The 2025 NFL Draft kicks off next week in Green Bay, giving the Seahawks and 31 other NFL teams a chance to add talent to their roster. And with five picks in the first three rounds of this year's draft, the Seahawks find themselves in a particularly strong position to improve their roster.

"Every year is totally different," Seahawks general manager and president of football operations John Schneider said. "Having those five picks in the first 92, it allows you to maneuver a little bit depending on how other people see it. That's one of the things that I'm trying to do down here."

If the Seahawks use those five picks in the first three rounds—they have five more on Day 3 of the draft—they obviously hope to add five impact players, but another benefit of that kind of draft capital is it gives Schneider and company a lot of flexibility to make trades should the right opportunity arise.

"Initially, you're like, 'Yeah, we're going to take five really good players,'" Schneider said. "But then you get in a situation where it's like, 'All right, that guy's a starter, we should probably move to go get him,' if you can. It depends on how other people see these guys. But yeah, it allows us the ability to just be more free throughout our draft process."

So with the draft coming up soon, Seahawks.com is taking a position-by-position look at where things currently stand for the Seahawks, as well as draft analyst Rob Rang's top draft prospects at each position. We'll also look at Seattle's draft history at each position over the past 15 drafts under Schneider.

So far we've covered the offensive line, defensive line and outside linebacker, tight end, and linebacker, running back, safety, and receiver, and today we focus on cornerback. Check back tomorrow when we wrap things up with quarterback.

Seattle's 2025 Draft Picks: Round 1, No. 18 overall; Round 2, No. 50 overall; Round 2, No. 52 overall (from Pittsburgh); Round 3, No. 82 overall; Round 3, No. 92 overall (from Las Vegas); Round 4, No. 137 overall (compensatory pick); Round 5, No. 172 overall (compensatory pick); Round 5, No. 175 overall (compensatory pick); Round 7, No. 223 overall (from Pittsburgh); Round 7, No. 234 overall.

Cornerback draft history under John Schneider: Walter Thurmond (No. 111 overall, 2010); Richard Sherman (No. 154, 2011); Byron Maxwell (No. 173, 2011); Jeremy Lane (No. 172, 2012); Tharold Simon (No. 138, 2013); Eric Pinkins (No. 208, 2014: Pinkins later switched to LB); Tye Smith (No. 170, 2015); Shaquill Griffin (No. 90, 2017); Mike Tyson (No. 187, 2017); Tre Flowers (No. 146, 2018); Marquise Blair (No. 47, 2019; played safety & nickel corner) Ugo Amadi, (No. 132, 2019; played safety & nickel corner); Tre Brown (No. 137, 2021); Coby Bryant (No. 109, 2022; later converted to safety); Riq Woolen (No. 153, 2022); Devon Witherspoon (No. 5, 2023); Nehemiah Pritchett (No. 136, 2024); D.J. James (No. 192, 2024).

Where The Seahawks Stand

With Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen, each of whom earned Pro-Bowl honors as rookies, leading the way, and plenty of other solid depth options available, the Seahawks went into the 2024 draft with bigger needs than cornerback. Yet despite the talent at the position, the Seahawks still selected a pair of cornerbacks on Day 3 of the draft, Auburn teammates Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James, doing so because, at the time those picks came up, those were clearly the two players available on Seattle's board.

So could a similar situation play out this year? Again, cornerback isn't a big need, not with Woolen and Witherspoon still around, as well as Josh Jobe, who came on strong midway through last season to win a starting job, then later a new contract with Seattle this offseason. The Seahawks also have Pritchett and free-agent addition Shemar Jean-Charles, among others, to provide depth, but as Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald noted at the NFL Annual Meeting last month, a team can never have enough help at cornerback.

"A wise man once said, you can never have too many corners," Macdonald said, "It might be Ozzie Newsome that said that, and he's right. So we need to create more competition in the back room, especially at corner. Josh knows that when he signed up, but I'm really excited about Josh just taking his career to the next level and how he competes. I think one thing that Josh does such a great job of is just the day-in day-out process, how he approached his job, his responsibilities, how he studies. Him and Spoon work really well together. So that's the type of energy we talked about that we need this offseason in the room so we can sharpen each other and be able to put a heck of a group out there. But he's going to be a big part of what we're doing."

