The Seattle Seahawks may have already made their biggest move before the NFL trade deadline, but general manager John Schneider says the work is not finished.
Seattle landed six-time All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson from the Indianapolis Colts last week, and that deal was only the start of what could still be a busy stretch. Asked by play-by-play voice Steve Raible during a pregame interview on Seattle Radio Network, which includes Seattle Sports 710 AM, whether the Seahawks were done dealing, Schneider said the team is still engaged.
“We’re still talking to several teams,” Schneider said. “A lot of - actually the majority of the teams will wait until the very deadline… We talk about being able to improve your team all throughout the year and keeping your powder dry a little bit.”
The trade deadline arrives at 1 p.m. Nov. 10, and Seattle appears to have a few areas it could still target.
Running back, wide receiver and edge rusher all make sense as possible spots for help. With the returns of Zach Charbonnet and first-round pick Jadarian Price on Monday night, though, the focus may have shifted toward wide receiver and edge rusher as the two most likely places for another addition.
That lines up with a recent ESPN list of the top 25 available trade candidates around the league. Among the names mentioned as fits for Seattle were Indianapolis running back Jonathan Taylor and Tampa Bay edge rusher Yaya Diaby.
Tennessee’s Tony Pollard was the only other running back on the list, while the edge-rusher group also included Khalil Mack from the Chargers. At wide receiver, Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas Jr. was the headliner among the available trade candidates.
Schneider also opened up about how the Nelson deal came together, and it had a familiar Seattle connection behind it. Former Seahawks scout and executive Ed Dodds, now the Colts’ interim general manager after Chris Ballard was fired, helped get the deal done. Dodds spent 2007-16 with Seattle, including seven seasons working alongside Schneider from 2010-16.
“Knowing Ed Dodds as well as we know Ed and then everything went down there with Chris (Ballard), we try to be involved in as many things as we possibly can,” Schneider said. “Obviously, to be able to acquire a player of that talent level and then like the leader, the toughness and all that - I told him we really didn’t get to know him from a character standpoint that well because we didn’t have a chance to draft him.
But it’s been a great deal. We feel blessed to be able to get in the mix as quickly as we did.
We were able to get him in here and get going.”
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