Following their 10-7 season in 2024, the Seattle Seahawks received the 18th overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NFL draft, and on Thursday, they remained at their selection and took offensive lineman Grey Zabel.
Zabel, 23, played both offensive and defensive line at T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, North Dakota, before heading to North Dakota State for the 2020 season.
After starting his collegiate career as a backup offensive lineman (getting snaps at both guard and center), Zabel took over as a starter in 2022, playing four of the five positions on the offensive line. It wasn't until 2024 that he finally stuck to one spot, as he played all 961 of his offensive snaps at left tackle this past year.
Throughout his time with the Bisons, Zabel won two national championships and earned First-team All-MVFC and First-team All-American honors once.
When Zabel found out that Seattle was taking him, he was understandably ecstatic. In fact, he told reporters that he was "probably going to start diving into these Busch Lights" before turning his attention from celebration to work on Friday (via The Athletic's Michael-Shawn Dugar).
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Seattle was not a great pass-blocking team in 2024, allowing their quarterbacks to be sacked on 8.35% of their dropbacks, the ninth-highest rate in the NFL last year. They then lost Laken Tomlinson and Stone Forsythe to the Houston Texans and New York Giants, respectively, in free agency.
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Zabel may have the versatility to line up all over the offensive line, but it probably makes the most sense to start him out at guard, and after the selection, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said exactly that.
Hopefully, the Busch Lights have stopped flowing by the time Zabel is hitting the practice field for the first time in a Seahawks jersey because this offensive line needs the help protecting new starting quarterback Sam Darnold.
It actually wouldn't be surprising to see Seattle attack offensive line with any of their four picks on Day 2 of the draft.
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