If the Seahawks were to go into the season with only the cornerbacks currently on the roster, they'd be pretty happy with that group, but as last year's draft showed, they won't hesitate to continue adding cornerbacks next week if the right player is available.

Rob Rang's Top 5 Cornerbacks

Overview: The Seahawks' boast one of the better cornerback rooms in all of the NFL with youngsters Devon Witherspoon, Tariq Woolen and Josh Jobe all in their prime and last year's fourth round pick Nehemiah Pritchett waiting in the wings. With Woolen entering the final year of his rookie contract, however, this could be a position Seattle targets in 2025, even after the free agent signing of veteran Shemar Jean-Charles. This is another positional group that is long on potential but short on sure things. The obvious exception is Colorado's Travis Hunter, the best overall prospect in this class, in my opinion. Durability concerns plague several of the other top prospects listed below with Michigan's Will Johnson and East Carolina's Shavon Revel, Jr. each coming off injury that have their draft stock a bit in flux. Some of my favorite candidates for the Seahawks not listed below include Trey Amos (Mississippi), Denzel Burke (Ohio State), Darien Porter (Iowa State), Caleb Ransaw (Tulane), Quincy Riley (Louisville) and Nohl Williams (Cal).

1. Travis Hunter, Colorado, 6-0, 188, First Round

In nearly a quarter century of scouting prospects for the NFL, I've never seen anyone quite like Hunter. He is a unique talent that I believe could legitimately start in the NFL at both cornerback and wide receiver, depending on his team's needs. He would rank as my No. 1 receiver in this class. He's cat-quick and a natural pass-catcher who plays faster than he'll time. However, I'm listing him here because I think he is even better on defense, offering true lockdown agility and with ball-hawking skills and the tenacity to play quality run support, as well.

2. Jahdae Barron, Texas, 5-11, 194, First Round

In most years, Barron would rank as the top cornerback in his class, as he's safer than a Subaru with three consecutive years of all-conference play and capping his college career with the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back. Practicing on a daily basis against talented quarterbacks and world-class speedsters like the 2024 Combine 40-yard dash winner Matthew Golden, Barron is pro-ready out of the box, offering the awareness, reliable open-field tackling and durability to project as a long-time NFL standout.

3. Will Johnson, Michigan, 6-2, 194, First Round

Johnson entered the 2024 season as one of the most highly decorated prospects in the nation, but an injury-plagued junior campaign has his stock in flux. Johnson started just six games in 2024 due to a turf toe injury and then was held out of the Combine with a strained hamstring. He certainly looks the part, boasting an ideal blend of size, fluidity and big-play potential, setting a Michigan record with three touchdowns scored off of interceptions over his short time in Ann Arbor, picking off opponents nine times in just 22 career starts at the college level.

4. Maxwell Hairston, Kentucky, 5-11, 183, Second Round

If the aforementioned Johnson's penchant for turning interceptions into touchdowns impressed you, wait until you see Hairston's highlights. He "only" snared six interceptions over his three seasons in Lexington but he returned half of those for scores and proved the fastest of this year's defenders at the Combine, running a blistering 4.28 second 40-yard dash. Hairston lacks the bulk teams would prefer and durability concerns were only inflamed in 2024 with him missing five games due to a shoulder injury but he can fly and finish at the catchpoint with the best of them.

5. Shavon Revel, Jr., East Carolina, 6-2, 194, Second Round

Durability concerns are unfortunately a common theme with this year's top cornerback prospects and that is the case with Revel, as well. He missed almost all of last season after tearing his ACL in September. When healthy, however, he pairs impressive size and speed with physicality, showing a commitment to run support that some of this year's other cornerbacks lack. He registered just one interception among his 13 pass breakups in 2023 and dedicated himself to improving his ball-skills for 2024. Notably, Revel intercepted both of the passes he touched in 2024, prior to the injury.