package for Sam Howell. Then he used the Denver 3 on Haynes – Seattle was desperate to draft a guard.
In 2025, Schneider acquired a 3 from the Raiders for Geno Smith, then used that pick on Jalen Milroe. The third round was entirely picked over by that time, and a shot on a QB was about the best choice Schneider could make.
Earlier in that draft, Schneider made maybe his best move involving a third-rounder since he moved up to draft Lockett in 2015: He traded his native 3 to move up 17 spots in the second round (from 52 to 35) to take Nick Emmanwori. That move seemed brilliant then and has absolutely turned out that way – Emmanwori’s dynamic game against the Chiefs on Sunday night being the latest example.
In this past draft, Schneider moved down a few spots at the bottom of the third, picking up a sixth-rounder and drafting Julian Neal. He was ecstatic to even get that deal done after teams refused to trade with him in the first two rounds.
So now Schneider has moved his third pick in the next draft to get an All-Pro guard who is worth way more than that – and who ideally will join other recent midseason pickups Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones IV and Rashid Shaheed in sticking around.
The median hit rate on third-rounders for the league since 2016 is about 30%. By trading a lot of his picks since 2019, Schneider has about doubled that success rate (6 for 10, with Milroe and Neal not yet decided).
He still has three third-rounders coming his way over the next two drafts (courtesy of the Vikings hiring minority GM Nolan Teasley). You can bet he will continue to look for creative ways to offload those picks and turn them into better players than he might be able to draft in those spots.
