The Seahawks’ third cornerback job is turning into one of the most interesting camp battles in Seattle, and Nehemiah Pritchett is making a loud early push for it.
With Riq Woolen gone after signing with the Philadelphia Eagles, the spot on the depth chart is there for the taking. Seattle could still look outside the building - Terrion Arnold worked out with the team earlier this week - but the more immediate answer may already be on hand. Pritchett has been strong enough to put himself squarely in the mix.
“He's really competing and really excited for the opportunity he has,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said via the team's website. “He's making the most of it. He's making a heck of a case for carving himself a role.”
Seattle’s first unofficial depth chart, released earlier this week ahead of the preseason opener against the Dallas Cowboys, listed Pritchett and former first-round pick Noah Igbinoghene as the second-string cornerbacks. That alone tells you how open this race still is.
Pritchett says he wants more than just a roster spot.
“I definitely want the bigger role, I'm embracing the competition,” Pritchett told reporters. “I'm just trying to take it day by day and take the steps I need to take to keep getting better each and every day, so if I'm put into that role, it'll be smooth.”
The 2025 season would be Pritchett’s third, and he’s pushing to turn that experience into a bigger opportunity. Igbinoghene brings a different kind of resume to the fight: he enters his seventh NFL season and is now with his fourth franchise. Pritchett, meanwhile, has two years in Aden Derde's defensive scheme behind him, which gives him some built-in familiarity as Seattle sorts through the competition.
The numbers attached to both players show why this is such a tough call. Pritchett has already flashed in the league, and Igbinoghene has the kind of NFL mileage that teams value. Both have also stood out in camp, which only makes the decision harder.
Macdonald made it clear this isn’t just about one cornerback slot in isolation, either.
“Whoever wins the job, it's not like they're the ones getting all those snaps. It's about how we want to deploy and how many DBs do we give time?
Do we want to be able to play more three linebacker sets? Do we want to play more five down sets?
It's everybody right now,” Macdonald told reporters.
He added that the competition stretches beyond the secondary.
“The front guys are battling to say, 'Hey, look, we need to be on the field more.' That trickles into the linebacker room, which affects the DB room and vice versa.
That's where we're at right now. Both those two guys you mentioned (Pritchett and Noah Igbinoghene) are having really good camps, and they're definitely putting their best foot forward.”
That’s the reality of this defense right now: the cornerback battle is tied to everything else. Seattle’s scheme doesn’t operate like a lot of others around the league, and that gives the coaching staff more moving parts to weigh as camp rolls on.
For now, though, Pritchett has done exactly what he needed to do. He’s made himself hard to ignore.
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